I've never had a Coyote come until my turkey decoys...foxes yes. I gave the foxes a pass, a yote wouldn't get the pass.
I get that fawns are a concern, but are yotes really that bad on adult deer? In C(r)ook County forest preserves, there is no hunting allowed and both deer and yotes are everywhere. If anything, seem to be too many of both. Yotes definitely don't seem to be any negative impact on the overall deer numbers.
I'd say high numbers on small tracts can have an impact on deer movement in general. IL in general is highly populated with coyotes and deer, if I watched a coyote skirt by, my deer sightings would be nill after. It varied by sit and season, but if you have a pack of coyotes that inhabit an island or secluded tract of land I could see it having an impact on all wildlife there. River hunting is unique in its own right as seasonal weather is more weekly than seasonal.
Copy. I'm sure that yotes do effect movement, just not so sure they effect overall population numbers as much as some people think. At least not to an unhealthy degree. Also to be clear, I wasn't being argumentative, just kind of wondering out loud. On those forest preserves yotes are the one and only apex predator, there are a crap ton of them, yet the deer populations are usually at least bordering if not crossing into unhealthily high levels.
seen 'em still holding till almost the end of April ... 'most' have dropped by now I'd say ... always a few hold outs ... heck, have only seen a few deer around here since EHD hit last year ... river/ditch/stream/ponds/marshes are scattered with skeletons of EHD killed deer right now ... been said around 85% were killed off ... the Nat. Park may not need their f'n USDA sharpshooters this coming year .. also wonder if the Dunes St. Pk. will hold their deer reduction this season due to the kill off ?? (they want the herd there down to 7-12 sq mile, same for the Nat. Park).... as for our DNR, I'll bet they keep the 'reduction zone' numbers and boundaries as they are rather than reduce ..
many years back, opener was 17 deg. and a had wonderful Aurora before first light walking in ! (opens 3rd wed April) .. killed a 23lb tom/9in. beard within first 30 min. (fan/beard on the wall).. hunting first week here can be a gamble.. could be 75 or 20 deg. .... didnt even put in for a draw this year .. good luck to those who get out .. btw, over 16K killed 2023 and over 15K killed in '24
I took my son out yesterday for turkey, youth season here right now. Kids under 17 can hunt a week early before the main opener. We had a heck of a time finding birds. Finally found some about 8 in the morning, had a Tom answering here and there and could hear he had a bunch of hens with him. It is tough to call a Tom in that has a bunch of hens, but sometimes you can get the hens wound up and they'll come check you out and drag the Tom with them. We settled in to try to do that, they were the only birds we could find. Had one hen in the group really chatting with me. I just tried to mimic her every time she would sound off, and I called over the top of her as much as I could. Had three lone hens show up from the opposite direction but no Tom with them. CJ thought it was pretty neat to see them wander by us. Over an hour and a half we spent messing with the flock that had a Tom. They were just holding in place for most of it. They were on the neighbor's property, I can't go on that neighbor's place, so we were trying to get them to cross onto ours. They finally started coming, couldn't see them at all but sounded like they were 20 yards on the neighbor's side of the fence. We were sitting about 70 yards from the fence on our side. Suddenly I hear a bunch of really fast putts, like they were spooked??? Or maybe two of the hens got into a tussle? About then I see some movement. I tell CJ to get ready, I think they are coming. But then I realize that it is the wrong color and moving fast. It's coyotes! The first one charges in and smacks our decoy, the decoy goes flying. The coyote spooks and continues on towards us, going by at maybe 12'. A second one behind it also smacks the decoy laying on the ground and then charges to our left. I look over at CJ and see a third dog, it is maybe 8' from him and just spooking off, it was coming directly to my calling sounds. THAT was the commotion I'd heard with the turkeys, the coyotes hit them first before continuing to hit our decoy. Sucked that they ruined our turkey hunt but pretty darn cool thing to see. I've had coyotes come in a couple times to turkey calling over the years but have never had one actually attack the decoy like that. A pretty memorable first hunt for CJ (as the actual hunter), he won't forget that experience. He was all grins and can't wait to go again next weekend. When we got home the first thing he did is tell his mom the story, then he was on the phone with grandpa, and then his uncle.
Is it legal to shoot coyotes? Time to teach coyotes a lesson.. Glad you both had a great hunt, hope CJ is successful this season.
many states have seasons on 'yotes, including trapping ... most allow them to be taken at anytime if they are problematic so to speak ... here Landowners or those with written permission from a landowner can take coyotes on private property by trapping or shooting without a DNR permit, but a hunting or trapping license is required to hunt or trap on other land... also, on Indiana state lands/federal lands you must stay within the seasons for hunting and the DNR may designate or hold a lottery for trapping yotes ... or one can just SSS ....
We can shoot coyotes year round here. It has been quite a while since I’ve done some coyote calling. I was pretty into it at one point in time.
I love calling coyotes, been several years however ... 22-250'd 'em ... now with the new to me Tacoma, I'll be more willing to get back out and travel to where I use to go after next deer season for 'em ....
22-250 was my preference as well. And after trying several different loads, wanting something that would anchor them consistently but be "fur friendly", I ended up preferring either CCI 52gr HP's or Hornady 55gr vmax's. Both of those gave me the results I was looking for more often, small entry with no exit.
yup, Hornady or Winchester 55gr Ballistic tips ... they do a number on yotes, Crows and woodchucks .... longest yote kill was 295 yds, longest Woodchuck kill was a tad over 400 yds, crows blow up good at 275 yds in corn fields....
