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Old November 24, 2009, 06:37 PM   #1
Daryl
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Been doing a little predator calling

...with pretty decent results.

Last Thursday, I went out for a quick trip not far from home and manage to call in a single coyote. A single shot through the chest did the trick.




On Friday, I went out and managed to call in a fox. This one was sorta growly, but I didn't want to ruin the fur with a .17 Rem, so I shot it between the eyes with a Colt Woodsman. Not the best choice of weapon, perhaps, but it did the trick with pretty much no damage.



Then on Sunday, I caught this one sneaking in through the grass.



I've been lucky, no doubt, and I'm hoping my luck will hold a little longer. I sorta stopped hunting to some degree after my dad passed a couple of years back, and this is the first year since then that I've been out much. It's good to get back into it again.

It brings back a lot of old memories, too.

Daryl

Last edited by Daryl; November 24, 2009 at 07:26 PM.
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Old November 24, 2009, 06:40 PM   #2
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Nice work

Man, you must live in a predator paradise.
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Old November 24, 2009, 07:21 PM   #3
Art Eatman
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Nice pelts!

I was driving back from Alpine this afternoon and along the way saw a coyote about three feet off the edge of the pavement. He was quite patiently waiting for me to get gone on down the road before he crossed.

Scruffy! Lordy, my hair looks better when I first get up in the morning!

Saw a badger down in the pasture a couple of days back. He waddled across the road and then at the edge of the brush turned and snarled at the truck. I left before he attacked.
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Old November 25, 2009, 03:48 AM   #4
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Nice !

How large are the fox and cat?

When I look at pictures my imagination can always use something for comparison with the subject. (like a gallon milk jug, or can of Coke)
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Old November 25, 2009, 08:42 AM   #5
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Beautiful. I wish you were around here.
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Old November 25, 2009, 09:49 AM   #6
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You've been having fun.
I'm in the same boat as you, aint done much in 2 years but going to this year.
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Old November 25, 2009, 11:14 AM   #7
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Hey Daryl, good job. I know you've been reading my posts on the same topic. I'm just getting back into the game after too long away, and what I notice is that my hands are out of shape for pulling hides off of the critters. kinda makes it OK to not kill so many.

By the way, I also own a Colt Woodsman - my favorite plinker - but have never killed a called varmint with it. jd
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Old November 25, 2009, 06:33 PM   #8
Daryl
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Quote:
Hey Daryl, good job. I know you've been reading my posts on the same topic. I'm just getting back into the game after too long away, and what I notice is that my hands are out of shape for pulling hides off of the critters. kinda makes it OK to not kill so many.
I noticed that too. No need for grip exercizes if a fella's pulling hides, that's for sure.

I'm going to try a cable comalong, a piece of rope, and a rock on the next one. I'll use the rock in the hide with the rope around it to attach the hide to the comalong, and then I'll stretch the critter between two posts.

I'll have to be careful to not pull the hide in half, but it should make it easier to skin. Just work the comalong and touch the skin with a knife here and there when it won't pull loose.

Quote:
By the way, I also own a Colt Woodsman - my favorite plinker - but have never killed a called varmint with it. jd
I've shot a lot of critters with mine, but that's the first one that was called and wasn't shot with something else first. I carry it for a "kill" gun for those "not quite dead" critters when I'm calling, but it worked pretty well on that fox.

BTW-I went out with that fella from NC this morning. We made 5 stands, and called in 4 coyotes, 2 javalinas, and a bobcat that wouldn't come in all the way.

He got 3 coyotes, so it was a good trip! He was using a foxpro "fury" I think, and it called 'em in pretty well. I think I was mostly along for the ride, but I knew the country and he didn't, so I didn't mind showing him some good areas to call. Was a fun day with good company, for sure.

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Old November 29, 2009, 03:13 AM   #9
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I'm gonna try it more

All this talk about coyote's is convincing me to give it a whirl later this year after deer season closes.

I've not had ANY success calling w/ an old Olt Pred call, but have had several coy's come in while I was calling turkey's or to decoy's for same.

Hear'em all the time in deer season.
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Old December 1, 2009, 10:34 PM   #10
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coyote arsenal

i am wanting to get into coyote caling this week. just purchased a savage/stevens .223. i read in other posts about not using the expensive varmint bullets but the light militery style ones. could some one explain to me the pros/cons/ differences in all of that. im fairly new to guns in general so keep the language simple. thanks
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Old December 1, 2009, 11:35 PM   #11
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Hi rubak06, here's my 2 cents.

Your .223 won't have any trouble killing a coyote with whatever bullet you use. If you want to save the pelts, which you should, (another 2 cents) some bullets will preform better than others depending on the range that your shots are taken.

If your standard shots are usually way out (like 2 or 3 hundred yards) you better use whatever shoots flattest and most accurately in your rifle, and live with the consequences.(and learn to sew)

If you find yourself calling most of the dogs within 100 yards or less, go with light explosive bullets that very often don't exit. Of course if they do exit--- learn to sew. If you are a reloader, every brand makes a bullet like this and you can take your pick. I don't know much about factory ammo, so I won't advise you there.

I'm currently messing around with reduced loads for what I want, and I'm only shooting a .222 Rem.

Many years ago when I was starting out, I had a .243, and tried some Hornady full jacketed 85 grainers. They exploded coyotes as bad as any 30-06, and I quit using them, (and eventually the 243 also).

Fact is, if you have an exit your gonna have some damage, but with light asploding bullets you'll have less exits. jd
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Old December 2, 2009, 04:14 PM   #12
Daryl
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Pretty much what jd said.

There are two schools of thought...

One is as jd explained; use light-for-caliber bullets, and try to adjust the powder charge to keep them from exiting.

The other is to use a well built expanding type bullet that will exit, but won't make a huge exit hole like the lighter, frangible bullets do (if they exit).

Military type FJM's (full-metal-jacketed bullets) are not legal for hunting in a lot of states. Arizona has pretty easy gun laws, but FMJ's are not legal for hunting here. They generally don't kill quite as well as other bullets, and they're bad about ricochets. If they're non-expanding, they'll either "pencil" through, not causing enough trauma for a quick, clean kill, or they'll tumble, causing more damage than you'll want to sew.

Like JD, I lean towards the "fragile" bullet idea for minimal pelt damage, but I use a .17 Remington. If I were using a cartridge with a bigger/heavier bullet, I'd consider a slow-expanding bullet that would mushroom a bit, but not blow up.

And before I made my choice, I'd probably try both to see what worked best for me.



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Old December 2, 2009, 07:05 PM   #13
rubak06
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.22 long rifle

i also have a .22 long rifle. using hollow point 38 grain bullets. whats the effective range for this gun and how effective on the coyote? will it penetrate bone? and is it a better pick since its semi-auto.?
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Old December 2, 2009, 07:18 PM   #14
Daryl
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Quote:
i also have a .22 long rifle. using hollow point 38 grain bullets. whats the effective range for this gun and how effective on the coyote? will it penetrate bone? and is it a better pick since its semi-auto.?
The problem with the .22 LR is not that it won't penetrate well enough to kill a coyote.

The problem is that it won't reliably cause sufficient damage to the internal organs on a coyote to cause an instant or near instant death. They'll oft-times live a little while, and they can cover a LOT of country in a very short time leaving a scant or non-existant blood trail.

And after all, do you want to spend two hours following a shot coyote that you probably won't find, or go call some more and get another one or two?

A .22 LR is perfect if the coyote is standing in a trap of some kind; otherwise, I'd move to something bigger for clean, humane, and consistent results.

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Old December 2, 2009, 07:22 PM   #15
rubak06
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i will definitely use my .223 but my neighb or says he shot about 8 deer with a .22 long. some at 50 yards through the skull, and others a little further away. does this sound realistic?
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Old December 2, 2009, 07:31 PM   #16
hogdogs
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Ya'll softy paw types need a device like this for your soft hands...
http://dev.eastmanoutdoors.com/cms/node/152
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Old December 2, 2009, 08:10 PM   #17
Daryl
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Hogdogs,

That'd probably work, but I have 4 comalongs in the shop, and they'll work pretty well too.

In the infamous words of Val Kilmer (Doc Holiday), "Yep, I'm sure of it!"



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Old December 2, 2009, 08:17 PM   #18
hogdogs
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I have a buddy who starts the butt of a deer hide coming off... takes a golf ball in the loose part and ties a piece of clothes line size rope to it and pulls it off with his 4 wheeler Thats lazy but it works...
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Old December 2, 2009, 08:30 PM   #19
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so besides the pelts, what else do yall use from the coyote? i wanna go predator hunting, and not a fan of wasting animals if i can help it
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Old December 2, 2009, 08:42 PM   #20
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If folks were resourceful, The whole skulls would be sellable as knick knacks and the teeth would make nice jewelry ingredients.
One would be surprised the marketability of some macabre things.
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Old December 2, 2009, 10:35 PM   #21
jdscholer
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so besides the pelts, what else do yall use from the coyote? i wanna go predator hunting, and not a fan of wasting animals if i can help it
Oh Boy here we go. We should probably start a new thread with this one.

I don't know of anybody (myself included) who eats coyote meat, because "everyone knows" that it is horrible. I also don't know anyone (myself included) who has ever tried it.

I'm starting to take a little heat from family members who don't agree with killing something that you don't eat. I've used my best excuses, but the fact is that I would feel better if I knew for a fact that coyote was absolutely inedible; and I doubt that is the case. We all know that in many places dogs are readily eaten or even highly sought after for food. I've eaten a lot of jackrabbit, muskrats, many road killed deer, cougar, bear, chipmunk, squirrels, snakes, frogs --- I've often said that a couple cans of mushroom soup and three hours in the oven would make a skunk taste pretty good; but I haven't tried that either.

There is actually quite a bit of meat on the hind quarters of a coyote, although it looks and handles like it might be pretty tough. It's lookin more and more like I'm gonna have to try a little of the "song dog". I'm a pretty inventive cook, and not very squeamish. I would actually be surprised if coyote is as bad as everyone thinks, but ----

Any suggestions or experience would be appreciated. Daryl??? Anyone.??

jd
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Old December 2, 2009, 10:57 PM   #22
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I'm starting to take a little heat from family members who don't agree with killing something that you don't eat.
Quote:
I'm a pretty inventive cook, and not very squeamish. I would actually be surprised if coyote is as bad as everyone thinks, but ----
Why do you have to try it? Feed the 'yodel poodle to those family members giving you gruff don't lie to them... just tell 'em it's "bar-b-que beast" and say it quick while eating salad...
I have had a "pulled pooch" samich made from a collie at about 5 or 6 and I didn't mind it, the only thing that wigged me out was when my father didn't believe the guy until I went to pee and seen the hide and guts in the bathtub...:barf:
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Old December 2, 2009, 11:13 PM   #23
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A few years back I had some Korean neighbors (I also lived in Korea for almost 12 years) that were visiting my wife when I came home with a coyote I shot. After I skinned it out, they asked for the carcass.
They did eat it, but said it was not as good as the dogs raised for eating in Korea.
One of the reasons we think it might have tasted different (Yes, I have eaten kaygogi and kaytong) is because the dogs that are raised for meat are primarily fed vegetables, not meat. I guess it like grass fed beef verses corn fed beef, if you know what the difference is, you can taste it.

Some of the uses you could get from the rest of the carcass is to use the meat to bait other predators, the bones could be sold on EBay, or another auction site (Just be sure to check with your conservation department to ensure it is legal).

But I like Hogdogs answer the best: Bar-b-qued Beast!
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Old December 2, 2009, 11:54 PM   #24
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i think the skulls would make for some neat gifts or decorations aroudn the house. i think if and when i take some of the bastards out (got chased bya couple down at the lake when i was 12 or 13) ill try the meat in a stew or soemthing. maybe ill ask my uncle in tX thats a coonass, im sure he knows 1001 ways to cook em up to taste good
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Old December 3, 2009, 05:54 AM   #25
Daryl
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JD,

if it'll save you some grief...

I actually know a guy that tried to eat a coyote.

He went up around the apple orchards in Wilcox, and shot himself a nice fat one to try for his experiment. He figured if an apple fed coyote wasn't edible, none of them would be.

Not that he's the greatest cook, but the guy will eat anything. Raw liver taken out of a deer is "lunch". I've seen him pick "mule jerky" off the hood of his truck (where it was "drying"), wave the flies off and eat that without any trouble, and it didn't look very good.

He says you can cut a hunk of coyote off, put it in your mouth, and chew it up some, but if you can swallow it then you're better'n he is at eating. He's a big ol' boy, and I don't want to be behind him in the chow line.

Or, if it's any more convincing, my dogs won't eat it, and the one pictured above was skinned and left on "the back 40" between to pecan orchards for the ravens and buzzards that hang out in the orchards, and they haven't eaten it yet.

Although they did eat the skunks that were dumped right alongside of the coyote, but I'll likely have to take a backhoe out there and bury the coyote.

I need no further convincing, and will take their word for it!

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