Baiting


Hey Jim, sorry to hear that. Will keep you and the Ms. in my prayers. Hang in there partner, and God bless.

Don't worry about the forum. It seems to be well established, and only waiting for your return.

Cozwurth, good luck with the setup. I'm anxious to hear your success stories.

On another topic, last night I stayed at the cabin again, but this time to do some crow control and not after coyotes.
I haven't seen any coyotes at the site since the last one taken with the home-made night vision. I took a .17 HMR with a
daytime scope for the task.

I didn't even taken any night vision with me last night, so had no means of looking at the bait site. Didn't turn on any sensors either, no need to.
Early this morning the bait robbers showed up right on time, just before 7:00 AM. One of their kind now hangs from a stake as a warning to others.






But, after I got home today and checked trail camera videos, I learned that something else shared the hillside with me last night.

While I was in bed fast asleep in my little hobo shack, this one showed up.








I didn't expect a coyote to show up so soon.

Currently I have a Bushnell Banner 4x16 A/0 scope on order and hope it will solve my POI issues with the .17 Remington.
Once set up, sighed in and ready to go, I hope to get back into the coyote hunting game - that is, if this one will just continue visiting.


 
I have a 222 witch is close to the 223 in ballistics. for bobcats I would use sierra 52 or 53 gr. match hollow points and load them down to 2800 fps. the match bullets are very tuff and dont open up much. they will make a small exit hole.Its the speed that blows up pelts or bullets that are so fragile that they fully expand and still exit.slow that bullet down and use a match bullet or a 55 gr. sierra 1365 and you should be fine on fox and bobcat.Byron South seems to be having great luck with the Hornady 60 gr. vmax.I saw him shoot a bobcat with it and there was no damage. your gun has to shoot them though.If you dont reload your out of luck.
 
I had a little activity at my "yard bait" site last night. A Gray Fox was hanging around for a while. Might have had something to do with the roast beef and carrots that I dumped in front of the camera yesterday. You can see the meat in his mouth in this pic. Don't think I'm spoiling this critter, the left-over roast was past the point of us being willing to eat it.



It definitely is not camera shy this time.



Almost looks like he's posing. All of the stuff I put out the other night was taken, with no pictures to show what took it. Moving the camera down lower and setting the bait out closer seems to have done the trick. I had over 100 pictures this morning. The fox hung around for several hours.

The camera is set for videos tonight, with a bit of scattered cat food and a couple of eggs set out for bait.

Has anyone here used the Harbor Freight driveway alarm? I have a coupon for one, $13.99. I'm heading in tomorrow to get a couple of other things and may pick one up.
 
cozwurth, very good work. Don't you just love it when a plan starts to come together? I don't know anything about the Harbor Freight alarm, but it might be fine. All of them are made in China anyway I expect.
 
I went ahead and picked up one of the driveway alarms from HF. It looks very similar to the one that 6mm06 uses, and it comes in several different channels. First job for it involves the kids' cats, and hoping to keep them off the dining room table when we're not looking.
 
This white tip coyote (2 pointer) has been visiting for about a week now. I decided to take him out last night if he showed. The alarm went off about 9:30 but by the time I got in the office he was not visible anywhere that I could see. I figured he grabbed a piece of ribs and ran off to eat. At about 9:45 he came back out and gave me a standing broadside shot at 145 yds. I squeezed of the CZ 17 Rem with a 25 gr. Hornady hp and watched his feet go straight up. I gave him about 30 minutes and then walked out to verify that he was indeed DRT. I took this picture this morning. Actually the shot was higher than I would have preferred to hit him but got the top of the lungs anyway. This is the offside and as you can see it was a complete pass-through. I was suprised that it shot through him and although this is probably this year's pup at only about 20 lbs., he is much bigger than a fox. The exit hole was probably about nickel size but with all the blood looks more like a quarter size. There was no visible entry hole or blood on the other side.



This is my first of this year as I begin counting from July 1 each year.
 

Nice going DoubleUp on the 2-pointer. Your exit is about the same height as where my impact was on that last one, except maybe mine was a bit more forward. Funny that mine didn't exit since we are both shooting the same bullet. Regardless, nickle size isn't bad, but might be worse on a fox since they are much smaller and thin-skinned.

Cozwurth, I'm looking forward to seeing your setup and some results. Good luck with your plans.


 
There was quite a bit of activity out here on the compound last night... Two fox, a racoon, and something else...all over the period of several hours overnight.



In the second video you can see the eyes of a fox on the background on the left.. I ended up with 60 videos overnight. My trail cam is limited to 10 second videos at night. The times are an hour late for some reason.



DoubleUp, congrats on the kill. What is the point system you are referring to?

6mm06, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get started on my shooting lane. Last night's videos kinda make it a little more urgent, though.
 
Coz, most of the coyote hunters say one with a white tip on the tail is worth two points instead of 1 pt. for a regular coyote because white tips are a lot more rare.

Doesn't look to me like you need a shooting lane. It looks more like you just need to start shooting.
smile.gif


I have a Browning Force Recon also and don't care much for the 10 sec. night videos. Other than that it does a pretty good job.
 

Cozwurth, I'm like DoubleUp - you need to get some shooting in first, get a coyote under your belt, then work on your shooting lane. If that coyote continues visiting, then you have an opportunity right there. Take it. Then go about getting the setup you desire. Other coyotes await.

I have changed / modified my setups so much that I can't keep count of it all. Most of it has been with changing infrared lights for night vision, ie the number of lights, where to mount them, as well as bait, whether to use large pieces or small etc. It's a learning process for sure.

I'm still in the mode of modifying my site. Tomorrow I hope to set a 12 foot 4x4 post and mount a 940nm IR light at the top. I will wire in a remote control so that I can turn the light on and off manually from the cabin when the sensor goes off. The light has zero illumination that the eye can see. I'm excited about this one, used in conjunction with the home-made night vision outfit. It's going to be good.

Last night a coyote visited my bait site and stole my crow. LOL. I had the crow hanging up to keep others away, but the coyote got it.

Click the photo to see the video. Watch it through to the end.





 
That's one rude coyote, taking a man's scarecrow crow... Pulled the stake down, too.

No coyote last night. Just a fox, and it only hung around for about 20-25 minutes.
 

Coswurth, your coyote may not come around every night, most likely won't. But, if you keep the site baited and keep him something good to eat, he'll most likely be back, hopefully on a more regular basis.

Did he get anything to eat the night of the photo?

Well, the crows haven't been back since I hung their brother up. It's just a matter of time I'm sure, but for now they don't want anything to do with the bait site.

As to that rude coyote, I'll take care of business soon I hope, once my new scope arrives and I get it set up and sighted in. But, this yote doesn't come most every night like the male did, so it may be a cat-n-mouse game for a while for the two of us to show up at the same time.

I got the 4x4 post installed today and the 940nm light attached. The post is 23 yards from the actual spot where I place the bait, and is 37 yards from the cabin. The square board in the one photo is the bait site. I will use a remote DC switch to turn the light on and off as needed.

This new 940nm light is total black-out, no visible light at all. When turned on it just looks like it's sitting there and not in operation, yet it throws a very useable beam of light for the NV outfit.

I cut out a round wheel configuration for the light to attach to, and used a bolt with a wing nut so that I can rotate the light from side to side to get the beam properly alligned. The light housing has an adjustment for up and down, so I can adjust the beam just right. I set the post in concrete and am waiting for it to dry. I'll have to put a ladder up and do some beam-adjusting soon.

Also, I left a place at the top of the post for a roof of sorts. I may put a board or something over top of the light to keep the weather off.

















 
Very nice set up there 06. Will look forward to an explanation of how it works out for you when you are ready to take the one you now have visiting.
 
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06, as far as I know, the fox had the place cleaned up, and the yote went away hungry. He seemed to be really spooked by the IR light on the camera. My only customer last night was a fox. I only put out a couple of eggs last night, so it didn't hang around long. One of my hens was feeling 'broody' and had been sitting on about 20 eggs. After a little over a week, she abandoned the nest, so now all of the eggs are no good for anything but bait. 2-3 a night for the next week, along with whatever else I can find, will be what I put out. The yote will need to get there early to even get a snack the way that fox comes around.
 
Coz, you can use some dry dog food to supplement during those lean bait times. They eat it pretty good. They will also eat many kinds of fruit as well as most types of meat scraps. One of the tips 06 gave me was to scatter the food out a bit so they have to work harder to get it. Plus that keeps them at the bait pile longer and gives more chance for a good shot.
 

I started out with a carcas and large pieces of bait, but quickly learned that doesn't always work well. Buzzards, crows, ravens and hawks get on it pretty quickly. I then began putting out smaller pieces, and as DoubleUp stated, spread them out a bit, maybe a few feet here and there around the actual bait site (put some in the bait site too) so the coyotes have to stay in the area longer to get them all.

Keeping a constant supply of bait is a full-time job. The main thing is to keep the bait site active by keeping bait out every night. You don't have to put out a lot of bait, but enough that a coyote would want to return for another meal. Feed them good.

This past winter I had a newborn calf carcas staked out that a local farmer gave me. It worked pretty good.

Use whatever bait you can find. Left-overs from deer are good too. If you or people you know deer hunt, ask for the leftovers. Cut whatever meat off the bones you can and put in freezer bags for later use, 1" to 2" pieces are best, just bite size. Wire down the leg bones, ribs etc. and stake them to keep the yotes from dragging them off.

Fox can be a real problem and will get all the bait. I had a problem with them last winter, both reds and grays. They come and go on and off all night, keeping the alarm ringing. It can be frustrating at times.

Once fall gets here that fox's pelt will be better. You might try calling that one and eliminate that source of bait theft.

 
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