Baiting

Originally Posted By: ScalloperIf he was such a great guy he come to Maine and hunt with me this winter
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the offer stands 06...

Scalloper, I like the idea of it but not sure my 63 year old body could handle your kind of winter. That is a very kind and generous offer.
 
I gave my motion sensors a try last month on my short trip out to AL. Had some corn out for coon and placed several sensors angled at it. One was angled too high to register a coon and would blink 2x's; the lower one blinks 3x's. Turned the beeper off and placed the monitor beside my bed. At midnite-15 the little green LED got to blinking to where I could tell it blinked in pairs, the 2x's is triggered only by tall critters. It kept it up for 2 minutes. In daytime I can see the sensors 40yds down from my bedroom window. This peaked my interest and I planned on putting some clothes on and slipping out on the porch with an infared light. When picking up my pants a half oz. tube of some lotion, that I had set atop my pants before going to bed, fell to the floor. Blinking then stopped. Must've set for over an hour staring at my sensor before kicking myself 1 last time and crawling back under the warm covers.

Our deer are hunted heavily, are mostly noctural, and wary to say the least. Found hoof prints in the morning but he/she didn't return the rest of the week I was out there. Now I'm a believer in using the motion sensor to provide info on a critter's prescense. Had hoped to avoid stupid begginner hunter/scouting mistakes but alas. . .

I did sit around hoping for a coyote but it was windy and my first attempt to hunt the wily predator. Took 1 coon and tossed him down by the creek. Sometimes when I open my door at night, a yote gives a warning bark maybe 150yds across the way. This time, my trail camera picked up the coyote, she had gotten down wind of me 45yds off in the bush. Of course, I didn't realise that until viewing the foto. I had a possum and coon laid out. She took the coon and left the possum.
FemaleCoyoteYearling.jpg

Dingy foto but she's just crossed the creek about 8' from the shot coon and 45yds downwind of me sitting with a .17WSM looking upwind. There's some rocks to cross the creek and she's shawdowed against a large rock a bit left and centered. (don't mind the date and time; actually early Nov'14 and about 5:30am just as the sky starts to turn grey)
 
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Originally Posted By: atshraderHey guy- Can you email info on your night vision -Thanks, Tom

Hey Tom, send me a personal with your e-mail address so I can attach a Word document for you. I will attach some photos too.

Scalloper, nice going on the coyote. Things are really slow here. Today makes exactly two months since the last coyote visited my site.

SoSalty, are the sensors working well for you now?


 
Been a while, picked up my first deer carcass today, been a real slow season, snow storm in early November changed everything all the deer migrated south to the winter yards before rifle season opened, a few muzzle loader deer now being taken in the yards so a friend offered his carcass for bait will get it out soon. Have fox and coyote tracks and at least one wolf frequenting the baiting area.
 
good luck danny k, if you had the chance can you take a wolf. been cold and snowy here working on my first baitsicle of the season. also put the camera out ..... I will work on get some pics on if they are any good..... tracks have been very consistent hopefully won't be long.
 

Good luck DannyK.

Yesterday made 2 months since I have seen a coyote at my site. They are far an inbetween here now. I am seeing a red and gray fox though, and possums seem to be never ending.
 
Originally Posted By: dog drillergood luck danny k, if you had the chance can you take a wolf. been cold and snowy here working on my first baitsicle of the season. also put the camera out ..... I will work on get some pics on if they are any good..... tracks have been very consistent hopefully won't be long. DD no on the wolves, no season here this year.
 
6mm06 I hope you catch a break soon, do you have up and down seasons? I know my last 2 were slow. this year a different story, no idea why..... so there is hope for bounce back.
 

Dog Driller, the game commission exterminated a lot of coyotes in my area at the request of a neighbor. I heard two reports from different people, that somewhere between 20 and 30 coyotes were killed with bait bombs (cyanide). As well, another neighbor trapped a few, and I hear that some other guys out the ridge a short ways from me have really "put a hurtin' on them" according to a report. The lack of coyotes have really slowed my enjoyment at the cabin down to near nothing.

About three seasons ago I had coyotes coming to my bait site regularly. After taking one, it wouldn't be a few days to a week or two before another showed up. Then in the summer months I had coyotes coming all the time, but things were generally slow in the fall, but picked up in the spring. Many of my kills were taken in the spring.

I hunted hard fall and winter of last year (2013) without taking a single coyote. I shot a coyote in August and one in September of 2013, but got nothing the whole fall and winter, and none in the spring either. I didn't get another one until May of this year. Since May I have only had about two coyote visits to my site. And when I do have a visit, it's generally for one night only and then it's hard to say when another one might show up. It's now been over two months since I saw a coyote at the bait, but there were two together. I still have hope.

 
6mm06
wow I did not know that.... that is discouraging. when did they bait bomb? it shouldn't take to long before coyotes move back.... sounds like you may have some new squatters moving in. how are the food sources for coyotes....plentiful?
my season starts in October and goes till spring when the snow finally leaves. I love getting out in the snow with snowshoes we have yet to shoot one calling. we are getting closer as our opportunities are picking up as we get smarter about it. I fill in the rest of my chances with baiting which is both up and down much like you but no worries with poisoning. I don't hunt the summers to busy....will take shots of opportunity when presented. keep the faith you are now one day closer to plentiful chances
 

I'm not sure exactly when the bait bombs went out, but I think it was last year. I also was told one of the bombs got a neighbor's dog. The game commission has put out bait bombs in years past too in certain areas. I don't think we had a lot of coyotes here, but did have some. But, my neighbor has influence and so the game commission responds when he calls. It hurts guys like me who love to hunt them.

We do seem to have several rabbits about and the fox population is making a comeback, which tells me the coyote population has declined.
 
6mm06
I know what you are saying about fox ..my last 2 years when coyotes were minimal foxes were around a lot more. are you able to hunt other property's out of the poisoning range as a place to call?
 

Originally Posted By: dog driller6mm06
are you able to hunt other property's out of the poisoning range as a place to call?
I have permission on different properties within the county, and some places a couple of counties over from me, but the driving distances between each one makes it really difficult to do any serious calling. I end up driving a lot and calling very little. The mountainous terrain here with winding roads up and down hill etc. takes time to drive. On top of that, the areas I do have permission to call just aren't good calling places, ie the terrain is steep, difficult to get to and out of, and the wind seems to always blow in the wrong direction. It's not like calling out west and other places that are more conducive to good hunting. Here it is very difficult.

I lost some calling land a few years back, land that was company land that became locked up and hunting by lease only. That hurt, even though we didn't have many coyotes to begin with. Still, I enjoyed and managed to call a few. The land is now open to the public once again, but deer hunters have flocked to it, and, it's still within a short drive of my home, so I imagine there are few coyotes.

When I first began calling coyotes a few years back, I could manage to get one now and then. I didn't know anyone at the time who hunted them seriously, but me. Now more people are after them and I hear that even coon hunters at night are blowing on predator calls. You can imagine how educated the yotes are now, the ones that are left, that is.

My baiting endeavors began about three years ago or so. I have taken 9 coyotes from the cabin, and two others that were on bait (dead calf).


 
Sat over bait yesterday, have a cat and yotes hitting it everyday or night since I put it out, sat for four hours nothing but ravens, bluejays, and chickadees showed up while I was there. no howling at dusk but that might have something to do with the wolf in the area. One picture of a red fox at another bait site and thats all, but, the surronding roads that I snowshoe to access my bait sites are covered with fresh tracks every day. Setting up another site today with a hunting partner on the backwaters, bait is scarce as the kill from rifle deer season was down some 58 percent this year. More wolves moving into the area also, so that may be a game changer also.
 
We got this nice female on Monday night while calling a block of woods in the middle of thousands of acres of farmland. A pair came in on pup distress but we only managed one. Shot was about 75 yds with an AR 15 in 223 shooting a 50gr. z-max and she was DRT.


Then last night just as it was getting dark this red came in to the bait pile. I hit her a bit low, but she died instantly shot with the CZ 17 Rem and a 25 Berger with the larger tip opening. I think had the shot been a couple of inches higher there would have been no visiable entry. First opportunity with the Photon XT.

 
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