Baiting

The coyotes seem to have been moving early last night ahead of that bad weather. I really wanted to get the male first. He appears to be very light colored almost white in fact plus I thought if I took the male first the female might still attract another male. Didn't work out that way. The male did not show up on any of the cameras later in the night.

Only time will tell if he comes back looking for her tonight or later this week. He may decide to cut his losses and move on to another fertile female.
 
Congrats to everyone on the good work!! Sounds like rain and soft ground everywhere for everyone. Not here...snow, snow and more snow. This brings me to my question. Has anybody over the years had to plow trails to your bait and keep bait shoveled off and clear. I have cleared bait piles occasionally before, however this year it is a constant chore. I have cleared nearly 30" of snow off the baits and keep trails plowed to the sights just to access them. My thinking is "path of least resistance" for the critters. I was out calling the other night and literally was pushing snow with my knee caps all night. Had some great vocal response, but just no takers. Talking with other hunters, they have seen coyotes just hang up and not move, literally chest deep in snow. I'm thinking this really cuts down on there distances traveled and activity.
On another note...very very quiet here on the bait this year. I must have put a great dent in the population in my valley last year. We have killed 9 this year...just the standard 130 and 170 yd sight shots. So, still having a great time, just extremely busy with the snow this year!!!!
Keep up the good work folks!!!!!!
Bait.
 
Paul, I can mail you this one. Would you prefer FedEx of UPS? Seriously, we went calling tonight and didn't do anything. When I got home I saw one in the field sneaking around on some deer, but he was too far for a shot. I set up my tripod and got ready, but when I hit pup screams on the hand call the coyote hauled butt the other direction. So, I'm assuming he had heard it before and lost a buddy or two.

Anyway, after I got my shower I went into the office to look out and this one was in the yard near the bait pile along the edge of my pond. I shot him right there. It could be the male to the female I shot a couple of nights back, but on the cameras that male looked almost white. This one is just an average looking coyote, but he was fat and healthy looking. Unfortunately I had a foul up with the mini-dvr and didn't get the shot recorded, but here is the picture. Shot was 110 yds.

IMG_0464 by Double Up, on Flickr
 
Nice DU - thats a lot of yote on the ground. Been teased by one the last couple of weeks that is very cautious around the bait pile. I'm trying some new bait tactics...bacon grease soaked paper towels from the microwave. My dad cooks bacon every day and about once a week brings me a big bag full of grease soaked paper towels and I hang them out on a tree by the bait area. Drives the coons crazy and I think its attracting the yote as well. Was out last night waiting for it but no show. The rain and humidity is so bad it degrades my NV setup but that will pass. The coons/possums/fox dont seem to be bothered at all by the weather though. Sooner or later he'll make a mistake.
 
I think DU lives on the coyote "freeway". Congrats on another in the ever growing stat list. I am afraid to complain about the lack of video since we have been blessed with so many free episodes. That one sure looks like he was eating well.
 
I was pretty frustrated with the video failure. I have two of the mini dvr's and switched them out when I came in from calling so I could recharge the one I had used. I forgot that on the second one, I had moved the record switch so that it didn't automatically start recording when the unit turned on with the remote switch. My glitch!

These are southern coyotes you know and addicted to fried chicken scraps. I think all that fried foot might be bad for their hearts.
 
Charlie dont surf! A short story of persistence.

Been seeing this guy pretty consistantly on the trail cams since the end of December. He's probably been around longer than that intermittenly though I suspect. He'd come into check the bait area 3 or 4 nights in a row at different times then disappear for 4 or 5 nights, then repeat. Our schedules didnt match up until last night. Well, actually our schedules did match up 8 days ago as I got a shot at him but missed. Went the next day and rechecked the zero on my gun and it was hitting a bit low so fixed that.

Last night I made it to my shooting spot at 7pm while scanning the area with the thermal. Sat down and 5 seconds later I saw something approaching through the thick woods. Got on the gun and 5 seconds later he stepped into the kill zone between a couple of trees. 75 yard shot through the heart and he was down finally. Without a doubt the shortest hunt I've ever had. Hornady 55gr TAP URBAN did the trick.

Pretty good size yote I guess. My dog is a 110# Ridgeback mix for comparison. Like my neighbor always says "Sooner or later he'll make a mistake" is pretty much true.

In the heat of the moment I forgot to hit the video on the scope but I got a few after action photos to share.

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Always feels good to get one that has been pulling the slip on us. Congrats. I tried waiting to turn the recording on until the action started and just didn't happen for me too many times. With coyotes coming in hot I just couldn't remember to turn it on. Even on the bait pile it is hard to remember.
 

You must be overrun with raccoons, Gobbler. That last one made a mistake by stopping to see what happened. Looks like the X-Sight is earning its keep.

Last night I stayed at the cabin for the first time since my surgery. A coyote made a daytime morning appearance the previous day, and a bobcat later that night. The cat has been a fairly regular visitor. It showed up again last night and kept me awake with pinging the alarm. I kept trying to scare it away by opening the cabin door and shinning a light on it. It would leave and be gone just long enough for me to go back to sleep, and then ping the alarm again. Seems I just couldn't scare it off. Something after 0300 this morning, he returned for the 5th time and I had enough. I placed a bullet in the ground at his feet. He finally got the message and didn't return. This morning after daylight I busted a crow. Seems I can't get up with a coyote. I have some footage of the the bobcat with the new 4k scope and thermal as well. I'll post some video once I get it worked up.

 
GG - nice looking coons. You must be covered up in them. I keep mine around for their early warning system of approaching yotes. They get fed every night so there are probably 6-8 regular visitors, along with possums and fox.

6mm - looking forward to seeing the pics/videos. Sooner or later Mr yote will be back.

Seems like the X-Sight is doing good for both of you. I really like mine so far. 8 yotes down since I got it last summer. I'm a couple of SW upgrades behind but its working so well I'm kind of leary of doing the upgrade especially if having to re-zero the scope is involved. Seems like the last upgrade I did it required a factory reset or something and I had to start over basically and re-zero the scope with my ammo. That was a pain. Maybe it was the factory refresh part that did that I dont know.
 
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