Baiting


Thumper, it always eats at me if I miss. All the normal haunts go through my mind. Was it me, equipment or what.

Spot, you are really braving the elements, but it is paying off. That’s got go be hard sitting in a popup blind in the cold. I have been there and done that when I first started baiting. Didn’t take me long to devise a new plan. It resulted in me acquiring the shack.
 
Big thing I don't miss going from night vision to thermal, lag between coyote moving and seeing it on the display(with night vision). Seems much easier to make "cleaner" shots with thermal. Downside is zeroing during the day, my range faces south. I prefer foil over a heated source. Foil is direction and angle sensitive.
 
Originally Posted By: spotstalkshootBig thing I don't miss going from night vision to thermal, lag between coyote moving and seeing it on the display(with night vision). Seems much easier to make "cleaner" shots with thermal. Downside is zeroing during the day, my range faces south. I prefer foil over a heated source. Foil is direction and angle sensitive.

I like the foil quite a bit but an ice cube in a ziploc bag works about as well.

The white spot is an icecube. The small black spot above it is a 6mm bullet hole in the plywood. The large black spot to the upper right is a cigarette on end sticking out of the plywood.

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Congrats spot on two more. Thumper, I feel your pain. This year, misses have come too often for me.

I have a nephew just getting into hunting at age 40. I told him about coyote bait hunting and he is interested, has property leased with coyotes so he is "signed up". I needed bait. MORE WORK right?
yep, more labor intensive nose to the gindstone bait gathering. My biggest weighed hog at 291#. It's going to his lease to try and get my nephew a shot at his first coyote.

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Only have seen one "wild" hog here. I was tilling(helping a farmer friend) a field before planter. End of the field I see a 15-20# pig. Called the owner of closest pig farm, he says not his. Called the landowner, he comes over in the side by side. I parked the tractor, hop in the wheeler. Off we go pig is running we pull along side and I jump, grab the pig on the run. Ear is tattooed. Call the pig farmer, says pig can't come back to the farm. So the field owner and I take to his old barn, fence in a stall. 5 months later, pig is freezer bound. Last coyote was off a whole pig. We open a rear ham, coyote feed from rear of pig forward. So we place accordingly for broadside shot from blind.
 
HVAC tape works very well and it doesn't need to be heated or cooled with anything else. It will show as cold rather than hot if you tilt the target back approximately 15 degrees. I've had switched from white hot to black hot on some occasions which then makes the HVAC appear as white. Depending on the light, either white hot or black hot will work best.

I usually cut it into 4 thin lengthwise strips of about 6" which give about a 1 foot crosshair.
 

I have used the HVAC tape, but like to make a square for aiming. A circle would be even better since the center dot of my scope’s crosshair can see easily, and eye will automatically adjust crosshair to center the target. More often than not I use a can lid that I heat with a small butane torch. It gives a very bright circle to shoot at. Only issue is the lid cools down pretty fast.
 
Landowner let me know he lost a cow and coyotes had found it. It had been about 2 weeks before I had a chance to get there and was told he'd seen a yote in the field that morning. It's an hour drive and decided to sit for an while before I called some other spots. To my dismay this was all that showed up.

 
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Dogs are private property in Washington. I'll never shoot one unless Im attacked. Lots of bad things can happen unless you can prove the animal was a threat to you or your property.

I do however have cage traps out at my place and catch one occasionally. I never see them again after 24 hours in jail.

Comstock 12x24 double door cage traps are great for bobcats and dogs.
 
I sat the hayfield 3 nights ago, one Red fox. Next night went to a pop up blind, one male coyote. Raccoon were really moving, very entertaining watching the boar run tree lines. Up and down the trees, checking hollows for lady friends. However in Mn, not legal to use thermal, night vision for raccoon.
 

Spot, you made the popup work. Photos?

Hopefully that one will last for a while, Week.

I plan to end my season later this month. Has been over two weeks since I saw a coyote. It’s really slow here.
 
Three daytime pics from the 291 hog today, it's been out for a while. Buzzards been working on it steady but hopefully the coyotes start feeding tonight. They just did "driveby" today. Will be Sunday night before my nephew can go. I will just be coach on this one.

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Since I'm new to thermal scopes(already had snow on the ground) I keep playing with palette,brightness and contrast. I have been using black hot, mid range on the brightest/contrast. This gives more shades of gray and most nights a dark orb in the skull,chest and the hip/pelvis on coyote. I use the dark orb in the chest as a aiming point,usually about 10-11 on the clock. Bait are you running white hot because not much snow on the ground or being in timber?
 
I run white hot all the time. I don't know why, but the white just pops better for my eyes in regards to detection. With snow on the ground, it really pops because the the snow is cold and appears all black/dark in the scope. I have bounced to black hot before...don't know, white hot just agrees with me. Nothing scientific I guess. I hunt with guys that always run black hot...
Being in the timber can vary a lot. The trees absorb heat during the day, so I get a lot of white trees running white hot, depending on the time of year.
 
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