Baiting

At 2:30 am I heard the beeper go off. I was dead asleep very difficult to get my wits. I stumbled around to the other end of the house got the gun set up and saw two coyotes run…one stopped but very spooky. I fired but I was pi$$ed because I rushed the shot. I couldn’t see anything from the house this morning so I walked down. Coyote down, it went about 10’ over the bank.
That’s #8 and #9 since the end of January. It shocking how many coyotes run the ocean shoreline. I added pictures of my two baits (in the same field) and the alarms. I use a red LED kill light and never have an issue spooking coyotes. Actually I had one show up at 4;30am Sunday morning that I watched (no Sunday hunting in Maine) with the light for 5-6 minutes with no issues. It just walked away.
 

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Congrats on a couple more scalloper1, well done from the dead of sleep. Sometimes they ignor red lights and sometimes they act like you slapped them.
 
When I say this has been an unbelievable year for baiting coyotes here, I don't mean it in a good sense. Over the past 13 seasons, my yearly take on the baitpile has been an average of 15 per season with most coming from Jan. to the end of April. The first year I baited back in 2011, I killed 16 from August to December while recovering from a fractured L3 in my back. My best year was in 2020 with 36 off the bait pile here. This year, I had not killed a single coyote or even had one to hit the bait pile since last June. It has been an exercise in frustration for sure.

I've finally had a coyote show up and start hitting the bait over a period of about 2 weeks. Our paths just never could seem to cross somehow. One morning last week I got a call from a turkey hunter that a coyote was in my yard at 6:30 in the morning. By the time I got myself together, he had made an exit to the woods. Last night our paths finally crossed. I shot him with my AR-15, 16" barrel in a 223 with a Banish 30 suppressor. I was shooting a 50 v-max over a stout load of Xterminator at about 3,225 fps. Range was 100 yds. and I shot the big male on an angled shot coming in from behind the rib cage using my Wraith mini NV scope. It wasn't a DRT but it was close to it. I will post the video later today. Here is a picture from last night as he fell before I pulled him under the back shelter to keep the buzzards and eagles off him this morning. This coyote was extremely nervous, and I was beginning to wonder if he would stay still long enough to get a decent shot off.

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DoubleUp said:
When I say this has been an unbelievable year for baiting coyotes here, I don't mean it in a good sense. Over the past 13 seasons, my yearly take on the baitpile has been an average of 15 per season with most coming from Jan. to the end of April. The first year I baited back in 2011, I killed 16 from August to December while recovering from a fractured L3 in my back. My best year was in 2020 with 36 off the bait pile here. This year, I had not killed a single coyote or even had one to hit the bait pile since last June. It has been an exercise in frustration for sure.

I've finally had a coyote show up and start hitting the bait over a period of about 2 weeks. Our paths just never could seem to cross somehow. One morning last week I got a call from a turkey hunter that a coyote was in my yard at 6:30 in the morning. By the time I got myself together, he had made an exit to the woods. Last night our paths finally crossed. I shot him with my AR-15, 16" barrel in a 223 with a Banish 30 suppressor. I was shooting a 50 v-max over a stout load of Xterminator at about 3,225 fps. Range was 100 yds. and I shot the big male on an angled shot coming in from behind the rib cage using my Wraith mini NV scope. It wasn't a DRT but it was close to it. I will post the video later today. Here is a picture from last night as he fell before I pulled him under the back shelter to keep the buzzards and eagles off him this morning. This coyote was extremely nervous, and I was beginning to wonder if he would stay still long enough to get a decent shot off.

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I have not killed one single coyote in one year now. Unbelievable! Having joint issues really slowed me down but I killed a few when my issues were far worse.

I had been focusing on Cougar and bobcat hunting since the first of the year...Also no luck. You're not alone.
 
That coyote had every right to be nervous, being he was in the middle of the "killing fields". So glad to hear you are back on track at the "diner" and should have your average yearly take soon. As for me, times have been lean. Only 2 coyotes have hit my spot in the last six months and they were one and done drive by's.
Thanks for the video.
 
It's been somewhat of mystery as well Week. I had 3 road kill deer that I put out during the winter months and not a single coyote hit any of the 3 spread out over 3 months. I did see a couple cross the field and heard some in the woods a couple of times, but nothing on the bait pile at all. It is strange, but at least I managed to get this one. He weighed in at 40 lbs. so pretty heavy coyote.
 
Good to see the dry spell finally open up and produce one. I remember all the ones you have taken year after year at the bait. It is indeed strange as to why suddenly they wouldn’t come to it. I guess we will never fully be able to understand coyotes.
 
I only had one coyote on the camera at my bait site. He was just passing by... with a rabbit in his mouth. There's a rabbit explosion around here. Nobody is going to the refrigerator for cold baloney when steaks are being served everywhere around you for free.
 
I had another coyote show up the next night but didn't come to the bait pile. Only got one picture and figured it might be a female, but it showed up this morning after daylight, around, 7:15. I heard the alarm but figured it was just the daily buzzards cleaning up. Coyote was out there for 15 minutes according to the cameras and was definitely a male. So perhaps I'll get another chance at him soon. Really strange year.
 
Well, the male coyote made another appearance last night. I sent him to the happy hunting ground at 10:52, but in my haste to make the shot, I forgot to turn on the recorder. Stuff Happens! Anyway here he is right before the shot on one of my trail cams. I did shoot this one with the Wraith 4k mini on 3 power and it would have made a really clean video, dag it.

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Unfortunately, not only did I forget to turn the recorder on, but this coyote was perfectly at ease and wasn't moving any at the bait pile. It took a couple of minutes to get enough of an angle to slip the shot into the rib cage on his left side. He jumped straight up and then ended up with his lower body in my pond right behind the bait pile. Here he is this morning, and looking kind of bedraggled. He might make the ugly coyote runoff. He weighed in at 38 lbs.

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I'm just glad to get a couple of chances finally after such a long absence without any, and thankfully I'm getting males. So far I haven't seen any females, but my calling opportunities are about ended for this year I think.
 
I knew you were on a roll, headed for the yearly average. He ain't purdy but at 38# he ain't no pup. Winter will bring back the good looking ones.
 
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