You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
they call that a one-upper here in Mondamtana...........there is a little of that in most of us......try to be the best most lethal hunter we can.
And I still get to enjoy the hunt thanks to you guys . A couple of months ago a friend called me and ask me to look at his old double barreled shot gun . He said that one side worked but one side wouldn't shoot . This gun was his dad's when he was young so it's well over a hundred years old and not made any more , parts aren't available you can find them on the internet but cost an arm and two legs . He had taken it to a couple of guy's that told him they didn't work on shot guns and the one guy that did in this area retired a few years ago . I told him I would but wouldn't make any promises and sent him home with the barrels as I only needed the action . I got my tools out and took it apart finding that not only was one of the flat firing pin springs broken they both were . To get one pair made would be over two hundred dollars . Out in my garage I had some 5160 spring steel that I use to make knives with ( it's also used to make leaf springs for trucks and cars . So I set about making a piece the right thickness I annealed it so I could work it cut it to the right thickness and length heated it and shaped it filed the notches ect. into it and had two springs shaped and fitted to the gun in a couple of hours . I heated it and got a good quench then heated them to 800F and held them for 20 minutes to draw them back and be springs that would spring instead of break . I put it all back together took it to him and we tried it . He and I were pleased with it . He ask what do I owe you just a hand shake , a thank you and a diet coke some day I tell him I've already been paid by the look on your face to see your dad's gun working again , and having some thing to do for awhile .
I got a call one time from a guy that's dad was good at controlling coyote so I wasn't sure what was going on . He told me they were haying problems and had one they weren't able to get could I come look at the things they were trying and maybe help them figure out something different to try and get the killing stopped . A couple of days latter I drove the 65 miles out to his place , we looked over his traps and I showed him the way I set mine up and how to take the play out of the dog . Then how I put a vee notch in the dog and pan notch so it has no creep just fires , and how I set up my chain with 3 swivels for when the coyote is fighting hard and rolling as well as the 3 links of larger chain at the end so I can use 2-3 stakes if needed in loose soils . Next we went to his snares , I showed him mine that were 8 foot long not the short ones he was making so that they would tangle up better and not chew the cable and leave with a new collar . I showed him how I put a preload on my snare loop by running the cable loop over a bar in a vice and making it curve into a loop to make it close faster . I showed him how I hung my snares and used 14 ga. wire to support it and how I crimped a U of the wire onto the snare cable tight enough to not let it slip but not so much that it damaged or distorted the cable and short enough that it was ridged and didn't let it move around so it would close fast . We talked about setting them so that the lock was tilted up a little so the wind wouldn't blow it closed and how big of a loop and the distance from the fence wires as well as the height of the bottom of the loop off the ground so the coyotes feet went under it and not through the loop . We went out and looked at the kills I showed him how I skinned the neck and jaws to see what the tooth marks had to tell me and there it was for all to see it wasn't a coyote killing the lambs the teeth marks were only about an inch apart and small . We looked around for some tracks and found bobcat tracks , big tom bobcat tracks . I noticed he had some M-44'S set and so I showed him how I put mine out on the up wind side of the trail about a foot or two from the trail , so livestock didn't walk on them ,with the tube set at an angle so that when the animals head was down it shot the cyanide down it's deeper into it's mouth and so it couldn't lay down and chew on it with the side of it's mouth as well as to have a small backing so that the animal couldn't roll and rub on it . I ask him what bait he was using . Well it's the same that Dad was using when I was a kid called Masts getter lure . I got some bait out and gave it to him explaining to him what it was and where to get it from . I wrote him a list of baits and what time of the year they worked the best as well as the name and phone number of where to buy them . I got my tool kit out showed him how that I chased the threads on the ejector and in the capsule holder so they screwed together smoothly . I showed him how I modified the tap so it would cut clean threads to the bottom of the hole . I showed him how I wrapped the capsule holder with cotton and how they were waxed and the mixture of wax so it wasn't brittle and would hold the bait as well as show teeth marks so you knew what had pulled it if they weren't laying close . I showed him the drill bit I put a tee handle on that I used to clean the capsule holder out with and make sure that the capsule slid in and out well and how I had changed my setting plier so that it didn't slip and worked better . It was a long day for both of us . I have always tried to help others do better if I could as for me it meant that there were fewer educated animals running around for me to try and get stopped . And here I go rambling on and on again .
DMP25-06
Well-Known Member
Happy Birthday to "RAMBLINGS and SUCH FROM HUNTING COYOTES" !!!!!!!!!
DSheetz's baby is 1 year old TODAY .
Lots and Lots of Great TIPS , STORIES , REMEMBRANCES , and FREELY-SHARED KNOWLEDGE from ALL of you that have contributed to making this thread what it IS and HAS BEEN .
The most enjoyable thread that I have ever read on the Long Range Hunting website , and possibly the longest running , constantly updated thread on LRH .
Only Len could check and verify it's standing in total number of posts by all of the contributors .
Keep the stories coming !!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO DSheetz , "THE PROFESSOR of COYOTE U."
DMP25-06
DSheetz's baby is 1 year old TODAY .
Lots and Lots of Great TIPS , STORIES , REMEMBRANCES , and FREELY-SHARED KNOWLEDGE from ALL of you that have contributed to making this thread what it IS and HAS BEEN .
The most enjoyable thread that I have ever read on the Long Range Hunting website , and possibly the longest running , constantly updated thread on LRH .
Only Len could check and verify it's standing in total number of posts by all of the contributors .
Keep the stories coming !!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO DSheetz , "THE PROFESSOR of COYOTE U."
DMP25-06
Happy Birthday indeed! It really has been a great and educational thread for me for sure. As a somewhat greenhorn to chasing the "wiley coyote", this encyclopedia is priceless and all the "ramblings and such" are just golden.
I wonder who the "ol Potlicker" that started it was??
Last edited:
DMP25-06
Well-Known Member
I wonder who the "ol Potlicker" that started it was??
Well , Reemty J , I believe that you were the 3rd contributor to this thread , right behind :
#2 - 74Honker
.....and.....
#1 - " ol' Potlicker" ......"The PROFESSOR of COYOTE U." .......... DSheetz....... Professor Dave
By the way , Reemty , how is the Coyote stalking going ?
I always look forward to your postings , as well as those from DSheetz , and ALL of the other contributors .
But , I have missed reading postings from Nicholasjohn , lately . I hope that he is well .
DMP25-06
well I have been busy lately at a bird preserve I manage (pheasants), planting season (crops, grass, brush) lots of work to do. In the next week or so I hope to get after a pair of coyotes to the south of it. When I do I will bring you up to speed with more typing of tales..........been prepping brass and reloading also...after May 1st spring bear hunting gets better, glassing hunting time.
Last year I had a thought that we could use a thread where we all could talk about past hunting experiences as well as present ones so I started this one . And we not me have made that happen here we talk about what we have done and are doing . We learn and teach as well as visit and joke with each other you guys are the best and have done a good thing for all here thank You all so very much for being such a good group of people .
Doing control work for many years I learned that for me and in my area the biggest reason that animals killed large numbers of live stock were ,1 they had young to feed , 2 they were old and livestock young were easy meals , and a few just took the easy way to make a living . In late April normally around the 25th is when I would start to look for coyote dens as well as red fox dens . I found a red fox den once on March 3rd and a coyote den on the 12th of April but they weren't the norm . With the coyote my records show that the older coyote had pups earlier then the younger females and that made sense to me as the weather is better , there are more animals for feeding the pups latter in spring . With coyote both the male and female , and often a young from last year will help with raising the pups , while with red fox it's most often that the female is the one who raises the pups on her own . Coyote tend to keep their dens cleaner then red fox and often you can smell a fox den from some distance . At fox dens I've found all kinds of rotting animal parts , birds , snakes , mice and lamb parts are common at them . Early on you will often find lambs that have had just the soft tissues eaten and the rest left ,as they will eat the soft parts then carry it back in their stomachs to regurgitate for the young pups like we feed baby foods for our small ones . With fox latter on you will often see lambs with most or half of their tails missing as that is what the fox will be able to grab as the lambs run from them and it will get pulled off . With bob cats you usually will just notice that there are fewer lambs now then there should be as like a lot of the other cats they will carry off the lambs to eat in a secluded place till the lambs get bigger then you will find that the lambs are drug to a low spot . Studies done by others have shown that with coyote you need to take some where around 75 percent of the years young to just maintain the same numbers . So what I have learned over the years is that starting in Feb. if I target the female coyote and then do denning to keep the number of young down that the coyote tend to leave the livestock alone better . And by doing this I was able to get larger lamb number to market in the fall for the producers and I still never had a shortage of coyote or fox but found that you can easily kill out the numbers of bob cats in an area . It's all up to each to figure out what works for them in their area and time doing it will teach them more , hopefully , about their needs and keep them from having problems along the way to learning what works for them .
After studying coyote for so long I have found that , like people , most of them in my area lead with their right foot first and when they go to step up to some thing even if it's just to smell it the right front foot will be there first stepping down about 9 inch's from what ever it is that has perked their interest enough for them to check it out . Just food for thought in case some one may want to try trapping some time . Fox seem to be the same footed in my area also but step a little closer as they are smaller so it's about 6 inches for them here . I have had some that were left foot dominant and the tracks in the dust at my sets told me to change things up for them .
