When we talk about what our favorite caliber is or any of the other products that we use to hunt, fish, drive, live or raise our families it's a matter of what we have been exposed to as to what we like the best for our needs. If I have been exposed to top end products, then they are what I will tell you about, if my budget doesn't allow for high priced products then I will tell you about my experiences with the less expensive products. When we talk of range finders some of them don't do very well in some applications such as bright sunlight, snowy back grounds or light-colored animals. When we talk about rifle scopes, binoculars, spotting scopes we talk about our experiences with what we have used. We talk about the clarity of the glass, the ability to gather light in different conditions, the heat waves, and other aspects of it. We talk about how durable they are by the things that we put them through have they been rattling around in my truck on my truck gun, do they only get out of the gun safe for a couple of hunts a year, did they get in a wreck on my four-wheeler or on a horse back trip? How much did I pay for them on the budget that I have allotted for them? Did I not buy them, and they were issued to me first so then as a civilian that is what I bought? We most often buy things to fit our needs and the way that we will be using them. I worked with a guy that always told me why did you pay that much for a scope? I bought this scope for less than half of that! Well, yes you did and the two others that you bought before you bought that one, while I have been using this one every day for the last 5 years. Do we buy things with the intent that they are disposable and to be replaced if they break down, so then do we buy them thinking about the long run and not replacing them often? What are the conditions that I intend to use them in? I personally am not going to pay 5000.00 for a rifle to carry in my truck every day, but I will pay that for a rifle that I have a need to repeatedly reach out and touch a coyote at longer ranges, I also will pay that much for a scope to put on such a rifle. For my everyday use I'm probably going with a rifle in the 700-1000 price range and a scope in the same price range and then do some work to get them up to where I feel comfortable making close and longer shots out to 500 yards because I like to do that, I'm a tinkerer at heart. If I am going to spend long periods of time glassing, I'm going to want the best glass I can afford for that and make sure that I adjust them for my eyes. In the end it's up to each of us to decide for ourselves what we want to use for our needs and enjoyment.
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
- Start date
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Coyotes must have had a tough winter here in Louisiana
The sightings are way down.
A few evening howls every now and then.
Saw several with horrible mange coats late last summer. Maybe going into the early winter in poor shape took its toll. We had a hard freeze in November...which is RARE!
Sure took the fun out of it!
The sightings are way down.
A few evening howls every now and then.
Saw several with horrible mange coats late last summer. Maybe going into the early winter in poor shape took its toll. We had a hard freeze in November...which is RARE!
Sure took the fun out of it!
Have you had parvo and distemper in your area as well as mange Roughrice? Parvo will kill more coyotes in a month than we can in several years. We had a hard winter with a lot of snow cold temps. and not much food going into winter here as well as disease going through them, so our numbers are down also. Here they don't talk much this time of year, due to the young pups being so vulnerable.
windypants
Well-Known Member
I get no respect around here since I called a ceasefire. The local male just went running by 100 yards from the house
. He's probably preoccupied with feeding mama and the pups. He still has winter fur and I haven't seen pups yet, but haven't checked the camera this week. And still haven't heard a sound from them. The fox kits in the roadside den are 1/2 grown or more!
. He's probably preoccupied with feeding mama and the pups. He still has winter fur and I haven't seen pups yet, but haven't checked the camera this week. And still haven't heard a sound from them. The fox kits in the roadside den are 1/2 grown or more!
At least he is showing you a little respect. The last one I showed I caught in a trap that was right along my backyard fence 20 yards from my chicken coop.I get no respect around here since I called a ceasefire. The local male just went running by 100 yards from the house
Most of the fox here have their kits nearly a month to a month and a half before the coyotes do. I have taken red fox dens as early as March the 3rd and the earliest coyote den I took was April 8th. Both dens were newborn and still had their eyes closed. There have been times that I have found newborn coyote pups the first week of June the male was an older male three or four years old and the female from that den was a yearling. She only had four pups. There are times that I have found just a male hanging out by himself without a female and also have had two males or two dry females running together. The dry ones as I have said before are tough to nail down because they will use their whole area and if they are killing lambs, it's hard to find them and get them to come to a call, so I normally set up snares for them. They can get pretty bold sometimes living right in town, or eating the neighbor's cat or little dog for a snack.
windypants
Well-Known Member
Just spotted four coyote pups for the first time at the den two miles up the valley. The female (I think) was just leaving to go hunting. Wish they were close enough to hear. I don't have access to that property.
The coyote pups and fox kits grow fast. They will start to camp out in the sage brush before long here and leave the den hole behind, around mid-June most of the time. It's an interesting time to watch and listen to them when you can mom and dad are the teachers for the coyote pups, and they do a good job of it in a small amount of time. I made the mistake of taking my wife with me one evening to get some fox kits whose mom was killing lambs for them. We got close to the den and a couple of the kits were out playing in the evening sun. I lined up my shot with a 22 long rifle caliber rifle and shot one, it was doing the chicken flop and another one jumped on it to start wrestling. My wife went nuts on me and I had a hard time getting her to let me take care of the other five pups before I had to take her home. I had called the mom in and shot her in the morning and so then I didn't want to leave the kits to starve, but she wasn't ready to see them being shot at that age. I'm not sure what she thought my job was when denning, or how I dealt with the pups and kits. I never took her denning again, but she would go checking equipment and calling adults. It's all in how you think about things, myself I would rather the little predators died fast and not slowly by starvation after I killed the older ones for killing livestock, but that's how I see it for others if they don't see it happening, they don't think about it. I also have seen a lot of young animals that had stunted growth by being malnourished after losing their parents and not being adopted. We were flying one morning and saw a red fox kit following a female coyote near her den. Most often she would have killed it so I'm not sure about what was going on that time. We get to see some pretty amazing things when we have the opportunity to spend a lot of time out with the rest of the animals in the world that aren't human.
Pictures aren't the best but I will get him. I know he's in the area and he is checking out my trap.
Eyeball reflection and faint silouette on right side of pic.
