Which one 1st? From a pair of red fox or coyotes

M

medic joe

Well-known member
Which would you shoot 1st & why? The male or the female?

A few men I learned from. And hunted with when I was a young predator hunter. One of those men told me. "Shoot the female 1st, because the male will often linger". Giving you a shot at him also. I took what he told me as factual. But I always tried for the male 1st. As he was typically larger & had more fur to be sold.
 
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Can’t comment on the fox question as, I don’t shoot them.

Coyotes, absolutely the bitch first in my experience. I haven’t just had them linger. Sometimes completely gone from view, thinking they are long gone. Then call them back in and kill them. I’ve enjoyed some super aggressive call backs.
 
Yeah… female first in hopes of bringing the male back for a second crack. I have on a couple occasions had the female come back to look for her man, but not nearly as often as the other way around.

This would be for coyotes. Don’t kill fox anymore, and when I did I didn’t know that it would matter much on a fox. Curious as to what sound you would use to bring a fox back after a shot? Outside of using gray fox fights and distress to call grays, I never called a red fox to any kind of red fox vocalization.

Truthfully, I have never called a single thing to a red fox sound other than coyotes to Johnny Stewart’s Red/ Gray fox fight.
 
Coax the coyotes into shotgun range, shoot the one with the nicest fur first then quickly transition to the second one and pound it as well. Ideally.

I have the nicest pelts tanned and give them to people or use them for other things.

But come to think of it I'm not sure I've ever had multiples come neither close enough together nor with enough time to tell which is male or female.

I don't shoot red foxes anymore either. I got a few pelts, now I just watch them.
 
Where I live, whichever gives me the shot first.

With Fox If I can determine it’s a Red, which I’ve done, it gets a pass just because we don’t have many down here. It costs me money, but I’d rather wait until we have a problem with too many than take one now. Grays on the other hand get shot.
 
Sleeping red fox pairs, the male will be above, upwind of the female. We mostly took the male off the pair, go back a few days later and shoot another off her. Most males I took off one female was 4, the females would be on active den sites. If hunting out of home area, we would shoot the female first as the male would likely stop a short distance away and look back at her. When wanting to take pairs we shoot the far one first, sound of the bullet passing over/impact on first will often have the other move away(toward shooter) this works for coyote also. Although with coyote I have seen several males, with a single female. Dominant male(often largest) will be between the female and the want to be's when sleeping.
 
spotstalkshoot said:
Sleeping red fox pairs, the male will be above, upwind of the female. We mostly took the male off the pair, go back a few days later and shoot another off her. Most males I took off one female was 4, the females would be on active den sites. If hunting out of home area, we would shoot the female first as the male would likely stop a short distance away and look back at her. When wanting to take pairs we shoot the far one first, sound of the bullet passing over/impact on first will often have the other move away(toward shooter) this works for coyote also. Although with coyote I have seen several males, with a single female. Dominant male(often largest) will be between the female and the want to be's when sleeping.
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I've had the same experiences on red fox. I've haven't killed a red in decades. As for coyote pairs. I've only had 1 female linger for a bit. Otherwise they all bolted like a rocked after shooting her mate.
 
Not Tammy Wynette, but on my old Minaska Bandit caller I had “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Metallica. I fired it up once as a joke after my predator hunting mentor and I shot a double on Gray fox. He didn’t think it was funny. He had about 20 years on me so probably would have been okay with Tammy Wynette.

Never called fox but the chicks really liked it! 🤣
 
I've always taken the closest coyote, not being greedy and hoping to get a shot on the second coyote.
I don't know how to tell the difference between a male or female coyote, from a shooting distance. Color or size? :unsure:
 
Petey said:
Don't shoot fox anymore, neither should you, let them live.
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I don’t shoot fox any more either, but I’m sure not about to tell anyone else what and what not to do. There’s a healthy population of fox near me and shooting them is completely fine if someone chooses to do so.
 
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