5 more coyotes makes us reach a goal.

derbyacresbob

Well-known member
Yesterday JP7mag and I went coyote calling. We left the house at 5:30 am and got back at 6:30 pm. It was a long day, but it was a fun day.

On our second stand I had my shotgun and JP had his 243 Win. About 5 minutes after we started up the X-24 we had a coyote walk over a ridge into the bright sunlight about 100 yards away. A few seconds later JP dropped it with his 243 Win.
IMG_3346 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/156463377@N08/, on Flickr
You can see the dead coyote laying on the ridge top in the above picture.

IMG_3351 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/156463377@N08/, on Flickr
In the above picture JP7mag is lit up in the bright sunlight like the coyote was when it walked over the ridge into the bright sun light.

Quite a few stands later we had a coyote walk around a juniper and stand there looking towards the X-24. It was about 75 yards from JP and he dropped it with his 243 Win.

A few minutes later we saw 2 coyotes running very fast towards us from about 600 yards away. The coyote in front started turning to our right when it got to about 90 yards away. The second coyote started to turn to our right at what I thought was about 60 yards away so I shot it with a 1-1/2 oz load of TSS #2 shot. The coyote went down hard but was still moving some so I shot it again.
IMG_3361 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/156463377@N08/, on Flickr

We saw more deer than we have ever seen on this ranch. There were some huge fires recently just 10 to 20 miles from where we were so we think some of the deer that we saw yesterday moved in from the areas that burned.
IMG_3366 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/156463377@N08/, on Flickr

JP shot one coyote that had mange so we didn't take any pictures of it. We did have one more coyote come in that JP shot just a few seconds after the coyote stopped to look at the X-24.
IMG_3370 by Robert Morris, on Flickr

In 1985 I started keeping a count on the coyotes that I trapped and the coyotes that we called in and killed. I always counted the coyotes that my son and my friends shot. The way I look at it we are calling as a team so I counted any coyotes that we got.. I didn't trap very many years so I would guess about 150 of the coyotes that I counted were trapped.

Yesterday when we went out the count was 1499 coyotes. With the 4 coyotes JP7mag shot and the one I shot that makes the coyote total 1504. I don't really know how many of those coyotes JP7mag shot but I would bet it is at least 300 coyotes.

It took us 40 years to get these 1504 coyotes. That is a average of 37.6 coyotes per season. We have had some very tough seasons and some really good seasons. So far this 2025/2026 season we have taken 42 coyotes.
 
This is all good stuff!

Nice you have kept records on the coyotes for 40 years plus now!

Keep calling them in and keep Killing!
 
Bob, are you seeing more now than you did say 30 - 40 years ago?
The coyote population goes up and down depending on the amount of rain that we get. We have had good amount of rain for three years now so there are lots of rabbits, rodents and birds for the coyotes to eat. We have had two different droughts where it looked like the coyotes had no pups in the spring.
 
Fanfrigintastic!!!!! I had a teacher in 7th grade from the mountains of WVA that he and I 'hit it off' because of the outdoors. He suggested that I keep records/little notes of my hunts to reflect on in my later years. I have been doing so ever since. Some are lost and some are not, but they have brought back memories when I looked at them over the years and at a couple months shy of 75 I am still keeping them. The misses/screwups are the ones I remember best😊. Thank you, Jim Winters from Preston Co. WVA
 
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