Coyotes chasing deer...

GC

GC

Well-known member
This morning around 10:30 I'm mowing the lawn and see a big buck deer running across the field directly across from my house. The field across from me is about 250 yards wide sloping up to a long ridge, and 600 yards long. Over the ridge is about 250 acres of rough broken woods with a pond. When I see the deer running I stop the mower and am watching this buck. He's running west of me and is going to cross the county gravel road into the woods at the bottom of my yard. Then I caught movement further up the field. A doe and yearling wear hauling butt across the upper end of the field to the east heading for my barnlot. It strikes me that something has to be running those deer out of the woodlot over the rise. Especially at this time of the morning on a hot day.

Then I see them, two adult coyotes. The coyotes are after the doe and yearling. The deer had crossed the road and ran into my barnlot and down the farm lane which angles toward, and, about 50 yards from the house. The coyotes are on the lope tailing the deer. I knew I didn't have time to get in the house for a rifle, so I shut off the mower and stood up from the seat and yelled at the coyotes. The pair checked up and stopped giving me the eye. They were about 150 yards away. They milled around and acted as if they wanted to angle farther up the field and go ahead and come across. I got off the mower and started trotting up the road between them and the deer and gave them a couple more good yells. They now wheeled around and retraced their tracks back across the field and over the rise.

There is a pack that roams around constantly just over that ridge. I've called two across that field to the gun before. This is also where I challenge howled an old male up on that ridgeline, while the wife watched with bino's. They use a brushy fencerow to cross the field and come into the woods at the bottom edge of my yard. These are the guys that come into the field right beside the house and have woke me up several times, howling once less than 50 yards from the house at 3 A.M. That'll wake you up when the windows are open. It's also the pack I give credit for killing the interloper in the creek bottom just below the house. I reported that as, "Bloody Fight!" A neighbor told me recently of watching a coyote chasing a feral cat across a field just down the way during the day. That I don't mind! I've killed several coyotes that came from that direction last year. This year I do have permission to call over in that section of woods. I think I'll get after them pretty hard this year... I know it's just coyotes being coyotes, but I hate to loose deer to them at this time of year. I've seen several rabbit kills in the yard and around the three bay garage out by the road that could have come from any number of critters. However, there's always coyote scat in the far edge of the lawn, saw some today. Maybe a little more hunting pressure will cause a slight shift in their territory.
 
Don't bet on it GC. From what I have seen of pairs like this they just change the times they hit and the direction they come from. It takes a lot to make them give up good ground .I would do my best to take out one or both of hte adults. That will slow things down a year or so as far as what they hunt. Takes some age for them to learn how to take down a deer.Thing is they may be pack hunting with the whole group in another month or so.

You haven't noticed a drop in grasshoppers have you. I seem to be a few short around here. Jimmie
 
I was thinking about the numbers of grasshoppers today as I mowed the lawn. Easy livin' for sure. Yesterday in that field there were ten turkeys picking those grasshoppers. About now is when I begin seeing the coyotes in there too. The field beside the house is swarming with grasshoppers. I went back a couple of days ago to check if the squirrels were cutting hickory nuts in the back and so far they haven't touched them. I have a sandy/dirt farm lane and there were coon and coyote tracks in the lane.
 
GC, i actually saw the opposite back in early july, on the way home from my sons baseball game we saw a whitetail doe chasin a coyote around, i wish i would of had a video camera, she run him around a soybean field for several moments till the coyote went into the woods in which the deer followed. then 2 weeks ago about 10 o'clock i seen a coyote chasin a full size doe, came out of a corn field and crossed the road in front of me, always neat to see mother nature in action!

JD
 
canine,
Last year I was coyote calling using some fawn bawls and nearly got ran over by a big old doe! She came running in looking to kick the crap out of something!

I guess momma and youngster made it alright through this night as they were feeding about 75 yards from the house this morning at first light. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
A few years ago I seen a doe and fawn in my garden which is across a road and I went in and got a fawn bleat call and called the doe to my yard and it even went around the house, me and several friends were on the porch.
I waited about 30 min. and called again and it came running to my yard again!! The maternal instinct is really something!!
 
Coyotes are playing hell with our fawn crop here and it's getting really rare to see a doe with 2 fawns and many don't even have one. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

I think I'll be spending a LOT more time 'yote hunting here this year and less time deer hunting or there won't be any more deer to hunt soon. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

The coyote appears to be a very efficient deer predator in the piney woods of North Florida... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif

$bob$
 
One time my son and I watched a single coyote chase down a full grown healthy mule deer doe and kill it. It was pretty amazing to watch. Each spring I've seen coyotes trotting across fields with a whitetail fawn hanging from its jaws.
 
Thanks for the Story GC,

Three quike deer/coyote stories.

A friend and I were calling one night and heard coyotes coming through a hardwood bottom (dry leave), when all of a sudden all hell broke loose. They must have ran smack in a deer and took it down. It sounded like 10 coyotes (probabably only 3-4)ripping her apart. She bawled bloody murder for a few seconds and gave up the ghost. After that it sounded like a feeding frenzy. We couldn't get to where they were because of the briarsand it would have been to late to do anything at that point anyway. We just sat and listened untill all went silent.

A couple of years ago, while deer hunting, another good friend of mine heard something running through the woods. Out comes a doe into the pipeline right of way where his stand was located. Being the rut he assumed she was being chased by a buck. Much to his supprise out come two coyotes. The does at this point was exhasted and one of the coyotes got her by the hind end and was tugging when the 7 mag ended his deer killing days the other got away and the doe was spared at least a little longer.

I witnessed a coyote carrying a freshly killed fawn when I was a kid. Since then I have heard many people (some you would think should know better)say that coyotes don't bother deer or their population. That may be the case in some places but certainly not in others. Same goes for livestock. Gotlots of them stories.

Byron
 
Hi Byron they will i was bush hogging and jump a coyote that ran threw a old tree top jump a little deer and it chase it around didnt catch it as far as i know there isnt telling how am coyotes we have called in with a fawn in distress it works good here in Arkansas VM
 
Byron,
Like you I hear "educated" folks tell that coyotes rarely prey on deer. BULL! I have some other deer chasin'/killin' stories about coyotes. Dad and I have both witnessed the event on several occasions. Some of these biologist need to get out of the office and into the field more. I remarked just the other day in a conversation with another hunter that as much time as I spend in the woods over a 37 year span I have NEVER met a state/federal wildlife official away from a road and out of the vehicle. Missouri has a model conservation agency and overall does a fine job managing the wildlife, however, sometimes I wonder where they're getting their information. My degree is in biology and I worked for the Missouri DNR for five years as a State Park Naturalist. My park was 8,561 acres in size and I spent as much time as possible out of the office and in the field. Basically nearly everyday I took a hike, rode a ATV, or my Jeep around in the backparts of the park. Many days I spent my entire eight hours out in the field on some project or another. I dare say I knew that park better than the Park Super or Rangers ever did. I also caught marijuana growers and meth cooks, stopped a rape in progress once, recovered a few stolen vehicles, and too many poachers to tell about. I was "out there - with them" and not sitting in the office or riding the paved roads. I dunno know, maybe it's just me and I don't get it.

VM, the fawn bawls/distress works well here in the Missouri Ozarks too!
 
I find that as far as what sounds works where, you just have to try them and see.And I mean give it a real test and not just fool around with it some. Use it exclusively for a while.

There are a few places left where the deer still do the chasing.I have seen that several times. Especially where the deer pop is really thick.Coyotes have learned deer antlers and doe hooves are sharp! Deer distress doesn't work there unless your after a deer. Sure coyotes still slip in and get a fawn now and again but they have learned they may have to pay dearly for it. Farms in the middle of a lot of livestock predation that don't have a problem even exist because of one or two old cows that chase every canine they see.

Coyotes are a lot like Pavlov's old dog. They learn and survive because of the learning. Here in the east the coyote is learning pack hunting can make life easier on the group and they are evolving right in front of our eyes.The more they learn through doing and sheer luck, the more they are going to change in the future.Each generation will have a little more skill at survival than the next.

The point of all this, can you adapt and learn as fast as they do? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gifJimmie
 
I've tried to find coyote scat in Florida that DOESN'T have deer hair in it and so far no luck except when it appears that they're specializing in wild hogs. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Our coyotes and bobcats seem to dine on deer almost exclusively. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

I've seen a few places where something killed a turkey but never was able to decide what predator had made the kill. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

The bunny huggers see this whole issue to be a simple solution to banning hunting the easy way. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Protect the predators and deny that they prey on game the hunter likes to hunt and before long there's nothing for the hunter to hunt. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif

It ain't rocket science. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

$bob$
 
:quote: The bunny huggers see this whole issue to be a simple solution to banning hunting the easy way. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
:quote:
They'll use it....or any other hare brained tactic they can, until one of their kids gets mauled by a coyote....maybe then they'll sing a different tune.


WNYS
 
Hi Jimmie in KY the Deer here in Ark will run from a coyote. I also seen a bobcat chase a deer before. I used to use a JS 512 caller and called in a bunch of coyotes with a fawn in distress tape. One day i was bow hunting i took the grunt call out and made it where it would make a fawn bleat sound. I used it for 3 or 4 times heard something look to my left and a grey fox was looking at me. I know a cat and a coyote will kill a fawn a grey fox would if it could. GC i like to use a fawn in distress here too. I was up at West Plains last weekend. i would like to do some calling in Missouri. The rolling hills around some of the farms. VM
 
Just north of West Plains is a whole bunch of National Forest ground... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
HI GC i have been up on the other side of Houston turkey hunting before. There are some GOOD looking places up at way. I watch a hunting show today Lohman's Calls and they was predator hunting in Missouri some where. VM
 
There was a neat study done buy Ohio Department of Natural Resources (published 2005) in that they went out and collared newborn fawns with radio transmitters in the spring. Accordingly, 50% of the newborns died from a variety of things (cars, hunters, dogs, disease). Of that 50%, 20% were killed by coyotes. That is a big hit went your come to think of it.
 
Varmit master, I am not saying they won't. I have been years convincing the biologist at the LBL that his deer herd is going down the tubes.Or should I say going to fertilizer.

What I was trying to get across is that some coyotes do their best to steer clear of trouble in all it's forms. Including an old buck or doe that has it figured out and will send them packing.Same with cattle farms. They will avoid the farm with one mean assed old cow and kill at the next one without the mean old cow.

To a group of coyotes in one area a fawn bleat may be a ticket to a butt kicking contest the coyote will lose . In another it is the dinner bell.

Like pavlovs dog they learn by doing and recieving a reward or punishment.How a group hunts has a lot to do with it. If they have learned to pack hunt then all sounds work well. If the coyotes in the area are still hunting as singles then deer sounds may not be the answer.

So you have to be willing to use a certain sound for quite a while to learn if it does work well or just so so. If I am hunting the LBL,then all sounds work. If I am hunting southern graves county Ky, deer sounds are out of the question, yet any other sound works. Pack hunters verses single hunters.

And I have seen a deer put a coyote to running so fast it's tail hit it's chin each time it's back legs passed it's front legs. Now that is a funny sight !! Jimmie
 
Jimmie i went out to a new place i had never called with my FOXPRO this mor. It was Arkansas opening day for coyote season. I made one set up it was on my family place. They dont think a person should kill a doe there was deer every where. I put my FoxPro in a small tree watching a feild. I used the fawn in disress because i seen some doe's with out any fawn's. I called in 3 doe's with that fawn in distress this one doe i let her walk off 4 times and called her back each time . I am glad i got the remote lol so i could hit mute. The ones i called in wasnt that big of doe's. This yr should have been there first yr to have fawns. When i go back i am not using that because that place is full of deer. VM
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top