Iowa coyotes

You will see more in hilly country. My main method of hunting them in IA is to spot stalk. Last winter I had a chance to shoot 6-7 in one day, with 8 miles on my snowshoes. I missed 3-4, killing 3, not sure why I missed 2-3 of them. The closed to snow plow roads may help them stay out in the open in the winter.
I can tell there are more of them out west where I go, even though they kill the all year round in that area. Seriously kill them all year, he told me he had killed 400+ before I got there in Nov. one fall three-four years ago. The mange has hit there also, lowering the population a lot.
I have found that at least one day out of three you can't find one no matter how many miles you drive. I think on those days they are holed up in tight cover or the drainage ditch feeder tubes. T.20
 
The biggest area of land that I could find with no roads going through it in our area in Iowa is a 1 by 2 mile rectangle. That means that there is no place in a 30 by 30 mile section that I looked at that a coyote can go and not be within sight of road hunters.
 
There is a 2X2 mile section near Swea City. You will find a good number of them even if it looks like wide open from the road. There are enough ground variances to hide easily, especially when there is no snow. I find one once in a while at a 1/4 mile from road or less, on snow. They are pretty good at sliding up a low valley and disappearing before your eyes. There are a lot of sections here that you can't see 25-30% of the land from the road.
The hillier the land the more coyotes. Around Webster City it is a lot flatter ground, about 99% tillable. Near the Des Moines river where there is decent cover you will find more coyotes. On snow I might drive 45-125 miles before spotting one, just depends on the day and if they are out of the big cover, or above ground. T.20
 
Tac,

My area is just West of Marshalltown. Don't hunt there though, no coyotes in that area /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 


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