Pups and kittens

1

17remhunter

Active member
Over the years of trapping coyotes and bobcats I've alway released the young coyotes and young cats from that year. I just cant keep the little guys. The one animal I trap often and wish I could release every time are kit fox. Even with a stiffer pan tension they still end up in my sets Usually there is to much leg damage……………….just my thoughts.
 
Yeah, if I could get $800 average on cats, I’d release young ones as well, lol.
I trap for management purposes and babies grow up to be adults and they pay the same as an adult, so all gotta go. I love turkeys more than cats or coyotes.
 
I hunt for fur. I don't trap much anymore but I ain't letting a smaller coyote go. If it has good fur it's getting killed. I use live traps for bobcats so that's easy if they're small they get returned to the wild or if it's a female it's a good practice to let them go.

Calling too, if I call in a kitten it's not getting shot. I'll wait until they're actually worth more.

As for deer and other things, someone's gotta manage their population. Hunters do a piss poor job of it. Sitting there all season waiting on a trophy buck and never pull the trigger on anything at all. No wonder I've killed more deer with a vehicle than a weapon. Deer ain't nothin but an oversized jackrabbit. Those cats and coyotes can eat all the little ones their heart desires. Personally, I'm not a big fan of deer. I don't hunt deer because you can't shoot 100 of em in a day. If you could I'd be all over it. The only good thing about a deer is the back straps or shooting coyotes over ones carcass.

From a fur harvesting standpoint letting certain things go makes sense. From a predator management standpoint, no so much. If managing coyote numbers is even realistic, it's not. If it were Jeremy would have already killed every coyote in his part of Oklahoma. That's not really how that all works.
 
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Yeah I’m finding it difficult to gain thermal grounds for free because the farmers want the coyotes to eat the deer, lol. I will say this county is pretty good about managing the herd. At least the properties I have access to do a good job. We took 40+ last year and already see we need to take at least 50-60 next year.
As far as coyote populations, you can seriously reduce their numbers, but you’ll never get them all. I do enjoy chasing a big buck, but the only reason I take any predator is for turkeys. If they ate nothing but deer they’d all get a pass. Our fur is worthless and not worth my time.
 
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