Do you shoot coyotes while pheasant hunting?

8 or 10 years ago I was hunting a little fold in a field walking along and saw a coyote on a hilltop about 1000 yards away. That thing meandered its way towards us, fixated on my lab. He got about 50 yards away until I let some lead fly.

Shooting a couple (even probably a couple dozen) is going to do nothing to the overall population in coyote country, I wouldn't pat yourself on the back too much for letting them walk.
 
I don’t get many chances but I shoot coyotes when given the chance. Like others have said the landowners want us too. Also I’ve been a lifelong trapper so it is almost instinct for me to shoot one when given the opportunity. However the fur market has really crashed the past couple years so my trapping has been very limited lately. Attached are pics of my best years trapping 4-5 years ago 1BACEC91-19E9-476D-8A7B-2FA60E452DD0.jpegBE2017DE-D6F9-4924-9437-728E95CDABF5.jpegC871D6ED-0478-4076-9B2D-F110B1883379.jpeg
 
That's a lot of fur!

I'd welcome a trapper to work our land once bird season was over, but I'm not sure it would pay. Of course with everything we hear about fur prices, I'm not sure it pays anywhere. Maybe if your line is really productive and really close to your home.
 
Nice work on those. Food-hold or shares? A few bobcats I see in one pic. I wonder how they are with pheasants? Not too many around to to worry about. We have a couple fellas that trap coyotes and coons around here, not sure they did any this season. The hunters group is still chasing them and they seem to get between 60-and 100 each year, last year being an exception as there was very little snow...they will make up for it this year. A few around don't hurt much and might be helpful, but when you see 3 in a morning bird hunting, they can maybe use some thinning out.

The old crib make for a nice annual pic!
 
Pretty much all of those were caught with snares. The bobcats were mainly incidental catches as I was mainly targeting coyotes. Most of the time bobcats and fox would duck right under the snares but every once in a while I'd get lucky. Snaring was my go to method just because of how maintenance free they were in icy/snowy conditions, however as many on this forum would understand it limited where I could trap. If dogs were in the neighborhood it was not worth it.
 
Those photos remind me of old family photos when my Grandfather had a real trap line and used the fur to supplement his income at the peak of the fur trade. Most of his were red fox though, not coyotes. Now its the opposite, its mostly coyotes and far less fox.
 
Yotes easy to snare and hard to trap. Bobcats are hard on ground nesting birds. I wish prices on furs were up. Most furs to China and Russia.
 
Guf54......I'm not a trapper, so sorry if these are dumb questions. Those look like finished furs? Do you also tan them? Would love to hear your process. Fantastic picture. Happy trapping!!
 
Wise12375 said:
Guf54......I'm not a trapper, so sorry if these are dumb questions. Those look like finished furs? Do you also tan them? Would love to hear your process. Fantastic picture. Happy trapping!!
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Those furs were just skinned and not finished. I didn’t really learn to flesh and stretch until the last year I trapped hard. When the market went down we sent a few of our pelts in to Moyle’s tannery to keep as decorations and to give to family and friends. Moyle’s does a really good soft tan at a decent price.
 
I shot 2 this year in SD and probably 5 total in the 28 years I've been going out to SD to hunt. No shortage of them around my house here in MN, they are coming into residential areas and grabbing small dogs from people's backyards.
 
In cattle country shooting coyotes is a good thing.
 
This picture was taken before coyotes infiltrated NW Iowa. Spot and stalk hunting, these were harvested between Dec 27th and Jan 20th when the season closed . This was 2 guys, no snow. We had plenty of pheasants back then also. These were the last fur that I shot. Almost embarrassing. The mange and coyotes decimated the red fox population the following years. We would shoot the males and leave the females. I've been watching a female on a den for the last month. Showed her to my grand daughter 3 weeks ago as it's laying right near her home. To answer the original question, I don't shoot coyotes when hunting pheasants.
 

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91reddog said:
This picture was taken before coyotes infiltrated NW Iowa. Spot and stalk hunting, these were harvested between Dec 27th and Jan 20th when the season closed . This was 2 guys, no snow. We had plenty of pheasants back then also. These were the last fur that I shot. Almost embarrassing. The mange and coyotes decimated the red fox population the following years. We would shoot the males and leave the females. I've been watching a female on a den for the last month. Showed her to my grand daughter 3 weeks ago as it's laying right near her home. To answer the original question, I don't shoot coyotes when hunting pheasants.
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That's an awesome pic! It is crazy how much the coyotes will affect the population of fox in an area. I have always been in coyote country. My dad trapped for 25 years before catching his first fox in our area... then when I was in high school the mange did a real number on our coyote population. During those years we went from catching 0 fox ever to catching around 15-20 a year. That only lasted a couple of years then the coyotes came back and haven't let up since.
 
guf54 said:
That's an awesome pic! It is crazy how much the coyotes will affect the population of fox in an area. I have always been in coyote country. My dad trapped for 25 years before catching his first fox in our area... then when I was in high school the mange did a real number on our coyote population. During those years we went from catching 0 fox ever to catching around 15-20 a year. That only lasted a couple of years then the coyotes came back and haven't let up since.
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We put the hurt on coyotes spot and stalk for several several years after that when the fox thinned out. I shouldve said this was the last fox I shot, not fur. Then, the gun laws changed, the state laws changed and truck hunting became popular and everything changed for us. Now, youve got night vision going on and the coyotes have had to resort to fox survival skill set living in farm groves, under farm buildings, in culverts, etc. They rarely lay out anymore, so we quit hunting them also.
 
I did shoot one two years ago in Iowa. Weird feeling. I'm not sure I'd shoot at another one while bird hunting. On a spot where I have permission, it's on condition, always shoot the 4 C's: Cocks, Coons, Cats, and Coyotes. So while hunting there the answer is yes.
 
reddog said:
We put the hurt on coyotes spot and stalk for several several years after that when the fox thinned out. I shouldve said this was the last fox I shot, not fur. Then, the gun laws changed, the state laws changed and truck hunting became popular and everything changed for us. Now, youve got night vision going on and the coyotes have had to resort to fox survival skill set living in farm groves, under farm buildings, in culverts, etc. They rarely lay out anymore, so we quit hunting them also.
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Thumbs down on coyote hunting.
 
AKSkeeter said:
Why? Do you also shoot golden eagles?
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Because coyotes prey on cattle, particularly calves. As for golden eagles, they are protected and FAR fewer in number and have minimum predatory potential compared to coyotes.
 
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