Predator control!

In my area coyotes are top of the food chain! They have no natural predators.
They eat, breed and eat some more!

They may be one of the most adaptive and most cunning of all of God's creatures because they can survive in just about any condition!
They have been spotted from the middle of small town America to just outside Wrigley Field in Chicago!
They used to just be in the west and southwest with folks up in the northeast region tying to control the fox population. Well now you can just about find them everywhere and when they move in other species decrease in numbers!
Locally our game bird population has just about disappeared and fox, a coyote's biggest competition, are few and far between now!

But the general public usually does not have a problem with that!
Usually I only get a call when they return to their home on the edge of town and find a coyote eating the outside dog's food OR the outside dog. I have a half dozen places I hunt that have lost their family pet to coyotes! One young girl let her miniature schnauzer out to go potty before bedtime and watched a coyote attack it! She was able to scare off the coyote and after a long stay at the vet and a LARGE bill, the pup did survive.
I also provide predator control on local cattle ranches and hunting leases.

This is not a business and I do not charge!
I enjoy the challenge of the hunt and in return for my services, I get access to another places to hunt.
While my goal is to thin out the population a bit, I do have a great deal of respect for all predators!
I had not purchased a hunting license since the mid 80s before I got interested in predators! After I had been introduced to shooting sports a friend lost a couple of calves to coyotes.
I dusted off the old shotgun and was gonna just come shoot them!
YEAH RIGHT!
After a few unsuccessful hunts I started my research! That led to my passion or as my wife would say, my obsession!

Here are a few of my pics from some local hunts.













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I guess that is enough for now!

Thanks for looking!"

Northeast Texas Mr. Fleming!
Bowie county.
I am about 20 miles from Oklahoma and Arkansas!

Nicely done JJ! We have large numbers of coyote here in Indiana as well. Although I haven't ever been out hunting yet, I look forward to being able to go on my first coyote hunt. Here in Indiana all I need is written permission from a property owner to hunt coyote. My husband is planning on showing me the ropes and letting me use his TC Encore 260.

marishka1510 wrote:Nicely done JJ! We have large numbers of coyote here in Indiana as well. Although I haven't ever been out hunting yet, I look forward to being able to go on my first coyote hunt. Here in Indiana all I need is written permission from a property owner to hunt coyote. My husband is planning on showing me the ropes and letting me use his TC Encore 260.

Sweet! But let me warn ya!
The rush you get when a predator steps out of the cover and you KNOW it is hunting you, is unequaled.
Not legally anyway!
I look forward to some pictures!

Well AlaskaGirl907 your coyotes are a bit more cautious then ours. Your's are several links down on the food chain!
With the wolves, multiple species of bears and some big cats they have to be a bit more careful. I have a good friend who lives in Kenai who does a bit of predator control as well.
Local coyotes have an occasional cougar to deal with, that usually avoids them like the plague, but other then that they are the "top dog"!
Sorry" couldn't resist!

Ours are getting braver and braver using the suburb's backyards as drive-threws.
They can be see in town going this through trash or carrying off someone's pet on a regular basis!

Great photos JJ!!!!!

Those are great pix.  We have a lot of coyotes here as well.  My Husband and I are not hunters, but I do appreciate the skill involved in a good kill, and I also see the necessity in some areas.  

Several years ago before I carried a gun everywhere, we were with another couple driving down the road when we had the unfortunate chance to watch two coyotes take a baby antelope from it's mom, kill it, then go after the mom.  Not a single one of us in the car had a gun that morning.  What a helpless feeling that was.  We also got scolded by the neighboring ranchers for not shooting the coyotes.

Wow! I bet that was hard to watch!
Thanks for sharing!

I get all kinds of hate from anti hunters for what I do. They don't like it when hunters kill for food so what I do is just horrible to them. They would say that the event that you witnessed was just nature running it's course.
While I agree with that to some extent, I also believe that the expansion and development of society has shifted things into the coyote's favor. Where the doe antelope tries to avoid civilization the coyote thrives in it. There are now coyotes in locations that have never had them before. They are a supreme predator and they reek havoc on native species. So instead of the mother antelope having to worry about a group of coyotes to her west, she is now surrounded by them. They out number her and can eventually run her to exhaustion and get the upper hand on her and her offspring.
Now I do believe that being preyed upon does strengthen a species. But when a species' population exceeds the holding capacity of the land, things get out of whack. That is when the coyote turns from rabbits and mice and starts hunting house pets, cattle and larger wildlife like your antelope.

As for the challenge of the hunt, the coyote present the most challenging I have ever experienced!
While my goal is to reduce their populations I have developed a strong appreciation and respect for a coyote.

JJ,
I am not an anti-hunter, I just find that it isn't something that I have much inclination to do. I do have a mild interest in hunting, but since my husband absolutely won't go, I would have to rely on friends to take me out and teach me... Somehow going out on a weekend hunt with my guy friends just doesn't seem appropriate, and I don't have any girlfriends that hunt that I could ask.

I grew up on a "gentleman farm" type of place where I always had livestock for 4-H and FFA, and my family often had me raise an extra steer or hog for my family to eat. I know where meat comes from, and I am prepared to kill either neighboring livestock or wildlife in the event of a societal collapse or SHTF, but in the mean time, what little meat we eat, I'll keep buying from Safeway.

Ok, let me try this again with the pix a bit smaller...

Is this your barn?

GlockinGirl I wasn't implying that you were anti-hunting and I apologize if it seemed that way. I was just pointing out how some who were would look at the situation you witnessed!

As for the barn, I wished!
That is a trappers barn right there but if I were able to put up that much fur I would have to keep it in a freezer! We don't stay cold enough to hang them like that!
That is a lot off work hanging but it would be nice!
Thanks for sharing the photo!