Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Coyote predation

Here is a crazy set of pics I got last season. This is KS. I have 20-30 more pics of this attack, but you get the idea. Look at the time stamps, this went on for 7 to 8 hours. They just ran her down until she gave up. Found the skeleton nearby in the spring time. Like mentioned about, they are predators and that's what they do. Especially when they are hungry. I hate yotes!

IMG_3799.jpegIMG_3794.jpegIMG_3798.jpegIMG_3803.jpegIMG_3827.jpeg
 
"Wow!" on the stories in this thread. While I have found a few dead deer through the years, most often fawns, that I suspect are coyote related, perhaps bobcat too, I really have never noticed a really strong population of them in my area. For which I am grateful. Some? Yes, of course. But I can only recall one time in 20+ years where they got to a deer that we let go over night. And that was a year where we were seeing more of them around than normal, FWIW. So the "math" checks out. :)

While a few of us do trap for them some and will take them out if given a shot...I am sure that 97% of why they are "under control" in our area is due to long established, effective hound groups that work our area. Not all of my neighbors share my opinion on the subject, but I am mostly OK with these dudes doing what they do, since the "tradeoff" sure seems to me to be far fewer canines out on the landscape in any given year.

Don't hate me :), but I think that some houndsmen, provided that they have some respect of private property and boundaries can produce a net positive. People traversing the timbers, shots into the core of properties, trucks racing across open fields, etc, etc, NO, I am not down with that, not at all. But a cadre of rednecks with antennas on their trucks sitting up on the road and popping them close to the road as the dogs move them...yeah...I will take that scenario v. an overpopulation. Which I feel like we would have if these guys weren't on them with their dogs.

FWIW.
 
Nrharris said:
In my younger years I trapped a decent amount. Set snares for raccoons beavers and coyotes. Never once caught a deer. In iowa you have to put a stop on your snares to keep the loop from getting smaller than I think a pop can diameter. That is much bigger than a deer leg, so if a deer starts to get caught, it just falls off of their leg. Not saying you can't catch a deer, but it has to be very rare.
Click to expand...
Ok that makes sense! I get what you are saying now.
 
Sligh1 said:
IMHO - I think coyotes kill far more adult deer than folks realize…. I know I’m the minority on this thinking. Anecdotally I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes several times over the last 5-7 years …. Saw 2 mature & “healthy” bucks get “ambushed” by packs of coyotes that set traps… Killed. Got to witness one in thermals where coyotes chased a mature doe all over until it was exhausted All these deer I found later. Found a near my stand that was run to exhaustion & “blew its lungs out” with foamy blood out its mouth & I proceeded to empty my quiver on coyotes that AM - recovered arrows & shot a few more times…. Got 5-6 coyotes that am.
The amount of pics I’ve seen on my places or buddies where bucks have a pack of coyotes chasing it & u find that buck dead nearby…. Too often!!! It’s nature but I hate those coyotes!!!

That’s my anecdotal examples. & this is in a very high coyote density area. They “appear” to hunt like wolves more in packs. I don’t hear or see this stuff in areas where coyote density is much lower & clearly predation far less.

On fawns…. In high coyote density areas… incredibly bad. Again, if they are Lower pop… minor issue. I’m in a bad area & the amount of pics I get of fawn heads in mouth or legs is crazy. Working on farms - finding killed fawns (from variety of things) is/was bad. Coyote density varies a lot. Kansas…. Good gosh, insane the amount of coyotes & how often see does with no fawns. They for sure keep huge regions of deer #’s low.

I guess all this is anecdotal but here’s my experience in high density areas…. We have killed right around 150-300 coyotes per year for last 4-5 years on my farm & the surrounding area. Kill rate trending down. … total WAR. All year shooting + trapping when legal. It’s probably gone down some for how many shot & we have to go further & hunt/trap more to even hit probably 100 this year. Way way less. We kill em during fawning season as well of course. In last 2 or so years…. The amount of fawns killed is obscenely less, no doubt in my mind!!!!! The other one…. I believe they target bucks that are rutted down, little injuries or they see any weakness (natural for coyotes to target that) …. Since WAR…. We have lost far fewer bucks I find dead “for no good reason” Fawns & bucks & deer in general killed- way less. But… all that was…. Taking a super high density & dropping it way down. A lot of regions may luckily already be there. If you aren’t and u are full of coyotes… IMO- I’d get every neighbor on board for miles & get guys trapping & thermal hunting all over if possible. If predator hunting & trapping take place consistently over wide area, HUGE impact IMHO & experience. I’ve seen what they do when get obscene populations of coyotes…. I’ll never let it happen again.
2 nights ago friend got big one. :). I watch for em on trail cameras & set traps & hunt em as I notice when they move in.



View attachment 129175
LITERALLY 2 mins ago as I’m typing this!!!!!…

View attachment 129176
Click to expand...

I have absolutely no proof they are successful, but I have weekly trail cam pics of coyotes and mature deer in the same pic. I have no doubt they snag a few perfectly healthy mature deer every year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I could post 3-4 sets of these a year I get on my farm or buddies farms in area. Endless. That’s what we get on camera!!! & the chances capturing this have to be tiny. These are random sample i found easy on my phone …. My farm below Des Moines or buddy’s fairly close We are for sure in a region that’s coyote hunted lightly & the #’s got to OBSCENE levels. I totally understand there regions that are NOT like mine.

***Lemme throw another one out there…. About 4-5 years ago we had a “doe shooting night”. We wanted to take a dozen off farm. One spot one guy shot 4 does. They all came out same spot & went back in same spot. He shot 2 that “went too far”. We said “let’s go get them in the AM”. Cold. 4 does. No joke, 8 am the next morning (say we shot around 4pm) - that’s clearly 16 hours….. all 4 were completely eaten. 2 of them I could grab & throw the head with spinal cord & legs attached. Other 2- not that far off … no salvageable meat!!!! Ok- 4 deer completely consumed in one spot in 16 hours …. Maybe I’m crazy but I don’t see how less than 20 coyotes could have done that, likely far more. That year turned into a year we shot & trapped like 300-ish coyotes.
IMG_0350.jpeg
IMG_0349.jpeg
IMG_0348.jpeg
IMG_0347.jpeg
IMG_0346.jpeg
IMG_0351.jpeg

Get bucks like this with coyotes following & then u know u gonna find the buck dead somewhere close …
IMG_0352.jpeg
 
I should have specified.. weekly pics of coyotes and adult deer in the same picture frame on 4 cam over less than 100 acres.. they definitely get their chances at healthy mature deer


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Westwind. There is SO MUCH out there on the Web.

Few points I will stress.
A quite acsess. Lots of stands are over before they start because of noise we make. I used to hunt high payout coyote tournaments. I damn near got a chubby watching those that entered arrive that had huge knobby tires n glass packs.

By this time of year, a good majority of coyotes have heard the " bunny blues". Try some coyote vocals and be patient.
And try hard to connect on every shot!!
Hunting the wind is SO important. Analyze every calling spot just as hard as you would hunting for deer. If not right, wait till it's right.
One tactic I absolutely love is diving into thick cover with a shotgun.
Frozen waterways and heavy deer trails can be magnets.
Best of luck.

Can't stress it enuff.
Let the hound guys have their fun. I know lots of them and never met a disrespectful one yet.
Talk your neighbors and their neighbors. Let them run as much ground as possible.

Really guys..., hounds running coyotes will not impact your deer this time of year.
Most hound groups would be happy for you to tag along if you ask them.
 
Last edited:
@Bucksnbears this is exactly what I was looking for. The heavy cover and a shotgun idea gives me an idea right off the bat!

So much of the predator hunting stuff i look at just looks like “made for tv”. I want the down and dirty hardcore plan lol

The hound stuff is interesting too. Have heard of guys doing this, would welcome it. Dead coyotes are the goal, no matter how it happens.

I’ll be honest, I think idnr here has done a disservice cracking down on coyote drives.
 
@Bucksnbears supposedly there is some young kid who won a bunch of tournaments with a super quiet air gun that shoots slugs? Have you ever heard this?

I saw reference to it once couldn’t find it. Got my attention since I would be hunting same coyotes over and over.
 
No, I've not heard of that nor believe it.

If hunting thick with a shotgun, try and find some older lead shot BB size shot. Aim for the head.


Have fun and good luck
 
JBAGS said:
Here is a crazy set of pics I got last season. This is KS. I have 20-30 more pics of this attack, but you get the idea. Look at the time stamps, this went on for 7 to 8 hours. They just ran her down until she gave up. Found the skeleton nearby in the spring time. Like mentioned about, they are predators and that's what they do. Especially when they are hungry. I hate yotes!

View attachment 129170View attachment 129171View attachment 129172View attachment 129173View attachment 129174
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting these pics. Really helps motivate a guy to thin them out.
 
Went calling today. My shooting sucked ass.:(

6 shots and only 2 down.
Had one come barreling in behind me, caught my wind from about 20 yards, spun out and hightailed it. Had know idea until I was walking out and seen the tracks in the snow.

Was using fawn distress on one stand. Had 2 big does come across from ND over the ice to the MN Side on a dead run and we're hell bent on stomping me!!!. I mean like " pissed off"¡.
Had to stand up and wave my arms at 10 yards. Lol.

I hate missing/ educating coyotes!

Took a rookie with today. He had a blast.:cool:
 
Daver said:
"Wow!" on the stories in this thread. While I have found a few dead deer through the years, most often fawns, that I suspect are coyote related, perhaps bobcat too, I really have never noticed a really strong population of them in my area. For which I am grateful. Some? Yes, of course. But I can only recall one time in 20+ years where they got to a deer that we let go over night. And that was a year where we were seeing more of them around than normal, FWIW. So the "math" checks out. :)

While a few of us do trap for them some and will take them out if given a shot...I am sure that 97% of why they are "under control" in our area is due to long established, effective hound groups that work our area. Not all of my neighbors share my opinion on the subject, but I am mostly OK with these dudes doing what they do, since the "tradeoff" sure seems to me to be far fewer canines out on the landscape in any given year.

Don't hate me :), but I think that some houndsmen, provided that they have some respect of private property and boundaries can produce a net positive. People traversing the timbers, shots into the core of properties, trucks racing across open fields, etc, etc, NO, I am not down with that, not at all. But a cadre of rednecks with antennas on their trucks sitting up on the road and popping them close to the road as the dogs move them...yeah...I will take that scenario v. an overpopulation. Which I feel like we would have if these guys weren't on them with their dogs.

FWIW.
Click to expand...
We used to have some fun Sunday afternoons turning the dogs loose and popping yotes. The miles covered on a single track was incredible sometimes.
 
CurtisWalker said:
I think coyotes get blamed for more kills than they actually make. Just because they are eating a deer carcass doesn’t mean they killed the deer. I mean look at how fast deer get ate when you leave them overnight sometimes.

Yes, I’m sure there’s times when coyotes will kill a deer. But the energy expenditure vs success is low so it’s not gonna happen often especially on 100% healthy deer.

Now where I do think they impact the deer herd is during fawn predation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Has this thread changed your mind any on this?
JNRBRONC said:
My view is that an adult deer is a threat to the health of a coyote. A coyote with a busted jaw or busted leg from a well-placed deer kick is DOA. I think they'd opt for easier kills, only taking down adult deer if in a pack or starving.
Click to expand...

Same question? Just curious. I was kind of in the camp that I didn't feel like they did much more than play with mature deer run them around just to get their kicks but now I can see large populations of coyotes are definitely hammering mature deer imo.
 
HWC said:
Has this thread changed your mind any on this?


Same question? Just curious. I was kind of in the camp that I didn't feel like they did much more than play with mature deer run them around just to get their kicks but now I can see large populations of coyotes are definitely hammering mature deer imo.
Click to expand...
Makes me wonder how common it is, obviously they are working together to get a few. I've personally witnessed many coyotes trot past a field of deer and the deer look up but don't freak out. Still think if there is other smaller game to go after, they will default to that.

Someone commented that the gut pile from their deer laid there for a week or so. Same thing happened to me this fall and I would say I'm in a high coyote density area.
 
HWC said:
Has this thread changed your mind any on this?


Same question? Just curious. I was kind of in the camp that I didn't feel like they did much more than play with mature deer run them around just to get their kicks but now I can see large populations of coyotes are definitely hammering mature deer imo.
Click to expand...

Not at all because you have no idea if those deer were limping or had other injuries before the coyotes started on them.

Like the buck with blood coming out the front shoulder running away from the camera that was followed by coyotes that Skip posted. Maybe a neighbor shoulder shot that deer, maybe it was hit by a car, maybe it got stuck in a fence. There’s a lot of things trail cameras don’t tell. I’ve seen coyotes stalk a deer once that was healthy. Deer got away with no problems.

Maybe Skip’s deer are so obese with all the browse and food he provides that they can’t escape.


I’m also in a top 5 county for coyote density in the state. I see coyotes walk past deer all the time and the deer just stare. I’d think if coyotes were active hunting deer there’d be a much bigger reaction.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom