SEIowaDeerslayer
Well-Known Member
First off I want to preface this post by saying that I understand that you cannot get rid of coyotes permanently. That isn't my intention. I'm dealing with an overpopulation problem and need to kill a whole bunch.
I typed up a whole crap ton of info but I didn't want to bore anyone so I hit delete and will give a brief summary. Need some advice from the experts.
Picture: Ideal 80 acre deer property, tillable converted into CRP, hinge cut overgrown pasture for bedding, TSI & hinge cuts on good timber, 3 acre centralized feeding area, 100 apple/persimmon trees in centralized feeding area + early & late food. 8 mature bucks on trail cams during the summer, handful of small bucks & a family group of does with NO fawns.
2014 Timeline:
June trail cam picture of a coyote with a dead fawn. I run 3 cams on this property and coyotes on cam every single day.
July neighbors call and say they lost two sheep to coyotes. Sheep carcass found weeks later in our CRP.
September 15th card pull shows one of the local mature bucks I named "lefty" getting chased by 3 coyotes. I never saw him again on trail cam. Pretty incredible trail cam photo.
September 16th I find another dead fawn while going in to trim out a set for my lone wolf & sticks.
October 15th card pull has the usual coyote on camera every, day fewer deer, farm hasn't been hunted yet. I hunt the farm for the first time on Nov. 1 and miss my #1 hit list buck I called the perfect 10 at first light. 10am 2 coyotes come cruising through, no shot presented. Farm was hunted one more time on November 15th and 4 coyotes were spotted cruising through mid morning. Late season hunt yielded no deer sightings or sign, lots of coyote scat and I was able to kill a big female with my muzzleloader. 3 hunts the entire year.
By now you know where this is going. I imagine we have 30 coyotes using our property on a daily basis during fall and winter months. Based off trail cam data, pack howling at night, and lack of deer sightings on ideal habitat. My dad and I have hunted them the last 2 years and we've killed a few, but every year they get worse and its time to start trapping them. I have no interest in money for their pelts. Their corpses will be discarded into the ditch, I just want them gone and I want them to fear being on our land. I've purchased 20 #3 leg hold traps and have already night latched them, degreased them, and dyed and waxed them. They are quick and efficient. Just need to get them out there and have a dog step on them.
I'm new to this trapping game. Need to know if trapping year round is worth it and/or legal. I figure with a combination of trapping and hunting I can put a dent in the population and save a few fawns plus keep the deer around on our land after the coyotes start to pack up.
What are the best methods to get a coyote into a trap? I'm burying 2 or 3 traps around lanes where I know coyotes use daily.
Any other advice would be appreciated. Again, I want to kill as many coyotes as I possibly can in a short amount of time. I want to get coyote numbers in our area down to where they were 10 years ago, or scare them from using our property as a den property (I found the den). I've even considered using the sponge trick though I don't know if it works and my conscious tells not to because the animal would suffer.
I typed up a whole crap ton of info but I didn't want to bore anyone so I hit delete and will give a brief summary. Need some advice from the experts.
Picture: Ideal 80 acre deer property, tillable converted into CRP, hinge cut overgrown pasture for bedding, TSI & hinge cuts on good timber, 3 acre centralized feeding area, 100 apple/persimmon trees in centralized feeding area + early & late food. 8 mature bucks on trail cams during the summer, handful of small bucks & a family group of does with NO fawns.
2014 Timeline:
June trail cam picture of a coyote with a dead fawn. I run 3 cams on this property and coyotes on cam every single day.
July neighbors call and say they lost two sheep to coyotes. Sheep carcass found weeks later in our CRP.
September 15th card pull shows one of the local mature bucks I named "lefty" getting chased by 3 coyotes. I never saw him again on trail cam. Pretty incredible trail cam photo.
September 16th I find another dead fawn while going in to trim out a set for my lone wolf & sticks.
October 15th card pull has the usual coyote on camera every, day fewer deer, farm hasn't been hunted yet. I hunt the farm for the first time on Nov. 1 and miss my #1 hit list buck I called the perfect 10 at first light. 10am 2 coyotes come cruising through, no shot presented. Farm was hunted one more time on November 15th and 4 coyotes were spotted cruising through mid morning. Late season hunt yielded no deer sightings or sign, lots of coyote scat and I was able to kill a big female with my muzzleloader. 3 hunts the entire year.
By now you know where this is going. I imagine we have 30 coyotes using our property on a daily basis during fall and winter months. Based off trail cam data, pack howling at night, and lack of deer sightings on ideal habitat. My dad and I have hunted them the last 2 years and we've killed a few, but every year they get worse and its time to start trapping them. I have no interest in money for their pelts. Their corpses will be discarded into the ditch, I just want them gone and I want them to fear being on our land. I've purchased 20 #3 leg hold traps and have already night latched them, degreased them, and dyed and waxed them. They are quick and efficient. Just need to get them out there and have a dog step on them.
I'm new to this trapping game. Need to know if trapping year round is worth it and/or legal. I figure with a combination of trapping and hunting I can put a dent in the population and save a few fawns plus keep the deer around on our land after the coyotes start to pack up.
What are the best methods to get a coyote into a trap? I'm burying 2 or 3 traps around lanes where I know coyotes use daily.
Any other advice would be appreciated. Again, I want to kill as many coyotes as I possibly can in a short amount of time. I want to get coyote numbers in our area down to where they were 10 years ago, or scare them from using our property as a den property (I found the den). I've even considered using the sponge trick though I don't know if it works and my conscious tells not to because the animal would suffer.
