For those of you that hunt coyotes after deer season with bait piles, any tips you can share? Been thinking about this for years but never tried, this year will save deer carcasses and wondering best use of them. Do u put them just in pile, do u chicken wire a pile to make pieces harder to get, logs on top etc? Hoping to hunt these after dark this winter, any advice on this is appreciated. Thx.
Are you going to try and bow hunt them, or snipe them with a rifle? Bowhunting them at night would be quite the challenge. I wouldn’t think you would need to chicken wire them together. Most likely they wouldn’t drag things off very far.
I’ve staked the deer carcass to the ground with long rebar stakes - one through the ribs and one to rear leg bone. Holds the carcass in place where they cannot drag it off.
One other time I put them in the farmers “round bale hay feeder.” They can basically stick their heads in it to eat but can’t drag off the carcass.
If I were to hunt at night with a rifle, I would put them in the middle of a field and sit back 150-200 yards away. By putting the bait in the middle of the field, the coyotes will feel safer coming out to it because the can see all around them. Plan it so you can play the wind. As far as anchoring the bait, I wouldn't over think it. A 3' piece of rebar though it will hold it.
Add as much roadkill to the pile as you can. They will grab the small stuff, squirrel, rabbit, etc and run, but will keep coming back for more. And don't pass up any skunks, skunk is a strong attraction to canines. The coons and 'possums are the last to be eating, if at all. But they are still an attraction. All the variety will also attract birds, that will attract the dogs.
What So467 said. Freeze up a deer gut pile and meat scraps but with a little raw meat hanging out of the ice block as a teaser to get them going. They will work very hard to get at the rest frozen up inside.
i was definitely thinking to start with rifle/shotgun like 50-100 yards away, but use scraps from deer starting here in bow season hence the question. Have never gotten a coyote but appreciate how hard they are to call in, been trying a few years and no luck so far, need to do something different. Have a bunch on camera. Thanks for suggestions so far- freeze in bucket and put in round bale hay feeder- genius!
Refined after ten years. Check your laws about night hunting and using lights.
Refined after ten years. Check your laws about night hunting and using lights.
I have been killing coyotes at night for ten years. I love it. Last year I killed several. I do not like using roadkill deer as they don't last long enough and the coyotes will always drag them away - even when staked down. I have a couple of farmers who are more than happy to bring me a cow that died or was put down. The bigger the better. A single dead cow will last me all winter long. If using scraps, the smaller the better as the coyote can't just drag them away. Bone and meat scraps work great.
The two main components of this setup are the cellular trail camera and the driveway/motion alarms.
The cellular trail cameras tell me when the time is right to sleep in the camper. You will be able to tell when you have activity all night, every night. If you live in a rural area you can easily just do this from your home - where legal.
Once the coyotes are coming in regularly, I slip into my camper and wait. I watch DVD's and TV and sleep there. When a coyote, fox, fisher, etc shows up the driveway alarms send a signal to a 2-way radio that is next to me in bed. I then quietly crank the window open and wait for the shot.
Yes, and before the ethics police chime in... It's not hunting, it's killing. Get over it. I love it. Except the night that I ran out of propane and it was -10. That really, REALLY sucked.
Here's my gun. A 300 blackout shooting subsonics with an ATN x-sight. Note, I now use an ATN 4K scope. It has night vision and allows me to record the kills through the scope. So much fun.
It is. I like it because I prefer subsonic ammo. While legal, and I am doing absolutely nothing wrong, I don’t want to wake up the neighborhood at 4AM. Subs are less obnoxious than supersonics. Wish they would allow suppressors.
How bad a hole does it put in them? Last time I shot a coyote it was with a .308 and I could put my head in the hole ha. Sucks was a nice red one and would have made a great mount. Now I’m using a .22 Hornet.
Dk if anyone has experienced this but if you follow Pat's suggestion with a larger farm animal ask how it died and if was it treated with medicine/antibiotics. Growing up on a dairy farm and trapping ive personally seen it many times where a medicated carcass took months to disappear. The more open it is around the bait ,the better.
Use optics or stay in vehicle when checking bait to minimize human scent. I sometimes would crawl through my trucks back glass when rebaiting a site. The less human scent the better.
Just make sure you check your local laws regarding farm animals. I wanted to do this with a dead steer last year in Michigan and it’s illegal and highly frowned upon. Just an FYI.
