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Coyote Hunting with a motion alarm

NY Region 3 Trapper
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Zhe Wiz Newbie

Zhe Wiz

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still breeding season for them in your area?

I would think it's about over in this area now. I believe the peak is in February, so we would be at the tail end now if it's not over. Someone who's been watching them longer than I have may have to answer that question! I'm a yote newbie!

Only 3 weeks left in the season. Part of me wants to get to 20, part of me hopes I've shot enough so I'll start seeing fewer now.

Zhe Wiz

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Zhe Wiz
Zhe Wiz

Just weighed him: 42.2 lbs. makes him the heaviest of the 20 I've shot.

Zhe Wiz
Zhe Wiz

Well the beeper strikes again!  Interesting night!   It all started around 9:30.  The 170 yard beeper went off, but only once.  I grabbed my vest and gun, rushed out and looked around.  I saw nothin

Zhe Wiz
Zhe Wiz

Well, it's not a coyote, but... Head shot at 170 yards with the 22-250. Fox fur is apparently more valuable anyway. Zhe Wiz

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Zhe Wiz Newbie

Zhe Wiz

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What kind of batteries are used to run the sensors?  How long do they last?

 

I'm using Energizer Ultimate Lithiums, each sensor takes 4 AA's.  I used lithiums because of the cold, not sure they would have been necessary.  How long will they last?  Don't know, they've been in there since I got it in early February.  Still going.

 

Zhe Wiz

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Zhe Wiz Newbie

Zhe Wiz

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Well I FINALLY got #15 tonight! Damn foxes tripped the sensor 4 times Saturday night until I finally pulled the plug at 4am so I could sleep. Then tonight, fox came back AGAIN at 8;30 pm. Since the spotlight doesn't scare it, my dogs inside the fence don't scare it, my BB gun doesn't scare it and me yelling doesn't scare it, I shot my 6mm into the woods. THAT scared it....Until 9:45 when it (or another one?) came back AGAIN! Geez!

Too late for the 6mm again so I kept lobbing BBs until one finally got close enough to scare it off!

So you can imagine when the alarm tripped again at 11:30pm I wasn't expecting what I saw in the binocs - a coyote! Heart pounding, I raced for the 6mm and jammed 2 rounds in as I went thru the garage to my shooting bench. Propped it up in the bipod, turned on the Digisight scope, looked out and saw....absolutely nothing! WTF? Was I imagining it?

So I left the gun ready, headed back into the house and started searching with the binocs again. Took a while but I finally spotted it heading down the path toward the house about 100 yards away and getting closer! Thought I was gonna get a gimme for a change! I raced back to the garage, lifted the gun. Remembered to turn on the recorder, and started to look for her again. Couldn't find her...at first! Finally spotted her now walking back UP a trail to the right of the one she had been on.

I waited for her to turn broadside now 180+ yards away just above the bait pile headed back toward it. I fired! DRT! Though I didn't meant to, I hit a little low and got her right in the heart, with it all on video too. :-)

Adult FEMALE again (yay!) of slightly above average size. #15!

Zhe Wiz

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Zhe Wiz Newbie

Zhe Wiz

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She does look a bit big

 

Definitely was a healthy yote.

 

Here's you tube video for the non-squeamish.  It's black and white, taken through the Digisight:

 

  The moment of truth is at the 1:05 mark.  I was trying to find her before that.

 

Zhe Wiz

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Zhe Wiz Newbie

Zhe Wiz

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SWEET 16. :-)

Alarm went off just after 2am having been silent all night. I had a good feeling about this one, late evening the deer and turkeys were all over the place. Usually if they're moving, so are the yotes! Unfortunately, I was disappointed when the binocs revealed a fox at the bait pile. :-(

So I let the dogs out while I got a drink and waited for them to finish barking at the fox and come back in. I let them in and grabbed the 6mm with night scope to see if the fox was gone so I could turn the motion sensor back on. While I'm watching, convinced it was gone, I saw something approaching cautiously from the left. Wow! Coyote! After JUST letting the dogs in! At least I knew why the fox left!

That's all it takes for the heart to start racing! Headed toward the garage while loading up and turning the recorder on (no video in the end, camera man screwed up, damn it!) finally resting the gun on the bench.

Per the usual lately he wandered around a bit before hitting the bait, they're getting a bit smarter I think, or perhaps the smarter ones have lasted longer. :-)

I finally caught him coming back to the pile from the right this time. Lined him up and squeezed the trigger. I could see he didn't go anywhere, but he lifted his head and was moving around so I reloaded and fired again (I'd think the neighbors would hear my double shots, but they never seem to!). His head dropped and no more movement.

So I tried to stop the recorder, which had gotten the whole thing, but instead of hitting the "stop/start" button, I hit the "on/off" button. Apparently that is a no-no, as when I popped the SD card in there were no new recordings on it. Bummer! You'd think the camera man could handle a simple two button device, but apparently not. I'm disappointed the recorder doesn't save the video and shut off when the cameraman screws up. Oh well, hopefully I'll remember next time.

At least my iPhone camera works! #16, a good sized male this time. Only 2 more nights left to shoot them! He'll probably be the last one of the year, but I hope not!

Zhe Wiz

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Zhe Wiz Newbie

Zhe Wiz

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I'm glad there was so much success with what I had posted. I hope more will do the same. Thanks for getting what I haven't been able to. I would think at least one more. Good luck.

 

Yeah, it's been amazing. of the 16 coyotes I've shot since I moved here, 9 have been because of the motion sensor, including the last 9 in a row.  If that's not success, I don't know what is!  If you're lucky enough to live where you shoot, I don't know why you WOULDN'T use one!  Though I admit those foxes can be a PITA.  Thanks again for the idea!  My deer and turkey population will be very appreciative in a couple of years. :-)

 

 

I was hoping to see another video. Congrats on your numbers

 

Thanks!

 

I'm incredibly bummed about screwing up the video too!  It's pretty cool to watch the shot back afterwards.  There's the occasional "that's not where I was aiming" feeling after the shot, but if my first video is any indication, the bullet went EXACTLY where I was aiming.  :-) Plus the recoil of the gun is enough to make you lose focus, but the recoil on the 6mm is slight enough that the camera stays on target so you get to watch the video and see what you missed.  Hopefully I'll learn to handle it by the time next yote season rolls around and won't miss any more.

 

Zhe Wiz

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Zhe Wiz Newbie

Zhe Wiz

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Well, time to update this thread a bit, I've been negligent!

 

First, the video from #17 (killed 11/7) is here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZaU4ZOZUc0  Not as interesting as the other video, but there it is anyway.

 

Since then, I have now killed 2 more coyotes at the bait pile.  The first (#18!) was on 12/27.  A female tripped the sensor at 8PM!  I went out expecting a fox because it was early and we were watching a move with lights on in the house, Was surprised to see a coyote, but happy to take her out.  She went about 20 yards and I had to finish her with my 22 pistol.  I didn't hit where I was aiming, that's clear, but I couldn't find the entrance, so not sure what happened.  She's dead, so it's not all bad though!

 

After that, I added a closer bait pile (approx 90 yards, haven't ranged it yet) with another sensor, and placed a game camera (Christmas present!!) next to it as well and put it in video mode.  My hope is that I'll be able to see the video from both the scope and from the game camera when I shoot, but it will take some good timing. 

 

Last night the "old" sensor tripped at about 8PM again.  Grabbed the night scoped 6mm and headed out for a look.  I was surprised to see not one, but TWO coyotes.  One at the closer bait pile getting video taped (through the scope the IR light from the game camera made it look like someone was standing there with a flashlight on the coyote!  EASY to tell the recorder was 'on') and a bigger coyote was up near the old pile.  I very carefully added two bullets to my 6mm and closed the bolt.  Unfortunately he heard that, looked my way briefly and then started moving up the trail further away, toward where the bigger coyote was.  I held off shooting, hoping for a "2fer" but they only briefly crossed paths and weren't still nearly long enough for me to shoot.  The larger one moved off, but the smaller stood still broadside so I took him out.  This one (#19!) was DRT, entered close shoulder, exited neck.  Since it was the smaller of the two I was hoping for a female, but it was a young male.

 

Now, unfortunately I have no video of these latest 2.  The first one the batteries in the recorder were dead.  In attempting to solve the short life of my video recorder's batteries, I decided to take the cover off and pop one battery out just a bit.  That allowed me to pop the battery back in and turn on the recorder very quickly.  Well, I did that last night before the last kill.  Unfortunately the recoil of the 6mm popped the batteries out!  So the recording was lost, and my batteries were somewhere on the garage floor!  :-)  OK, will have to find a better remedy to the battery life problem, like maybe a better recorder, this one is a pain!

 

I DO have video of the latest one from BEFORE I shot him, but haven't retrieved it from the camera yet to see what I actually got, but from what I saw I should have at least 2 30 second clips of the coyote at the pile.  He was nervous when the IR light came on (red glow), it caused him to briefly recoil, but he went back up to the pile, so it didn't completely spook him.

 

Anyway, that leads me to the answer to osbourne's question. (Better late than never!) :O   It looks like last year's fun took out most of the pack that was living nearby, as I've heard almost NO coyotes at night over the summer and into this year.  Before we were hearing them at least once a week, now maybe once every 2 months.  Also I saw only one coyote while deer hunting this year, whereas last year we saw at least 4 of them.  So I was thinking if I get 5 or 6 this year I'd be doing well.  But here we are just about to start January and I already have 3.  I'm now hoping I may get as many as 10 this year, there's certainly plenty of time left.  The coyotes haven't really been hitting the bait pile at all until just a week or two ago (foxes either, for that matter.)  I'm thinking food was plentiful before now, but with the cold and the snow it's getting harder for them to find live food and they're beginning to look for "anything".

 

We'll see what happens, but so far the sensor/bait pile thing has been a great success.

 

Oh, battery life.  I actually left the sensor up all year just turned off the inside beeper at night.  The batteries - 4 AA lithium batteries - lasted about 8-9 months of what I would consider fairly heavy use (crows, hawks, owls, skunks, coyotes, foxes, raccoons all hitting the bait pile).  i'm pretty happy with that.  Batteries are a PAIN to replace (you have to remove 4 screws) but life is acceptable.

 

I did get more false alarms over the summer, mostly in the morning when the sun was coming up, or when a spider would decide to build a nest RIGHT OVER the sensor, but other than that, they're pretty damn good.

 

Zhe Wiz

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