Coyote Hunting with a motion alarm

[Zhe Wiz]

Well, it worked again!! Woke me up at 12:50am, dead by 12:55am. :-) An adult male this time. 10th coyote for me since moving here 13 months ago, 3rd one thanks to motion sensor in my back "yard". This time used my "deer" load: 85 grain Barnes TTSX from my 243.

Zhe Wiz

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

So cool. You have to approach the area to shoot or just get outside the house enough to seal the deal?

[Zhe Wiz]

So cool. You have to approach the area to shoot or just get outside the house enough to seal the deal?

Actually, just yesterday I "built" a shooting bench in the corner of my garage, just below the window. I leave the window cracked about 2", rest the bipod on the "bench" and shoot out the window. Don't even have to poke the muzzle out. :-) I am so spoiled, I love this place!

Before yesterday I had been opening the walk out door of the garage and laying down to shoot, but these last few coyotes have been too smart, bolting as soon as I open the door, even though it's 175 yards away. This one had no idea what was coming until it was too late.

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

I'm so jealous. Congrats.

[Red]

very cool method congrats

[Zhe Wiz]

And another!

4:11 wake up call. Looks like maybe a young male, still pretty big. Much more "blonde" than the last few I've shot. For the first time ever there were more than one at the pile - three in fact. So there are at least 2 educated coyotes left. :-) I need a semi auto 223.

Anyway, more proof that the motion detector works!! Thanks again osbourne for the great idea!

I need some sleep...

Zhe Wiz

Edited February 28, 2013 by Zhe Wiz

[josephmrtn]

DANG Wiz im gonna need to get one of these!!!!!!!!

[Zhe Wiz]

And again!

Interesting night to say the least. Alarm was triggered at a little after midnight. Confirmed coyote with binocs then grabbed the 22-250. Waited for a broadside shot and fired. Thought it was a good one at first, it went down, then to my disappointment stood up broadside again! No problem, shoot again right? Wrong! I had only grabbed one bullet!

Went running (in the dark) for another, banged my shin on the trailer hitch, swore a few times, got back, loaded up and...nothing, couldn't find it.

Long story short, I followed a very meager blood trail about 300 yards to the woods. Decided I didn't want to tackle a pissed off coyote in the woods at night with my 22 pistol, so returned to the house.

Before I even tried to get back to sleep, guess what? Yep, alarm triggered AGAIN at about 12:50. This time I did not wound her. DRT. Oh, and I brought TWO bullets this time. Lesson learned.

So this scraggly thing has no tail! Can see where she used to have one, now it's just a 2" stump! And no, it's NOT the one I wounded the first time. Tail had been missing for a long time and was completely healed. :-) That thought crossed my mind too!

#12, adult female:

Edited March 5, 2013 by Zhe Wiz

[PREDATE]

Nice! Do you skin the yotes out or sell em'?

[Zhe Wiz]

Nice! Do you skin the yotes out or sell em'?

I've been giving them to a buddy who skins them and sells the pelts. In return I get the occasional bottle of home-made maple syrup, venison jerky, black raspberry jam, etc. and the pleasure of eliminating coyotes off my land. Good trade for me! :-). Plus he's tanning one of the hides and giving it back to me.

Zhe Wiz

[mac]

_{Wiz, i ended up getting the Chamberlain system to check it out. So far, its working like as expected. I have the sensors positioned to pickup anything moving down the driveway and 2 in the back yard where we get occasional deer moving through. I need to raise the driveway one a bit since it is about a foot off the ground and picks up the raccoons and skunks at night. But the yard ones have accurately alerted us to the 1am deer browsing the yard. the other night i watched one work through our yard and into the neighbors where it walked up 2 steps onto the deck for a few minutes, looked around and continued its path around the house. not a bad price using Amazon either}

[Zhe Wiz]

_{Wiz, i ended up getting the Chamberlain system to check it out. So far, its working like as expected. I have the sensors positioned to pickup anything moving down the driveway and 2 in the back yard where we get occasional deer moving through. I need to raise the driveway one a bit since it is about a foot off the ground and picks up the raccoons and skunks at night. But the yard ones have accurately alerted us to the 1am deer browsing the yard. the other night i watched one work through our yard and into the neighbors where it walked up 2 steps onto the deck for a few minutes, looked around and continued its path around the house. not a bad price using Amazon either}

Very cool! I'm a little curious to see if it works as well in the summer as it does in the winter, but so far I'm loving it. Works better than I could have imagined. I'm not sure how much longer my wife will tolerate getting woken up in the middle of the night, but so far she's playing along. She's not very happy with it, that's the only downside so far. :-) Probably be easier if I could keep the foxes off the bait. They are PERSISTENT little things. Friday night I had a pair of them that hit it like 5 times between 9PM and 3AM when I finally turned off the receiver so we could sleep.

Like you said, price is right too.

Zhe Wiz

[Zhe Wiz]

And the dead coyotes just keep on coming!

#13 woke me up around 11:20pm. Same routine, confirmed it wasn't a fox with the binocs, then grabbed the 22-250 and loaded TWO rounds this time. (I really DID learn my lesson!) :-)

Waited for a broadside shot, took it. She did the "bite the thing that's biting you" dance as I reloaded. By the time I lined her up again, she was on an all out run at a 45 degree angle away from me. I picked a spot ahead of her and fired when she got there. Did I hit her? No idea. By the time I recovered from muzzle flash and lift, she was gone. So a tracking I did go.

Found her some 200 yards from the first shot, 50ish from the second, 10 yards into the woods, dead. Big nasty wound on her right side which is probably the exit from the first shot, but I can't be sure. Will have the skinner count holes.

Anyway, that's #13 overall and I think 6 plus a fox using the motion sensor/bait pile combo in a relatively short period of time. This time it was yet another female, a relatively small one.

Zhe Wiz

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

Can't wait to hear what the final count is later this month.

[mac]

Zhe Wiz, why do you thinkthe alerts may not work well in the summer? you going to move them to monitor deer movement?

[Zhe Wiz]

Zhe Wiz, why do you thinkthe alerts may not work well in the summer? you going to move them to monitor deer movement?

I believe this type of sensor monitors the temperature differential to detect "movement". Right now that differential is high with snow on the ground and a warm blooded creature passing by. I worry that on an 80 degree night, the differential may not be enough for it to pick up movement. I also worry about false positives as the sun comes up and warms the ground...will it "see" movement? Not sure. A complete guess on my part, I have no idea if it will work or not, may have no issues whatsoever. Certainly works nearly flawlessly in the winter.

The good news is (?) it's currently illegal to shoot yotes after March 31st, so I wont' need them over the summer. I won't move them to monitor deer movement, as I have cameras for that. Now that you mention it though, I may try one of the other sensors just to see how well it works during the summer. I'll probably leave the bait pile sensor right where it is for a while so I can get a sense of how it works in the summer. Eventually I'll pull the batteries and save them for next season.

Zhe Wiz

[mac]

gotcha. yah we'll see if ist that sensitive to pick up thermals in the summer. prob not. I like them so i can position a couple away from the trail cams to get better surveilance over a cross section of the land.. plus the warmer weather may change the deer patterns so my wife wont have to hear the beeps overnight though she is curious abt animal movement outside.

[Zhe Wiz]

gotcha. yah we'll see if ist that sensitive to pick up thermals in the summer. prob not. I like them so i can position a couple away from the trail cams to get better surveilance over a cross section of the land.. plus the warmer weather may change the deer patterns so my wife wont have to hear the beeps overnight though she is curious abt animal movement outside.

My wife was curious, now not so much. :-) Last night after I shot the yote, a fox tripped the sensor about an hour later (even after all that shooting and commotion!). My wife was not happy. I hadn't gotten back to sleep yet, but she had. I need something that repels foxes, but not yotes. Foxes are fearless around here and persistent. They hit the pile 4 or 5 times a night on the nights they do come by, and they're very hard to scare away.

So unfortunately I had to promise that tonight I will leave the sensor off all night. That will be quite painful, I think I'll sleep worse with it off wondering if something's on the bait than I would if it were on and I knew I'd be alerted. Oh well, what's a night or two of no yotes in return for a happy marriage, Right?? :-)

Zhe Wiz

[mac]

^{so true! at least you have good success so far with a few weeks left. what kind of bait pile is working for you?}

[Zhe Wiz]

^{so true! at least you have good success so far with a few weeks left. what kind of bait pile is working for you?}

The bulk of it is two deer carcasses from this past hunting season. They were January deer shot early during the Tompkins county DMFA season. We butchered them and put the "left overs" up there.

I can also say they LOVE crows. Between the foxes and the yotes, the crows are nothing but a pile of feathers by morning. I just added 2 to the pile on Monday. I managed to hit two with one shot out of the 22-250. Sounds impressive, but there were literally HUNDREDS of them on the bait pile, sensor was going NUTS. I lined up a pair and fired. I was surprised I ONLY got two, but I guess you can't expect much more from a 35 grain varmint bullet. :-) Much easier than shooting a yote at night. :-)

Definitely the deer carcasses are the longest lasting. Between the cold weather, the snow and the quick alert system, they've lasted 2 months and counting.

Zhe Wiz

[Zhe Wiz]

Well, here we go again! #14! Anybody getting tired of my coyote reports yet?

A bit of a rough night. The sensor was going non-stop! First a fox, then another fox, then a SKUNK, then another fox, then another fox AND, what's this? A coyote hanging back WATCHING the fox at the bait pile! And to think I was THIS CLOSE to putting the gun away and going back to bed when I saw yet another fox! For some reason the coyote wouldn't approach while the fox was there. Very odd.

I watched her for quite a while through my new scope (more on that in a minute) as she circled, sat down, got up, moved, layed down, moved again and finally sat down at 190 yards away, up the hill from the bait pile. She just sat there, watching.

So I watched her for a while and finally decided I could take the shot comfortably. So I released the safety and squeezed the newly adjusted 1lb, 2oz trigger! Boom! Lost her in the flash of the 6mm Rem and muzzle lift. Unsure if I hit her or not. Looked around for IR eye shine thru the scope (told you it was new!) but only saw the fox trying to decide what to do. No sign of the coyote.

Went back in the house, grabbed flashlight and 22 pistol and headed out to see what happened. Got to where she was sitting and found BLOOD! And I could tell she was dragging her right front leg which would have been the entrance side. Good sign, but blood was light and she's headed to the neighbors where I DO have permission to track. No need to take advantage, however, as I shine the light 20 yards down the blood trail and see her piled up! Yes!

Another rather large, and very blonde female, just the way I like them! ;-) Pretty girl.

Anyway...the scope. I missed a coyote yesterday morning. It was very dark and quite foggy. I could tell there was a coyote at the pile, but orienting it was HARD. Unless it moved I couldn't distinguish head from tail. I tried to line it up and fired, but missed completely.

Sooo, I finally mounted my new Pulsar Digisight N750 on the 6mm Rem I bought from my brother. The setup that will become my dedicated coyote gun. I sighted it in late yesterday, about an inch high at 170 yards - the distance to the close side if the bait pile.

This scope is awesome! Does not matter how dark it is out! With the IR illuminator on I could easily pick where I wanted to place the bullet, sooooo much easier than a day scope. "Night and Day" different. :-) Before I aimed for a general location, now I'll be able to pick a pelt friendly spot once I gain confidence in the gun and load.

So if a motion sensor and bait pile weren't cheating, adding night vision must now put me over the edge right? :-)

Don't care! Again, my mission is to kill some coyotes, not hunt them. I hunt deer, not yotes. :-) Starting to wonder if I'm even making a dent in the population though. 14 dead and they just keep coming!

Anyway, here's number 14. Beautiful pelt destined for a friend of mine.

Zhe Wiz

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

Well they do compensate for their losses. So keep doing what your doing.

[Paula]

I am not tired of your reports, i just find it amazing the number of them your getting. I know we have alot around here but just make me wonder if there is more than i think

[Zhe Wiz]

I am not tired of your reports, i just find it amazing the number of them your getting. I know we have alot around here but just make me wonder if there is more than i think

Exactly what I'm starting to think! At first I thought maybe there were 6 or 8 floating around. Now I'm starting to think there are hundreds and I'm merely scratching the surface. I hope not, but they haven't slowed down, if anything activity has INCREASED over the past 2-3 weeks.

The only thing I have "seen" is a reduction in the number of nights I hear them yipping. They've been completely quiet since the night I shot the 40lb female a few weeks back.

Oh well, I still have bullets left and plenty of people that want pelts. :-)

Zhe Wiz

[mac]

still breeding season for them in your area?