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JerryBobCo
Senior MemberPodunk, Tx.Posts: 8,227 Senior Member
Hunting coyotes during whelping season. Yea or nay?
JerryBobCo
Senior MemberPodunk, Tx.Posts: 8,227 Senior Member
Six-Gun has a fishing trip out here planned for mid-April, and has suggested we take a day to go after coyotes. There's no shortage of them around here, and I'm pretty sure I can find plenty of places to hunt. However, that's during whelping season and I'm a bit conflicted as to the ethics of this.
I can see how shooting a female that is weaning pups would certainly cut down on the overall population, or even shooting a male who is hunting for his brood could do the same. And, according to the CDOW guy I just spoke to, most of the pups are weaned by late April. So, I figure that a lot of them are weaned by mid-April.
Most, if not all, of the ranchers I've talked to over the years don't really care one way or the other about coyotes. They don't consider them a threat to their livestock.
So, how about some feedback on how you see this? Do you consider it unethical, or ok?
I can see how shooting a female that is weaning pups would certainly cut down on the overall population, or even shooting a male who is hunting for his brood could do the same. And, according to the CDOW guy I just spoke to, most of the pups are weaned by late April. So, I figure that a lot of them are weaned by mid-April.
Most, if not all, of the ranchers I've talked to over the years don't really care one way or the other about coyotes. They don't consider them a threat to their livestock.
So, how about some feedback on how you see this? Do you consider it unethical, or ok?
Jerry
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Replies
Incidentally, from a practical standpoint there's no real difference between killing a coyote just before whelping season than there is in killing one during it, other than the presence of pups. If you kill a female, you've either killed one before it breeds or when it whelps, and if you kill a male you're either killing one that will be hunting for the brood or one that is.
:-)
North of here, the sheep ranchers are the ones who really hate them. One guy who I met while he was on horseback while I during my mule deer hunt this past season said he hhad lost something like 14 sheep in the last month to coyotes. He had a shoot-on-sight policy around the ranch. In fact, the coyote I shot with my .44 mag during that hunt was killed a stone's throw from his place.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
That would be an excellent option. When you're stuck with utterly flat terrain, your best option is laying as flat as possible and using some sort of bush or ghille suit, preferably one that matches the local grasses, but that's a tough order in Eastern CO where grass is short, brown and about half as long as a finger on a good day. If that's what we've got, though, it's still worth a shot. A lot of times, all you really need is a dog curious enough to want to see what you are. I've had them get within 75 yards of a work SUV, purely to figure out where the hell the rabbit could be inside of that strange, white object that has a human in it. That's a dog that would dead as a doorknob anywhere that I had a gun.
If the dog has moved on to a "better place" (or is locked up in the barn) you might get a 'yote. If not....probably not.
As to the time of year question, I don't have strong feelings either way. I figure I've shot enough pregnant pdogs and pdog pups that a 'yote or two probably won't tip the balance of the scales either way.
Mike
N454casull
But, OTOH, I've been mobbed by cows, had my bench knocked over by horses (while a different one was busy licking the upholstery off my truck seat....note to self....don't leave truck window down in horsie country), lost a stare-down with a kit fox, been "cornered" by multiple rattlesnakes in deep grass, and thought I was loosing my mind when I kept catching glimpses of 20 MPH tarantulas while laying in a dried out waterhole. It can get worse. I'm sure there's some yellowjackets buried up out there somewhere.
Looking back, I don't mind that dog so much after all.
Mike
N454casull
Adam J. McCleod
Depends entirely where you live....given the size of the deer herd here, the few coyotes take don't make a bit of difference. Of course in your neck of the woods, you have their larger cousins to contend with as well....
Very true. Our hunting seasons and limits are now dictated almost entirely by how much damage the canines have done to the herds. We lost the cow elk season last year. I haven't even looked at the regs this year.
Adam J. McCleod
Now, I'm sure I will some day. Maybe when one presents itself at a time when I'm not previously engaged. It's gonna happen one day, just because. But, I don't see me making a habit of it. Not into predator hunting, personally.
i think if you hunt in a state that seasons and bag limits are set by biologists and not politicians then yeah, knock yourself out and good hunting.
About the only time you can get permission to hunt is if the coyotes are targeting newborn calves. After calving season is over, no more hunting.
― Douglas Adams
I put coyotes about a half a step above hogs. The more you kill the better. And I don't care how you kill em. To me ethics doesn't enter this picture. And at least you can eat hogs. Now I don't wanna hear that they're good to eat, I'm not eatin one of the mangie things, I don't care if you tell me it taste like Filet mignon,:rotflmao::roll2::rotflmao:
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
:rotflmao: ...You need to put that heavy .243 to work on some coyotes.
Not sure that I could do it personally, but I don't find it unethical. Not sure why I feel that way though, because I will whack a groundhog no matter.