TALA'S COYOTE

Coyote down Thursday 21, 2010

Isn’t she beautiful? Notice the long K-9’s and how the bottom of it is worn. She was definitely an older yote.
Seeing as how all deer season I have seen more coyotes than deer…I decided to start doing a little predator control of my own. However when I ventured out Thursday it was not to hunt coyote ,but to prepare a place for the weekend. I did have Hank with me just in case I did see something (Ok for those of you who don’t know I named my .243 rifle Hank) . A hunter is always prepared. I slipped on a camo shirt I had worn a few weeks prior to this day while trying to call up a coyote ,which had my mouse squeaker in the front pocket. My rifle pressed against the squeaker at one point, I didn’t think anything of it as I continued looking for the perfect spot to prepare a natural ground blind. About ten minutes passed before I detected movement up at the top of the field. A coyote made her way into the field. She must have heard the squeaker. I knelt down and raised my rifle….she was about 70 yards from me. There was no hesitation as I fired ol’ Hank. She dropped right there in her tracks.
A true trophy indeed. A predator of any sort is a trophy. Like any wildlife species I respect predators a great deal. They are survivors. Numerous times I have encountered the coy coyote while deer hunting…many times witnessing the playful antics of two pups playing as their mom leads the way. Even having an adult coyote within my sights looking directly in his eyes through my scope, which by the way stirs the soul deep within, only to let him walk away. A hunter chooses what he or she feels needs to be harvested or taken. In our hearts we always know without a doubt when the time is right and the animal before us is the one. As hunters we should participate in predator control at some level whether it be predator hunting or even trapping. Each of us doing our part in keeping the balance between predator and prey. Predator hunting is both very challenging and rewarding.

Which brings me to a topic I want to discuss…

PREDATORS and POACHERS both problems my hunting grounds faced this year
I will start with the predators.
First of all let me reinnerate that I have great respect for the predator species.
With this being said I know that predator control certainly has a place in deer management. If your deer numbers are currently low, all possibilities need to be explored before pinpointing the blame on predators. If there is sufficient habitat and food sources are abundant than that’s when you need to start exploring your grounds for sign of excessive predators.
For example, my situation this deer season, I seen as nearly many coyotes deer hunting as I seen deer and coyote scat, an obvious sign was seen throughout the hunting grounds, Both indicating a high number of coyotes on a particular piece of property. I am not placing the blame fully on the coyotes for the lack of deer this year but am placing it as one of the factors. So yes for our hunting land, predator hunting is a definite must this year.
The timing of predator control is equally important. The best time to control coyotes is when their population is at its lowest point of the year. This time usually is a couple months between late winter and early spring before they give birth to their young. This time frame also ties into the deer .Late winter , after the rut, is when most predation occurs on adult bucks. During this time, bucks are recovering from extensive rutting activities and are commonly in their poorest shape of the year. Predator control in early spring also allows fawns to be born with less danger of becoming immediate victims.

Now for the poaching we as a hunting club had to endure this year. Let me make myself clear on this…I HAVE NO RESPECT WHATSOEVER FOR POACHERS.
While looking around about a month ago. I happened to see some tire tracks on an old logging road that adjoins our land. Looking closely at the tire tracks, I didn’t recognize them as being any one from our club as they were too wide and the traction was different. So I walked down the road a good bit and came upon these two bucks someone shot, most likely at night off our land for no other reason except to cut the horns off, leaving the meat to ruin.

Now I am pretty laid back and things slide off of me like water off a ducks back. But when I came up on this I literally felt my blood boiling and if I could have gotten my hands on whoever done this…they would have seen my fightin’ side. Scumbags who kill just to kill and do it illegally just for the horns not even the meat, have no place in the hunting society. We as sportsman and women do our best to uphold a dying tradition and keep preserved the ethics and morals that go along with that tradition, hoping through it all that the next generation will both honor and appreciate it as we do.
These poachers have no care or concern for what is morally right, let alone the laws that come with hunting. And the sad thing is that a lot of these poachers are poaching with their kids tagging along Kids learn from what they see and are around. Without the proper direction they too will hunt without ethics.
All this was reported and hopefully someone will be caught. I know that since July …word has gotten around that poachers have been spotlighting and killing deer etimated of at least 30, within 10 miles of where we hunt.
While we have a good amount of acreage to hunt and manage our deer population as best as we can on our property. Its still makes it challenging and is quite frusterating when the properties adajacent to yours dont share that same mindsight. Sure the 3 buck limit went into effect a few years back to help the quality of the deer. But if poaching is already a problem then most likely the poachers wont abide by that law either. We can just hope as a club our efforts will pay off on our property.
Poaching is becoming more of a problem not only around this area but across the nation. Hopefully some of the harsh covictions we have seen in recent prosecutions of poachers will make someone think twice before breaking the law.

~TALA~