Coyotes are animals you can easily confuse with wolves or dogs. They look similar and actually belong to the same family. Saying that they are relatives is understatement.
While some coyotes thrive in deserts or forests, some millennium coyotes have colonized urban areas these days. Even though there have been consistent hunting on coyotes by hunters, their numbers are relatively still high.
Coyotes can consume a variety of foods. Those that live in cities mostly feed on the food that humans throw away. Others in the forests go in search of mice, rats, or even snakes. Unfortunately, once they have their hands on your calf or lamb, they will devour it mercilessly.
Being versatile, they easily adapt to any environmental conditions. That is why you find them mostly around North, and Central America. Urbanizations have affected the livelihoods of other wild animals but the population of coyotes is still increasing nevertheless.
With regard to the way they live,coyotes are social animals who love to live in groups. Mostly, you will find them living in holes that were dug by other animals.
There are many strategies you can utilize to capture coyotes. This article will therefore take you through all you need to know in order to be a master in coyote tracking.
So, let’s get going.
Why Hunt Coyotes
There are many reasons why one would consider hunting a coyote and not any other animal. First of all, most people hunt for fun. You see, coyotes are the most clever and trickiest animals to hunt. Because they are not huge like deers and lions, they rely on their intelligence to escape being captured. Not many hunters catch this animal. For this reason some would love to hunt coyotes for fun. Literally to enjoy the struggle of winning the challenge of finding a coyote.
However, coyote hunting can be as a result of the quest to control their population. When coyotes overpopulate the area, they can be a threat to your vegetable especially if you are a farmer. To tame them, you have no choice but to hunt.
Appropriate Time for Hunting Coyotes
Although coyotes can be hunted at any time of the year, there are specific times that hunting them is so fruitful. Winter season for instance is a perfect season to go out there and find a bunch of coyotes. It is during then that they like mating and for that reason you will find them roaming around carelessly.
Coyotes are allergic to hot environments and that is why you will find them moving around in the evenings or when the environment is a bit cooler. Those are the times you should be ready with your firearms to catch some.
Night is another best time to find coyotes, since they are nocturnal animals, you can easily hunt them while they are looking for food at night.
Tools for Hunting Coyote
There are a bunch of hunting tools you need in order to successfully hunt coyotes. Some of which include shotgun, crossbows, and rifle. Others include binoculars, gloves, hunting lights and face masks. Both rifles and shotguns are recommended firearms that you can use to shoot coyotes. This is because you will always be taking long-distance shots.
Remember, the best ammunition is the one that is optimized and designed to provide amazing knockdown power. Rifles together with shotguns qualify because they have minimal impact on the skin.
To be able to hunt coyotes with a high level of accuracy, having a range finder will help you achieve that. Another important tool you never want to miss to carry to your hunting zone is a caller. This is a tool that comes in handy when luring coyotes to come closer. It produces a more realistic call.
Locate coyotes
There are many things you can look at to determine whether coyotes are in the area or not. Scouting their tracks is one way of doing it. If you are in an area where they like to roam around, you will notice marks of their feet in the tracks. This can be helpful in enabling you to determine where the coyotes might be.
Trail cameras can also come in handy in finding out the locations of the coyotes. By setting them in a specific location, you can easily time them whenever they pass that point.
Apart from that, coyote droppings can also indicate the location and natural habitat. Mostly you will find that it is in places where they live the most that you will find many droppings.
Calling Coyotes
The reason calling works is because coyotes are vocal animals. They communicate quite often by making different sounds. This of course depends on different things such as moods. Besides, they are very curious to the extent that mouth calls can easily attract their attention.
Nowadays coyote calling has been made extremely easy with the advent of coyote callers. These manufactured callers can easily trick a coyote even from a longer distance. They produce an almost realistic sound of a coyote.
If you are hunting in a season when coyotes are mating, then this is the perfect way to use “prey calls” , barking and howling.
Killing a coyote with one shot
For a successful kill , shooting right at a coyote’s heart is something you would want to do. The heart is always located right above the front legs.
Once you have made a call and coyotes respond by coming, you should position yourself strategically at a place you can never be easily noticed by the coyotes. Using your binoculars, try to grasp a clear view of your target and time the one is directly in the line of sight with where you are hiding.
After carefully identifying the target, wait a few seconds and fire on the coyote making sure you are targeting right at the heart. If they are a little far away, then you should consider buying ammunition that can fire a longer range of distance.
CONCLUSION
Hunting coyotes is never an easy task. These animals are extremely clever. Besides, they rarely appear at all times. It is during morning or evening hours that you will see them roaming around. This is because they love cooler environments as opposed to hotter environments.
To effectively look for coyotes, there are two important things you must understand. First of all, coyotes can be easily located with their tracks. When you go to places where the operate the most, you will most certainly find track of their feets along the way or even in the bushes. This is a clear indication that they are within the vicinity. Another thing to node is their droppings. When you find a place with more droppings , then that is most likely to be their natural habitat.
With proper handing gear and ammunition, killing a coyote is pretty easy. Once you have identified the place they live, you can go ahead and first trick them using a caller in order to come close. When it comes to shooting aim right at the head to kill it right on the spot.
With all the information out of the way, we are pretty sure that you now have some insights on how to find a coyote.