The first few years I went deer hunting I was not very successful. In fact it was not until 1964 that I took my first deer in Pennsylvania after hunting ten years. Sure it was frustrating at times, but I loved every minute of the time I spent in the outdoors, except perhaps for the time my feet were freezing. When that happened, I would build a fire and warm them and then go back to hunting. From what I read on this board and the huntingpa board, many would have quit after having my experience the first ten years. During the next twenty years I took an occasional buck and a few does when I drew an antlerless tag. More years went by without our having venison in the freezer than years when we did. Still, I enjoyed what I was doing, and I was learning how to do it right. Except for the first few years I had nobody to teach me or mentor me in the ways of hunting. I had to learn it all by myself. It is this way now for me with coyotes.

I have read as much as I can find on coyote hunting, and spend some considerable time doing it, and to date I have seen one coyote in the wild. It didn't come in close enough for me to kill it with the shotgun I was carrying (it was spring gobbler season). So I guess I am as good at hunting coyotes as I was at hunting deer when I began hunting them. Maybe I am not even that good (LOL).

Predators (by the way, we are predators, too) kill their prey. Coyotes are predators. Wolves are predators. Mountain lions are predators. Man is a predtor. We use rifles, shotguns, and arrows. Sometimes our kills are not squeeky clean. Sometimes those of the other predators aren't either. As sportsmen, we try our darndest to make a clean kill every time. The other predators don't have artificial ethics systems like ours. They kill by whatever means possible so that they can eat. We have the luxury of being able to make up for a bad day of hunting by going to the supermarket and buying a steak that someone else has killed for us. If a coyote doesn't kill today, he doesn't eat today.

I respect coyotes just as I respect deer. They are worthy opponents in the game of hunting. To me, taking a coyote would be an accomplishment far greater than taking an eight-point buck. One of these days, I will do it. When I do, my taxidermist Mac will do a full body mount of the darned thing.

I guess I am posting this because I don't share the opinion some seem to have that coyotes are evil. They are not. They are more a part of nature than us hunters are. If we feel that there are too many of them, we need to do what we are charged with doing as hunters, that being restoring the balance of nature. Wouldn't going out hunting coyotes today be more fun than sitting at the computer? Come to think of it, --------