Nomercy448

Don't worry amigo, I'm still a "hunter", I've just been really focused in the last few years on coyotes and deer.

"Care to hunt?" You bet I do. Have time or opportunity to hunt everything I'd like to hunt? Not so much. I travel 180+ days a year for work, so getting out onto EVERYTHING anymore is a challenge, and I flat LOVE rifle hunting, which is basically coyotes and deer, and I flat LOVE coyote calling (ironically much of this winter has been dedicated to taking coyotes with a bow). Wingshooting has just been an on again/off again relationship the last few years.

Ducks/Geese: With our severe drought, most of our smaller honey holes have dried up. I don't have waterdogs anymore, and frankly, there are guys out there that LIVE TO CALL WATERFOWL (same way I LIVE to call coyotes), that are losing their honey holes too. I've given up some of my hunting spots to these guys so they can have their fun, sorta traded off "if you can call ducks over here, I wanna call coyotes over there" type deals.

Upland: 'round about 2005 we hit a bad year for birds. When I was younger, we could limit out with 10 guys in 2hrs or less. After that dry, hot summer, we could walk every saturday and sunday for a month and not see 10 birds. I've gone a few times since then with friends/family or on out of state "customer appreciation" hunts, and about 2009/10 was getting pretty decent again, but after the last two years of drought and hot weather, we're back down to the poorest populations I've seen. If we can find a spot with birds, I love to go walk them down, but there just aren't many that aren't farm raised these days. Same type of deal here, there are guys that LIVE for opening day, I'll walk or block for those guys, but I wanna make sure that those guys get the resource. And again, I trade with some guys, if they let me call coyotes (protecting their limited bird supply), I'll let them walk down some of my properties.

Dove: Dove are always kinda a side-hunt anyway, and we're having the same problem with Dove as we do with Ducks/geese. There's just no water around this year. I did get out this year a few times, me and a buddy took our wives out for the first time, made a day of it, it was pretty mellow, and a lot of fun to get the ladies their first birds.

I do take a few of my younger cousins out a few times each year with my .410's after bunnies (or me and my brother-in-law go blast them with our Glocks), and taking the kids out with BB gun's after pigeons in the barns is a holiday regular every Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

So don't feel too bad for this guy! I still hunt around 70+ days a year, I just keep my focus on the stuff I LIVE to hunt, and then let the other guys focus on their stuff too.

SevenFields

Silly question from a new hunter to "Nomercy".... What do you do with coyotes after you shoot them? Do you hunt them to resell the pelts????

Nomercy448

Not a silly question. There are a lot of reasons I hunt coyotes:

Yes, I do sell the hides. Sometimes I don't, most times I do. Depends on what I'm hunting them for, what time of year it is, what the hide will be worth, what rifle I'm using, etc.

A lot of my hunting these days is depredation control (or rather, it always has been, but more for other guys now than for my own livestock like it used to be). Where I live, and also where I grew up (about an hour and a half apart), the coyotes are very thick, and have been hitting livestock pretty hard in recent years. All of my local ranchers know I call coyotes, and a few years back, a few that had never given me permission to call coyotes on their property (for fear I would stir up their cows) started calling me in to deal with their coyote problems and it spread from those few to their neighbors. Sometimes I take a heavier rifle out, which generally ruins my hide values, but dang sure puts coyotes in the dirt. These ranchers like to see dead coyotes, so recovering a coyote cut in half is better than having one run off with a 22caliber hole in a perfect hide.

When I'm fur hunting mid-late winter, I either use that .223rem AR, or a .22WMR to keep my pelts in good shape.

I also have a few guys that have recently started letting me hunt coyotes on and around their deer leases to help improve the deer populations on their hunting grounds. A couple guys have also hinted that I "need to hunt" their pheasant hunting ground to help their pheasant populations too. Frankly, I can't do anything about drought, but if they're gonna give me hunting rights for coyotes because they think it will help their populations, I'll take it.

I ALSO got permission on about 10 properties on the edges of towns that have issues with coyotes coming in their yards after their small pets.

Hides are only worth about $5-25, depending on size, quality, damage, and time of year. Not really worth the effort it takes to put them up, but it helps buy some new gear from time to time. Prevention of depredation is the biggest reason I call, hide value is the biggest reason I use a .223rem.

So, that's the long story about why I hunt coyotes, other than the fact that I enjoy getting out and calling coyotes.

Grizzly13

I didnt see how old you are but you seem like you are a very wise fellow already. You have gotten soem greta advice from the jury I really like what Nomercy448 and a few others had said. My 2 cents worth is if money is a concern then start with a 12 gauge it is very versitile, whether it be smallgame,trap,waterfowl or deer. And if I were to recommend a rifle it would have to be the old 30-06 also very veristile, from deer to elk and bear. Shot shells and rounds for both are very common and easy to find. As far as what model thats self preference but as Nomercy said a pump would be a great start.There is so much out there to learn from these days especially the videos. I was lucky, born on a dairy farm and a hunting crazy families both sides, I had no choice ! LOL Take in a local outdoor show with outfitters and retailers and dont be afraid to ask.

DeppedyDogg

Small.
Buy a scoped .22 and go for squirrels & bunnies.

They're cheap and so is the ammo.

If you find you like it, get a 12ga pump (Like a Remington 870) and go for quail, dove, pheasant, partridge (grouse if you have them) and maybe afterwards, ducks & geese. You can also go after turkey in the fall AND spring.

If you become good at squirrel hunting and have come to love hunting, get a rifled slug barrel for that 870, put a scope on it and get your deer tags... if you can successfully hunt squirrels, you can successfully hunt deer.
To understand why, read a lot of posts here on these pages. Basically, it 'ain't easy sneaking up on a squirrel'.

Welcome to hunting! I wish you the best of luck & God Bless You!