Outdrsman17

Hey,
I have been granted permission to hunt on a 12 acre lot of land for coyotes. The owner of the land told me he has been seeing them running around by his house and he has some pigs and dogs and does not feel comfortable with the yotes on the prowl. So the thing is, there are houses scattered here and there about 300 yards away. Surrounding his land which is grass and a small woodlot, are fields. I planned on using a 20ga Shotgun. My question is how should I go about hunting this perticular area? What calls, shot, ect. should I look into using?
Thanks,
Chris

North Texan

Coyotes typically circle and come in from downwind. They like to smell things over to make sure nothing is tricking them. I would try to set up so that my shooting would be to that direction. A shotgun is probably the best (maybe only) way to go. I don't have a shotgun, so I have never used one myself. I would assume some type of buckshot. That's what they use when shooting them from helicopters. I would set my calling up so that I was calling downwind, to help make sure the coyotes come in where you expect them to. I just use a regular closed-reed mouth call. They are inexpensive and easy to use. My call of choice is a Circe triple tone predator. They are made by Lohman and sell for about $15 at Bass Pro.

BrutalAttack

Um this is totally untrue in my experience. We use rifles. I don't know of anyone using shotty from a chopper. Perhaps in TX?

Anyway onto the problem at hand:

My first preference would be to trap them using snares or leg hold traps. A #3 leg hold would probably work. I don't have time to explain a coyote set right now but have you considered traps?

I would get a basic rabbit squealer (if there are rabbits on the property, i'm sure there are) and maybe get a rabbit decoy. Sit up in a tree to keep your scent off the ground and call, or hide well on the ground and use a cover scent. Also a coyote howler can work to locate them.

If the property is really brushy and your shots are going to be under 40 yards I would go with your shotty and use buckshot or #2 shot. I probably wouldn't go much smaller than that for shot size but I have shot a coyote with a 20 ga. using #6 shot and he died fast. It was pretty close though like 10 yrds. At that distance pretty much anything will work.

If the property is not brushy and shots beyond 40 yrds are likely I would use a .22 mag preferably. Just make sure you have a good backstop and are not shooting toward houses or people/pets etc. I don't know what the area is like so I don't want to say one thing or another for certain.

Ideally, you could use something like I have: A savage 12 ga./.223 over under. So you have both depending on the situation.

Outdrsman17

His land is made up of a large yard (grass, about 5 acres) then some thick brush and trees make up the rest of the acreage. All around him are cut corn fields, then the houses. So the coyotes will be traveling through the open, cut fields to get to where I will be calling from. I would think this would make a coyote uncomfortable but he says he sees them all the time during the evening. Should I expect them to travel through the small woodlot on his property or come straight through the cut fields?

BrutalAttack

if your setup is really good and your keeping your scent down and those yotes don't get much hunting pressure they may very well come waltzing through the open areas to your setup. It may be too dark to shoot by the time they do also. With yotes expect the unexpected. Those are alot of factors that must be right for them to come in from the open. Playing the odds and not knowning everything about the situation I would expect them to circle you, come in through the woodlot to get a closer peek without being seen and possibly come in that way. This is why I reccomend a decoy. If you have a realistic decoy the yotes may be so sure they may come in via the open area. Yotes are very careful though and can't be underestimated.

cnhntr

land trap them with leg holds. If you catch a dog or hog they will not be injured at all.