Had to Kill a Chicken Thief today

[Nerdwithguns]

Shot my first Coyote today. He has come around at least 5 times that I know of. The first time was when I saw buzzards out my window one Sunday about a month ago. A fox had go one of my free range chickens, which attracted the buzzards. When I went out with my pistol to try to shoot the fox the coyote ran up from my left. He was attracted by the buzzards. Next 2 times I saw him I could not get a shot. My wife saw him yesterday but the dog scared him off before she got a gun. I set up a ground blind today behind my shop at the edge of the yard. In the afternoon the chickens like to scratch in the ferns behind the back yard. He has been coming in from the left side of the property where the woods are closest to the yard. I saw him out the left side window of the blind and waited till he got in front so I could get a good shot. He popped his head up the see where the rooster was he was stalking and I shot him in the neck with my 10/22 with a 3x9x40 scope on it. Hit the jugular vein, wind pipe and lodged in the spine. The only thing he could move till he died was his head.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Good shot, looks fatter and less scruffy that the coyotes we have running around here

[desdem12]

[WeldonHunter]

Good deal. I've pretty much had my chickens on lock down since July because of the preditors. I have Fox, Coyotes and RedTail hawks here that get mine. Besides the occasional one the neighbors dogs would snatch until I raised hell. They keep them locked up now when they go back in the feilds behind me. Two years ago I had a Red Fox killing my birds until one day when I got a shoot off at him. No problems for about a year and a half, then in July it started again. One a day was gone until I lost 4 and put them on lock down. I only let them out late in the day and the rifle sits right next to the door. I haven't seen the Red Tail for a few weeks but it tackled one of my bantums and was strangling her a few weeks ago. I was investigating some noise from them while I was away from the rifle and only had a stick but I got within 5 ior 6 feet of him. He tried to fly off with her but I threw the stick at him as he dragged her along and he dropped her. She was almost dead and tok a few days to be able to walk and not look drunk. It's a constant fight around here. They're so damn sneaky and come from a bunch of different places because I'm surrounded by fields and woods mostly. I did get a shot off the other night at a Fox or Coyote. We have packs of the little theives I hear at night in three different directions howling to eachother. Great job. Gotta protect the girls.

[Jumperwire]

coyotes are actually very smart animals. They sometimes utilize the female in heat to lure dogs in so the pack can kill it. They breed with other dogs as well, so it's not always likely that you will see a pure breed. Nice shot. We'll see how smart the rest of them are when this one doesn't come home.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I wonder if they make good pets.

[Jumperwire]

I wonder if they make good pets.

I don't know. I was surprised to hear how smart they were. Maybe. Catch one and tell us how it works out.

[Junk Yard Dog]

They can sense IR, my friend tossed some chicken bones out on his lawn to catch the coyote on his security cameras. The cameras use IR technology to see in the dark, that animal came up to the very edge of the illuminated spot, illuminated with IR mind you, and sneaked around the entire perimeter of the light pool ( with the bones in the middle) It would dash in and grab a bone then exit the spot to stop just outside it. It knew were the IR was hitting like it could feel it, or see it.

[GLUGLUG]

There giving out bounty on coyote pelts here in NC I hear cause there are so many now.
Nice shot BTW.

[Junk Yard Dog]

We have packs of them here, I am told they are solitary hunters out west, but their behavior changed here.

[vblue42]

They are beginning to appear in populated areas in my state. I had never seen one until about three years ago. Now you see them as road kill a lot and they are appearing in the towns to the point its making the local news. Several peoples pets have also come up missing around the sitings in the towns. They are certainly populating at a higher rate.

[Junk Yard Dog]

They are protected and have no natural enemies in these areas, you would thingk the DEP would have thought of that before bringing them into the area 10 years ago to help cut down on the deer. They have cut down on lots of cats and small dogs, bit a child, stolen chickens, and made pests of themselves.

[Ironnewt]

I'm in the suburbs of a major city and Coyotes are not local around here. We do have quite a few foxes tearing up the squirrel and rabbit populations.

[bocephus]

NY even protects coyotes? I keep hearing more and more that makes me glad I don't live there. Most of my family is actually in NY but that state just regulates way too much. I'm told that in Ohio you can shoot as many as you want.

I have sheep, turkeys and chickens and so far the coyotes haven't been a problem. I was actually just listening to a pack howl about an hour ago. I did see a fox start to stalk my chickens once before my dog chased it off. I have had racoons in the barn before but so far they only seem to be there for the cat food. I did shoot a racoon though, there was one I caught out there late at night and it never came back. This other one came back so I had to get rid of it.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Coyotes are not native to this state, they were introduced by the DEP as an experiment to try and limit the deer population in the heavily populated areas of the counties around NYC. First thing they did is become pack hunters, second thing is start eating cats and dogs, there have even been instances of attacking small children and of course chickens and sheep at the county show farm. They are protected because supposedly they "work" for DEP, however it has yet to be shown were they actually took down a deer, cars, and trucks continue to do that job every day. We have one or two that trot through the yard all the time looking for rabbits, or the yard cats. I found a coyote skull the other day so at least one of them met an untimely end somehow. The Lower Hudson Valley is heavily populated, there are few places were it's legal to hunt so the deer have lots of protected areas to roam, back yards, town parks, lake areas. They ate three grand worth of garden shrubs on my neighbor a few years ago.

[entropy]

Perfect shot. One less varmint out there.

[Brian the Brit]

Are you sure it's dead and not just Stunned ?
We had a Mink last year Killed all my Hen's in one night , then started after the Golden pheasants,

I GOT HIM WITH THE 12 GAUGE FROM 12FT AWAY .

SORRY NO PHOTOS

[Junk Yard Dog]

Got a cat eating 'coon like that once, took me three hours to clean up the mess.

[polymerase2]

JYD you have got to be kidding me. Starting up a coyote population to control deer! I suspect no one with any wildlife experience made that decision. I was the deer control person in my small burb. There is only one effective way to control deer. This is based on extensive wildlife research by wildlife biologists. IT is a bullet applied to 75% of the population for several years. They can breed almost as well as rats. There is no other effective control.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Don't look at me, it wasn't my idea, I was never asked. Some idiot in DEP came up with the idea back in the Clinton era. I haven't seen the fox that used to rotate through here at least ones or twice a year, I think they ate my fox.