.22 rifle hunting in Mass?

[IronMan]

I lost three cats in three years to coyotes. When I was a kid, the cats could go out, now our latest cat is only indoors. Does not seem fair.

I have had many arguments both publicly and informally with Dr. Jonathan Way. This guy names his coyotes, so I would be worrisome of his studies.

Granted I have lost my blood lust for Deer the last few years, however I will be thinking seriously about getting a license this year and going on a killing spree. The coyotes on the Cape do not belong here. If I do this; will I check them in? yes... will I keep the pelts? I am unsure...

Not being argumentative; but I just felt the need to respond to a couple of things. Any time you let a domestic animal out running loose you take a chance of a wildlife encounter and the pet being injured or killed, not to mention possibly getting hit by a car. I'll guarantee you that an aggravated or territorial fox, raccoon or opossum will take out your cat just as surely as a coyote would, and all three can even do substantial injury to your dog.

As for wildlife not belonging.... Well, suffice it to say that they belong just as much as we do, and some might argue even more so. As the State continues to expand and humans keep infringing on wildlife habitat, "conflict" issues are always going to rise. It's happening everywhere, not just here. Look out west, where they're dealing with cougar/mountain lion attacks. Speaking of infringing on wildlife habitat, as sub-divisions & buildings infringe upon it, they also infringe on the ability to hunt there. Some wildlife can be very smart when it comes to such things, coyotes in particular, and they will congregate around "safe" areas where hunters are not allowed. I've personally seen it happen time and time again. For the record, if a given coyote population feels stressed because their numbers are dropping, they will then have larger litter sizes to compensate - It's in their genetics & biology to do so. Again, check out west what happened to coyote populations in areas where they tried to hunt them into submission or even extinction - They came back with a vengeance, so to speak. Without trying to sound hokey, in the end, one must strike a balance and one species should not necessarily overwhelm the other.

 

[JonJ]

I like it when the coyotes are out in the neighborhood. They keep the cat population down. There's nothing worse than working in the yard and smelling cat piss and crap in the flower beds.
Not to mention how the cats stalk around the bird feeders.

 

[Producer]

Not to get off topic;

JonJ, I am not going to bite.



IronMan, see your points, but speaking strictly for Cape Cod; Coyotes were never here. I buy into the Otis Theory or someone else planted them here.

Raccoon's or opossum 's were never big threat. They don't eat cats. Its also common for small dogs to be eaten by Coyotes.

I went over the alpha dog / litter theories over and over. From what I see and hear from others, it's just not happening on the cape. Ask any Cape hunter this year how many coyotes they saw this year compared to years ago. The population has gone way down.

 

[M1911]

I like it when the coyotes are out in the neighborhood. They keep the cat population down. There's nothing worse than working in the yard and smelling cat piss and crap in the flower beds.
Not to mention how the cats stalk around the bird feeders.

We no longer let our cats out. However, there is this common view that cats kill a lot of songbirds. I've served as staff to cats for many, many years. I've seen them stalk birds many, many times. In the 12 years that our previous cat was hunting, we can only document two bird kills. He, and his late sister, took many, many mice, voles, and chipmunks. When the female passed early, and the male retired from hunting, the population of mice, voles, and chipmunks around our house skyrocketed.

We have flower beds around our house. There are some feral cats in the neighborhood who come to hunt in our yard. We've never smelt cat piss or seen cat poop in the flower beds. YMMV.

Coyotes are certainly not the only threat for cats, as has been pointed out. Our male cat was content to be outside with company, so for a number of years we only let him out when we were out with him. He came when we called him, so he was quite easy to supervise. It did put a crimp in his hunting, though...

 

[Patriot]

I dislike dogs, and hate dog owners that let them shit wherever they want (especially
in my yard)! G-d screwed up when he invented motorcycles so he had to invent
dogs, but the solution was worse than the problem.

 

[IronMan]

Not to get off topic;

JonJ, I am not going to bite.



IronMan, see your points, but speaking strictly for Cape Cod; Coyotes were never here. I buy into the Otis Theory or someone else planted them here.

Raccoon's or opossum 's were never big threat. They don't eat cats. Its also common for small dogs to be eaten by Coyotes.

I went over the alpha dog / litter theories over and over. From what I see and hear from others, it's just not happening on the cape. Ask any Cape hunter this year how many coyotes they saw this year compared to years ago. The population has gone way down.

Maybe not coyotes; but many years back we did have WOLVES.

Raccoons & Opossums may not eat cats; but they do injure and kill them from time to time. I agree, though, not to the extent of coyotes. On the flip side, coyotes are here to stay, and all of the hunting and trapping in the world isn't gonna eradicate them from the Cape; so we need to accept it and deal with it accordingly.

As for litters, I think the species has to feel truly stressed and threatened to the extreme for the process to kick in. Plus, coyotes are territorial; so you're only gonna see so many in any given area on the Cape. This probably works to our advantage, that's there limited area on the Cape for them to expand - It's not like they're breeding like rabbits and just gonna take up every square inch of the Cape.

 

[matt]

I don't want to see anyone here "help" you and then have legal problems if you are not 100%.
Since I have been so "unhelpful" I'll just put you on the ignore list.

I will not comment further on this thread.

I'd give you a + rep mark, but it seems I gave you one too recently and the sw won't let me.

.

hmmm... seems MrT hit a little too close to the mark? And I get neg. rep marks!?!?

Captain Couragous goes on the ignore list... it's a dubious list... remember "Duane Allman"?!?!

 

[Twigg]

hmmm... seems MrT hit a little too close to the mark? And I get neg. rep marks!?!?

Captain Couragous goes on the ignore list... it's a dubious list... remember "Duane Allman"?!?!

Took him a couple'a days to get around to it too...

...and a point fer you.

 

[edin508]

They are already around my neighborhood and town in a big way. The local animal control for the state was sighting in his new .22 at my local range that the state bought him just for killing coyotes. Seems that the .22 works just fine.
Just use ammo that will pack a punch and do the job. Lots of the pelt guys like to use the .17 HMR because it leaves such a small hole in the pelt and still kills the animal. I think it all comes down to having a good shot at the animal vs. the caliber of choice.
Hell, I just watched a hunting show where the guy used a traditional long bow with about a 40# pull to take a mature bull moose. That is the state minimum poundage for a bow going into the woods for a deer and I thought that was a bit wimpy, never-mind hunting moose with it. But he had a great shot and gathered his animal.

 

[Coyote33]

.17 HMR is generally VERY frowned upon for game larger than squirrels almost universally. Coyotes are completely out of the question.

 

[firtree]

They are already around my neighborhood and town in a big way. The local animal control for the state was sighting in his new .22 at my local range that the state bought him just for killing coyotes. Seems that the .22 works just fine.
Just use ammo that will pack a punch and do the job. Lots of the pelt guys like to use the .17 HMR because it leaves such a small hole in the pelt and still kills the animal. I think it all comes down to having a good shot at the animal vs. the caliber of choice.
Hell, I just watched a hunting show where the guy used a traditional long bow with about a 40# pull to take a mature bull moose. That is the state minimum poundage for a bow going into the woods for a deer and I thought that was a bit wimpy, never-mind hunting moose with it. But he had a great shot and gathered his animal.

You may be correct. In many calling circles, 17 Remington and 17 Fireball are preferred.

F

 

[Coyote33]

Here is something helpful:

L to R: 19 CALHOON, 17 Rem, 19-223 CALHOON, 223 Rem, 22 Hornet

What happened to Kar98's posts?

 

[the_doctor]

From the 2008 abstracts.


Restrictions are for hunting after dark. You can use centerfire rifles during daylight hours.

MGL 131 has not changed. You can not hunt with rifles larger than 22 caliber in Plymouth, Bristol, or Barnstable Cos., AFAIK.

Bill

 

[edin508]

So I looked into this a bit more because I want to start hunting yotes. It seems the .22 is a great gun because your shots should be kept to 50 yards or less. The art in getting the yotes is in the calling so I am told. If it is done correctly they will come right to ya, and the nights before leftover chicken doesn't hurt either
I guess this old timer has been doing it like this for years and has quite a few under his pelt

 

[Coyote33]

Rimfire is not appropriate for coyotes.

 

[Adam_MA]

Rimfire is not appropriate for coyotes.

B.S!

 

[PatMcD]

Rimfire is not appropriate for coyotes.

#1. Shooting them with a .22LR will cause more wounded animals running away than outright kills. No doubt the dog will die but it I think that is unnecessary suffering. I'm getting soft in my old age.

 

[Martlet]

#1. Shooting them with a .22LR will cause more wounded animals running away than outright kills. No doubt the dog will die but it I think that is unnecessary suffering. I'm getting soft in my old age.

Agreed. I hunted coys growing up. I wouldn't hunt one with a .22 rimfire. What's the point? Shoot something and hope it dies?

 

[Coyote33]

They are tough as nails and have run away with a .308 through the chest. You'd be lucky to find it also. What a crappy load of karma you just set yourself up for doing that to such an awesome natural predator. They deserve a dignified death. Besides, the pelts are nice. Go look at those centerfire .17, .19, and .20 caliber rounds I posted above.

 

[Deer_KiLLer]

IMO, shoot them right they only go one direction "down".

what if someone was to say its just a yote and i shoot them all in the head or neck at around 30 yards, never needed anything more than a .22.

other opinion is they never stop moving around and stand still for a good shot, so i just use my turkey gun and shoot them like a rabbit.

another opinion might be, i just like to take safe shots because i'm not all the best shooter out there and i opt for a bullet with a little more expansion and power and shoot them all in the lungs only when there broadside and standing still.

to each his own.

 

[Coyote33]

IMO, shoot them right they only go one direction "down".

what if someone was to say its just a yote and i shoot them all in the head or neck at around 30 yards, never needed anything more than a .22.

other opinion is they never stop moving around and stand still for a good shot, so i just use my turkey gun and shoot them like a rabbit.

another opinion might be, i just like to take safe shots because i'm not all the best shooter out there and i opt for a bullet with a little more expansion and power and shoot them all in the lungs only when there broadside and standing still.

to each his own.

Good points.

The .22 is still not a good choice for these, even if close. You could also argue that you could hunt elephants with a .22 if you shoot them in the eye.

Shotgun is a decent choice.

Bigger bullet means more sewing. If you are not shooting for the pelts, then why bother messing around with this wonderful creature?

 

[Adam_MA]

If you are not shooting for the pelts, then why bother messing around with this wonderful creature?

Because they are an overpopulated nuisance creature, that are encroaching on human environment, and causing trouble. Most would classify them as more like a rodent or pest, than a "wonderful creature"

 

[edin508]

Well I did a bunch more reading on this and I think the .22 is a bit poor for the job. Can be done, but not the gun of choice.
I now think that I need to get a different upper for my AR and turn it into a coyote shooter. The M4 type shorty is a bit loud for the woods and could bring some unwanted attention. What I think I need is a good flat-top with a longer barrel and a quality scope to match.

 

[Coyote33]

Because they are an overpopulated nuisance creature, that are encroaching on human environment,...

Wait, I thought we were encroaching on theirs.

...and causing trouble..."

They eat and survive. How is this causing trouble again? I know, I know, I also have cats, but is that really "causing trouble"?

...Most would classify them as more like a rodent...

adjective 1. belonging or pertaining to the gnawing or nibbling mammals of the order Rodentia, including the mice, squirrels, beavers, etc.

I guess that leaves "pest". I think they are kind of neat, and find it cool when I hear them howling at night. This is how I came up with this name here. I heard some the night I signed up for NES.