Coyote behavior?

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Since I installed V-cams on my property I got an interesting read on coyote behavior, I have a what appears to be a single 'yote' trot down my 400' driveway getting Vloged by 2 driveway pole cams heading for the back '40' 12-3am . Never returns the same way, only caught on cam going to, never taking the same way back.

Maybe I've assuming he's going to hunt, rather than returning from a hunt.
 
Is it legal to shoot them w a bow (assuming you can’t fire a gun on your property in MA due to the 500’ from the road thing)?
 
Is it legal to shoot them w a bow (assuming you can’t fire a gun on your property in MA due to the 500’ from the road thing)?
You can fire a gun less than 500 feet from a road or dwelling under many conditions in MA, including protection of your property or livestock, Target shooting, defence etc... that rule apply to hunting. If the yote isn't bothering anything, and you want to hunt it, well maybe you need to get yourself some chickens.
 
You can fire a gun less than 500 feet from a road or dwelling under many conditions in MA, including protection of your property or livestock, Target shooting, defence etc... that rule apply to hunting. If the yote isn't bothering anything, and you want to hunt it, well maybe you need to get yourself some chickens.
Yeah… know about the potential exemptions but not really gonna do that. A bow from my deck, I might consider if it’s legal.

<edit> pretty sure protection of property is a no-no in MA tho
 
. A bow from my deck, I might consider if it’s legal.

<edit> pretty sure protection of property is a no-no in MA tho
honestly not sure, If you are just shooting it, and not protecting property, I think you would need a hunting licence, would need to be in season, at the very least

protection of property is good to go less than 500' in MA, Chickens are property, livestock, crops, etc....
 
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Since I installed V-cams on my property I got an interesting read on coyote behavior, I have a what appears to be a single 'yote' trot down my 400' driveway getting Vloged by 2 driveway pole cams heading for the back '40' 12-3am . Never returns the same way, only caught on cam going to, never taking the same way back.

Maybe I've assuming he's going to hunt, rather than returning from a hunt.
I seem to catch one, two, or up to five heading out but always only one or two returning.
Does it matter what he's doing? Shoot it.
Unfortunately, I only have 500 ft. in one direction so chootin em' is not an option, unless I ask the neighbors for permission, which I know they will grant. They are not a nuisance so I either play by the rules or bow them. Saturday night they killed something out back in the woods and they were howling like mad. The closest and loudest I've ever heard them to the house. I tried lighting up their eyes, no luck! I went looking for any signs of carnage on Sunday, found nothing, no blood, fur, feathers, bones, or left over scraps.
 
I seem to catch one, two, or up to five heading out but always only one or two returning.
after 6 or 7 years of monitoring trail cams on my property, I have noticed the coyote travel in a circle, mostly going in one direction and not backtracking like doing the rounds on patrol, often times an hour or two behind a deer, that is an hour behind a fox that is an hour behind a fisher,
 
after 6 or 7 years of monitoring trail cams on my property, I have noticed the coyote travel in a circle, mostly going in one direction and not backtracking like doing the rounds on patrol, often times an hour or two behind a deer, that is an hour behind a fox that is an hour behind a fisher,
this 100% they tend to kind of follow a foot patrol/perimeter loop where they circle back, they don't usually backtrack on the same path. Either way, there's no effing way I'd ever let a yote frequent my property for very long, time to setup an ambush. A bow works but a subsonic .22 will also do the job, shot placement is what matters.
 
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I believe it's also breeding season for yotes right now as well.

I think breeding season is coming up next month, that's when I hear the mating calls at night, and the hunting season reflect that by being closed

2023 hunting season dates
Jan. 2 – March 8, 2023
Oct. 14, 2023 – Mar. 8, 2024

Archery equipment: Archery tackle is legal, with no minimum pull. Crossbows may be used by certain permanently disabled persons by permit only. Poisoned arrows, explosive tips, bows drawn by mechanical means are prohibited.

 
I have a disabled crossbow hunting permit and living on 4 acres of zoned agricultural. Hell I don’t want to kill the yotes, not bothering me. Just trying to understand their odd hunting behavior. So yes, that makes sense, as it appears they are moving towards the deer 2 hours before first light. But never in packs.
 
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I'm sorry, you got pictures of a wild animal doing nothing that is of any consequence to you and you automatically go to "kill it"?
The consequence is that they eat deer, small game animals like rabbits and squirrels and grouse. ALL on the decline since they showed up in the 90's, especially grouse. Now you can't blame only them, there are fisher cats, bobcats, hawks, owls, foxes. Of which I see way more of the latter now when hunting, than I see small game animals and deer.

If it was up to me it would be open season on all predators including hawks and owls.....I see a shit ton of them. But try to shoot a squirrel or rabbit in my back woods....might take you 2 days to find one. A deer.....even longer. A grouse......in the 70's -90's you couldn't walk in the woods without seeing one, now, i bird hunt all year long and rarely even see one. I don't shoot them anymore, to me they are nearly fxcking extinct.

No offense...but the beauty of the 50's thru 70's and why we had leftover pheasants, lots of grouse, and rabbits and small game, was because DDT eradicated the fxcking birds of prey, we didn't have coyotes yet, the deer population in the western half was starting to really come up, then coyotes came in the 90's and its been in the shitter ever since. Small game populations, down. A lot of you guys may not have hunted in the 80's and 90's yet...but small game and birds.........was awesome back then compared to what it is now.
 
Because they eat a fxck load of deer and I like to hunt deer, and since they came in its been nothing but population decline since the 1990's

They are shot on sight in my neighborhood.

Are ya SURE about that, Mark????


The MA herd has DOUBLED since the 90's.

(that was just one cite of the population. In fact, it was the one where the data was easily in the 1st paragraph so I picked that one.)
 
Are ya SURE about that, Mark????


The MA herd has DOUBLED since the 90's.

(that was just one cite of the population. In fact, it was the one where the data was easily in the 1st paragraph so I picked that one.)
Great reading.....I'm sure its directly fed from the insurance companies.... Im not talking at all about population in the eastern half where you can't hunt, that is going up because you can't hunt.

Did they mention the last three winters have been easy, did they mention that they put out UNLIMITED doe permits this year? Record year??? with UNLIMTED doe permits not even mentioned???? Really. They open up more time and more doe permits and its amazing! They kill more deer!!

In the east for sure more than doubled, no question. Not in the Central/West.

You also need to take in the account we've at least doubled the amount of hunting time allowed since the 90's, and increased doe permits which will increase kill rates.

Their Deer Per Square mile estimates are total bullshit. They don't do flyover surveys in the winter. There is nowhere in MA that has 80 deer per square mile. Except maybe some state park around Boston that can't be hunted and holds ten deer in total, and you see the same deer every day and that's what they count.

I've hunted states with 30 deer per square mile and you see deer every day in the fields. In my area they say 15 per square mile yet I barely see a deer driving around in a year.
Hunt a week, and your lucky to see one.

I just went down to my sons place in PA and saw about 10 deer driving around on a weekend, and their estimate is 25 deer per square mile in that area. Yet I'm seeing deer everywhere.

MA has no fxcking clue.
 
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The consequence is that they eat deer, small game animals like rabbits and squirrels and grouse. ALL on the decline since they showed up in the 90's, especially grouse. Now you can't blame only them, there are fisher cats, bobcats, hawks, owls, foxes. Of which I see way more of the latter now when hunting, than I see small game animals and deer.

If it was up to me it would be open season on all predators including hawks and owls.....I see a shit ton of them. But try to shoot a squirrel or rabbit in my back woods....might take you 2 days to find one. A deer.....even longer. A grouse......in the 70's -90's you couldn't walk in the woods without seeing one, now, i bird hunt all year long and rarely even see one. I don't shoot them anymore, to me they are nearly fxcking extinct.

No offense...but the beauty of the 50's thru 70's and why we had leftover pheasants, lots of grouse, and rabbits and small game, was because DDT eradicated the fxcking birds of prey, we didn't have coyotes yet, the deer population in the western half was starting to really come up, then coyotes came in the 90's and its been in the shitter ever since. Small game populations, down. A lot of you guys may not have hunted in the 80's and 90's yet...but small game and birds.........was awesome back then compared to what it is now.
Coyotes here are brutes compared to the scrawny ones out west and even the midwest, so I don't doubt that they are affecting the deer population. If taking down deer becomes their primary go-to, perhaps we'll see them evolve to become even bigger.

Valid point regarding the birds of prey. Not naming the location but a preserve I hunt has had a 'problem' hawk the last couple years. M-Fer is smart and will steal birds that go down far from the hunters. My buddy convinced me to go to No. 8's for a quail hunt and one that I thought I might have missed flew 100 yards before dropping dead mid-flight like a switch flipped. We dropped 10 birds that day and the hawk knew to steal the one that dropped so far away. I'm going back to 7-1/2's to hit the quail harder not the hawk. ;) *

*just kidding fed boys- all laws followed
 
Coyotes here are brutes compared to the scrawny ones out west and even the midwest, so I don't doubt that they are affecting the deer population. If taking down deer becomes their primary go-to, perhaps we'll see them evolve to become even bigger.

Valid point regarding the birds of prey. Not naming the location but a preserve I hunt has had a 'problem' hawk the last couple years. M-Fer is smart and will steal birds that go down far from the hunters. My buddy convinced me to go to No. 8's for a quail hunt and one that I thought I might have missed flew 100 yards before dropping dead mid-flight like a switch flipped. We dropped 10 birds that day and the hawk knew to steal the one that dropped so far away. I'm going back to 7-1/2's to hit the quail harder not the hawk. ;) *

*just kidding fed boys- all laws followed
They don't generally take down full size deer unless on the ice, or weak, or in deep snow. Its more about the fawn crop losses.

Bears and coyotes out here absolutely hammer does that are dropping fawns, follow the mother doe til they drop, then eat the fawn basically right after it drops.

MA Fxcks and Wankers will never say that, but I've talked to people that have done den studies with cams on the den, a fawn is killed and brought to the den every two days is average. So figure that coyote takes out 15-20 fawns or more during fawning seasons. That's just one coyote. Bears are worse, but not as many of them as compared to coyotes.
 
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