OK - Hunting coyotes, foxes, etc is legal in many states at night with rifles already. Limit it to private land and allow lights and night vision gear year round. If the legislators are too squeamish to trust the hunters with centerfire, then limit us to rimfire. A 17hmr or 17wsm is kill a coyote. Or limit to only 223 and smaller? As for poaching??? That is illegal as hell now. Those inclined to poach deer are doing it now. Making it legal to hunt coyotes is not going to suddenly make me a deer poacher. Coyotes are out of hand in many parts of the state. Any means at any time should be the only rules in place. I set up a shotgun for night hunting yotes but frankly it is tough to get them to come in close enough to get a shot with a scattergun. I can see em at over 100y with a red light or my night viz but any shot over 50y with the shotgun is only educating them. Not good. I would love to plink em with the 17's. Irish
Hunting Coyotes at night with Rifles is a Bad Idea ONLY for the Coyotes. Night time is when they are out doing their thing, when pressured in the daytime they go totally nocturnal. Shotgun hunting is nearly useless...can be done occasionally, but not often. Who on here has killed one at Night with a Shotgun??? Poaching goes on now, it is illegal now....hunting Coyotes would have no effect. There should be NO rules when hunting Coyotes. That's my opinion and I am sticking to it.
Hunting Yotes is ineffective means of population control anyway. If you really wanted to make a dent, as futile as it is, you would trap them.
And I am doing that also. And your right, it is making a dent in the population.....till next year. I have killed 13 within a mile radius this year, and they are definitely less of them around here.
The litter size will be going up in your area. The american jakyl is a very interesting creature. If you have not, i recommend reading coyote america by Dan flores. lots of good info on yotes.
Yes, they can compensate by having more young, but not many seem to survive to make juveniles.. The most juveniles I ever saw at one time was 4.....and I know they can hatch out a lot more than that. A neighbor found a litter of 12 young once and whacked them. Oh, and an update on the Kills. I caught another male last night...up to14 now. They have more next year.....I just kill more Coyotes.
According to Flores, it takes 70 years of eradicating 75-80% of the population to have an impact on an area. Yotes are one of the most prolific and adaptable animals to ever walk on this big rock with us. good luck and have fun!
Bullshit. Yeah, you are Never going to kille them all. And they will move in and the ones left will reproduce. But. If you Kill 10,....those 10 are DEAD. They ain't going to Kill any more calves and fawns. I can tell a difference when Those 14 are rotting in the sun. Well, actually We agree. But when you Kill a bunch of them in an area, it takes a pretty good while before they get A big population built back up. Then you Kill the next bunch....they are in Kentucky to stay. Or till I find them
Here's my take on the issue. I don't think poaching is the main reason that it's not legal now. Rather farmers with cattle and them afraid their cows will be shot. At least that's what I've heard from some in the know. Wether that's true or not I don't know. But that's not fair to farmers or other landowners who wouldn't have a problem with rifles for coyotes at night. If poaching is the issue then at least allow it from February through May. The reason I don't believe poaching is the problem is because as already mentioned other states allow rifles at night and I haven't heard of any issues. I've night hunted in Indiana with a rifle with great success. Maybe only twice would a shotgun have been effective. At the very least I think someone hunting on their own property should be able to use a rifle at night. I doubt that it will happen, but maybe if enough people get together. Again if poaching is the real issue then why not make the penalties severe. I'm not sure what they are for poaching a deer at night now. But if you were facing a big enough fine, jail time, loss of firearms, vehicle if shooting from it and a felony on your record then I'd say it would be very good deterrent.
I am a farmer with Cows, and I heartedly support using Rifles at Nightime to kill Coyotes. It's easy to tell a Coyote from a Dam cow. Day or night. One reason I stay after the Coyotes is to protect my baby calves. Coyotes killed the first 3 calves I had born one year...one was three days old. Old neighbor woman saw two big Coyotes get one of the calves. I think it's all about the Deer poaching.
I have called in 11 at night and was only able to get one because of the shot gun range. Give me a rifle and I have 7. I am for the lights,thermal and rifles at night
