Post Big-Game Season Predators

The two coyotes came bolting out of the timber, into the edge of the cornfield on dead run, and they never slowed down as they covered the 150 yards of open field.

- Judd Cooney

Their full attention was centered on the gyrating decoy atop my FOXPRO caller. After harassing deer and spooking several trophy bucks away from a client hunting the food plot the last week of the season, they must have felt they were being offered a free lunch.

The female skidded to a halt 10 yards from the decoy, the dog a few yards further out. There, a couple 52 grain hollow points from my .223 ended both their future deer spooking and killing ventures.

An hour later I got the same results on another prime food plot with a second pair of deer hunt-ruining canines that also cost several of my previous clients a chance at a trophy buck by appearing in the plot at just the wrong time of evening. This was not much solace for the clients, who lost a shot opportunity at a trophy buck, but at least the tanned coyote hide gracing their trophy room wall is some consolation and reminder of Iowa whitetail hunting. It was also another great start on what I consider the best times for coyote calling.

There’s little doubt that coyotes ruin one heck of a lot of deer hunts every fall for hunters from one end of the country to the other. With the low fur prices and tremendous increase in coyote populations, the problem is going to get worse. Yet this will make post deer season coyote calling even better than it is now.