Coyote Hunt Nov 26

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
Hadn't been in awhile and they were calling for snow overnight. I have captured more yotes on deer cams when it's raining or snowing/snow on the ground. Over the last week I have added the intestines of 4 deer to the bait pile. Thought maybe it might be supper time for some yotes.

Got into the condo about 5 45 p.m. and got everything set up. I don't know if I mentioned it was C O L D (27 degrees and already down to 27 tonight) so the yotes oughta be hungry. About 6 55 had my first visitor, a grey fox. But he didn't stay, more or less passed thru. It wasn't long before he returned with the Ms. and they sat down for supper. I know they visited at least 6 different times throughout the night.

Next was a possum and it didn't even stop at the bait pile, just went right thru and kept on trucking. Not long afterwards three of them showed up at the bait pile at one time but they weren't very sociable, and stayed on the corners as far away from each other as possible and still eat. Individually they showed up a half dozen times over the night also.

Next was a red fox. It acted more like a cat in reality, jumping and climbing all over the bait pile. It stayed for quite a while and all of a sudden it was a blur and gone. I was sure something "important" was coming but it never came into the bait pile. My nephew works for the DOT and they have him on standby at the shop. He borrowed one of my night vision binoculars so I was handicapped. Had the one pair set up on the bait pile and with the night vision camera set up on the left and the rifle out the window I couldn't swivel the binocs around to see if I could locate whatever it was that put the fear of God into the red fox.

Next was a skunk, almost completely white except for a little black around the bottom of the body and legs. It stayed about 30 minutes before waddling off up the side of the mountain.

Next was a monster fat coon and he helped him/herself to an above average meal. I think I heard it burp a time or two. LOL.

The ironic thing last night was that most of the animals came in from a direction other than their normal direction of entry. They also departed in other than normal directions. Haven't figured their reasons out yet.

One time I saw eyes which I was pretty sure were coyote eyes and immediately to the right I saw another set of eyes that also looked to me like coyote. I switched over to the rifle and by the time I got the scope turned on they were completely gone.

I did take several video clips mostly of the two grey foxes. If you remember not long ago I posted about how clear the digital night vision camera filmed. Here is another great example of just how clear the camera works and just to think that it cost less than $400. If you notice "white out" when I pan to the left to film the second fox the white out was caused when I panned to far to the left and some of the infrared back feed was reflected by the window frame on the condo. The actual video clarity when there is no IR flash back is demonstrated when filming the fox on the right. They were approximately 50 yards from my condo and the sky was completely overcast. Note also he/she is taking a midnight snack home with him/her. LOL.

http://vid13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/LarryRussell/LarryRussell147/DNVM0001.mp4
 

alexx33

Guest
Just curious, what kind of bait were you using? I've always used callers for coyotes and never bait so I'm interested to see what people use. There's a slew of coyotes on the land I hunt in Surry County so I need to start weeding them out.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
Just curious, what kind of bait were you using? I've always used callers for coyotes and never bait so I'm interested to see what people use. There's a slew of coyotes on the land I hunt in Surry County so I need to start weeding them out.

Check out the video. That should answer your question without a doubt.
 

SharpShooter

Ten Pointer
Couple of questions Larry, how far away are you from the bait, what type of camera is that and you have two pairs of binoculars? I know one is a pulsar but what's the other?
Thanks
 

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
Alex I have what I consider the community carcass disposal site. Lots of us butcher our own deer so I let my friends deposit the carcasses and guts on my "bait pile". I often add groundhogs that I have killed even the parts of a turkey they or I have killed. I even brought a barrel of carp we had shot while bow fishing and the coyotes had a field day eating and rolling in them.

Sharps: The bait pile is exactly 49 yards from my condo. The point where the fox disappears into the woods is approximately 75 yards. Both the binoculars are the exact same thing, the Pulsar Edge. My second night vision scope is also a Pulsar. I have found that they make some excellent products. The night vision camera is made by Bushnell. From my experience I would recommend that anyone buying night vision equipment look into the digitally enhanced night vision scopes and cameras. They are much less expensive and IMO as good or even better clarity even the Generation 3+ equipment. I haven't looked into any digital enhanced binoculars because the current ones I have (although Generation 1 + provide outstanding clarity).
 

SharpShooter

Ten Pointer
I guess my concerns with less than gen 3 night vision are with range. My fields offer shots out to 600+yds. Most of them would be 300 or less a shot at night with my wicked 400 lights would be in the neighborhood 150yds max. Would I be able to identify animals and distinguish between fox(which we have plenty of but cannot touch them, you can thank the bondsmen for that) and coyotes at say 250 yds?
 

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
SS: Can't give you that info from my own experience for the Digisight N550A because I have never had a place to test it beyond about 150 yards. According to the manual 400 yards. I know with the gen 3 nightscope attachment we were able to pick out individual cows at over 700 yards. We were able to identify a skunk at about 250 yards before it went out of sight. With the binoculars we were also able to identify the same animals as with the night scope attachment and the binocs are only gen 1+ but just as plain as the Gen 3 night scope attachment. Again I have never used the night scope on a fox or coyote at 250 yards but if we could identify the skunk at that distance I see no reason one couldn't distinguish between a fox and a coyote.

We have that same restrictions in Watauga, no on foxes but OK on coyotes and I have observed both out to about 70-80 yards and can easily distinguish the difference. One of the most telling characters is the way they carry their tail. The fox always has the tail straight out behind them while the coyote carries it's tail tucked between it's legs. Of course there are other characteristics also to help determine the difference but at 100 yards it's easy to determine.
 

alexx33

Guest
Alex I have what I consider the community carcass disposal site. Lots of us butcher our own deer so I let my friends deposit the carcasses and guts on my "bait pile". I often add groundhogs that I have killed even the parts of a turkey they or I have killed. I even brought a barrel of carp we had shot while bow fishing and the coyotes had a field day eating and rolling in them.

Sharps: The bait pile is exactly 49 yards from my condo. The point where the fox disappears into the woods is approximately 75 yards. Both the binoculars are the exact same thing, the Pulsar Edge. My second night vision scope is also a Pulsar. I have found that they make some excellent products. The night vision camera is made by Bushnell. From my experience I would recommend that anyone buying night vision equipment look into the digitally enhanced night vision scopes and cameras. They are much less expensive and IMO as good or even better clarity even the Generation 3+ equipment. I haven't looked into any digital enhanced binoculars because the current ones I have (although Generation 1 + provide outstanding clarity).

Thank you, I appreciate the insight.
 

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
41Mag: I do have a red/green/white (whichever I choose) light that I did at one time use on a rifle. It works but from my experience once you turn it on, whatever you spotlight, be it coon, fox, possum or skunk they don't hang around very long after being spotlighted. The times I did use the light I was more or less playing with or testing the light to see how the animals would react. Since I have the night vision binocs and scopes I don't take a chance on spooking a coyote by turning on the light. If it's coyote I do my best to make it a dead one and don't do anything to give it a clue it's being watched or probably going to receive an awesome "sting" in the next instance.

From my experience if you are going to use a light (other that the invisible night vision lights) be instantly ready for a shot as soon as you turn on the light. I also believe that turning on the light to check to see if a coyote is visible may in fact spook many of them away before you even get to see them or get a shot at them.
 
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