School me on coyote hunting!

[alamo5000]

I have never been coyote hunting. What are the best ways to hunt em?

The Problem

On that ranch that I frequent the owners are pretty tired of coyotes breaking through their fence and killing their game animals. From what I understand over time the coyotes have killed over 200 of their deer/antelope, fawns etc.

They have just over 4+ miles of high game fence but they are spending another $100K to reinforce that fence to try and keep em out. That project includes lining the fence with another layer of wire that has smaller holes in it, putting wire on the ground to help prevent tunneling, and even a few strands of electric fence around the whole thing. Even with that though it's impossible to plug all the holes.

Basically they are looking for a solution including shooting those bastards.

Firearms?

We can shoot out there pretty much all over however in certain directions (maybe 5 to 10% of the property) there are neighbors (more like cows or a barn that you can't shoot at) but other than that it's pretty much a free for all. Most places you could shoot all night, especially suppressed.

Generally speaking what is the best caliber (IE minimum caliber) for shooting coyotes? Usually about what is the range where you would shoot em from? The property has safe shots anything from 50 yards out to more than a mile. I would guess shooting them within about a 100 to 200 yard range would be the most feasible. Getting positive ID on them and getting off good shots is priority.

Night Vision and Thermal

I told the owner I would do some homework about this. The family that owns the place isn't exactly broke so pretty much anything goes as long as we could justify it. If I can find more detailed information and make a good game plan the owners will probably buy the stuff. Not sure if we should go for lesser expensive stuff and outfit a couple of rifles or go with high end stuff that will last a lot longer.

The idea here would be to allow select guest(s) to get out there to go shoot em and do night hunts. I would assume they will be very selective about who they let go out there at night.

I am not sure if we should go for budget stuff or high end stuff, or how much magnification would be best, etc etc. I don't know the life span of thermal or night vision but the owner specifically wants to know about that, as in 'how long will those things last'.

Also I am not sure if getting say for example a helmet mounted monocular or something rifle mounted would be better.

What do ya'll think? Any suggestions?

[Big_Tom]

I would invest in a really good game call and shooter vehicle.

FoxPro is up there with the best. Thermals and NV work better than lights.

A UTV with a shooter platform is a good start.

My wife's uncle is real big in it. I'll have him send me pics of his set up.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[alamo5000]

I would invest in a really good game call and shooter vehicle.

FoxPro is up there with the best. Thermals and NV work better than lights.

A UTV with a shooter platform is a good start.

My wife's uncle is real big in it. I'll have him send me pics of his set up.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

They have 4 or 5 mules already. Shooter vehicles are already there, depending of course on the best setup. Now they use em to hunt the game animals or other ranch work. A few of them are definitely set up for hunting use. I am not sure what you mean by 'shooter platform' though.

I would be interested to see other setups of vehicles though.

I have no idea about calls and such. I doubt they are interest in a light setup...sounds like they are more interested in the best way to use NV or Thermal. He's asked me about it 3 or 4 times already so I figure that's the direction he wants to go. Whether or not that's weapons mounted or some other way I have no idea.

[Joelski]

The landfill property we hunted on always had bolder animals than normal private property woods. It wasnt unusual to get 4-5 feral dogs and 'yotes per trip. If I had funds furnished, I'd go thermal optic/ mono IR helmet mounted tube with a Atibal/Peq 15 for laser targeting and illumination. Spend, but top shelf isn't necessary and it gives you good flexibility. Get used to shooting and IR with your dominant eye and use the other for rapid transition to white light. On foot, a large pack will try to box you in, with ones and twos charging/dodging, at least until the first shot. Sometimes they back off and keep trying, sometimes they'll bail and you're done. Most of your action will be 40-80 yards, sometimes it gets salty and you shoot them on a dead run at you. Never go alone, and 2-3 keep it interesting. All my hunts have been daytime, so good luck and have fun.

PS: we always hunted with standard A-2's and whatever the sporting goods shop had, usually Winchester or Remington.

[Big_Tom]

Something like this

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[Joelski]

Something like this

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

Dang! We piled up 35 deer in 11 hours between the 4 of us on foot!

Landowner population control permits rock. Except for the Corgi that gorged herself to death on deer legs.

[Former11B]

If you’re shooting 200yards tops, the choice of bullet is up to you. I’m assuming you’ll be using an AR, so something like 60gr VMAX or 69g/77gr Tipped Match Kings would be great

When you say the budget for NV...is $600 reasonable or is $3000? There’s a world of difference in those price points

There’s ways to weapon mount certain night optics or helmet mount them, both require certain things. Also, you’ll want a good IR illuminator and IR laser if you go the NV route. I’ve got a Gen 2+ unit (basically an old PVS14 monocular) that works pretty well and it’s very clear with an IR illuminator and aiming with a zeroed IR laser is a breeze.

[henpecked]

Coyotes get educated real fast. There not used to getting called in at night.
This is just over $2100.00 works great even if there is fog.
https://www.flir.com/products/pts233/