No deer lately...here's why!

[L. E. Carroll]

I was expecting to see a wolf as I slowly scrolled down while reading your post...coyotes are bad but a wolf is a whole different critter when it comes to seeing NO Game.... Can't even shoot them  

Gene  

[Thumper Dunker]

Thats a nice one . He has some gray on his face ,He's going to be hard to get. Good luck . Great quiver there . Get him.

[Bonebuster]

A coyote doesn`t get to looking that good by eating mice and picking bones.

He knows what to do, and how to do it, on a regular basis. He is teaching others how to do it and what to do, and coyotes learn fast. He himself was taught well, as OBVIOUSLY his days are not spent in hiding with an empty belly.

He will go about thirty five pounds, and if he were the "old school" coyote a full grown deer would see him as not much of a threat. The problem is the "new school" coyotes have learned that a couple more thirty five pound hunting partners put them over 100 lbs combined...and now they ARE indeed a threat. I used to hear biologists say coyotes don`t hunt as a pack, but I don`t hear that anymore.

Nightime hunting (if it is legal) and traps. Get out after him, or them, as I`m sure he is not alone. (They do not look that good when they live alone.) In case your interested, I have seen coyotes pick undigested corn out of cow manure. I watched them through binoculars because I could not shoot in the direction he (they) were, and walked up afterwards to see what they were doing. I have no doubt, you will start finding scat containing your corn meant for the deer.

They are a supreme challenge with whatever method you use to kill them.

[Huntrdfk]

Kill him, I hate coyotes......Bluegrass, I think I see what you mean, almost looks like a porcupine.....

[michbowhunter]

I also hunt in SE Michigan.  It seems like the first few weeks of the season I was seeing deer, but not like in past years.  In the last 2 weeks I have only seen one deer and have started to see more and more yotes...probably 2-3 each hunt.
Now, I am assuming that the yotes have been there all along, but it is one of the only reasons that I can think of that the deer have gone.  
In the past I have seen yotes within 20yds from deer and they just stood and watched as the deer passed.  I guess I never thought of them as a real threat to the deer...at least the healthy ones anyway.
Maybe the deer numbers are just down in my area??
Anyone else having the same problem?

[Friend]

You now have two worthy types of trophies to pursue. Taking yotes can be exillerating, rewarding and beneficial. For me, the mind set aspect during the shot execution for drawing on a deer for harvest vs. drawing on yote to rid my hunting area of is completely different.

Be prepared, stay alert and be sure to take your 1st shot opportunity.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Terrific picture! Thanks for sharing, and I hope your deer come back.

[Jerry Jeffer]

Looks like some one needs to be trapping their properties.

[Tom Leemans]

Time for some nightime maneuvers!

[KentuckyTJ]

I had a strange encounter with another one last evening. I noticed some turkey coming my way. Then about 60 yards out one of them began putting. I wasn't moving and was hidden behind a bid cedar. No way they saw me. She walked around putting but none of them ran off which is strange if they saw me somehow right? Well after about 5 minutes of this I catch movement off to my left. Its a coyote. It walks into the group of birds and I mean right amongst them. They are all putting and walking around at that point but they don't fly off which I have never seen before. The dog just walked through them as he knew I suppose if he made a quick move at them they would all fly off. He then was out of site but I heard this happen another time or two down through the woods. He must have just been shadowing the flock waiting for his opportunity.

I am not off subject here as my point to this drawn out reply is I didn't see a single deer (other than a dumb button buck) the entire sit. Which is very odd for my ground. I suppose the deer knew what was going on and who was in the neighborhood.

[eddings220]

My son and I were hunting this past saturday afternoon on my brother's farm, which most of the time is covered with deer running everywhere. However we never saw a deer, but as we were leaving at dark, we began to hear the coyotes having a party it seemed. Possibly the reason for not seeing any that particular day.

[lt-m-grow]

Bill,  I have never had a coyote scare deer from my stands.   I even have a trail cam picture of a yote taking a leak and another picture of a deer smelling the bush that wore the coyotes best an hour later.

I also saw a yote last week on stand and then had a deer walk through the same path a 1/2 hour later.  Admittedly the deer didn't like the smell, but it chose to simply mill in another direction vs. blowing out of there.

Maybe it is something else...one thing that would concern me is too much use of one stand location especially if I was checking trail cams in the same spot.  I am not gonna say that is it as it could be many things, but I would not blame it on yotes.  If yotes were to blame I would never see a deer as there are too many of them.  IMO.

[Ray Hammond]

Bill,

Have you NEVER had coyotes in your area before?

We've had them in constantly growing numbers in SC for over 15 years- I see deer every day- and hear coyote packs yodeling every night.

I don't think that's the reason you're seeing no deer...there has to be some other reason.

[Ray Hammond]

It-em, great minds think alike!!!

[Bill Carlsen]

Yes, Ray, we do have them. When I shot my moose a few years ago there was a pack about 100 yards away howling their brains out. I stripped off my longjohns and left them on the carcass until the next day and the yotes never bothered the carcass.

I posted this pic because when I went to check my wife's stand there was an absence of deer sign and none at my stand as well. That has never happened before.  So when I got home and uploaded the camera cards I had the answer. On the camera at Laura's stand the coyote is actually trying to grab a couple of racoons. Her camera is infra red and the pic quality is not as good so I did not post those. The one I did post I thought was just a super pic.

Literally 10 minute ago I downloded this pic from 9 AM this morning...another really nice one, to me.  And on the camera card our deer are back feeding as usual...just when we are not there...again, as usual.  Things are back to normal.

[DEATHMASTER]

I see a NICE hat or back quiver there.

Go find him.

[SimpleMan]

Great pictures.

"Dirt Nap!!!"... is all I can say.

If I had a deer and coyote at my stand at the same time, I will always take the coyote.  The deer will not feed on other deer and wild game that I enjoy hunting.  The way I see it, they are in direct competition with me and I'm going to win....besides, hunting them is way fun too.

[Don Stokes]

Perhaps eventually we will mature enough as hunters and stewards of the game we seek to realize that predators are just another natural part of the matrix, and are not the scourges of nature that some believe. Coyotes and deer coexist throughout the country, and don't run deer out of the area. They don't kill all the rabbits and quail either. The vast majority of their diet is rodents, not bigger game. Sure they're opportunistic and will take what they can to fill their bellies, but deer are many times larger and very dangerous game for a coyote. Survival comes first, and any injury while trying to kill a deer would doom the coyote. They know that.

I'll kill one if I get the chance, but not because they hurt game populations.

[sbschindler]

I agree with a lot of what Stokes said, Coyotes have been eating deer and antelope for 10,000 years and we still have plenty of both, sometimes the predator population gets out of control and we can do something about that, and we should.

[HATCHCHASER]

I say shoottem shoottemm.