paulvallandigham said:
If you are calling coyotes, there is no reason to not take a second rifle with you to your stand, either a ML, or a modern gun as backup for that rare opportunity when you may have more than one target to shoot. I have a friend whose sheep herd is attacked periodically by coyotes, and last year, a hunter killed about 24 of them at her fence line, using traps. You would not like to see what a coyote does to a sheep, or see the ones they gut and don't kill. I consider coyote hunting serious work, and not something that should stand on form. Its nice to kill them with a ML, but the whole purpose of killing them is to reduce the attacks on pets and livestock. Get 'er done!
Two totally different types of predator hunting...
Have done ADC for ranchers for well over 40 years and still have a bunch of ranches that I am the only one called on to do it for them. Because I get the job done whether its coyotes, fox, bobcat, badger, skunks, and occassional lion or the hoards of crop eaters. When I am doing predator ADC for a rancher where the single purpose is to put an individual and known killer down, or as many down as possible if that's what the rancher wants, then I do carry modern firearms and wear the camo, but I still use my mouth calls just because I think they are much better and more versatile than the electronic devices. Since most of the ranchers I deal with also raise crops, few of them want all predators killed on sight just to be killing them. They help control the crop eaters (which I also varmint shoot for the ranchers).
But when I hunt predators for my own enjoyment (sport) or for the fur I prefer to do it tradtional... no camo, no electronics, no modern firearms or anything else modern just to keep the hunt as challenging and one-on-one as possible. I'm not after a known livestock killer on these hunts. That means my muzzle loaders, reenactment attire and home made mouth calls. I just won't use electronic calls, either for ADC or my own hunts though. Anybody can push buttons and I've been making and using my own too long to change.
Multiples with coyotes are not rare, but rather common in the states I hunt in. Pairs and 3-4 are very common, 5-6 once in a whuile and rarely as many as 10-12 can answer the call. With fox 2-3 is not all the uncommon either.
The reason I don't carry 2 heavy ML rifles into stands is because some of them are a long trek in to. I also have many "routes" I hunt once or twice a year that are a loop of many miles and can have as many as 12-14 stands along them. Just too far to carry a lot of gear.
Regardless, when I predator hunt for "me", its not about the killing. It's entirely about pitting my skills against those of a smart critter on it's own turf. The ML's and primitive gear adds greatly to the experience. I come home empty handed more often then not for sure... couldn't get them in close enough for the ML's, made a mistake or shot a clean miss. But when I do score, I feel I earned them and these are the ones I call trophies.
