They will come to a dead carcass for months and months after it died. I've seen deads coyotes didn't eat on and I can assure you it's not the antibiotics. I haul off 10 to 12 deads a year myself and know if they were treated. Ive kept an idea on them to see which get eaten. No correlate between antibiotics.

I strictly trap on close to 500 acres that all touch. I would say close to 50% farm land and wooded. I take any wheres from 6 - 12 coyotes off that a year. I never run out of coyotes. I would get your permission as close to each other as you can. It cuts down on drive time for checking unless you plan on running a longer line. If you figure out the terrain on these farms it will take less equipment if you set in the right areas.

That post should go straight to the archives.

Talking about carcass dumps. I have found the that If I dump a deer carcass (road kill) out In wide open spaces I get more action on that carcass then when I place It In heavy cover. I have placed road killed deer In heavy cover and the coyotes never touched them.
I once found a dead deer during hunting season on our land . The coyotes had been on It for a day or two. I hooked up the quad to It to move It to a better trapping location. Guess what that deer never got touched again. Hard to figure out coyotes.

Ive seen similar things. If a carcass isn't being touched it isnt just one or two "spooky" coyotes avoiding it, its probably more like every coyote within 5 miles avoiding it. Makes my mind start asking questions. If all the coyotes can avoid a deer carcass id say there's a good chance they can be spooked off a set for good. Always makes me wonder if coyotes can mark a set, carcass or location with some means of a warning or that there is danger there.

Carcass issues aside, I'm still curious to know home range of some packs I'm watching. Part of this was set in motion last winter when I went up to farm to see about my mother. Got there around 9 AM. A couple hours later, walked a letter to the mailbox and was shocked to find a pair of fresh coyote tracks in the driveway....on top of my tire tracks from a couple hours earlier. Clearly visible in a couple inches of fresh snow that fell the night before. They had come in from the east, past grain bins and gas barrels, about 50 feet from back door (and me), then on west to wooded draw between crop fields across the road. Coyotes routinely get her barn cats....so a pass by the house is probably on their travel route. But to do that during the day and right outside the door seemed to me a bit cheeky.

But would love to know where they came to get there and where they went. Only way i know of would be to grab a little energy snack, a bottle of water and hit the trail and start walking. If a person had the time to do that, might learn all kinds of good stuff.

Hayday, I’ve done that on many occasions. It’s a great way to learn a coyotes instincts. It’ll give you a good idea of what they look for in a travel route. And then sometimes they do stuff that’ll just make you scratch your head lol

Likely in that part of the country the mile stretch you have permission on holds primarily the same family of critters at least in the time period you are talking about trapping. things can be weird early in year and then things change again late winter when theres different movement with mating. from what i've seen when trapping up there is that the distances travelled seemed to be greater than down here. but if you are just starting out its likely good to try lots of spots in that mile. there will normally be some areas that just get more congregation type activity, some are pretty much hunting areas and then there are routes that are almost always used to travel across territory. trying to get a handle on those situations will help you in the long run and start to form how you go about trapping. you'll likely find some of the properties you have in that mile are pretty hit and miss while others are routinely good. over time you tend to cross the hit and miss ones off the list and add more of the spots that are more consistent. and the country you are in like most of the state was hit pretty good with heart worm/distemper etc so you may not find lots of critters at least compared to years past.

3 or more sets per stop. But too many stops in an area may drive the coyotes out of it..

I'm wondering if you can MAKE an area a "congregation spot".

Enough food over enough time so all the coyotes in 10 miles know its there probably. BUT it's easier to find several of these spots than to create one. You just need to get out there and talk to the livestock people in your area.

Following a coyote trail is like following my five year old kid. They wander to the D"%$est places.

I've got about a 12 mile loop that has 10 farms within that area. I look for edges between fields, weedy drainage ditches through a field, fencerows. Usually I couldnt get and didnt want to get permission on the good looking heavy cover land...everybody and their dog wants to hunt those areas. Get the crappy land next to the good land. Look for land nearby with a little weedy draw or fencerow that sort of leads to and from the good land. Those are the coyote highways around here. No bird or deer hunters either on the no cover land to deal with.
One farm I trap has a little weedy drainage ditch running right through the low area and thats it for cover. From an aireal view it lies right between a neighboring land with big pond and lots of cover...and other side of it is a big hay field. I couldnt get on either of those other two places, both get heavily hunted, but the crop land I do trap between them along that weedy ditch has been a fun place to run sets. Lots of singles and doubles on coyotes, and a few coon and mink too.
When the coyote hunters around here hit those cover areas I don't know how many times my catch rate really picked up along my weedy little ditch way out middle of a corn or bean field.
Find the travel routes and out of the way spots, goldmines. I like ponds with grassy dams and littlw weedy drainages on backside, and located way out in middle of sections too. Go where its hard to get to, always worth the effort around here. If I can drive up to it, so can everyone else around here. Get out and hoof it back in somewhere that is hard to get to. Thats the spots you want around here.
Jim

you will be shocked to know what you can learn spending a day on a set of tracks?? pays off way more that ya think

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you will be shocked to know what you can learn spending a day on a set of tracks?? pays off way more that ya think
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Of any animal.

That Seldon guy on the The Last Alaskans called snow the white book.

I have 4 farms I trap In this one area. They are no more then a mile apart so all 4 farms are less then 5 miles from the first one to the last one. I normally will catch no less then 4 coyotes off of each farm. Most of my trapping Is done after the snow flies and I use CRs. It's just so much easier to catch coyotes In CRs then digging around In the dirt setting foot holds.

I taught a class on Habitat Evaluation to youngsters and oldsters alike when I was working. The average guy and gal on these sites is way behind on that aspect of fur harvesting. Don't take that wrong as they can sure show you a good location to place a trap based on sign (with their head down) but to look up (and around for miles of home range) and evaluate or make a guess on the area supporting X # of critters,,,,, they commonly fall short. They over analyze from a small sample set and it works for them so they file it in their brain and go on. Keep one thing in mind while you are gaining experience : most fellows who catch and publicize large amounts fur do it where animal populations are extremely dense and they have almost unlimited access to those animals and they have a work ethic/drive that borders on fanatical (caffeine, nicotine and sugar help). Good ADC people who are in the field 300+ days a year know what I am saying as they plot animal problems based on the habitat and human activity (quality and quantity). When I lived in MI I was amazed at the diversity of micro-habitat types and tones that could occur in 1 square mile....................... So what does this all this "verbal garbage" mean to you? Learn where the coyotes prefer and annually den and how far/close those sites are and you will be a lot closer to estimating where you should be concentrating your trapping activities (means spring -summer checking for "sign"). Or you can obtain access to land/farms in a "shotgun" approach and enjoy the non coyote catches as much...... my take...... the mike

Good places on my lines are farmers dump pits & Game Commisssion road kill dumping stations. Game Commission dumps are sometimes on state game lands

That really just hit home.
My mind staring going through the properties I trap and it just clicked. I’m generally a carpet bombing type trapper. But after reading that, I could set the areas I’ve learned where the coyotes are and it would not only save time but be smarter in the long run. I could still drop a few in between locations, but concentrate the most at the other areas.
Hope that all came out right, it’s clear in my head, lol!

You sir are spot on^^^^^
This post goes way over the head of most trappers.