I am new to trapping coyotes. I caught a few last year and now am expanding my line. I am out knocking on doors to get permission. The places that I am trapping are a 50 50 mix of woods and farmland, mostly alfalfa and corn. Most land owners have 5 to 40 acres, with a few farms in there with 80 to 160. Most of the landowners lease their property out to be farmed. Permission seems to be pretty easy to get, we have lots of deer hunters that don't like coyotes. My question is how close should I worry about getting permission? If I am getting permission every half mile, I would assume I am going to have the same coyotes. Should I have a mile, 2 miles between stops?

Get as much permission as you can and set more traps.

One year i trapped 33 coyotes off of 7 farms 4 of those farms were only 2 miles apart. On those 4 farms I took 4 coyotes off of 2 of them on the other 2 I took 6 off of one and 5 off the other one.

As the Beav says, you can't get too much ground to trap. You'll find that coyotes are not spread out uniformly; you'll find bunches here and over there where you think should be oodles of coyotes, its barren. Focus on hot spots. Silage pits, dead pits, etc. are gold mines. Set those heavy and then set on sign everywhere else. Last year I caught 59 coyotes from one dead pit. The surrounding area had very low coyote density. Focus on the hot spots.

That's how guys put up #s right there

Our coyote population is low but they can cover a lot of territory in a night. Seems it can take a week or more for them to cover a loop so some traps may not see much action for awhile. But that can mean catching a number on one farm only to have several other hot spots go cold on you. Territories can very in size so the more places you have available, the better off you are. You can always adjust your strategies once you figure out what's going on. Plus the more LO's who know your after coyotes, the better your chances of them calling you to trap them.

The other day I was talking to one of the landowners, and his neighbor pulls up. He introduces me, and the guy says come on over across the road to my place. He then introduces me to his brother (next farm) and so on. I now have a mile stretch, on both sides of the road (minus 80 acres) with least a half mile deep permission to trap coyotes. I figure it will all be the same coyotes, or am I wrong? I asked a land owner this morning, I told him I would start around the 1st of November. He wanted me to set it up this afternoon. The hardest part of getting permission is knocking on the door. When I trapped as a kid, I was scared to ask so I just trapped public land. I am finding private land is easy to get and way more fun, a lot less people to deal with.

Here's how you figure out (1) how many coyotes you're dealing with, and (2) where those coyotes are. I tell this to trappers all the time . . . and I'm universally ignored, but you may be that one guy in a hundred.

About 2 weeks before you start trapping, go out at night to your trapping area and howl. Use an electronic call if you can't voice howl, or use a reed howl. The more realistic you sound, the more accurate your "census" of the coyotes will be. Record on a map or a GPS the locations of your responses, and whether its a lone coyote, a pair or a family group. There you go -- no more guessing. You know exactly where they are (will they move around a bit? Sure. Will they be pretty close? Sure). Good luck if you're that one in a hundred guy.

Lazarus. Because of your bacon recipe your now up to two in a hundred. lol

Get as much ground as you can. If you do a good job and don’t tear things up you can usually keep permission from year to year. What was a good spot this year might not be next year depending on food source, etc etc. if you have lots of farms to trap you can try to find the ones that are “hot this year” by reading sign. Two years ago I caught 12 coyotes out of one 160 acre pasture, last year I caught 1. Idk why, something changed somewhere. I will trap it again this year though because I don’t want to lose the spot because it will get hot again I hope.

I generally trap 8 square miles pretty hard and do well. It’s pretty heavy country and there’s usually coyotes. Last year was an exception. Between shotgunners, greyhound hunters, and the weekend callers I couldn’t get into them. Luckily I cover some more ground. Quite a bit more usually 60-100 miles.

This year I’m expanding more 100-120 miles with 10 miles between stops. I picked up two more feedlots 30 miles apart but they draw coyotes for miles. We’ll run close to 200 traps a day with 2-4 traps a stop and still have ground we can’t cover. I get as much as I can. If you’re going big weather can be a factor. It can be raining/snowing in one place and dry as a bone in another, I think it’s obvious where your effort would be on the 100 miles.

In lower Michigan The family units normally cover 5 sections, if you can get permission on the key locations on 2 of those sections your golden. Bear in mind tho, theirs resident yotes then there's transients that don't have a home. In the upper lower its bigger country with less coyotes. Study google earth to find the pinch points, and as Laz states get out and howl. From a fellow trapper that lives up that way , disease went thru a couple years back. Get 2x the permission you and your gear can handle. That way you'll have options. Some get more permission than anyone can handle and don't show up, witch in turn makes all trappers look bad. Not sayin you would but it is a factor to consider. When the snow hits the yotes head for the timber and frozen marshes.

Good luck and welcome to the addiction

Mile long by half mile wide is half a section, generally speaking that's a lot less ground than it seems. Better to have your spots/permissions separated by miles not in the same mile.

I caught 24 coyotes last year in a 3 square mile area. Get all the permission you can. It seems like no matter how many you kill, more and more filter in to take their place

I think some studies say you can be on new coyote groups every 3 miles(iirc)

Anybody know of any GPS tracking studies that document travel? I did a lot of looking for these studies back in the spring.....found lots of references to some that were going to start.....but few if any of results. The only one that shows up to any extent are the ones from Chicago. They only show home range.

I live about 10 miles out from a good sized town.....so mix of cropland, pasture, hay and houses on 10 to 20 acres. Road to my house dead ends half mile to the east and there are 20 houses past me. But 240 acres of pasture and woods across the road from me. Pack that hangs out there doesn't seem to travel all that far. I would guess their home range is less than 2 square miles. They don't need to travel. Wildlife sanctuary for all practical purposes. No hunting or trapping pressure. Huge deer herd.....dead cows.....barn cats....rodents. Den sites all over the place. They got it all. When I was looking for sign last spring, I almost always found fresh tracks in snow or mud. As in 24 hour fresh. Put up some bait stations with game cameras and something almost always showed up first night. Which tells me they are never far away. And that setup repeats itself for miles and miles in any direction.

So my guess is our local coyote population is pretty large per square mile. But would love to know for sure.

Other than during denning season I think the idea about home ranges for coyotes is way over played. A coyotes home range during fall and winter is were ever he thinks he will find his next meal. Look at the above stories about everyone catching lots of coyotes in one small area. Learning to scout for your target animal is important to your trapping success.

Find were groups of hunters dump their deer scraps, livestock died (even if its 6 months old, find place with dead animals and catch coyotes. They are there if you look for them.

I agree. New coyotes don’t mean new locations, either. What made a location appealing to the “resident” coyotes will draw in the newcomers as well.

If dead animals draws them in, then that would explain the coyotes on the place across the road from me. Outfit that rents it trade a lot of cattle, so apparently don't get too attached to them. Was told by one of their hands last fall they had lost 5 cows on the place over the summer and into the fall. Last one was in Oct.

Will keep an eye out for death loss this fall and put a game camera on it if I find anything.

Will have a visit with deer hunters up at the other place we own. Will have them dump their carcass remains in front of a camera there too. Curios to see what shows up.

Hayday, one thing to think about as far as cattle carcasses. I’ve been around cattle my whole life, and seen a lot of dead ones. Sometimes they never get touched by scavengers. Not sure how much truth there is to it, but my grandpa, who was a rancher and trapper his whole life, told me that if a cow was treated with antibiotics or other medicines recently before it died that coyotes will not eat it. They can smell something is off about the meat.

Carcass piles can be a great place to trap, but be sure to check your regulations. Here we are not allowed to set within 30 feet of any exposed animal parts, with bleached bones being the only exception