This is one of my favorite young bucks.

He put on a lot of frame this year.



Notice the ears back aggressive posture.

All of the extras really add to the buck’s character.

Saw a coyote the last 2 mornings while on deer stand

Will be getting traps in the ground soon

Usuually see them on game cameras, rarely see one from deer stand.
Bucket list item is coyote with bow. Have hit 2 but didn't find either. I don't count unless I put my hands on it. Pretty sure I killed one as it was pouring blood and then just quit like it vaporized

Put a bait out and set up a tree stand. The key is to get high enough to stay out of their wind.

You will check that bucket list item off in short order.

The good thing with a bow is you can take multiple coyotes off the bait before they wise up.


How is this for a wide open shot standing still?

This is an interesting take, and good topic for discussion.

I think there are a lot of variables that have to be taken into account as well.





It would be interesting to hear from other trappers in different states on the subject of depredation.

What effect do you think coyotes have on your local deer population?

From my observations and experience coyotes do hit the fawns pretty hard in the spring. After that I believe the coyotes are opportunistic in nature. They catch and kill what they can, when they need to eat. Much like other parts of the U.S. they eat what is available to survive both seasonal plant and animal food sources.

I know I have seen the impact of coyotes on our woodchucks and fox population over the years. I also know they take those animals both young and adults alike. I know of a red fox den that was wiped out by a pair of coyotes one spring. Right place, right time sort of education.

In fact, those 2 species are really impacted in the East from my observations. (Red Fox & Woodchuck)

Sick, young, injured and older deer certainly fall prey to coyotes, and the healthy alert deer have more success in surviving. We have a boat load of deer in our tri county area. So, there is lots of big and small game to get them through. I also know they take some turkeys as I have seen that firsthand a few times while out on the line.

They take some fawns here, not sure how many, I've seen ones they've taken, but I don't think it is enough to affect the population. In the winter the coyotes will pack up to an extent here and do kill adult deer, most commonly that I see it is yearlings that they kill, but they will kill larger adults on occasion. This is both whitetail and mule deer. Primarily they eat small game however. Where I grew up on the coast it was pretty much unheard of for coyotes to kill adult deer, even the small blacktails we had there, they did kill fawns though.

Frankly out west, although they do eat deer, I don't think it is enough to affect the deer population, I have heard repeatedly however how the larger eastern coyotes prey heavily on deer.

I think the coyotes here will get the sick and injured deer and the occasional fawn when they get the opportunity.

They have hammered the rabbits, I rarely ever see a cottontail anymore and have seen exactly 1 fox in 30+ years of living on my place.

They eat my wife's chickens and that has slowed way down since I have seriously trapped them for the past few years.

Up here in northern Mn they eat plenty of fawns and some adults bucks after the long hard rut they kill some of those.Calves are taken 60 to 80 lbs are killed more than people think.Two springs ago 4 coyotes killed a calf about 180 to 200 lbs they died!They eat anything they can catch,fowl,small animals etc. They are born killers and need to be kept in check for sure.

I agree with Rick. They are opportunists and will take advantage of a situation. Pups are born early enough so they are ready to eat meat when the fawns drop. They can easily take several a week to feed their large litter along with any farm animals.

We would lose about 75% of our fawns to coyotes. After I started trapping our property 2k acres we saw a huge increase in our deer herd over the last two years. I had a biologies tell me if you can buy a fawn two full weeks ( 10 to 14 days) the fawn has a 90% chance of not being taken by a predator.

You Betcha' !

This is what it all boils down to as far as fawns are concerned.

If they make it past the first few weeks they will probably survive.


The hurt needs to be put on Wile E. well before the fact. That way the area is void of coyotes during that time.

Trapping coyote after fawns drop to help their survival rate is too little too late. The damage has already been done.

Maybe we just have a higher deer population than other areas. We have to make a serious effort every year to reduce our deer numbers. We do everything from regular hunting, archery and rifle, to deer drives, and even riding in the mornings and evenings and stopping to shoot does. With all that we still have a robust population.

Then again maybe we just don’t have the coyote numbers other places have. Or maybe we do and our deer numbers would be completely out of control without them.

I’ve been going out sitting until well after dark listening for howls at sunset. Nothing yet.

A coon hunter found one of my management bucks dead last night. The manager went out this morning and found no holes of any kind or any signs of obvious sickness. He said the deer had been dead for days because it was making them gag while looking it over. What’s odd is nothing has touched that deer. The area the deer was found is in the back of our dove fields where I’ve shot 4 coyotes, 3 pups and the female back in August. You’d think if any were around or hungry they’d jump all over a free meal, especially one in the thicker bottoms.

We also have a robust small game population. Rabbits are everywhere along with squirrels, turkeys, and quail. We don’t hunt the small game except for turkeys and of course quail. We leave everything else as “prey” to protect the quail. We’d much rather a cat, fox, hawk, or snake take anything other than the money maker.

Some good thoughts and discussion on an important subject to many. Good Stuff Fellas!


Here are a few things I have noticed in the Brush Country WB

Coyotes can and do have a huge effect on the fawn population here. Our fawn numbers doubled the first summer after I started to kill coyotes.

When you have drought years where there is not a lot of cover for the fawns to hide it becomes easy pickin’ for the fawn killers. They can devastate the fawn crop in a hurry, especially in sparse conditions.

My number one call for coyotes here is fawn in distress. That is not a coincidence.

I can’t count the number of coyotes I’ve had come in to a turkey call over the years. In all that time I don’t remember one single bobcat coming to the call.
Like many have said, coyotes are opportunists.

As for small game, we have more critters per acre in the South Texas Brush Country than the Southeastern states probably realize. The cottontail population alone is staggering. The variety and sheer number of rodents is off the charts. Javi numbers are of plague proportions. Blues and bobwhites are both found here. The Rio Grande also calls this place home.The pantry list goes on and on. The reason for the high wildlife density is the diversity of brush we have in this area.

South Texas offers up an array of groceries for Wile E. to choose from..

Coyotes here eat deer & pig because it is what they want.

I can’t say I blame them one bit.

When it comes to coyotes and deer the main focus is usually on the fawn crop.


What many trappers and ranchers don’t take into account is post-rut buck mortality.

Coyotes will actively seek out and try to run down injured and/or rut-weary bucks.

Prior to trapping we would witness this every year like clockwork.

Coyotes would be seen hot on the tail of a post-rut buck that had used up all of his reserves chasing does night and day for weeks on end.

Finding a dead fawn is one thing. Finding a big six year old buck dead in a water hole with the back of his hind quarters eaten is another.

Here is a question. Most of those areas where the coyotes are considered a real problem to the deer population, people are actively farming the deer, feeders, food plots, etc. Do you think that affects the coyote predation? Does concentrating and 'taming' the deer by feeding increase the predation by coyotes?

Apparently it does not in Wanna Be's area, but what about other areas where they farm the deer?

That is a good question BC.

Are you referring to deer concentrated at feed locations, or just a big concentration of deer in general?

I have seen a few instances where an extremely sick buck was taken down by coyotes at a feed location.

Those deer were so poor they could have been easily killed just about anywhere. I have never seen a coyote target a feeder as a hunting location.

When it comes to killing pigs we always target the brain trust if we have the option.

The sows usually don’t get close to what the top boars weigh in at.

This big gal was an exception to the rule.


We named her Gordon Whitefoot.

This super-sow was 5’ 3” and tipped the scales at a whopping 270 pounds.



She is the only sow to earn a top five spot among the all-time ranch heavyweights.

That is a big sow. Good ness. I am sure she has lots of Genetics bearing her bloodline in the area.

If she ran across Big Red at 417 lbs. I would think that combo might produce another mega-hog,

I hate to think how much protein those two ate while on vacation here.

We’ve killed more big pigs this year than in season’s past.

Three more passed on since last night.