Shot an 8 point yesterday afternoon, next to last day for archery in Ohio. Great blood trail, recovered the arrow about 30 yards from where I shot him, it was a through and through shot. Waited a while to start tracking him, and when I came back outside to begin my search I heard a pack of coyotes  in the area where the blood trail was headed to. Searched for 3 hours last night, and couldn't find the deer anywhere. The blood stopped right in the area where I heard the coyotes.  Going to try to look again tomorrow, but I don't think I'm going to find much.

Damn dogs... they're on my hit list now.

FoxPro is what you'll want....

Well, if they got him, there would be a lot of blood and hair there as they would have torn him up.

I'm thinking they chased him. Going to head back out tomorrow during the daylight and hopefully find something.

Not necessarily.  They got this one in my neighbor's yard.  They drug it about 50 ft from the original bloody spot.  I went to get it the next day with my tractor, and it was completely gone without a trace.  A little blood staining at the original spot, but I wouldn't have found it if I didn't know where it was.

Fuck coyotes.

Around here they're a plague.

No rabbits outside of town, no pheasants outside preserves, deer pieces found all year, livestock killed, pets taken, they're a fucking plague.

Not a single person I know would pass on a shot at a coyote, even if it's a shot they'd never take on a game animal; I even know a guy who's wrecked multiple trucks jumping ditches to run them down.

If I'm in a deer stand and see a coyote the only time I might not take a shot at it is if I've already seen a deer headed my way.

I'm not going to set the nasty kind of illegal traps I've heard of some folks setting for them, but I understand the sentiment.

Last year, a family of turkeys showed up here.  I saw them every day for a couple of weeks, then nothing.  A couple days later, I saw this one, looking for more.  It died.



I saw this guy two days ago.  Phone picture out my window.  He had better watch out.

Quite a few years back, I shot a nice doe with a bow just before dark. Since I was way back off the road and by myself, I used a rope to lift it well off the ground until I could come back the next morning. It was in the 40s so the dressed carcass was fine overnight. Our archery rules do not allow for any firearm to be carried while engaged in bow hunting activity, so I did not even bring one. Big mistake. When I arrived, a whole damn pack of coyotes were there attracted by the smell of blood. They were jumping off a mound of dirt trying to get their jaws on the deer. I got my deer back to the truck safely but it was no fun looking over my shoulder for the coyotes. All I had was a skinning knife on me. Just finished up the turkey season and had a hell of a good time. Could not figure out why the birds were mostly quiet. Then one beautiful evening right at dark, a coyote started howling. Then another, then another. There were probably 8-10 different dogs howling, could even make out the pups yapping it up. Since the gobblers were mostly silent, just locating a huntable bird was not easy. After every rain, I would walk the roads looking for 3" or longer gobbler tracks. The gobblers were mostly silent except on the roost for good reason: coyotes and bobcats.  Every road/trail had fresh coyote tracks within hours of the heavy rain. Years back, I shot a bobcat just as it tore the head off my turkey decoy. And I have shot bobcats as well as coyotes chasing adult doe whitetail. The one below was chasing a doe that was also being chase by a nice buck during the rut last year. The cat stopped and sat down on his rear when he saw the orange color of my vest in the tree stand. Our property has a lot of dense cover so it is extremely hard to hunt the coyotes without night vision. Night vision/thermal is now on my list of gear to buy when I retire next year. It should be very helpful for dealing with the coyotes & the poachers that are interfering with our hunting. I caught one trespasser/poacher (a neighbor) this season and chased another one in the dark while trying to get a shock gobbler out of the birds before first light. Even with the abundance of coyotes on our property evidenced by the tracks/howling/lack of rabbits, I only actually see one every 2-3 years because of the dense undergrowth. And they can move to cover so fast that I have had to look at the tracks to be sure I really saw one. 02

Finally found a bird that gobbled but he was over on my neighbor's property & normally roosted with his favorite hen. She finally left him and he got lonely for the "hot hen" he kept hearing every morning on my side of the old RR track.



Shot while chasing a doe also being chased by a nice buck during the rut last year.