My Beagle was attacked by 3 Coyotes over the weekend, she fought hard and chased them off saving her sister but severe injuries forced me to put her down

I'm in the Pleasant Prairie area, needless to say I'll be gearing up for revenge,

anybody have any experience with thermal scopes?
someone give me a crash course

Sorry to hear about your pup.

Can't be of any help with the thermal. I just replied to offer my condolences... and to say "kill all them mother fuckers".

I may be out hunting them myself this weekend... I'll 'get some' for you.

Omg, my friend Carolyn, texted me a very similar story yesterday - now reading it here, thinking you are the same person. I'm so very sorry to hear about your pup!! Good luck and get em all! Neither Chukar or I have experience with thermal scopes.

Thanks all.

I know a Carolyn, last initial G.
Most likely a mutual friend.

USS I’ll look into the items you mentioned.
Hadn’t seriously started looking till now but I’ll neeed the edge on the predators.

If you'll be hunting them in open fields, then a thermal scope is good. A less expensive option would be a digital night vision scope with an infrared illuminator. But if you're hunting them in woods or other heavy cover, you want a shotgun with #4 buck shot. When I use a shotgun after dark, I have a LED flashlight clamped to the barrel (Surefire G2 nitrolon with a LED conversion), and I use a handheld thermal device to spot them before I light them up. I just use a Seek thermal cellphone add-on, on a cheap pre-pay cell phone that I never activated (I bought a Moto G from Walmart on clearance for $35, never activated it, it's dedicated use is for the Seek device and also a borescope camera I use for work).

I use a Fox Pro e-caller, and a "Quiver Critter" battery operated rabbit-looking motion decoy. For which calls to select, wounded rabbit works best, but another that also works very well (much to my surprise) is a crow gathering call. Coyotes will home in the crow calls, thinking they're on a dead animal to scavenge. Both of these work best in daylight, and just like deer & duck hunting, that 30 minutes before sunrise and first hour after, are the best times to be out looking.

A method we use up north in lake country, is to be out on a frozen lake, all dressed in white snow camo, as the sun comes up. If we're on an unpopulated lake in the Nicolet,  we'll have rifles... but those lakes are few. Mostly, we'll have shotguns, with either #4 buckshot on big lakes, or T-shot or BB goose loads & waterfowl chokes (Hevi Shot are the best). I know guys who use their turkey guns, with #4 shot turkey loads and extra full turkey chokes. Lakes popular with ice fishermen are the ones we want to hunt on, but BE SAFE and watch your background. Coyotes like to cruise these lakes after dark and look for dead minnows or dead fish left on the ice during the day, and they will not expect you to be out there.

Sorry about your dog

Thermal, any worth a damn, ain’t cheap. I think they’re superior to NV but each have an advantage/ disadvantage. Me personally, I would use a dedicated white phosphor scope. Will run about 5k. I plan on getting one later this year for yotes.

You could go digital but I would make sure to check the specs on the temps it can handle and if at night make sure you get a really good IR illuminator

I've got a Sig Echo 1. It's decent for entry level, but doesn't hold a fart to a decent scope like a REAP-IR.

Look up Night Goggles.  They're part of TNVC.  I have two super hogsters from NG.  Starting thermal scopes are about 2k, maybe a little less.  The companies I reference have excellent customer service and will have good recommendations.  

Thermal vs Night vision....thermal let's you spot your warm target easily.  The Super hogsters are amazing for 384 res units.

Also try the night hunting subforum on Predator Masters.

Thanks again all,

some good info, I'll put it to use

I thought nightvision using any kind of IR light was illegal in Wisconsin. Except at the point of kill. But how you gonna know there's anything there in pitch dark unless you're scanning with IR light??

Using "off the gun" night vision devices would be "scanning", but a scope mounted on a rifle or shotgun would be locating your target to take a shot... which would be at the "point of kill".  

Thermal devices 'emit' zero light, therefore they are not illegal in any capacity.

Just because you're using NV, doesn't mean you're using an IR light. Many of the good NVDs don't need an IR Illuminator to work well.

True. But most don't have the coin for the ones that are that good.

That’s what IR parachute flares are for.

You can't magnify that which does not exist. That said, even a tiny amount of moonlight or ambient light makes a world of difference. I rarely use the illuminator on my PVS-7s.

Can’t answer your NV/Thermal questions.  But here in southern Milwaukee County, I was out walking by girlfriend’s dog when I realized we were getting stalked by three (visible) coyotes.

Her dog is an adult male Great Dane.  He’s definitely a senior dog, but it still surprised me that they’d consider going after a much larger dog.

I’m sorry to hear about the loss of your beagle.  

Thanks again all.

They’re not shy around humans here either.
I’m collecting equipment for the task.
Gotta get to RCLRC to sight in some more rifles with the new suppressors.
I need to figure out this foxpro thing and get them to make some noise.
Maybe just before dusk I’ll send up the drone when they start making noise and gathering to get a general idea of where their den is.

You can always bait them with some chicken necks / livers a day or two prior. Of course I could be talking out of my ass. I just moved here two weeks ago. Im not up to speed on hunting laws yet.

I work for city government and am now constantly looking for road kill. Aka: black baggers ;-)
Usually get someone else to do that but I’m all over it recently.

FWIW... I've been hunting them a long time, so I'm familiar with the laws, as I've been involved in organized hunts (contests) and the laws are gone over at the mandatory pre-hunt meetings. I haven't been to any in about 4-5 years, so if there are any recent law changes in past 5 years, I'm not up to speed on them...but I haven't read of any.  

You cannot bait for coyotes. Decoys, motion or otherwise, are legal, so are scents. But nothing edible.

You can hunt over roadkill, or any other naturally occurring dead animals that lays where it died (road hunting laws and hunting near road laws still apply).

But, you cannot "manipulate" road kill in any way. Which means, you can't pick up something dead from along the road and move it to somewhere else more convenient, or more legal. Once you touch it, it now becomes "bait".

Artificial lights can only be used at point of kill. IR light is emitted light so you cannot search with them.  Thermal devices do not emit any light, so you can search with them.  

No seasons, no limits, no hours. No license needed either if you're on land you either own,  lease, or rent.

AH.... yeah now that you mention it i do remember reading about hunting over roadkill but no bait,
searching with light too, only point of kill
thanks

here he is, sumbitch comes around between seven and eight pm (camera's an hour off) not on a regular basis, usually about the same time, but I'm patient.
he's got a bad limp and travels with a smaller female, the third isn't around lately,
that's about 5 yards off my property line, making it about 15 yards from my back porch,
nothing like coyote shootin off the porch, the porch goes around the corner and can use some pretty good cover





camera is right there on the stump a couple feet into the snow line between the pines,

Decent size. He'd do some damage to a Beagle for sure. Kill the bastard.

I'm late to the party. I'm also in PP. Condolences for your pup.

I know some of the higher end NV shops will rent out NV equipment, if you don't have the funds to outright buy.

Good hunting

Nice,
I'll be out tonight

What kind of thermal is that? I’m seriously considering calling the buy line and offering my, uh, services.

Good scope.  More proven than the yoters since it's been out longer.  We have 2.  The thing I've learned since buying them, is that every thermal brand has its own problems.  They're not like daylight scopes for reliability, or even NV like goggles or pvs14.  But if you need to see warm-blooded creatures in the dark, thermal is it.

I was out the other night for almost three hours, ground was freshly snow covered so i had the traditional scoped rifle, easy enough to spot a silhouette against the fresh snow from my area above the trail,
no wind, saw a couple squirls, dusk came, the birds quieted down, past dark and the window they usually make their appearance, nothing, I was prepared to wait them out, I wasn't trying to call them in, I wanted their regular routine, but they weren't showing, I think it's just the male now, I haven't seen the female lately, she must be denned up pregnant, I'm pretty sure their den isn't far, early mating season I can usually hear them pretty well, they sound close, about nine o'clock I heard an ambulance or fire truck scooting down the road with their sirens wailing. Coyote started howling and they were nowhere near, they must have taken off in the northern direction that night, pretty far away so i gave up.
Got up the next morning and took the dog out, no fresh tracks so they never even came by, I was hoping to send up the drone and look for tracks from the field leading back to the den but the snow didn't stick around long enough
Oh well.... maybe next time

Have you considered just opening your property to coyote hunters?  I fully understand the desire for thermal/NV, but for me, at least, it's outside the budget.  Around here there's groups of hunter/trucks that run dogs through all the properties that give them permission.  They do really well.  Can always tell when they're out when you see the convoy rolling around. Maybe join up with them and hunt too?

Have gun, will travel. Seriously I have nothing better to do four days a week.

They had an organized hunt around February sometime. It was set up by a neighborhood cop and some buddies. They didn’t come up with much but they did think they found the area where the den is. About a quarter mile or so north of my place.
Their area seems to be farm fields between subdivisions then to the forest preserve. My place is probably the narrowest area with a pine tree line along the neighboring houses and opening up at my back yard, they cross between mine and my neighbors yard to the field across the street then to either the Forrest preserve or another farm field.
The whole area isn’t really ideal for hunting long range, fields are too small and houses either side. My firing line would be twenty to a hundred yards downhill. They’re pretty bold, the human scent doesn’t seem to deter them. My spring time is going to consist of waiting for them to turn the corner and shoot them right where they lured my pup to.