I feel ya Stocker. Same deal down here in Oklahoma. Friday better be amazeballs.
Nebraska “slam” attempt
- Thread starter Stocker
- Start date
Tomorrow is gonna be my last hurrah. A front moved in today. Tomorrows high is ~30. I’m gonna take my stuff and sit all day.
My wife’s family is coming in tomorrow from AZ and MN for the rifle opener. I always enjoy playing guide for them. I mostly just pick them up and drop them off while drinking beer or whiskey all day. My wife decided after this weekend she wanted to go west for the next weekend of the season and chase mule deer so I’m looking forward to helping her with that. I won’t have a rifle tag, but I could still fill my archery tag if the opportunity arises but focus #1 will be finding her a good deer 1st. She’s the pickiest person as far as shooting critters. I’ve watched her pass up more bucks than anyone I know. I about threw her out of the tree a few years ago when she passed up this old heavy 5x5. He was probably 145” and she didn’t even think twice about letting him walk. I have my work cut out for me trying to find something she’ll shoot.
My wife’s family is coming in tomorrow from AZ and MN for the rifle opener. I always enjoy playing guide for them. I mostly just pick them up and drop them off while drinking beer or whiskey all day. My wife decided after this weekend she wanted to go west for the next weekend of the season and chase mule deer so I’m looking forward to helping her with that. I won’t have a rifle tag, but I could still fill my archery tag if the opportunity arises but focus #1 will be finding her a good deer 1st. She’s the pickiest person as far as shooting critters. I’ve watched her pass up more bucks than anyone I know. I about threw her out of the tree a few years ago when she passed up this old heavy 5x5. He was probably 145” and she didn’t even think twice about letting him walk. I have my work cut out for me trying to find something she’ll shoot.
Hunting Wife
Well-known member
This would be the time of year to see a wandering billy. Never going to find a nice girl hanging out in places like that though.
D
Deleted member 52098
Guest
Good luck bud, go get ‘em
Seen for sure 9 different bucks. I counted 13 total. Passed up a few nice bucks that will be dandies next year. I laid eyes on both big ones in there. The big 4x4 is just a stud. The buck I got a pic of early this morning is really good, but if he survives this year he could be something special. Just got word my buddy shot a giant so that helps the mood s little. On to drinking and playing guide!
Yesterday was a good day. My wife’s cousin got her first deer and he was really nice. I have a good family friend who is paralyzed, he has some use of his hands but not a ton. I’ve got a spot on the farm that’s easy for him to access and he has an amazing friend that sits with him and his son also helps out. They both put him as top priority to get a deer, just amazing people. His son is about my age so I started dragging him along on some of my hunting adventures, he loves it and is picking things up really fast. He shot a nice buck yesterday.
BrentD
Well-known member
That's what is jinxing you. Shooting canids never ends well...
I wouldn’t go after them so hard if they weren’t so over populated. A guy I know put 2 trail cams on 2 dens. I pair of coyotes drug 15 fawns to the den and the other 23. They are hunting in packs now and I believe taking down some adult deer. They have hammered turkeys too. I feel
Like I have to try to do emerging to balance it out.
BrentD
Well-known member
The more you shoot'em, the more of them you have.
There is some circumstantial evidence that they are good for turkeys.
I’ve heard that about shooting them. They claim they just keep filling the void. I’ve been thinking they’re so thick they’re bound to get mange and have a massive die off for the past 5-6 years.
I’d have to disagree with the turkey thing. Our coyotes don’t seem to hurt the nest robbers as their population has boomed too. I see 10x more nest robbers and coyotes than I do game animals on a given day. Before the coyote boom turkeys were pretty prevalent. Now they are down to just 2-3 bands in the places I hunt and their population is about 1/10th or less than what it was.
I understand there had to be a balance, but it’s so far outta whack right now it’s not even funny.
BackofBeyond
Well-known member
About 4 years ago we got with some neighbors and had the state trapper fly the area, he took out 43 coyotes off roughly 10k acres. Seemed like a lot. My uncle then shot more coyotes that winter than he ever has before.
This anecdotal evidence proves nothing, but we sure won’t be paying for the state trapper to fly again, that’s for sure.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
Something, mange/distemper/other decimated the ones around my home town and they didn't rebound for almost a decade. I've seen more this year than ever before, to the point I worry about running my dog.
There is nothing wrong with taking a few out from time to time
There is nothing wrong with taking a few out from time to time
@BrentD What’s the thinking about not shooting them? Do they just produce more pups if there’s less adults? I’ve heard if you kill the dominant male or female in an area then 2-3 other coyotes will come in to fight for dominance.
BrentD
Well-known member
I don't want to derail your thread with a clone of the ongoing CWD thread, but there is that and a whole bunch of indirect effects.
Every experimental study, that I'm aware of, shows coyotes are good for ground nesting birds. All the armchair correlations of "there aren't nearly as many xyz as there were in the old days, and we are buried in coyotes so that's why" just doesn't cut it for me. Sorry.
As for balance, what is the balance supposed to be and how do you know? I won't argue against the existence of balance points, but knowing what they are is not a trivial problem. Maybe the system in in balance - but the balance is not where you want it to be? Then what?
See, this is a big rabbit hole we don't need to go down here. It's snowing out there, go get that buck.
Thanks, yeah I wasn’t questioning you, I was honestly wondering. I guess it’s probably more of the predator/prey boom bust cycle.
You’re right on I don’t know what the exact balance is. When I was a child the coyotes had mange, it was extremely rare to see a coyote. In the flip side there was ~100 deer or more in the 2 mile section behind my house. Coyotes started coming back in about 05-07. It wasn’t a big deal until 2012 when EHD hammered our deer population. That same area that had over 100 deer has maybe 10-20 now.
It seems to me that things are on ~30 year cycles, not that I’ve lived long enough, but just going off the stories I e heard and evidence I can find. So the pendulum is probably about to swing the other way.
