I usually hang around on the African Hunting Forum, but something happened to lead me here.

I've always had the attitude of "live and let live" when it comes to coyotes and other predators. I've seen several while deer hunting and let them be because I figured that they don't do any real damage, other than to small game, which I seldom hunt anyway.

That has all changed now.

I live in a suburb of Atlanta, GA. Between me and the Chatahoochee River there is a 400 acre "gentleman's" cattle farm. For years, we have heard coyotes on the farm as they gather for their evening escapades. I never really worried about them, because we have a neighborhood full of Labrador retrievers, collies and goldens, which I figured the yotes wanted nothing to do with. I have never even worried too much about our little dog, a small American Eskimo named Snowy, because she is always surrounded by the larger dogs when she's out, which I thought offered her a measure of protection. Then came last Saturday morning.

It was about 8:15 a.m. Snowy was out in the yard with our collie, and I was upstairs. Suddenly my wife startes screaming bloody murder and my teenage son yells "Dad, coyotes are after Snowy!"

I didn't even slow down as I made way to the basement and my gun safe. It was already open, yet of the 27 rifles and shotguns in the safe, the only one I could match with ammo quicky was a .300 Win Mag and 180-grain kudu loads. No time to worry about it; I slammed three rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber and charged up the stairs.

By now, my 15-year-old, Danny, was out in the yard chasing our little dog, which was chasing two coyotes, which was being chased by two OTHER coyotes. They were not in the slightest bit concerned with Danny's yelling. When I emerged from the house, the two yotes chasing Snowy broke off and ran back on the farm, as did one of the ones being chased by Snowy. The other one ran into the neighbor's yard and was confronted by their three Labs. This is where it got interesting.

The three labs came running up to the varmit, barking and growling, but the yote, instead of hightailing it, stopped and started wagging its tail! The Labs and the yote were now nose-to-nose, but you would have thought they were long lost buddies, at least from the coyote's point of view. The Labs were agressive, but seemed afraid to press an attack. I had my scope on the coyote, but was afraid to shoot for fear of hitting one of the Labs. I went running toward the menagerie, and the coyote took off. I could never get a shot that I felt comfortable with, so I let him go.

What struck me most was the total lack of fear exhibited by these critters. They were not afraid of dogs twice their size; they were not afraid of my wife's screaming; they were not afraid of my son, who was running after them. They were afraid of me, however. It's as if they instinctively knew what a rifle was.

So, as of last Saturday, it's no longer "live and let live." These damn critters have invaded my yard and tried to kill a member of our family (Snowy). Now that we know that they are not afraid of the large dogs in the neighborhood, we've become afraid to let the little dog out alone. We've live here 12 years, but no longer feel secure and safe.

Since last week, I've done a lot of research on Eastern Coyotes and found out that their boldness is a result of not seeing man as something to fear. According to one article I read, they will come to associate people with food (mainly pets) and will continue to make forays into the neighborhood, unless something is done to re-establish their healthy fear of humans. So I've taken steps to re-establish that fear.

Sunday, I set up two ladder-type deer stands on the pasture that borders the river on the adjoining farm. This is where we always here them at night and where I saw one Sunday while scouting a place to set up. I feel like I have to use and elevated stand because there are subdivisions across the river and I want any bullets fired to be at a downward angle. I went to Bass Pro and bought a howler and a rodent in distress call. I also bought a red-tinted predator light that fits on my scope. I've zeroed my .260 Rem. with 120-grain bullets at 200 yards and I've started the hunt!

I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm trying hard. Any suggestions on how to shoot a couple of these bastards will be appreciated.

I'll keep you guys informed on my progress.

If I was you I would start out by finding someone in your area that hunts them. And learn from them. If you want to start on your own then I sujest getting an electronic caller. Then buy manual calls. You can learn alot about how to call them and what calls to use when you start with an electronic caller first. The only other thing that I can say is get the little bastards before they get your dog or the neighbors dogs.

Ray

The coyotes are hell on pets in my neighborhood. They have gotten two of my cats, and three neighbor dogs over the past couple of years. I shoot 'em on site around the house.

ROFLMAO!!! Sounds like the keystone kops. Dogs being who they are, "Snowy" wasn't looking for a boy friend by any chance was she? You might want to make sure its legal to shot at night before you begin. Atlanta is becoming nothing but a NYC south.
Remember, there are no stupid coyotes. If you use say a mouse squeek to call one in and miss your shot, you'll never fool that coyote with a mouse call again. I truly believe one coyote can teach another about calls to avoid and sets to ignore.
Personally, I'll take the coyotes anytime over the surburban yard dogs that are trained to bark 24/7.

Beeman,

If I went into the details of the entire story, you would really get a laugh, because I ended up chasing that lone coyote about a mile through backyards and through the playground of an elementary school -- .300 Winnie in hand!

Whether or not it is legal to hunt them here is a gray area. I live in unincorporated Fulton County. While deer hunting is illegal here, there is still lots of small game hunting in the county. To my way of thinking, coyote hunting is just a form of small game hunting and shooting them at night is allowed in other parts of the state, so why not here?

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

You do of course realize that you now need a dedicated suburban coyote rifle, paired with a nice varmint shotgun.

I reccomend a .17 Remington, low noise (comparatively) and the projectiles are super frangible so there's a reduced danger (almost nil) of overpenetration, ricochet, etc. The shotgun is for close in work at night generally, but I used it a lot cruising the orchards that bordered suburbia. Which was where they'd take the carcass of Fluffy the housecat or Mopsy the unfortunate ornamental lapdog to chow down. And they served as cover.

I did suburban coyote control in SoCal for a long time, trapping and shooting. We lost the use of traps due to a ballot initiative in 98' so it's been exclusively shooting since then.

We studied those urban and suburban coyotes and there was a progression to their behaviors. As they get acclimated to people they get bolder, when they get bolder they become dangerous. If you're seeing them in the neighborhoods in the daytime do not hesitate to kill them, it's only a matter of time till something happens. But I'd check out the laws regarding the discharge of a firearm in certain areas. I was fortunate to have the cooperation of the county sherrifs office and city PD's, county ag. dept., USDA/APHIS, Farm Bureau, homeowners assns., ranchers, etc.

I WAS NOT/AM NOT liked by the local humane soceity twits who preached peace, love and granola about coyotes till they became a danger then they shut the fuck up. That and the cages full of live trapped Norway rats I dropped in their after hours animal rescue boxes. Or a series of tranquilized striped skunks in aforementioned boxes that'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed, set and ready to spray when they opened in the morning. They claimed to rehabilitate and place animals so hey, hold em' to it.

Rather than small game, often coyotes and such are assigned "predator" status and can be taken by any means at any time.
In Okla, they use everything short of a nuclear bomb: planes, dogs, traps, poison, guns, you name it. The coyotes? They just keep on making little coyotes -coydogs if you don't watch Phoebe- and inviting your cats and lap dogs out for dinner.
Tell me something, with your .375, did you load with soft points or solids?

It started in 1988 while I was wearing wing tipped shoes and a necktie and eating corn flakes, when a coyote ran past my window with one of my hens in it's mouth.

I grabbed my shot gun and gave chase.
The hen recovered, the coyote did not.

With these @*%%!!*^% "mountaineers" and their @#*&^!)^& free running dogs, the coyotes don't have much of a chance to nap a chicken.