A message from Wyman on Coyote killing

[Jr solocam]

Don’t make it simple on my account. The median farm/ranch in the United States is 80 acres. Half are bigger than this, and half are smaller.

We have the largest coyote population in Texas, of the states, by far. About 850,000 or about 2.5 per square mile (640 acres).

Fairly obviously, a square mile is 8 times bigger than the median farm or ranch.

Ever feed and rattle up bucks that spend most of their lives on your neighbors?

If your friend has 2 square miles of land at the average carrying capacity of Texas’ land, then there are likely to be five. Can you “put a dent” in five?

If he killed 600 in one month, and that wasn’t all of them, then he must have had about 1,000, does your friend have a ranch that is roughly 400 square miles in size?

60,000 acres I didn't do the math on square miles. 80 acres isn't a farm/ranch, it's a hobby or investment. I have a very small operation only 2300 acres.

Also the average carrying capacity in a desert is nothing close to ours.

 

[snert]

Parker my friend, I don't think you'll ever make it big in the world of trapping and fur prep. After a while, you get so used to the smell that you can eat a sammich while you work. Skinning muskrats is easiest when you do it on a piece of carpet laying in your lap. I used to get so immersed in the smell that I wouldn't look for a girlfriend until season was over. Didn't have time for them anyway. jd

Well, JD, at 60, I somehow think my days of ever considering being a trapline fur harvesting pioneer are LONG over. I did run a line back in the early2000's, never deviating more than a mile out of the general trip to and from work...I'd check and set to and from...and made enough to pay the gas for those several months. Mostly rats from the numerous streams and ponds, several fox (one taken with a Red and White Sheriff vehicle, front right tire..) and a few beaver. Oh, and seven mink, which were so fun to catch. Skinning was accomplished by my partner. I did the trapping, he did the skinning, and we split the $800 we made. I really liked outsmarting a muskrat....Ya, ya, cue the jokes now....

After that, I quit. I loved it, but my relationship with my skinner ended, sadly.

My bride, unlike yours, had no part whatsoever in anything trapped.
Which reminds me of "operation Tweety Bird" a targeted operation, removing feral cats from my residence and immediate confines...thought there were two or three...19 cats later....but that is another story altogether...

 

[Jr solocam]

Also, a neighbor who lives 2 miles away called in the state predator control to fly coyotes. He killed 65 coyotes in one morning. This was in an area of about 4 square miles.

 

[davidjoe]

60,000 acres I didn't do the math on square miles. 80 acres isn't a farm/ranch, it's a hobby or investment. I have a very small operation only 2300 acres.

Also the average carrying capacity in a desert is nothing close to ours.

Harding County South Dakota. Northwestern corner. 2024 coyote population of the whole state is estimated at 70-75,000. Harding County is 2,671 square miles of land and a few of water. Your state has 75.8k square miles.

Your friend is on 93.75 square miles, or 3.5% of the red county.

Your state has at the most 75,000 coyotes spread over 75,000 square miles or, 1:1 coyote to square miles. Thats less than 1/2 of the Texas density.

He’d have 94 animals, but if you’d say his ranch is disproportionately abundant relative to the state, he’d have what say 300 to 600, and he killed 600?

Anyhow, they aren’t our coyotes, but yours. Scenic area.

 

[Jr solocam]

Mr Google, it is half way fun debating you. When you own three airplanes come back and visit.

I could shoot a coyote everyday of the year if I chose to. How does that figure in to your Google searches?

Ive hunted in SW Texas. Mostly rocks, gravel and cactus. Ranches have goats because they don't support cattle. We have less than one half of your coyote density?? Maybe that's true because your coyotes prolly weigh 25 lbs.

 

[Jr solocam]

We support between 15 and25 pairs per quarter. What is your carrying capacity? What is the maximum on state and federal acres?

 

[davidjoe]

I’m not aware of any public grazing land in Texas. About 99% of the state is privately owned. Charolais bulls for gulf coast raisers is the ranch’s business, - the breed in generation four, now, and the ranches, circa Texas statehood. The King Ranch is nearby us, and the coastal loam here lacks the rock you saw west, and transitions from brush into the magic valley, renown for farming with four growing seasons.

Texas reports a population of 850,000 coyotes. I stopped shooting them after an aged female whose body was given to generations of pups, and her cloudy eyes to time itself, came up at Yellowstone years ago. I saw them as social creatures, relied on by those I didn’t see. She had done her part in a role, that I could only detract from.

 

[Jr solocam]

Well long after you and I are dust, coyotes, coons and rats will inherit this earth. Like I said in my first post, coyotes are not inherently bad or good, they just are......

 

[ohlongarmisle]

I’m not aware of any public grazing land in Texas. About 99% of the state is privately owned. Charolais bulls for gulf coast raisers is the ranch’s business, - the breed in generation four, now, and the ranches, circa Texas statehood. The King Ranch is nearby us, and the coastal loam here lacks the rock you saw west, and transitions from brush into the magic valley, renown for farming with four growing seasons.

Texas reports a population of 850,000 coyotes. I stopped shooting them after an aged female whose body was given to generations of pups, and her cloudy eyes to time itself, came up at Yellowstone years ago. I saw them as social creatures, relied on by those I didn’t see. She had done her part in a role, that I could only detract from.

I fully understand your feelings, but I've been a varmint hunter since age eight,and will continue till the end,I do however respect my quarry, and make sure they go down with no suffering.Even gh's have my respect,I did however pass recently on a den of coyote pups,no a challenge,if I find the picture i'll post it.

 

[jds holler]

Have any y'all trappers ever done this??

Around here coyotes are getting prime in September, and guys are starting to string steel before deer season in October. but -- some of the fresh pups might not have full belly hair by then, and it's a shame to kill them with a low value pelt. Soooo, you can take one that's been trapped and get him to settle down and he'll stretch away from you as far as the chain allows, and pretty much freeze up with fear. At that point, you can gently take control of him/her, and roll them over like a submissive pup and check the belly. If they are nice and bushy down around the privates, CAREFULLY back away and let loose and continue your kill. If the pelt is too sparse down there, keep control, specially head and neck, and use a foot and one hand to release the trapped foot. They will sometimes lay there paralyzed with fear and not even realize they've been set free.

My old buyer/mentor told me about this, and I called BS, but he convinced me to try it, and it works -- with pups. Big mature dogs, I'll pass. jd

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

I will play a bit, it seems that most have very short memories. Antis have tried(sometimes successful) stopping,fur garment market, bowhunting, dove hunting, bear hunting, bear baiting, hunting with hounds, trapping, trapping equipment (snares,neck gripping traps). Even climate change, social justice, gun safety. gets linked in the chain of agenda. Mostly they fund raise as they need to buy a home, food,vehicles, produce fictional reports,ads and videos and take elected representatives out to lunch and raise another generation of activists. Lead shot/bullets, fishing equipment. Internal combustion vehicles, gas stoves, air conditioning, child birth(world population reduction). Agriculture, animal and crop production. Hard to list all that someone isn't using to get YOUR money handed to them, either voluntary or not. Doesn't surprise me that coyote hunting contests make an appearance on a very long list. I guess our compassion or ignorance has no bounds.