Callin' all varmint hunters!!

[steve garro]

I was going to let this run a few pages for laughs - thanks!

I ran a trap line & varmint called the whole time I grew up, in the winter (fur is worthless in summer)
I don't do it or condone it anymore but that's how we grew up.
That waxy smell of pelts drying on streachers is something I'll never forget.
There would be 100's in our garage - we had to drive to Cortez, CO to sell them at a a fur grader from our house in Tuba City, AZ.

.22 will take them down, or really injure them......
.22 Mag hollw point will take down most anything (including a 300lb mule deer, if placed behind the ear)
.223 really carries - 500yrs easy - if you wanna go out to 1000yrds you need a .22-250. My dad would do this regularly, in the dark......bringing them in with red light rabbit calling in the dark......

It's hard to trap a 'yote, and if there is a pair, you'll only get one.
You have to burn the traps in a fire, and then let them cool, and picking them up with a long fresh stick dip them in a pot with sage brush in it boiling, and with a big stick of parrafin wax melted in it to coat the trap, and lube it (the parts that hold the spring are called "dogs")

You want a #4.

Then there is the art of setting them..........

Don't y'all have Game & Fish officers out there?
Tell them the coyotes were threatening, and not scared of humans.

Osa must be reading my mind - she's at least 1/4 'yote and here staring at me...........

Let me know if you do want trapping notes - gotta know what soil you have.
- Garro.

[christian]

It's hard to trap a 'yote, and if there is a pair, you'll only get one.

My experience in suburban Westchester tells me that nearly all the resident coyotes here are male/female pairs or family groups. The two biggest family groups I've seen are in Glazier Arboretum in Chappaqua (6) and on the North County Trailway (5) behind the State Police Barracks in Hawthorne. The ones in Hawthorne used to run in front of my bike when I would commute in early in the am in winter. They lope along easy, for sure.

[RickM]

I was going to let this run a few pages for laughs - thanks!

I ran a trap line & varmint called the whole time I grew up, in the winter (fur is worthless in summer)
- Garro.

Ditto, Garro. I ran a line while growing up in Pa. Set them at night, cleared them in the mornings before school. No coyote, though. Rabbit and Muskrat..and even some squirrel, for furriers across the river in Trenton, NJ. who made/sold clothes in the black community. We little white boys would ride our bikes across the bridge and sell the pelts. Any Carp we could catch in the Delaware river were also welcome and we'd get a few cents for them from some old women who were always pole-fishing down by the Calhoun St. bridge. That is all a whole world that I suspect is gone forever.

[fmbp]

That thing was madder than a boiled owl.

I've got nothing to add to this conversation, but this expression made me laugh out loud. Love it.

[Jayme]

From my limited education regarding coyotes (Saturday mornings as a child) they are highly intelligent and virtually indestructable.
Perhaps you can distract them with this

Jayme

[Dorman]

Been a fun thread. I should pack up one of the wolves that is killing my deer and bring it to you. That will end your problem with coyotes.

[alexstar]

Been a fun thread. I should pack up one of the wolves that is killing my deer and bring it to you. That will end your problem with coyotes.

We have a surplus of deer here... expect a delivery on Tuesday.

[steve garro]

Been a fun thread. I should pack up one of the wolves that is killing my deer and bring it to you. That will end your problem with coyotes.

You have your own deer?
- Garro.

[steve garro]

Tracked this guy for awhile yesterday.
- Garro. IMG_1169.jpg

[Cookietruck]

bigfoot?

[steve garro]

bigfoot?

Black bear = see the front - it's different = the rears are about 10" long.
http://www.bear-tracker.com/bear.html
- Garro

[j44ke]

A friend hiking during a snowy winter in the Chiricahua's (southeast Arizona) had one of those experiences where he turned around to hike back home and about 200 feet back down the trail saw mountain lion tracks on top of his own in the snow. We had a deer fall pellmell down a slope near that same trail one spring and land right in front of us, then got up and hauled ass out of there. Spooky.

Bears plunder refrigerators and deer eat all the azaleas & help mice spread Lyme disease ticks. A few coyotes isn't going to be a bad addition. Perhaps they'll eat the voles the fox misses. Mountain lions I'd rather leave out west though last year there was one in Connecticut I think.

[rowdyhillrambler]

I love this thread..

Makes you realize how old mom nature is smarter than we are. I know that most of us "enlightened," salonistas understand that, but, not sure bout everyone else.

People think that they are going to eradicate a nuisance animal, or pest with no repurcussion. Sometimes it makes us choose what is most important for us. And our answers are not always the same.

For instance this particular thread.

Some folks on here think that it is negligence to leave a cat outside, in harms way. I disagree, but understand.

Here on the Cumberland Plateau, the state pretty much completely got rid of Timber Rattlesnakes. 5 years later the mice, chipmunk, rat, shrew et al. population had pretty much infested the woodlands around here.. Now what??? I tell you what. The wildlife agency started shipping in Timber Rattlesnakes by the truckload, literally. Now what?? Infestation of rattlesnakes.! So if you have mice in your barn, you have rattlesnakes in your barn.....

Last week my 5 year old gal, who is very obserant, looked out the window on the porch and said "dad, is that snake dead or alive,'' Well, it was alive. 54" of loud proud snake.. A month ago i went to light the grill, old charcoal moves around, i move it out of the way to find a 57" bad boy..

I have no real point, but we have to choose and sometimes it aint always the PC choice.

I will take the possibility of losing a barn cat, who keeps the mice away, which keeps the rattlers away, but may possibly lose the battle of nature.. All of this so my little girl can play outside. Yea, it is selfish, but i can live with it.

By the way, we ate rattlesnake for lunch that day.. No bullshit, it was terrible.. If i shot a coyote on the porch, i would probably try to eat it too.

[RickM]

Hey Rowdy -->> As you found out, snake is actually pretty bad. I can only imagine that Coyote would be, um, well...it would be really really bad. I'm always up for trying game of any ilk, but man, you end up kissing a lot of frogs, (which are pretty tasty, btw!) and you quickly realize why there are no farm-raised possums being served in trendy restaurants, or why there's a dearth of squirrel recipes here in the foodie forum. I'd say that 'gator is about the best thing I've tried from the Reasonably Obscure Game side of the menu. Delish.

For my $, the best recipes and articles on the subject of cooking game of all stripes are written by a guy in Florida; A.D. Livingston. He writes a column in Grays, and he's got a buncha' books that can be found on Amazon.

[WadePatton]

Rattler can be tasty, just like nearly all game...except the extraordinarily greasy or rangy stuff like possum and coyote. and the buzzards will gladly clean those bones.

The reason the foodie section has little game information is that true game is only consumed by an extreme fraction* of folks, and the bulk of that is likely venison and fish-which is easy enough.

*And but we do eat a lot of it.

i already put 50# of mineral salt out in the woods for pre-seasoning...

and yes i has barn cats. they're the devil on moles and voles and sech.

Here's a little FB video of a song dog we riled up back in late winter, sounds a little different than your normal "Coyote" clips.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=3&theater

[RickM]

Wade-->>> Got decent snake recipes? I've had it at home and in a restaurant and it sucked both times. For the at-home time, I used my recipe for cooking eel, (2-inch chunks fried in oil/garlic/peppers) and it was just not very good. The restaurant version was doused in cayenne and stuff (usually=Good-by-me) but it too was just Yech. School me, pleez.

[Cookietruck]

speakin of kitties, my brother just sent me this pic this morning.
he didn't kill it, saw it on the edge of someones land.
said it was about as big as his 40lb dog.

[steve garro]

why there's a dearth of squirrel recipes here in the foodie forum. .

I grew up eating squirrells - we have huge ones - Aberts - You brown them in a 14q dutch oven, then add onions, garlic & red chile, then simmer, remove the bones, and make tamales.
Deeeeeee-lish!
- Garro.

[christian]

I wouldn't eat bobcat. Or any other carnivore, frankly.

[RickM]

I wouldn't eat bobcat. Or any other carnivore, frankly.

I just think it's a goddam same to shoot big cats. If I was a sheep rancher, I suspect I'd think differently. So many opinions are situationally formed. I am pretty sure I got stalked bigtime one night while camping up in Washington state...and I used to look at the families out hiking in the mtns...letting Dick and Jane run far ahead unsupervised...and think; You know those tots are good-sized dinner for Mr. Cat, right??? It looks like the kitty in the pic expired from natural causes(?) Hope so, anyway.