York Coyote Hunt
December 4, 2007
By Mike Horning
On Friday morning March 3, 2006, I headed into the woods in York, Maine with a group of friends and two hounds looking for coyotes. Alan, the owner of both hounds brought along his best two, which were of the same litter, one male and one female. Also there was Alan’s brother Gary and friends Randy, John, and Scott who all grew up within a couple miles of each other. Two years prior to this hunt, both Alan and Scott trapped over 80 coyotes up at Alan’s camp in Greenville. Normally they can trap between 50 and 60. But this particular morning is was a cold, clear, and windy, which made it difficult to hear the hounds at times. Alan had each hound outfitted with radio collars and so he needed to beep them often in order to determine which direction to go. Early on, a coyote came out of nowhere and went right by Alan. Alan fired but with no luck. Ten minutes later the same coyote passed between Randy and Scott. Scott fired once and Randy emptied on it – the coyote lives another day.
Later on in the day, they had passed by a pond and were standing on one side when the hounds struck again. This time Alan turned out the less experienced hound as they are both great at cold trailing when they jump a coyote.
Randy called me on the radio to tell me where the coyotes had crossed several times. When I got there, the hounds were just out of my hearing range. I headed in the direction I believed they were headed. After about ten minutes, I could hear the hounds coming toward me.
I positioned myself up on top of a ledge where I could watch a gully, thinking this may be where the coyote would come through. Within seconds I could see the coyote coming toward me. It approached within 30 yards of where I was standing. I took quick aim and dumped him in his tracks. The coyote began to spin around so I gave him two more shots.
I was hunting with a 12-gauge Browning shotgun, using 3 inch, 00 buckshot.
What I found to be one of the more enjoyable moments of the hunt was standing over my coyote watching 3 very excited hounds wagging their tails in satisfaction.
This was another great day in the Maine woods. As it turned out, this was the 6th coyote killed in front of the 12-month old hounds so far this winter.
I currently live in Pennsylvania but hold a NY lifetime resident hunting license. In the area I hunt in upstate NY near Hancock in Delaware county, the deer population is horrible. I do see a lot of doe probably due to the DEC not issuing any doe permits in my area the past 2 years. This being said , I contribute the lack of buck due to excessive poaching and lack of game wardens. It has become known in that area that there are basically no game wardens or not enough to be effective and the local outlaws are taking full advantage of this situation. It has become a sport if you will of driving around the area at night with a spotlight and shooting deer with a bow from the back of pickup trucks. The worst part of this crime, I’m sorry sport, is that if the deer doesn’t drop within sight they don’t bother to recover it. My understanding of the situation is that there isn’t proper funding to pay the overtime needed or hire more wardens to patrol these hours. My questions are where does our money go from the purchases of hunting licenses, and what price do we as sportsman put on the wildlife and our reputations? Is this what we are and is this what our state is promoting? The message being sent is they do not care as long as we keep quiet and pay our license fees. Does that money go into the general fund and if so why do we pay for licenses to the state if they give us nothing in return. Why does our youth hunters get frustrated when they hunt all day to see nothing? Many times I have sat in my stand during bow season and wonder if I missed something in my regulations book because it sure sounds like rifle season to me. When its one shot here and one shot on the next ridge and two shots on the edge of the field on the opposite mountain its not hard to realize what is going on.Am I the only one who sees this are are there more concerned sportsman out there?
I can’t speak specifically for New York, Tom, but one of the aggravating things for sportsmen is in discovering where their money is going. Too much of it is spent on non-game management and programs, search and rescue, etc.
Poaching is a serious problem and with a slouching economy we can expect to see more of it not less. I’m not sure there is a simple solution.
Thanks for sharing.
I have also heard all those shots during bow season and just hope that it is hunters going for Turkey or Coyotes. I hunt the same area near Hancock. I have seen a lot DEC since I started hunting six years ago. It seems to be increasing each year.