As an adult, I've killed animals for food (e.g., deer and rabbits--my wife has a delicious recipe for rabbit) or because they were pests (e.g., starlings, squirrels). I never had anything against people who killed coyotes. Coyotes sometimes get to wounded deer while a hunter waits for it to bleed out and that is not good. They also create havoc for farmer's chickens.
Anyway, due to coyotes messing with my dog, I picked up a Pitbull Air modified Benjamin bulldog recently.
I killed one of at least two coyotes that were harassing my dog, from my second floor bedroom on a bright moonlit night--but since we have a walkout basement, it is more like a third floor bedroom. Great position in that if I missed, the bullet would go into the ground at a pretty steep angle.
The coyote population has recently been exploding it seems. I've had indoor/outdoor dogs that get put outside at night for 18 years. But this year the coyotes have been trying to get my dog to leave the yard by pretending to play. Coyotes are smart. I've seen a video of a coyote playing with fawn, going so far as to pretend to be grazing...my guess is that coyote was full, and wanted to acclimate the fawn to their presence. But I think everybody agrees coyotes are usually pretty smart after a few years.
Anyway, so we started putting the dog in the locked kennel at night (it has a heated dog house).
But my dog alerts every time the coyotes come. The females seem to have learned the limits of our wireless dog fence, and avoid the areas were my dog is trained to stick.
However, the male coyote has been increasingly aggressive.
The following photos are from a video of the male coyote doing some sort of dominance paw scrap on the ground a couple of nights before I got one of the coyotes. My dog was alerting to the coyote, and the bastard did this moonwalk. The male coyote did not even look at my barking dog when it did this dominance dance, it was broadside with my dog about 15 yards away in a 6' high kennel. I guess in canine dog speak this was very threatening, because my dog stopped barking when it concluded its dance, while the coyotes were still there. Even though the dog was alerting, I slept through this one:
The night the video from where the above screenshots were captured, there was a female about 5 yards behind the male, but was reluctant to enter the yard with my dog barking.
The camera stopped recording and then started recording again, and the above female either retreated and went around our property line, or there was a third coyote.
Fortunately, the moon was bright a couple of nights later, and I got one with the Pitbull modified Benjamin bulldog :
The coyote dropped straight down unlike anything I've ever seen using the effective Benjamin/Nosler 145g ballistic tips. No yelp, no leg twitching, no pissing, no straight leg convulsions--just dropped dead and still. Among the most clean kill shots I've ever seen. My wife was sleeping and didn't even wake up. I weighed the coyote, and it was 27 pounds. But I had estimated a lot more, considering my 50 pound dog looks about the same size as the coyotes. It is amazing how large a 27 pound coyote looks. The fur is very thick, but as far as I can tell, the above coyote is either a female or has a lot more fur then testicles. I didn't try to cop a feel to make sure.
If the other coyote(s) keeps coming back, its days are numbered if the bulldog keeps performing. The male was quite a bruiser.
Also, Coyotes stink. Literally. I guess they don't bathe much. The fur is not pleasant, and after I woke my wife up she did not want me to mount it. I still have it, it is frozen outside in some plastic yard bags.
AirNGasman in this post recommended that I get it mounted...but I can't see spending $1000 to mount such an ugly looking coyote, or even $200 to get a fur pelt. What do you all think? I think getting an air compressor and tank might be better--pumping the modified bulldog to 4500 psi with a hand pump is good exercise, but limits my practice with the gun.
Anyway, coyotes left my last dog alone. She slept outside wherever she wanted--and she usually chose not to sleep in the heated doghouse except on the coldest of nights. Before this year, I really only saw one coyote in the neighborhood, and it seemed to keep its distance from humans and yards, sticking to the woods.
But now that they are messing with my dog, and treating my yard as their playground, the war is on.
Anyway, due to coyotes messing with my dog, I picked up a Pitbull Air modified Benjamin bulldog recently.
I killed one of at least two coyotes that were harassing my dog, from my second floor bedroom on a bright moonlit night--but since we have a walkout basement, it is more like a third floor bedroom. Great position in that if I missed, the bullet would go into the ground at a pretty steep angle.
The coyote population has recently been exploding it seems. I've had indoor/outdoor dogs that get put outside at night for 18 years. But this year the coyotes have been trying to get my dog to leave the yard by pretending to play. Coyotes are smart. I've seen a video of a coyote playing with fawn, going so far as to pretend to be grazing...my guess is that coyote was full, and wanted to acclimate the fawn to their presence. But I think everybody agrees coyotes are usually pretty smart after a few years.
Anyway, so we started putting the dog in the locked kennel at night (it has a heated dog house).
But my dog alerts every time the coyotes come. The females seem to have learned the limits of our wireless dog fence, and avoid the areas were my dog is trained to stick.
However, the male coyote has been increasingly aggressive.
The following photos are from a video of the male coyote doing some sort of dominance paw scrap on the ground a couple of nights before I got one of the coyotes. My dog was alerting to the coyote, and the bastard did this moonwalk. The male coyote did not even look at my barking dog when it did this dominance dance, it was broadside with my dog about 15 yards away in a 6' high kennel. I guess in canine dog speak this was very threatening, because my dog stopped barking when it concluded its dance, while the coyotes were still there. Even though the dog was alerting, I slept through this one:
The night the video from where the above screenshots were captured, there was a female about 5 yards behind the male, but was reluctant to enter the yard with my dog barking.
The camera stopped recording and then started recording again, and the above female either retreated and went around our property line, or there was a third coyote.
Fortunately, the moon was bright a couple of nights later, and I got one with the Pitbull modified Benjamin bulldog :
The coyote dropped straight down unlike anything I've ever seen using the effective Benjamin/Nosler 145g ballistic tips. No yelp, no leg twitching, no pissing, no straight leg convulsions--just dropped dead and still. Among the most clean kill shots I've ever seen. My wife was sleeping and didn't even wake up. I weighed the coyote, and it was 27 pounds. But I had estimated a lot more, considering my 50 pound dog looks about the same size as the coyotes. It is amazing how large a 27 pound coyote looks. The fur is very thick, but as far as I can tell, the above coyote is either a female or has a lot more fur then testicles. I didn't try to cop a feel to make sure.
If the other coyote(s) keeps coming back, its days are numbered if the bulldog keeps performing. The male was quite a bruiser.
Also, Coyotes stink. Literally. I guess they don't bathe much. The fur is not pleasant, and after I woke my wife up she did not want me to mount it. I still have it, it is frozen outside in some plastic yard bags.
AirNGasman in this post recommended that I get it mounted...but I can't see spending $1000 to mount such an ugly looking coyote, or even $200 to get a fur pelt. What do you all think? I think getting an air compressor and tank might be better--pumping the modified bulldog to 4500 psi with a hand pump is good exercise, but limits my practice with the gun.
Anyway, coyotes left my last dog alone. She slept outside wherever she wanted--and she usually chose not to sleep in the heated doghouse except on the coldest of nights. Before this year, I really only saw one coyote in the neighborhood, and it seemed to keep its distance from humans and yards, sticking to the woods.
But now that they are messing with my dog, and treating my yard as their playground, the war is on.
