Predator hunting

[clayton86]

Everyone’s getting excited bout deer in my area but I’m more excited for sleepless nights out calling in coyotes and fox. 
 

trying to decide what gun I wanna use early season either my 17hornet or my 20practical. We call in a good number of fox so I like those two calibers for fox and coyote plus half our properties we hunt are in a shotgun only area for deer so if I wanna use a centerfire rifle it’s gotta be smaller than .22 cal if deer seasons open. Once fox closes I run my .243. Ive got a pulsar thermion so it has 5 or 7 profiles to save for which ever gun it’s on and with the Burris pepr QD mount I can swap between guns and it SHOULD go back to zero in selected profile when swapping between guns. I haven’t tried it yet though I started with it on my 20practical swapped to the 243 and haven’t taken it off the 243 yet. 
 

anyways any other guys into predator calling 

[Tatsu Dave]

True predator's in Maine would include coyote's top of the list, tried the night hunting but didn't care for the solitude I guess. Lot of baiting done at dusk or night and it's pretty effective but again just wasn't my cup of tea. I thank those that do because on a crust they run deer down in the yards bad. Cutting operations draw deer in winter and coyotes really use trails between dark growth and hardwood's to ambush deer. Friend of mine is logger and he's seen areas with up to a dozen dead deer in a small stretch coming in to the tops. Maybe if I was younger I would use my 22-250 and 7mm-08 heavy barreled guns to sit way back from kills and do some shooting but warm house call's louder  A side note I wouldn't shoot foxes if I could.....I like em  and up here they are a furbearer. 

[clayton86]

We pretty much just call at night. Myself and one other buddy have thermal scopes and scan with thermal it’s a game changer over the old light game. Another buddy has my old night vision scope and we just use my scanner or he borrows another buddies thermal scanner. 
 

if we don’t see or hear anything in like 30-45 minutes of calling we are back in the warm truck on to a new spot. 
 

hide prices are kinda blah it basically covers the price of the season for us. I’ve got buddies up north of us that get 90+ yotes a season and don’t do a ton of travel they are making money but not much on the hides. Fox we’ve been shooting with plans to make a blanket with the hides my one buddy did that reds for the main and gray fox border used coyotes to cover the price to have it tanned and sewn up. 

[Tatsu Dave]

Interesting plan for fox blanket, sounds good. Just don't have the fortitude to do the night hunting anymore, thermal units sound expensive as well.  Good Hunting    Dave

[clayton86]

4 minutes ago, Tatsu Dave said:

Interesting plan for fox blanket, sounds good. Just don't have the fortitude to do the night hunting anymore, thermal units sound expensive as well.  Good Hunting    Dave

There is “cheap” budget ones for about $1500 but don’t have good reviews a few locals have em and I’m they seem to be nothing but problems with them. Between my scanner and scope both pulsars I’ve got around $6300 between the 2 

[TnRiver46]

If it was legal to hunt my city, you could make good money. People call us constantly about fox and coyote but it’s a little too dangerous setting foot hold traps and risk catching a pet. Of course there is a leash law but stuff happens and I don’t want any part of that. You could still do ok on the outskirts of town where Its legal to shoot but most people take care of their own problems out that way. Urban areas are thicker with predators nowadays than the wilderness