Cross-Country Coyote Tactics

I get a great deal of pride and pleasure from leaving the hunting masses behind – hiking until my truck is a speck on the horizon – when hunting the South Dakota grasslands for prairie grouse each fall.

- Gordy J. Krahn

Pushing through sections of unproductive acreage doesn’t bother me a bit, if it means a chance at those unmolested coveys that hide out in the far reaches of their home range. If I’m fortunate enough to fill my three-bird limit in the morning, I do the same toward evening after swapping scattergun for rifle and chasing fur instead of feathers. It stands to reason that upland bird hunting activity not only pushes the grouse back off the roads but also has the same effect on gun-shy, public-ground coyotes.

Predators, especially coyotes, acclimate to human intrusion by avoiding it – seeking remote areas where encounters are rare, and by doing most of their hunting during the night. Coyotes that hang out too close to public roads, ranches and farms don’t survive long enough to pass on their idiot genes. That’s why hunting the outback – burning up some petrol and boot leather – puts hunters in a position to hunt coyotes that are more plentiful and often more relaxed.