The author Mark Kayser anchored this late-season coyote with a 143 gr ELD-X bullet from Hornady’s Precision Hunter line-up

The cow connection for late-season coyotes

Hornady Manufacturing
Published in
6 min readApr 9, 2018

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Outdoor writer and TV host, Mark Kayser from Wyoming, was raised in the farm town of Dell Rapids in South Dakota, where he grew up hunting gophers and ring-necked pheasant, before moving onto whitetail, pronghorn and elk. Mark is passionate about the outdoors having hunted across three continents, throughout the United States and Canada but today he’s here to share his top tips for hunting late-season coyotes.

Late-winter coyotes can be as frustrating to call as trying to do automotive mechanical work on the modern class of computerized vehicles. Months of calling and drive-by hunting pressure have created skittish and paranoid coyotes across the landscape. Despite this distrust for everything you do have an ace in the hole for one last late-winter coyote. Livestock attracts coyotes living in a bare-pantry world. Find a local livestock producer in your coyote hunting zip code and you’ll find coyotes nearby.

THE COYOTE COW CONNECTION

Why do coyotes grow fonder to livestock? Traditionally livestock producers time the arrival of new calves during the late winter months and the first days of spring. That means young-of-the-year will begin appearing on the landscape any time after the New Year. February through to April is a prime time to focus on livestock coyotes. Cattle, sheep, hogs, goats and others all fit this category. If you don’t think predation is a big deal to livestock owners consider this — cattle losses alone from coyote predation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, total nearly $100 million depending on the year and current market prices.

Cattle on spring calving ground

Ranchers who calve or manage livestock in remote, rugged country often have increased predation. Sheep are targeted throughout the seasons by coyotes, but most cattle predation takes place in the hours or first week of a calf’s life. Coyotes prey on young calves, especially stillborn young. They also take advantage of a new calf that has a mother with poor nurturing skills.

Coyotes certainly prey on defenseless, weak and sick livestock, but that’s not the only reason they like to hang in livestock neighborhoods. The miracle of birth time and time again, creates one of the largest bait stations possible to lure in coyotes for miles around. The scent of afterbirth from larger herds drifts on the wind and attracts coyotes looking for an easy meal after a long winter. The pantry suddenly is stocked and the big enchilada, afterbirth, which is basically the placenta or membrane that transfers nutrients from the cow to the calf. Blood vessels make up this membrane creating a hearty meal for the lucky coyote that finds it. At a large cattle or sheep operation there might literally be a dozen or more placentas hitting the ground in a 24-hour period during birthing season.

The treats don’t end there, afterbirth is followed by the droppings of calves once they begin gulping in their mother’s milk. For the first two weeks of a calf’s life their manure is chalky-looking due to its milk-rich makeup. Coyotes seek out this concoction and gobble it up whenever they frequent livestock pastures.

Although you may find coyotes in and amongst livestock, a herd of cows will defend their young, and drive a coyote away if pressured. That means coyotes will be hanging on the fringe of the herd to move in when opportunities arise. By planning ahead you can develop a strategy with willing landowners to focus on these pantry raiders. Pinpointing the arrival of new calves and young is as easy as calling your local landowner connection. They know down to the week when young will arrive due to scheduled breeding programs. This guarantees all calves arrive in a timely manner.

After acquiring permission from a livestock producer, sit down with them and ask a few key questions. Start by querying if they ever have coyote and livestock conflicts. Inquire when they schedule livestock to birth and what pastures they use during this time period. You may even ask them about neighboring operations. It could open more doors for coyote hunting now and down the road. Plus, coyotes travel and they may be bouncing between operations to get the most goo for their efforts.

Lastly and most importantly, be sure to find out how close to livestock you can set up to call and shoot. Landowners and livestock alike vary on their reactions to calls, and gunshots. You want the landowner to allow you to return and stampeding livestock through a fence won’t help you in that department.

CALLING COYOTES NEAR COWS

Since you’ll likely be calling ground adjacent to cattle, look for rough country, dense cover and any sanctuary areas that allow coyotes cover, yet close accessibility to cattle. Hills, creek bottoms and the likes all lure coyotes for daytime bedding in preparation for nighttime marauding.

Any call will work when setting up near livestock. Even so, if you feel the coyotes have been call pressured prior to their livestock love affair you may want to stick with coyote vocalizations. A simple howl tells other coyotes “I’m here”, but it also tells area coyotes an intruder may be raiding the refrigerator. Coyotes have a wide range of howls, barks, yips and whines. For the most part, steer clear of barks, which represent a warning. If a coyote responds to your howls with anything other than a howl, simply mimic the response. That alone can aggravate a coyote into a showing.

The clever, savvy and adaptable coyote

Be patient when using howls, many coyotes won’t respond. You’ll want to wait at least 30 minutes and sitting tight for up to an hour isn’t too long. Dawn and dusk are the best times to catch coyotes entering and leaving livestock sites. Set up in ambush areas that overlook known coyote travel corridors. You may even bag a coyote without calling in a travel location.

Late-winter coyotes are extraordinarily savvy. Livestock operations are their downfall. If you’re hoping for one last whack at a Wile E. then you’ll want to scout out livestock herds for the opportunity.

HORNADY HIGHLIGHT

Late-season coyote furs are beginning to show some wear. Don’t worry as much about pelt harm and focus on outright stopping power. Livestock producers will be more apt to invite you to their property if you set up away from the cattle. This fringe approach could push your shots to the extreme.

Forget about fur and consider proven long-range technology designed in the Hornady ELD Match and ELD-X bullets. These combinations also give you flexibility to unleash the ballistic benefit of larger calibers like the 6.5 PRC, .280 Ackley Improved, .308 Winchester and other flat-shooting calibers.

Match™, with the new, radically superior ELD® Match bullets

Hornady focused on long-range accuracy with the introduction ELD-X and ELD Match bullet for long-range target applications designed with the help of Doppler radar mapping. Added to that precise information was Hornady’s development of the Heat Shield Tip, a patent-pending material that would not reach a rubber-like state until 475 degrees and with a melting temperature above 700. The new composite material would not degrade at normal velocities, even if nudged beyond normal.

Hornady’s Precision Hunter, featuring the radically superior ELD-­X® bullet with Heat Shield® tip

To take advantage of the new technology Hornady increased the size of the tip and optimized the Meplat diameter for more heat capacity without a loss in BC. Plus, since Hornady wanted the ELD-X bullet to work for all hunting applications, long- and short-range, a larger diameter shank in combination with a new bullet design allowed for expansion at low velocities, 1,600 fps, as well as with top-end speeds. In brief, it has plenty of stopping power for any coyote.

When the coyote shots are long and you want them to feel a bite from your bullet, it could be time to abandon the fur-saving performance of the V-Max lineup and consider the wallop of the ELD.

Hornady’s V-Max bullet is a proven coyote getter, but late in the season you may want to bring out larger calibers for longer shots. Consider the proven long-range technology designed in Hornady’s ELD Match and ELD-X bullets.

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