For fur or not for fur that is the question

[Richard]

If you don't hunt yotes for fur what do you do with them after you shoot them. I am wanting to try my luck at "song dog" hunting as one of you put it.

[coyotewhacker]

I hunt song dogs purely for the sport of it and do not attempt to sell the hides. This extends hunting to nearly year round, keeps the calling skills up to speed, and might even help the neighboring farmers who seem to think the coyotes take too many calves. What do I do with them? I put them in a pile in the center of one of my pastures and eventually they turn into dirt....vultures will not eat a dead coyote for some reason. Coyote calling should be getting very good about now, but several groups of "hound men" show up with greyhounds and turn them loose to run the countryside, so as long as that goes on, calling is a waste of time.

[Warmouth]

if you are going to sell the skin, just take in the whole 'yote to the fur dealer. its only a couple bucks difference between a skinned and a whole 'yote. it aint worth $2 to skin on of them nasty suckers if you have a choice imo.

[Wolfman]

Oh yeah dave, thats ok if you live next door to the fur dealer like you do!...lol

Muzz, fur and sport. Most times i wait untill the furs prime to hunt them. Leave em alone during the warm weather unless their being a problem animal for someone. Remember there are times the seasons closed, even on yotes.

[coyotewhacker]

There are times of the year when it is legal to hunt coyotes that I usually do not....when pups are in the den I figure that the adults should get a pass to raise the little ones. It's legal to shoot the adults away from the den, but it doesn't seem right to me to call and shoot the caretakers and let the pups starve. Besides, if you let them go, they are great sport to call in when the weather cools down a bit. A young coyote is liable to charge right up to you in its haste to grab off that "screaming rabbit" before one of its litter mates gets it first.That's just personal preference with me. Since I usually hunt coyotes with a fairly potent rifle and hollow point ammo, the skin is not worth taking off anyway. Maybe one of these years I will get a .17 caliber and not leave pieces of song dog all over the field.

[Wolfman]

The new .204 ruger cartridge is supposed to be a hot item. Ballistics better then the 22-250, more puch downrange then the 17 Rem. Depending on who you talk to it is or is'nt fur friendly depending on what type of bullets and what velocity your pushing(though it's definitely more fur friendly then the 22-250). Anything pushing 4200fps can be kind of rough on thin skins though...lol



NEF has a 22 inch .204 version already in the Handi Rifle. Most guys that have bought it seem to really like it. NEF just has the 17 HMR though, no 17 Rem yet.