Posted on 01/18/2017 8:29:37 AM PST by Perseverando
WYTHEVILLE — Wayne and Roger Shaw, of Illinois, pulled into town on Sunday with 19 dead coyotes piled in the back of their truck and blood running down the bumper from their nine-hour drive.
It was a good haul, but not enough to win the “most kills” award at the first ever Eastern U.S. Predator Calling Championship.
That honor went to Jeremy Brown and Mike Burgess, of Maryland. They rolled in with 31 foxes in a basket on the tailgate.
“People are really weirded out by it,” Brown said. “They see this driving down the road, and we get a lot of middle fingers.”
It’s a misunderstood sport, several hunters said.
Competitors are killing nuisance species with no natural predators and out-of-control populations, said event organizer James Groseclose, of Dublin. They cause issues for farmers’ livestock and have wiped out other animal populations, like quail.
Competitions are designed to help keep ecosystems balanced.
The rules stipulated that all hunters had to stay east of the Mississippi River and could only hunt between 6 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Sunday. There was no trapping, use of hunting dogs or collecting roadkill. Otherwise, competitors simply had to follow local laws and bring in as many predators as possible.
The $6,000 grand prize for most coyotes went to Alex Poole and Logan Jones, of Lynchburg. They counted 20 kills, and they refused to reveal their secret hunting spot.
“We hunt three or four days a week anyway,” Poole said, when asked why he entered the competition.
Other prizes were awarded for the most combined coyotes, bobcats and foxes, as well as the heaviest of each animal.
After two nights of hunting, the camouflage-wearing competitors brought their kills to Wytheville from as far away as Maine for official judging.
A total of 300 hunters participated. They each paid a $50 entry fee, which was all given back in prizes.
Groseclose said he’ll lose money on the event, which he hopes to turn into an annual tradition. He’s competed in these kinds of competitions all over the country, but he’s never seen one this large on the east coast.
“We’re fortunate enough, we do this quite a bit and are able to travel around,” Groseclose said. “A lot of these local guys, they just don’t have the opportunity because it’s too far for them to get away. We wanted to bring something here and give the guys here an idea of what it’s like to hunt a really big tournament.”
Brown and Burgess, who counted a combined 31 kills, said they had been planning for the competition for weeks.
The pair has hunted together for 15 years, but they avoided their favorite spots this season in order to let the populations build up. Then they mapped out about 17 different hunting locations to minimize time wasted driving around.
They used an electronic caller, which looks like a large speaker. Brown said they had the best luck this weekend blasting out the sound of a rabbit in distress, which attracts nearby foxes looking for an easy meal.
“Our farmers beg us to come out and hunt. They’re going to poison them or trap them. So we’ll come out and shoot what we can,” Brown said. “You can tell relatively quickly whether you’re going to have a really good night and they’re moving well, or they’re just in a den and aren’t going to pay any attention to what you’re doing.”
The Eastern U.S. Predator Calling Championship concluded in Wytheville on Sunday, when hunters brought their game for official judging. The predators hunted anywhere east of the Mississippi River. Awards were given for most kills and biggest animals.
Bring cold weather the hides should be worth something as they will be “prime”.
Good job. Out west ranchers used to kill them all year long and hang them near the fence gates. I still remember seeing all sorts of dead predators when I was a kid.
The the animal rights people started squalling and the ranchers stopped hanging the dead animals on the gates.
All that killing and there are still lots of coyotes in the area. Makes it unsafe for small pets to be outside alone.
Strange how some people who do not live in the rural areas, or raise animals are in need of coyotes. If they want them, import some wolves and coyotes into Central Park.
OMG - LOL...thought I’d seen everything on the web but that’s a new one to me.
They did a special on ‘city coyotes’ and went out at night and set up recorders and it was unreal how many coyotes howled/yipped during the night- right smack dab in the city- and they showed some night vision video showing coyotes running all over the city- So even in cities there is a ‘problem’ with overpopulation- but in cities they mainly take rats which is good to keep those numbers down too- problem is that some packs of coyotes become too aggressive and will go after folks, and pets too at some point- the following video is graphic attack on a pet right in the city- california- viewer discretion advised (pet appears to have survived though)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTtLSYdC4OE
Coming from a family of trappers, IF you let your cats and small dogs run free you get what you deserve if your pet doesn’t come home.
ONLY collared animals are spared by my family if caught in a trap. If the same collared animal is caught over and over again it would be in danger of being dispatched,
Are the coyotes in police cars on I81 in Wytheville also predators?
Here in our 'burbs..coyotes have chased out the white tail deer and most of the wild turkey.
Pheasant....forget it. Although there is a island, on the CT River near us, that has a nice population of pheasant. Until the 'yotes learn to swim better, the birds are fairly safe. Everything adapts.
That’s a little stout for a coyote in my exposure. It’s a coy-wolf or coy-dog, imho.
Rats with wings.
yeah i saw that photo on YT- it’s wild how many coyotes there relay are in developed areas- We’;ve had em walk right down the street in caldesacs (sp?)- saw a few myself- broad daylight-
This year there was a boon of mice- and have been seeing more coyotes and owls than usual-
That is not a coyote. That is a cross between a coyote or a coyote and wolf. From its hind legs, it looks like a German Shepherd. I have heard for years that the coyotes, feral doga, and wolves have been cross breeding.
Please clap.
On my last pheasant hunt to N.W. Kansas, my buds flushed a coyote out of a plumb thicket that came right at me until it saw me then veered left and high tailed it out of the county. It wasn't a small coyote by any measure and was about the size of a large German Shepherd and white.........
As a side note, the farm house we stayed in was owned by the president of the only bank in town who was also a full time farmer and lived in their house in Logan.
He had a kennel of about 8 greyhounds, one of which was a mixture of greyhound, Russian Wolfhound and wolf. That was the biggest and most impressive dog I had ever seen. He used these dogs to hunt coyotes. Greyhounds are coursers, or sight hunters.
He had an old 4WD pickup that he removed the back bed and replaced it with a six dog kennel, 3 on each side, with drop down sides and windows that the dogs could stick their heads out. From inside the cab, he had a pull cord that once pulled, it would drop both sides of the rear kennel and release the dogs.
What he would do is drive the country roads looking for coyotes and once spotted, he would pull the kennel cord and drop the sides then it was off to the races with him trying to keep up with the dogs as they were chasing down the coyote..........
lol- didn’t know they tackled them critters- I did some trapping in the early 80’s and we would use ‘skunk essence’ as lure for some of hte4 critters we were targeting- (If i remember right Fishers were one of the critters- maybe the only one- can’t remember now)- and we carried around a bottle of the essence- needless to say- even a jar with lid on it would not contain the smell- Oddly- after awhile of using it, I almost got to the point where it smelled ok- not great- but ok- of course everyone around us didn’t agree lol=
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