Winter can be one of the most productive times of year to remove coyotes from your whitetail land, especially using well-trained hunting hounds. In the accompanying article, the author describes his tactics for chasing ‘yotes with dogs. (Photo by Danita Delimont, Shutterstock)
March 13, 2025
By Greg Miller
Allow me to start this article by admitting that I really don’t love coyotes. That being said, I’d like to add that I don’t really hate them either. Over the past several years, my eyes have opened to the amazing survival abilities that coyotes possess. And I can’t help but be very respectful of those abilities.
That respect comes from the fact that, despite just about every hunter’s complete lack of hesitation to shoot coyotes whenever the opportunity arises, they continue to exist and actually thrive in many environments. And the farmland country that lies around my hometown in west-central Wisconsin is a perfect example. Despite the intense pressure that we and several other local hound hunting groups put on them each and every winter, coyote numbers stay consistent, or maybe even increase, regardless of how many we kill.
In the event you don’t already know, coyotes are now found in just about every state in the union. What’s more, coyote numbers don’t seem to be dwindling in the least. Fact is, and according to the very amateur study our coyote hunting group has done, coyote numbers seem to be constantly growing. I wouldn’t call this growth in numbers dramatic, but it has been significant enough in our hunting areas to be impossible not to notice.
As a way of supporting my claim about an ever-increasing coyote population, allow me to relate what our hound hunting group has witnessed in recent times. Three years ago, our group eliminated over 60 coyotes from the local landscape during the winter months. After that season I remember thinking, and even commenting to some members of our group, that it was going to be interesting to see how much our impressive harvest would impact the local coyote population.
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The author and some members of his hunting group pose for a photo at the end of a five-coyote day. (Photo courtesy of Greg Miller) So, what did our group experience the following winter? Well, believe it or not, we had our best coyote hunting season to that date. When we tallied up the numbers at the end of the 2021-22 winter, our group had eliminated right around 70 coyotes.
Again, I was more than a bit skeptical when we headed into the 2022-23 coyote hunting season. But unbelievably, we managed to outdo both of the previous seasons by killing a whopping 92 coyotes!
Now that is a staggering number for sure, but it’s made even more impressive by the fact that we had hunted the exact same area as we did the previous two winters. Trust me when I say it’s not a huge area. What’s more, we typically hunted just three days each week and only during the months of December, January and part of February. Talk about a target rich environment, and one that apparently always will be!
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Our Plan of Attack To be very honest, our approach to coyote hunting is relatively basic. One of our primary strategies is to cruise country back roads at first morning light and check for fresh coyote tracks crossing those roads. Finding fresh tracks immediately enables us to concentrate our efforts on specific areas in which we know coyotes are inhabiting at that particular time.
After gathering fresh info, our group usually assembles to discuss which areas likely hold the most potential for providing some action. We also put together a game plan for getting some of our members stationed in specific spots. Once that’s done, several of our group will walk a few hounds through those areas with hopes that the dogs will eventually cut a “hot” track.
The author is quick to give much credit to the amazing work his hunting group’s hounds do in pursuit of wintertime coyotes. (Photo courtesy of Greg Miller) Interestingly, many times the coyotes we pursue with hounds tend to head for particular patches of cover where they then lead the dogs on a circular pattern. Sometimes these circular patterns encompass rather large areas; and sometimes they entail medium-sized areas. On some occasions though, the coyotes remain in relatively small areas while trying to evade the hounds.
I should mention that there have been occasions when areas that were “coyote rich” for several weeks might suddenly be devoid of activity. This happens because the coyotes we’ve been hunting decide to relocate to slightly different areas. Thankfully, those relocation spots typically aren’t too far away. And once we find them, we will again put our familiar plan of attack into motion.
I also need to mention that, far and away, our group’s favorite weapon of choice when hunting coyotes is a 12-gauge shotgun chambered for 3-inch magnum shells. Personally, I prefer to use buckshot loads, with number four buckshot being my favorite go-to load. However, I’ve also had some success while using BB loads.
Find Deer, Find Coyotes While checking for fresh tracks on back country roads is an effective strategy for finding coyotes, there’s another tactic we use that’s even more effective. And that strategy involves locating areas where deer are grouped up. By far, and without doubt, the absolute best areas we’ve found in which to locate current coyote activity are those places where deer are congregated for the winter months. Simply put, and almost without exception, find the deer and we usually find coyotes.
We incorporate a simple plan of attack when hunting “deer rich” areas. One or two of our group will walk hounds directly through those areas in hopes the dogs will strike a fresh coyote track. Thankfully, our hounds are pretty much 100 percent deer proof. By this I mean that, thanks to some intense training, those hounds absolutely refuse to chase deer.
And not only are they so deer proof that they refuse to chase them, but our hounds can also accurately scent-trail coyotes through places where deer may have trampled over the tracks of those coyotes prior to the hounds arriving on the scene. I’ve personally seen countless examples of this feat, and I remain impressed. It really is an amazing thing to witness.
Another Effective Strategy As one might expect, we occasionally find fresh deer carcasses while hunting some of our coyote areas. Those deer possibly could have succumbed to wounds incurred earlier; they might have died because of winter stress, or maybe they were killed by coyotes, bobcats or wolves. But regardless how they died, those carcasses can sometimes prove to be hugely beneficial to our hunting efforts.
Occasionally, we’ll put out scouting cameras to monitor activity over those carcasses. While there are times when this strategy can provide information that will dramatically decrease our search efforts, there also are times when it’s not nearly as effective. This is especially the case when dealing with areas where there are a number of carcasses for coyotes (and other predators) to choose from.
Here’s the result after just 2 1/2 months of hunting during the winter of 2022-23. To this date, that 92-coyote season remains the group’s most successful by far. (Photo courtesy of Greg Miller) Once again, I’d like to reiterate that, regardless of what one might believe, coyotes can and do kill deer. They don’t limit their kills to only sick or injured animals, nor do they limit their killing specifically to young deer.
Provided a pack has adequate numbers, and/or they happen upon the right opportunity, coyotes will kill mature deer. And this includes mature bucks, especially after they’ve shed their antlers. I base these statements on my 30-plus years of personal observation on the matter. Of course, winter severity has a huge bearing on how significant coyote predation will be on mature bucks. Anytime we experience above average snow totals, along with an unusual amount of brutally cold days and nights, the more deer we’ll lose to coyote predation.
Coyotes: Survive and Thrive Though it’s been many years ago, I can still recall a very interesting article I read in a magazine my dad once received. If memory serves me right, the name of the magazine was Wyoming Wildlife (but don’t hold me to that as this was a very long time ago).
In any event, sometime during the mid-1960’s, Dad and some of his friends had made a couple trips to Wyoming on hunts for mule deer. As a bonus for purchasing his non-resident deer licenses, Dad received a free subscription to Wyoming Wildlife as a thank you for choosing the state as his hunting destination .
Anyway, the article concerned a campaign Wyoming had launched to dramatically reduce or eliminate coyotes from thousands of acres of sheep grazing grounds across the state. In a nutshell, coyotes were steadily trapped by professionals, hunted from aircraft (helicopters and airplanes), called in and shot, poisoned and pretty much killed on sight by any means possible.
Interestingly, at the same time this incredible onslaught against coyotes was going on, a group of state biologists were closely monitoring the situation. So how much of an impact did those all-out, almost around-the-clock killing efforts have? Well, according to biologists who were constantly on location, nature apparently stepped in and attempted to compensate for the increased kill efforts.
And here’s what the author’s hunting group accomplished during the winter of 2021-22. The total for that season was 72 coyotes. (Photos courtesy of Greg Miller) In the years prior to the beginning of the full-bore assault towards coyotes, the average size of birth litters was somewhere between four to six pups. But within just a couple years of the dramatic increase in hunting, poisoning and general killing efforts, the average size of coyote litters increased to between six and eight pups.
Though it has been many years since I read that article in Wyoming Wildlife, I’ve never forgotten how surprised and impressed I was with the findings of the study. To begin with, I was only about 13 or 14 years old at the time. And the article was one of the first I read from beginning to end (despite it being a rather lengthy piece).
Along with many of the biologists involved in the study, I remain convinced to this day that the increase in litter size wasn’t a coincidence. To my way of thinking, Mother Nature simply stepped in and did what she has always done best. As a longtime friend and fellow outdoorsman told me years ago, Mother Nature knows best, and she is nobody to mess with!
Respect for the Species As stated previously, I absolutely love chasing coyotes with hounds during the winter months, and I won’t hesitate in the least to squeeze the trigger on one if it wanders within range. However, I do and always will harbor a lot of respect for the species. Coyotes are intelligent, cunning survivors who seem to possess the ability to occasionally come up with whatever evasion strategy necessary to deal with a life-threatening situation. For instance, I remember a chase from some years back where our hounds were closing in on a tiring coyote. Feeling the growing pressure from the hounds, the coyote suddenly changed his course of travel and ran into the yard of a nearby dairy farm. Without missing a beat, he quickly ducked into a small opening that led right into the barn.
Now it just so happened that the farmer who owned the place was beginning his afternoon milking chores. Imagine his surprise when a coyote suddenly appeared running down the center aisle of his milking parlor! The coyote passed within a couple feet of him before making a hasty exit via a small opening at the far end of the barn. I’ve always wondered if that coyote’s strategy was a spur of the moment thing, or one he’d used before!
In closing, I’d like to relate a statement I’ve become fond of telling people regarding my true feelings about coyotes. If the day ever comes when humans and most other creatures cease to exist on planet earth, it’s my belief that two critters will still be here feasting on our bones. I firmly believe those two critters are cockroaches and coyotes. Talk about true survivors, and creatures that certainly deserve a little of our respect, especially the coyotes!
