A couple of weeks ago, my daughters were having a front yard camp out party. About 11:30 pm they came tearing into the house shouting "Dad, there's a whole pack of coyotes out there - must be 50 of 'em".
I explained to them that they must be hearing foxes. We live between Winston-Salem and Greensboro, and although we are in the woods, there are no coyotes around here.
Next night, my wife wakes me up about 5 am and drags me out onto the screen porch. The sounds were hair raising. It sounded like someone was slaughtering puppies. I would estimate maybe 75 yards up into the woods was the distance. I could make out 5 or 6 different voices - not 50.
Later that morning when we had all gotten up for the day, one of my daughters found a youtube video of coyotes at a zoo in Texas that sounded just like what we had heard.
That night around 10 pm, we heard them again, slightly further away and in a different direction. This time in addition to the dying puppy sounds, we heard the more traditional "cowboy movie" howling.
I have an outdoor cat that I am pretty sure is on borrowed time. I bring her into the garage at night but......I also have a 50 lb German Short Haired Pointer and a 60 lb Black Lab mix that stay in a dog lot duirng the day but come in at night. The hope is that if one of the beasts gets into the pen, between the 2 dogs they can hold their own.
I hadn't heard the coyotes in 3 weeks, but last night around 10 the slaughtering puppies were back and close to the dog pen. I grabbed my turkey gun, loaded some #4's in, grabbed a light and went out to fetch the dogs and hope the cat was around. It is not unusal for the cat to have scaled the dog lot fence and be in the house with the dogs. She was not there but came running up a few moments later.
Some of you must have had experience with coyotes - anyone ever try shooting them? Any recomendations on a long gun? I have the Mossberg for turkey hunting and pistols for fun but no rifles............Rob
