I spent many summers on a cattle ranch in Nevada pushing cows, mending fences, putting up hay and growing up the cowboy life. Coyotes, as well as jack rabbits, were devastating to crops and livestock. The rabbits would decimate a field, and the damn coyotes would kill the new born calves. Needless to say, I killed a lot of coyotes and jack rabbits. Coyotes are not the easiest critter to shoot. Good luck with the 22 and shotgun. You’ll never get close enough to use either. I’ve hunted for better than 30 years and I’ve never seen a critter as evasive as a coyote. The damn things will be trotting along through the sage brush two hundred yards away at 2:00 in plain sight, disappear, and then pop up behind you. They must have some sort of sixth sense that they can tell a human has a bead on them. They drop to their bellies and crawl amazingly fast, then poof – their gone. The only way I was ever successful, was long range shooting over 200 yards with a mini-14. As soon as I saw one, I’d give the horizon a quick look for anything I didn’t want to shoot, then I’d just start shooting. Most of the time the coyote was out of range, so I’d have to make a dust cloud and adjust elevation. – I also found that using a scope hindered my reaction time, so I used peep sights.
All that aside, I don’t think you need to fear for your family. Coyotes are extremely skittish and they do not grow bolder in packs like some of the Aussie critters and wild dogs do, which are very dangerous. Coyotes will kill your chickens and anything else you have running around though.
