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Urban Coyote Hunting Tactics
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9/8/2010
New techniques and tactics must be used when hunting coyotes in and around urban settings. Check these tips out.
by Mike Schoby
Finding Urban Coyote Hunting Spots
This type of hunting is not about knocking on doors and asking permission. Unlike ranchers who have seen stock killed by coyotes and beg you to come hunting, suburbanites are not open to the idea. I recall my first and last door-knocking experience.
Upon knocking on the door, a soccer mom in a robe appeared.
"Excuse me Ma'am, I noticed you have quite a large wooded area behind your house, would you mind if my brother and I coyote hunted there?"
"Hunt???" with a slightly detached, puzzled look on her face "…as in like, kill?"
"Well, yeah, that might happen if it works out right."
With a look of revulsion and distaste she stammered, "Absolutely not!" and slammed the door.
So much for that tactic – city folks ain't cut from the same cloth as country folks. You can generally forget private property unless you know the owners personally and they invite you. But there are other options. Some parks might allow hunting, sometimes large timber companies own title to suburban land and allow hunting. In many parts of the country, there are still old school lands that have not been developed and that are legal to hunt. You just have to get a plat map from city or county offices and get to work.
Over the years I have had mixed success with land developers. I talked to a couple of developers who owned a couple hundred acres that was not going to be developed for a few years. I asked permission to hunt and, while they were worried about liability, the actual hunting didn't bother them. One said, verbatim, "I can’t give you permission. My lawyers would come unglued over the liability of letting anyone on the property for any reason, but I absolutely don't care and no one is ever out there during the weekend." He then winked. I hunted that property nearly every weekend for years and never had a problem. Old landfills that have been turned into green spaces might also provide another opportunity, provided they are decommissioned and open for public recreational use.
Over time, you will develop a nose for suburban hunting locales — you'll no longer be looking for the wide-open vistas or for ranchers with thousands of acres. A 5-acre patch of good cover is a stand, a 40-acre patch can be heaven. In the 'burbs, small plots concentrate predator populations.
