The problem that most hunters have with Coyotes is that they will absolutely hammer Whitetails depending on the situation. In the north, Coyotes will hit the deer in mid-winter if there is a lot of snow, limiting the Deer’s mobility and providing the Coyote with an easy meal. Being hounded (pardon the pun) day and night by large packs of coyotes during the winter months put’s a lot of stress on them. The other way Coyotes impact deer is through eating fawns in the spring. Large populations of Coyotes have been shown to absolutely destroy fawn recruitment in some areas. The old belief that coyotes only prey upon sick and aging deer has been pretty much debunked at this point.
That’s not to say that coyotes don’t have their place in nature, everything does. I personally like having coyotes around as they provide exciting hunting opportunities in their own right and in many cases are just simply filling in the void left by the extirpation of wolves and other predator. They can control other predator animals such as foxes through depredation. As with everything, an overabundance of coyotes can lead to a host of problems. Diseases such as rabies and mange can become a real issue, and the predation effects on just about any form of wildlife can be a threat if the coyotes are severely over populated.
Therein lays the issue. Coyotes, like any animal, Coyotes need to be controlled. That is a daunting prospect however. As a few others here have pointed out, hunting Coyotes can be extremely challenging. I have done some Coyote hunting, and I can say in full confidence that Coyotes are that smartest animal I have ever pursued. They are clever, adaptable, and learn quickly. Given their adaptability, and the rate at which they can reproduce, killing enough coyotes through hunting to adequately control their numbers is difficult. This is why the shoot on sight rule is observed in many areas. If you are trying to control the coyote population, then you need to take what few opportunities you are going to have to actually kill one.
PS. Coyote meat is plenty edible, it just that eating canines is taboo in western culture.

Nicely put Phil, great reminder that everything plays a role in keeping a balance in the outdoors. While I do enjoy the challenge of hunting yotes on occasion I do not feel the need to kill them on site either. Many a boring sit in a tree stand has been saved while watching coyotes hunt field mice in a hay field near my stand. And there is something very special about listening to the song dogs when they open up and serenade the moon and stars. I know we might compete from time to time for the same prey but their role in the ecosystem is too important to treat them like trash.

Buckhunter,
Go with a FMJ, full metal jacket, or solid, no hollowpoints. Not hard to kill a coyote even with non-expanding bullets. ;) I don't shoot then due to ricochet potential. It' only a mile from my place to the highway and half that to a neighbor's house and stock. I use the Varmint Grenades in .223 or Balistic tips in .257

I don't hate one more than the other so I just shoot both

Buckhunter, try some solid copper bullets maybe?

Why I hunt coyotes
Every year hunters enter the woods mostly for three weeks out of the year and harvest between 200,000 and 250,000 whitetails, here in Iowa annually. After the season is over they hang up there guns and lock the gates to there property. I hunt coyotes because everyone else does not. When I have the opportunity to lay another deer hunter down I do. And this is why. Coyotes and wolves are not efficient hunters given why they hunt in packs. They are successful in hunts less than 30 percent of the time, meaning they burn more calories, hunt more, and kill more. Coyotes kill more deer on your property then you do. Hunters have been taught to plant food plots on every corner of their property taking acres out of CRP and leaving no cover for fawns in the spring and turkeys to nest in. Giving coyotes free range of the most important time of the year for your wildlife. I hunt coyotes to control them and send a thank you letter to every trapper that does it better.

This argument is really about difference in taste because I am not much of a bird hunter and I understand why you dislike cats. But I personally open my arms to the feline predator. Why, because bobcats and mountain lions have been found to be 88% efficient when they are hunting meaning they do not hunt in packs which causes less predators on my property that are far more efficient when they do hunt. And yes I do want predators on my property because I like eating a deer that has truly lived and not just corn fed, bed to food deer, but I want the right ones. I love hunting predators I have shot a bobcat, a mountain lion, and many coyotes. And I will continue to shoot many many more coyotes because no one else does and I think this nation doesn't understand predators and the effects of coyotes on their property. I wish more people would hunt coyotes only to control them because we take thousands of deer but can not do our part and harvest coyotes? Hunting Coyotes is far beyond the house cat population.

How many years have you been freeloading out west Phil? I can see being too lazy to go coyote hunting, after all it's cold and the snow can be deep, but I wouldn't say it as a point of pride.

The game cam shows one of the biggest lions I've ever seen in the place I hunt muleys, but I know that cat only takes maybe 20 deer a year, it's the coyotes all over the place that really put a dent in the population.

The females are pregnant right now and any you shoot will probably equal one litter less. You'll never have a permanent affect on populations, but locally coyote hunting can be a great benefit. I certainly don't enjoy shooting coyotes, but then there are a good many things I do that I don't enjoy that need doing.

If you ever talk to a trapper, thank him for improving the deer hunting.

BTW, the varmint Grenade ususlly does not exit.

Here in central Missouri, most of us in the country raise cattle, grow grain, grow grass for hay, or some combination thereof. Two critters that most of us would shoot on sight are any stray dog(s) running our cattle, and any feral cat out in the field. Thankfully, we haven't had any feral hogs reported within 50 miles of us. If we see a skunk or 'coon out and about at mid-day, they may be rabid and should be treated accordingly. As long as coyotes keep their distance from the house and barn, they pose no real problem most of the time. People that claim to have a problem with coyotes usually raise sheep or more often, poultry; however, the real problem could be a host of other predators that also love poultry.

Lone coyotes are usually no problem but are more likely to cause a problem if and when they join with others in a group, but then again, so do people.

If you hunt them for the challenge or the sport, what do you do with your kill? If you hunt during the recognized trapping season when the fur is at its best, do you skin it out for the hide or do you trash it? To me it makes a difference because of how I was raised and again, to me, it says alot about you.

Another good post, Phil. Keep 'em coming.

Depending on where you live and what you are trying to manage for, some may want to reconsider their opinion of coyotes and take a more active role in their management. Although coyotes have a fairly variable diet, recent studies in the south show that during fawning season 50% or more of a coyotes diet may consist of fawns. This change in diet also contributes to a change in recruitment rates, which has been shown to decrease deer populations, especially if hunters fail to adjust their doe harvest to account for reduced recruitment.

Just as an example, my GF worked on a fawn survival study last year in NC. Out of 42 fawns that were birthed, only 4 were alive at the end of the summer. I don't know the exact break-down of the cause of death, but somewhere between 10-15 starved to death, and the rest were killed by predators (mostly coyotes). Take predators out of the equation and about 25-30 fawns would have likely survived to see the end of summer, but with predators in the equation, recruitment rates at that study site have been extremely low for the past several years.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Phil for bringing this up. But… you didn’t mention “They estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.4-3.7 billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually in the U.S…” – Loss, Will, Marra. Nature Communications. 2013.
That is billion with a “B”. Forget the coyotes, kill some cats. It would help if there was a fur market for cats. They are soft and fluffy.

And too many of the farmers barn cats out hunting the ditches in the Springtime!

I don't bother hunting coyotes. They are way too smart for me and I just rarely see them. I do have a large population here and some of them are big animals. One took after my brittany when he found the den. That coyote dwarfed him and he weighs 45#.
It would have caught him too, had my son not been there to spook the coyote.
We get hunters here that go after them with hounds. They don't seem to make much of a dent in the population. There aren't many foxes or other predators hereabouts any more. Just coyotes.

Coyote hunting is actually a lot of fun and pretty challenging. Most of the people that I know in Iowa spew the trash about them killing off pheasants, but the ones that actually hunt them do it for enjoyment of the hunt and the fur.

Buckhunter try 40 gr FMJ's they shoot flat and knock down yotes like pop cans.

The reason I hunt yotes is because they do a number on Coues deer of all ages, young mullies, elk, and antelope. Here in AZ we can hunt coyotes every day with no bag limit. Some units have recently been opened up for night hunting to give pronghorns in the areas a fighting chance. In Arizona coyotes account for more antelope fawn deaths than any other factor. Coyotes will actually increase litter sizes where hunted heavily. they are expanding into country that has never been historic ranges. High yote numbers might not effect pheasants much but they sure do effect fawn survival of many game spices.

WAM, thanks for mentioning that. I didn't consider ricochet factor. Definitely more important that size of the hole left in the animal.

In almost every state the deer populations have been out of control for some time. More is not better for the "health of the herd" (whatever that is supposed to mean). Usually the health of the heard is equated with the health of the local economics and really has damned little to do with what's best for deer population. Oh, and the rancher who won't allow coyote hunting does so exactly because coyotes do kill fawns. He raises cattle not deer or antelope.

I've been in the woods too many times at the "Magic hour" and had the woods go silent only to have a coyote come trotting through and spook everything to let them have a pass. Once had one come out dragging a deer's hind leg. It was too late to save that deer, but not to late to put the '06 to work.

I would like to do a coyote hunt someday. Watching distress calls work sounds pretty cool. Although when Im deer hunting i dont shoot coyotes. My hunting time is to precious to go blasting a coyote when there could be a deer heading my way. I dont shoot them with a bow either, Ive had plenty of opportunities but I hear they smell bad and if they die close to your stand that can ruin a deer hunt too. That and every time I let an arrow go its like a $20 bill flying through the air.

Twoof my favorite things to hunt are turkey and deer, and coyotes can be hard on both. Studies have shown the drastic effect on fawn recruitment 'yotes can have, particularly in the south where lenthy and multiple rut periods in close proximity are common. And they can be tough on grown turkeys, much less young poults. I too have had song dogs come trotting through my turkey setups. But you have a point, Phil, regarding pigs and other smaller predators when it comes to bird eggs in ground nests (turkey, quail, pheasant, ducks, etc). I've never killed a coyote (got excited and missed one trotting along a power line easement when deer hunting) but I shoot hogs whenever I can. Saw a small group Sunday feeding near our best turkey roost, but didn't have a gun. My Lab scared them off, but I'm sure they returned as soon as we left. Maybe I should start a small predator hunt at the home club.

I generally won't shoot a coyote if I am after something else, but if it is an easy shot I will take it. I agree partially with Sarge and partially with Phil; Coyotes do compete directly with me for game animals such as turkey and deer, so on that point I do not like them. However, along with what Phil says where I hunt is still open to archery antlerless deer hunting until the end of February due to the large numbers and I have seen more turkey this year than any. So it is a mixed bag, I don't hate them, think of them as my competition and will get a leg up on them if I can.

This is one I've got to straddle. Personally, I've never shot a coyote and probably never will, because no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise I would still feel like I'm shooting a dog -- and I love dogs. I freely admit there is no rationality involved, which is all the more reason I can't overcome my personal hesitation. If it was a matter of logic I would be lining the walls with their hides. That's why I'm glad other people shoot coyotes. Undoubtedly coyotes, like other predators, have their place in nature (feral cats do NOT), and maybe it's true as Phil suggests that their predation on deer is compensatory. But at least here in South Texas, coyotes do major damage to deer herds and unless someone was thinning their numbers they would outnumber cows. I live just outside the San Antonio city limits within a mile of a major highway. But every night I can stand in the backyard and listen to a serenade that must involve at least two or three dozen yodelers. When the sun starts to slip down on the Chaparral WMA a couple of hours south of here it sounds like the worlds' biggest lunatic asylum just started up a choir. If you didn't kill some of them they would take over the world. In fact, when this planet is a dying ember I suspect coyotes and roaches will be the last creatures around -- and they'll probably be thriving.
However, as much as some percentage of coyotes need killing, I don't approve of anything being taken if its allowed to go to waste. So if you're not going to keep it as a personal trophy or sell it to the fur buyer, do like I do and let somebody else thin their numbers.

My farm is in southwest Georgia. During fawning season {approx July) I have noticed the coyote scat suddenly changes to deer hair, little teeth, and little deer hooves. I have resisted hunting them but my recruitment rate is abyssmal. I have plenty of hiding cover so that is not an issue. I now am taking every coyote I can but I still hear them every night when the train goes by. I hope it helps...

Bioguy01 -- you kind of make my point for me, which is that shooting a coyote and feeling like you have done something worthwhile isn't necessarily the case. Serious predator management through trapping as you recommend is very different and can undoubtedly increase fawn survival. I would be curious to know if lowering coyote numbers enough to meaningfully increase fawn survival had other unintended consequences, and also how many of those 25 fawns survive would survive to adulthood. I am willing to be convinced that predator management works, but I also suspect that any time you take a lot of something out of an ecosystem something else goes out of whack.

I love to trap and hunt them along with any other furbearer but I agree with you Phil to the extent that I see them as a game animal that should be regulated, not as vermin. This year I trapped a couple of red fox out of any area where the year before I trapped two coyotes out of the same sets. Both are existing together in some capacity so I'm not sure I've made up my mind on the effect on each other. I do know that back in the 80's when I first started trapping, the largest predators here were fox. I personally find them exhilirating to hunt and trap and feel that they are way smarter than most whitetail bucks. I have a very difficult time trying to intentionally hunt them here in the east. I also agree that the feral cats are huge problem as well.

You (and thousands of others) are WRONG about coyotes keeping these invasive-species cat populations in check. NO native predators will keep these man-made-cats in check, anywhere on the planet. Just as the government of Australia sadly learned when they thought they could control cats by increasing Dingo populations. Conclusion: ZERO EFFECT.

Read this post to explain something I discovered during my own cat-eradication experiments:

neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?source=phpbb_art_viewall&t=22154584#p2781776

It will completely explain how and why native predators cannot, do not, and will not keep man-made invasive species cat populations under control. They might pick off a few, dying in the process from all the deadly diseases that cats are spreading to wildlife today, but ultimately you will still be left with cats destroying all the native wildlife -- from smallest of prey up to the top predators that are starved-to-death.