All I have is a High Standard .22 revolver - bought to shoot snakes at close range. Since both shoulders have been worked on, I don't dare take up a rifle - never learned when I was young and have no desire to stress my shoulders now.
The husband of the family that is running the farm has the right equipment to shoot coyotes and to make it count. He told me about the high velocity rounds he uses, but I'm not terribly interested so don't remember the details from the last time he had to take one out here. It's been four or five years since we've actually seen one.
You know, that was about the last time we had a good crop of turkeys - I bet their cycles are synchronized. This year I saw a nice flock of 13 turkeys - several adults and 9 poults - that were coming by the house every evening. Plus, since the family has taken a few deer out, the deer population is healthier and we had more fawns this year than we've had in a while. So the hunting was good this year and I bet the coyote population is up so they are exploring more territory.
Oh, and this coyote wasn't all that easy to see in the daylight! What I actually spotted was his shadow. His coat color blended perfectly into the dead grass but I saw some strange dark shape down in the open. If it'd been cloudy like it is now, I wouldn't have noticed him. I got out the binoculars and until he stood up - he'd been rolling on the ground, maybe in some horse poop - I wasn't sure what I was seeing. It wasn't until he strolled up the hill and was in silhouette against some dark bushes I got a clear enough look at him to be sure it was a coyote and not a dog.
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