It could have gotten ugly during last night's coon hunt.

A couple friends and I took our hounds out last night coon hunting. We had a female Bluetick- Gracie, a very small male Redbone- Boomer, a Plott- Layla and my Plott pup named Wendel.

On our second cast, in a sugar bush beside a corn field, the dogs weren't having much luck. We had kept Wendel with us and after about 1/2 hr we caught Gracie. According to the gps, Boomer and Layla were running together 160 yards from us, so my one buddy, Brad, and I headed into the bush to try and round them up. When we got within about 75 yards we could see their flashing collars. About this time they both started tongueing. Within 30 seconds of them firing up, a pack of coyotes cut lose from maybe a couple hundred yards east of us. I couldn't say for sure how many coyotes were howling- at the very least there was a half dozen. It sounded like more though. My immediate thought was "oh s#!t, if Boomer and Layla get drawn to the coyotes howling they're gonna die". They weren't showing any immediate desire to head towards the howling but there was little doubt in my mind that the coyotes would be coming looking for them. It was a frantic 10 minutes of so as we scrambled through the bush trying to catch the hounds. I managed a shoestring tackle on Layla and once we had her on the lead, Boomer came to us.

When we got back to the truck my other buddy, Gary, told us that there was another few coyotes howling off to the south of us when all the commotion started. With that many coyotes staying packed up, outside of the breeding season, it's no wonder we haven't seen many deer the last couple years.

We don't want one or two of our hounds running into a coyote pack- we may have to bring additional Plott hounds if we run into more scenarios like this, this season.
 
I am seriously dieing to get out and shoot some of those ####ers! Last year out camping up north grouse hunting my uncle almost lost his Brittany Spaniel, and English Setter to a pack of coyotes! They stuck together and put up a fight, but if it wasn't for Mr. 12 guage things would have gone completely different!

I would love to come out to lend a hand/gun! LOL
 
It's a tough situation. Coyotes are packing up more frequently than 20 yrs ago. Therefore they are able to do more damage to game, livestock and hounds. When we're coon hunting we typically have 2-4 hounds- not necessarily enough to scare off a pack of coyotes.

When I first started hunting coyotes with my friends and their hounds, we wouldn't think twice about casting just one or two good hounds on a track. Now if one or two hounds catches up with a pack we'd only be retrieving collars.

The coyotes around here need a serious thinning and re-education. It would be great if more hunters got into running them with hounds (in safe numbers).
 
Hmmmmm..... bring some mastiffs who're good friends with your dogs. Then dress them in Hi-viz pink vests and heavy leather collars/body vests and let them go, pig hunting style ;)
 
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