Our way of coyote hunting

In eastern Iowa, I hunt with a bigger (10-15) group of guys. We use dogs and radios (yes it is legal in iowa as long as shotgun deer season is closed). We use buckshot (4 Buck) exclusively for two reasons. 1) Sometimes the dogs run the yotes closer to farm houses/buildings and we don’t want guys blasting rifles around them. 2) Safety we don’t want other hunters or our dogs shot. I’m all for using a rifle when calling them but when running them it just isn’t an option that we choose to use, besides the thrill of the chase if more enjoying to me then the kill. By the time we shoot/the dogs catch a yote, the hide isn’t worth a whole lot. We usually just turn them in for the bounty if they were shot in a county that has one. We do sell a few of the real good hides but they aren’t worth much this year around my part ($15 max). This a a great sport to get through the winter and we haven’t run into many farmers who will say no to people hunting yotes in fact, most of them let us drive through their fields or whatever we need to do to kill them. With work, I don’t get out as much as I used to, but the group still hunts 5-6 days per week. Each year we average around 100 coyotes. My first time this winter was last saturday, I brought 2 guys along that have never hunted this way. They had a blast and in total the group killed 8 coyotes (our best day ever). I know I am in the minority on my approach to hunting coyotes, but we are successful in the population control and have a great time doing it.