I live in Ohio, we are literally overrun with coyotes anymore, see them virtually every day, these aren't little dogs either, my largest to date was a 56lb male and I know I have seen a few even bigger. They are the primary cause of fawn/poult, not to mention birds on the nest and deer slowed by the deep snow we often have mortality. You guys experiencing the same thing. At least in Virginia you can hunt with a rifle, Ohio is strictly a shotgun/muzzleloader state, so killing them becomes a little more difficult. I could shoot 100 a year with a 22-250 or .223, but to call them in close enough to get with #4 buckshot can be a real challenge. We do run them with dogs (walkers mostly) and it's a blast trying to get ahead of a coyote to catch it the next time it crosses a road/pipeline or field. Just too many coyotes and not enough predator hunters here, land access since most is private is a huge problem.

I think the number is variable throughout the state, but probably increasing.

I personally think they are harder on deer than turkeys.....but the deer herd probably needs thinning anyway

The reason I say that about deer and turkeys is my experience living in KY a few years back. I lived on a disperision corredor of yotes (ky river) and the number was astounding....woke me up 2-3 times a night sounding off. I haven't seen anything like it anyplace else. And also never saw so many turkeys in my life. Not unusual to count 70+ in a flock cross a logging road or pick field when deer hunting. But the deer population remained stable at a fairly low density considering agriculture available. I think some of it has to do with yotes killing fox, cats and other predators enough to where they mitigate their own predation of turkeys. Could be wrong but that's my observation. I think bobcats are harder on turkeys than yotes.

Ohio is getting stranger all the time. I new you couldn't uses rifles for deer, but thought they allowed small caliber rifles for vermin and such. So you can't even use a .22 magnum or anything like that, strange?

What part of Ohio are you in? I grew up across the river from Steubenville. Nice area, but man they legislature must be going nuts.

Have read some stuff from PA where they have done studies regarding the safety of shotguns versus rifles. The findings are showing that rifles in many cases are safer. Usually once a high velocity round hits the ground it blows apart and won't ricochet where as a slug might.

Wish you luck with the yotes, keep them on your side of the river.

Vic

The laws in this state regarding the use of centerfire rifles are vague as hell. On private land I can shoot any weapon for target purposes, including but not limited to a .50 cal semi-auto. when it comes to hunting they are pretty limiting if you rea d the regs, shotgun, muzzleloader, handgun(must be a straight walled case such as .357, .44 or you can even use a 45-70 t/c contender as long is the cartridge is straight walled) but you can not hunt with a centerfire rifle legally. .22mag is a rimfire, as well as many of the .17 cals. but #4 buckshot in order to kill a coyote is just as effective. I've shot alot of dogs with a plain old .22 long rifle, many with .17hmr, but to really reach out and have an effect they need to let us shoot the real centerfires for predator hunting. I really don't want to see them change us to a rifle state for deer hunting, I'm use to my in-line muzzloader and we have absolutely huge bucks. In all honesty I believe that being a non-rifle hunting state, as far as deer hunting, has contributed to the long life of our deer to reach their potential. Don't know how many times I've had to let that true trophy stand at 300 yards, could of dropped him easily with my model 700 '06, but you get used to it. I love rifle hunting, love reaching our and touching them, but we are use to our somewhat antiquated laws.