[Mark]

I've had a game camera up the past few weeks near one of my stands. There have been a lot of deer go by, but also a lot of coyotes in this particular area. I wonder if it would be good management strategy to stick an arrow in each coyote that walked by. What would you do?

[birdman]

From a deer management perspective ( or Todd's thinking), kill them all...

A logical perspective would say "not so fast". Coyotes might be necessary to "thin the herd" if too many deer are in close proximity. Predators are able to keep animals spread out over larger areas. This can be very important in preventing spread of disease (see CWD literature and how it's spread). Many other reasons to leave them alone..

Tough call when they're so damn fun to shoot.......

[Mark]

Here are a few pictures of my coyotes. They have a den nearby. I'm thinking I'm going to wait until winter to kill a few, because I'd like to tan thier hides.

[Mark]

As you can see below, there are several deer using this area as well. You can't see it in the picture, but I have some turnips and wheat planted around the little tree.

[oucorry]

That's pretty cool looking at the trail camera pictures. I need to get one. I heard they get real addictive. One guy says the anticipation is as much fun as hunting.

It looks like you have an excellent set-up, Mark. I hope all your hard work pays off this year. Good luck!!

[shortbus]

I would kill the coyotes now. If they are using the same trails as much as your deer then they are a serious deterrent to the deer being in that area.

I say this because I know you don't have a ton of hunting ground there. If you had a lot more area to hunt, I'd probably look at it a little differently.