I have been hunting since I was a kid. I am 42 years old now and I still love hunting. I used to only hunt deer and that pretty much limited my time in the woods to 4 about months out of the year.
In the last few years here in Florida and other places across the country, the laws have really changed in favor of the hunter. This in turn has opened up the doors to really take advantage of predator hunting.
That being said, here are my top 5 reasons for hunting predators.
1 – Predator hunting keeps me engaged in hunting, shooting, and the outdoors year round.
2 – Coyotes and Hogs can and will attack people when their numbers start to rise.
3 – Predators have a negative effect on most of the game that hunters tend to hunt for food.
4 – Hogs and Coyotes are devastating to farmers.
5 – Higher populations of predators leads to an increasing chance of disease.
The first reason I predator hunt is; Predator hunting keeps me engaged year round.
When I was 9 years old, my little brother and I went hunting in the woods for the First time with my dad. We were on public land in South Florida, and I remember it vividly.
We parked the truck and got out and grabbed our shotguns and went on a stroll through this place looking for deer and pigs.
As I got older and after I was able to drive, I had a great uncle in Northern Alabama who was a great deer hunter. I started traveling up there to hunt every deer season from South Florida. I eventually killed my first deer and hunting became something that I truly love.
It was not until recently that I started predator hunting. These days I live in North Central Florida and I try to get out and hunt at least one night a week.
But back when I was in high school and when I lived in South Florida, the laws were way different. I remember my dads best friend and others that we knew had gotten caught fire hunting at night illegally.
Heck, back then if you got caught with a gun and light in your vehicle at night, you could get in trouble. That was 20 plus years ago, and over time the coyote and hog populations started to get out of control.
Here in the last few years, in Florida the laws changed and now you are allowed to hunt for coyotes and hogs at night, with a light, only on private lands with written permission from the land owner.
I believe you could always hunt them year round during the day time on private land. The public management areas that are widely available to hunt on, have seasons on hogs and coyotes so you are limited to what you can do there as well.
Foxes in Florida are not legal to hunt due to the lower populations.
Currently a few guys and I hunt hogs at night with night vision on leased land. We also hunt coyotes on several different farmer lands at least once a week.
Being out in these different scenarios weekly gives me the opportunity to shoot more throughout the year. Also the night time hunting is a whole new experience in itself.
Generally we ride around on an electric golf cart and find the game. Then we will get off, grab our guns and stalk the predators on foot. Although sometimes we get lucky and have them approach us on the cart.
One of the coolest things about game at night is watching them respond to us in the dark. We have had deer walk within 5 yards of us and never even know we were there. Hogs generally do the same thing. Coyotes are much smarter and don’t approach often, but it does happen.
Being able to hunt like we do definitely keeps you sharp throughout the year and better prepared for deer hunting. Before I started predator hunting, I might pull out my guns and shoot once a year before season. Now I shoot a lot more and have many different options sighted in and ready for any situation that pops up.
The second reason I predator hunt is; Coyotes and Hogs can attack people.
Just last week I watched a video on my phone on a social media site where a coyote chased a small girl on to her porch. The video was captured by a security camera on the house.
Luckily, the little girls dad finally showed up and had to run off the coyote.
On January 9, 2020, a 6 yr old boy in a Chicago Park was bitten by a coyote. The woman that was with him had to beat the coyote off of the boy.
Another man a few hours later walked in the hospital and apparently was bitten near the same location.
I heard on the news recently that a woman was attacked and killed by a group of pigs in Texas.
She was exiting her car to go to the front door and and the pigs swarmed her and knocker her down and attacked her. She did not make it.
Controlling these populations is something we must do to prevent these types of things from happening.
The third reason I predator hunt is that Predators eat babies and sometimes adults of the game that I like to hunt.
It is a way to keep your hunting game flourishing.
Feral pigs eat all kinds of stuff from worms and grubs to mammals. I have even heard that they will eat their own babies (piglets). They eat snakes. They even eat baby fawns.
A Louisiana bowhunter posted a picture captured in the field of a sow with a baby dawn in its mouth running with a bunch of shoats (baby pigs).
Coyotes are constantly hunting deer. Last time I went coyote hunting, my buddy and I saw a herd of deer right at dark eating rye on a green field. After we located the deer, we spotted a solid black coyote easing in the field. It was a full grown male and he was trying to slip up on the deer to get a meal.
Coyotes also eat baby turkeys and baby fawns since they are easy targets. Especially when you get 2 or 3 coyotes hunting together.
I would rather hunt them and keep their populations down so that when I hunt during the regular hunting season, I am able to watch and see more of my table-game thrive.
The fourth reason I hunt predators is that they are devastating to farmers livestock and farmers land.
Coyotes harass, attack, and eat all types of livestock from cows to chickens. They mess with the babies as well as the adults. They are no good to have around farms.
Feral hogs eat on crops , but their main concern is the fact that they root in the ground and destroy the landscape.
They root in the crops. They root up people’s yards and basically destroy the nice landscape that people have to work hard to maintain.
The land destruction that occurs when you have multiple groups of pigs is devastating. Controlling pigs is a must.
The fifth and last reason that I hunt predators is to prevent the spread of disease.
Too many of any species can limit food intake and be a great environment for diseases to start spreading.
In coyotes, rabies is probably one of the most well known diseases. It can be spread with just a bite. When a wild animal has rabies, the best scenario is for that animal to be put down. They will definitely attack.
Coyotes also carry heart worms. Those can be passed to your animals. They can carry tapeworms that can be passed to humans or pets. They can carry any number of diseases that a dog can carry including parvo and distemper.
With all that in mind, hunting predators does have its benefits. You definitely want to research your local and state laws before doing any type of hunting outside of normal hunting seasons.
You will also want to check your local and state laws about using any kind of gun and a light at night or any type of night vision device. Some states still classify the use of devices or projecting light forward as illegal.
I like to stay within the law and enjoy all my freedoms including my second amendment rights, and hunting predators has opened up a whole new world to me. I am also making new friends along the way.
Hunting predators is an all out blast!
If you are looking to get into predator hunting, and want to find out exactly what we are using, check out our Night Time Predator and Hog Hunting Kit.