A dead red fox and coyote lie on a truck tailgate beside a SilencerCo Omega 300 Suppressor, one of several tools that help a pair of West Virginia hunters more quietly thin the predators’ numbers around local farms at night.
SUPPRESSING WEST VIRGINIA’S PLENTIFUL PREDATOR POPULATION With their SilencerCo suppressors, AR-15s, night optics and calls, a pair of local hunters help keep the Mountain State's game-gobbling, farm-raiding coyotes and foxes a little more in check. STORY AND PHOTOS BY LARRY CASE
“A
re you on him, Ty?” Connor Boothe is whispering in the darkness and I am leaning forward and straining to hear. Connor and his cousin, Tyler Samms, are murmuring about an approaching coyote. They are stationed on tripodmounted AR-15 sporting rifles with thermal imaging scopes. What sounds
like a nasty coyote domestic dispute is being blared out from the predator caller in front of us. Howls, barks and snarls echo into the cold night air and I grin to myself, thinking it sounds like my dog Callie when she is not having a good day. I’m watching and shivering on this beautiful Monroe County, West Virginia, night.
A DOG OF A DIFFERENT COLOR The eastern coyote is one tough customer. He has to be to survive, which he has been doing very well, thank you, for over 50 years east of the Big Muddy. There is much discussion and disagreement as to the origin and ancestry of this canine, and while we won’t go deep into a taxonomy lesson americanshootingjournal.com 73
