The hound guys that I locally knew had the worst beat up truck, they were the guys with the banana truck.
You see the coyote 1/2 mile away. What do you do? You sure don't turn the dogs loose yet correct?
You are forced to cut the distance down with the truck if you want to be successful.
This act would qualify as chasing/molesting wildlife with a motor vehicle.
Or do you forget that coyote and keep driving on until you find one that is stupid and just stands there while you idle your truck up to it? Perhaps you manage to find the odd coyote in 10,000 that is deaf... and looking the other way???
Coyotes can be hunted ethically and legally with hounds, but you have to take the use of the truck out of the equation.
Another houndsman that I met and spoke at length with hunted coyotes from horseback trailing hounds as he went. A very ethical way to hunt with hounds Like I said, there's gotta always be a good apple in the box somewhere.
I know of many many houndsmen, talked at length with many of them. Very few would not use a truck to chase coyotes. If you accelerate your truck towards a coyote with a hound box in the back of the truck, then you are chasing coyotes with a truck. Molesting wildlife with a motor vehicle comprises an infraction.
The typical houndsman that I talked to did this.
1)- spot a coyote in the distance
2)- accelerate the motor vehicle rapidly
3)- catch up to coyote with truck
4)- slam on brakes
5)- crank steering wheel in such manner that truck slides/spins 180 degrees, in doing so dogs can visually see the coyote and are running/pointed in the direction of the coyote without confusion when they are released from the box.
6)- yank rope on dog box, dogs come out of the box and coyote is typically are 100 to 200 yards from truck or less
from this point on the dogs perform the ethical part of the hunt. However prior to this point the hunter has incurred an infraction.
There's nothing wrong with hunting coyotes with dogs, just there should be no use of trucks involved with the act to ensure it is done in compliance with the law.
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