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Local store offers rifle, cash to hunters in coyote contest

Last year, 17 participants killed 115 coyotes in the area.

Sharon Eldridge, owner of the Buck Creek Carry Out, holds the rifle she's offering for first place in this year's coyote hunt. Ralph Whitehead took first place last year with 57 coyotes.

Bill Lackey/Staff Photo Sharon Eldridge, owner of the Buck Creek Carry Out, holds the rifle she's offering for first place in this year's coyote hunt. Ralph Whitehead took first place last year with 57 coyotes.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 10:31 PM Thursday, December 29, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — If you want to know what the state thinks of certain species of animals, look no further than Ohio’s hunting and trapping regulations.

Hunters get just six days each year and an extra mid-December weekend to take down deer with guns.

They get three weeks to bag quail, and four months to hunt rabbit.

Even crows have a defined season — Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from June 3 to March 12.

But coyotes?

“Take it if you see it,” said Rick Jasper, an assistant wildlife management supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in Xenia.

For the second year, a Clark County convenience store is sponsoring a competitive coyote hunt during January and February.

The Buck Creek Carry Out will hand out a new rifle and donated cash prizes to the three people who can kill the most coyotes.

After all, crows don’t do this:

“One farmer up the road said the cow was calving and the coyote was pulling on the baby,” said Sharon Eldridge, who’s owned the Mechanicsburg Road store, a favorite with area hunters, for 22 years.

Beleaguered farmers and distraught pet owners have long stopped by Eldridge’s store to seek help from hunters about coyotes, an opportunistic predator that didn’t even appear in Ohio and states east of the Mississippi River until 1919.

“I don’t think there’s a shortage of coyotes in North America anymore,” Jasper, of the ODNR, said.

With the contest, Eldridge decided to give hunters an incentive to help thin out the area’s coyote population.

Last year, 17 hunters took down 115 coyotes during the contest.

When hunting coyotes — which can be hunted in Ohio 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, with a regular hunting license — almost anything goes.

Almost.

“Poisoned or explosive arrows are unlawful,” according to ODNR regulations.

Ralph Whitehead, a longtime local hunter, killed 57 coyotes last year to take first place in the contest.

“It’s just exploded,” he said of the coyote population. “Twenty years ago, you’d never see one.”

First place this year will win a Savage Axis .22-250 rifle, with second and third places winning $125 and $75, respectively.

Part of that money was donated by the National Wild Turkey Federation, Eldridge said, which shows the importance given to thinning the ranks of coyotes.

Hunters must register by Sunday and pay a $5 registration fee. The contest runs Sunday through Feb. 29.

Call the store at (937) 390-3882 for more details.

Eldridge, who lives across the street from her store, said she already can see the effectiveness of last year’s inaugural contest.

“We’ve had trouble with rabbits in the garden,” she said, “which is a change.”

Contact this reporter at amcginn@coxohio.com.

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