I've had a few people ask on other places of what I call a day or night of hunting, as I indicated I averaged 11.50 coyotes per day/night. They were thinking that could mean that there are times I might hunt all day and all night and then call that 1 day/night. Actually in the way I do it, that would count as 2.
Everybody should use whatever metrics works for them. I use this statistic for two reasons. The reasons are landowner expectations as well as providing me a measurement if I am improving.
Landowner Expectations: When I am talking to existing or potentially new landowners, they want to know the type of impact I can have on their coyote population. By monitoring this number, I can provide an average or typical representative of how many coyotes I will remove each time I hunt their property. Since I drive so far, I am usually hunting for a full night.
Measurement For Improvement: Of course coyote population can play a big part in numbers, but assuming a fairly stable population, I want a metric that I can use to gauge if I am getting more coyotes vs just hunting more often, etc.
Per Day/Night Measurement: What is a full night? Over the years of tracking this information, I can get about 10 stands in a typical night of hunting. I do some day hunting as well and even some day and night combination hunts. I have found that once I hit around 10 stands, my body starts telling me this is enough. When I leave my house, my expectation is that I will be making 10 stands. Weatherman are often wrong, so if I go out and let's say call 5 spots, and the wind picks up to 30+ or something makes me quit hunting, then I mark that hunt as .5 in my spreadsheet. If I do put in 10 stands, it gets a 1, etc.
So, if you look at the numbers I posted, 48 days/nights means I hunted around 480 stands. Based on this, I am average 1.15 coyotes for every stand I make or 11.5, every 10 stands. Some people will say well why don't you just use that metric. To me this metric doesn't mean much becuase I could be simply sitting one stand for 4 hours or even an entire night which is very different than if I use 30-minute stand times. Again, this is my way of tracking my hunts. When I talk to a landowner, if I said I get a little over 1 coyote on every stand that really doesn't help them understand how many I most likely will get when I hunt.