How To: Calling/Hunting Predators

[tmrschessie]

Howdy folks, I am going to stick this one so it does not get lost in the day to day grind. Please continue to post, it will just be above the line is all. Thank You, Tom

[wicked97]

Regardless of calling style or area the most important think to focus on is patience.

Most coyotes arent going to come rushing in the second they hear a sound.

Another thing to consider when calling is how your calling.

Try to imagine what a wounded rabbit would sound like after ten minutes of being injured. I have had more luck by starting lound and fast and over time decreasing the volume and tempo of the call than by staying with a set volume for the length of the stand.

Of course this varies so much depending on the area and time of year but thats what has helped me.

[huntman025]

I have really never kept track of this but I would say 80% of the coyotes that I have shot I saw moving in within the first 1-3 minutes of calling, but I call hilly open areas. I may see them 800 yds out. You can't outguess where they will come from and how they will respond. I've walked in on coyotes mouseing and been within 200 yds of them and they will not even look your way when you call they just keep messing around. Just a few weeks ago I called one in that came out of a pine tree row that I drove within 10 yds of and it came right to the call and had a pheasant in its mouth.

Here's some pics of 3 yotes dad and I shot one day. I called all them in and shot 2 and dad shot one. Dad usually watches the back door since I do the calling. That is a good thing to do if you hunt in pairs. Have one guy watch the downwind side. They will come from farther away downwind because they can here the call farther away, but the downside is they can smell you 300 yds out. I would put a coyotes nose against a whitetails anytime.

[tmrschessie]

Nice, thanks for sharing the photos, I always like to see a successful coyote hunter. I agree on the quickness of most set ups. It is those sly dogs that keep us on stand longer...Tom

[wolfer 1]

Tom, I am from Mccook, if you want to try some calling out this way some time let me know. I am about done for this year,unless a land owner calls with a problem critter , but maybe we could line up something for next fall.

[tmrschessie]

Sounds good, I would really like to do some open country calling again...Thanks Much. Just PM me here and let me know next fall or I can get you my phone number if that would work better. Tom

[wolfer 1]

I normally dont do much calling in the fall until the pelts are worth selling,besides , I dont like the idea of shooting a pup that still has milk on its breath, anybody can do that,but we will have to make it out a.s.a.p. next fall lots coyotes then and you wont have traps to check yet. Found a pic. or 2, after the kids get home from school i'll have them show me how to post them (haha) haven't taken pics. of all of them. a couple hairless wonder pics. go along way, I did manage to find a few with some hair this year seemed like this year most of the coyotes I shot were either really nice pale coyotes or they were in the later stages of mange,I think I only had 4 or 5 that were pink in the crotch but still saleable. Any coyote that comes to the call is a lot of fun with or without hair and once they respond,I don't discriminate. The biggest sin in calling coyotes is letting them leave.

[wolfer 1]

huntman nice pics. and you are right, you can fool thier ears, you can fool thier eyes but you can hardly ever fool thier nose.

[cnelk]

Nice pics and input guys...keep it coming.

I'd like to discuss the best 3 minutes in coyote calling.
We know that sometime the dogs come in quick and other times they are hesitant.

More often than not, the top 3 minutes in calling are 3-5 minutes into the call, and 15-18 minutes into the call.
Its quite obvious that the the ones that respond first are either young, hungry, or unpressured/uneducated.

The time of year has a factor in response time also. Pups learning to hunt will be easy to call in the fall. Winter-time cold weather can bring the hungry coyotes come running in a hurry. Late winter will bring the females in because they are going to be having pups in the spring.

Even though the top 3 minutes of the call are at the start and end of the call, be aware that they can and will come in at any time.

[cnelk]

Let’s go to another set-up.

I have looked over the area and know about where I’m going to be setting up and calling a few times.
The next place is not as large as the last. It is a brushy draw and the shooing will be 100yds or less. The draw runs north and south and I enter it from the west. I am a 5 minute walk from the truck. As I get closer, I see the best vantage point I have is to cross the draw and sit on the east side of it. I will find a place about ¾ up the slope and I will be looking to the south and north.

There is hardly any wind. With the tighter cover, I am hoping a coyote will show itself and offer a shot before any chance of it winding me.

I start to call. Same technique as before. As I am sitting there calling, I try to “guess” which direction a coyote will come from. I’m thinking with the draw heading south toward some open area, a coyote will use the cover of the draw and come from that direction.

When I must move my head to look in different directions, I do so very slowly. I am also careful not to move my calling hand too fast.

I am calling my 3rd series of calls, (about 6 minutes into the call) and I see movement coming from the south, here one comes! It is trotting toward me and suddenly stops.
There is some brush in the way; the distance is right at 100yds, I do not have a shot.

What do I do?

[huntman025]

I would get my gun on the spot he is at while he's behind some brush. Then give a couple coax's on my sceery rodent call, just enough to get him to move out in the open. Depending on the wind I will either drop them as soon as they are in the open or let them move out and stop again. I prefer 100-150 yd shots. 1-5 yd encounters are great fun but usually takes me 2 shots. One warning shot at close range and then the kill shot when they get out there a little ways running like hell.

As a side note I usually always try to do my moving and calling after I see a coyote coming while they are trotting or running. A coyote just standing with all his senses working is much more likely to pinpoint your movement and calling location if he is standing verses when he is moving. If you have one hung up and you are facing the wrong direction for a shot slowly put your call up and give him some sweet notes and get him coming again. If its just flat open land when he starts moving slowly turn so you can get a shot. Where I call there is usually always some low spot or something the coyote will have to go through. When they drop out of site I quickly move to get into position with rifle on my shoulder ready for the shot. Just watch above your rifle where you think the coyote will come up. You want to be ready because most the time as soon as they get up where they can see again, they will stop and survey the surroundings again and that will be your shot opportunity!!! Don't be looking through your scope though, many times when they drop into a low spot or another draw they will circle down wind and may pop up 50- 100 yds from where they went down on the other side. I'm right handed so I always like to sit if calling in a crosswind situation with the wind moving from my right to left. That way if one pops up down wind I can just move the rifle and don't have to turn my whole body.

[wolfer 1]

good answer

[ped917]

Need your input what do you think the best place in Nebraska is for a coyote population? I have found a few spots in northeasat nebraska that has a coyote or two but I am yet to find a "GOOOOOOD" spot. what do you the overall population outlook for the years to come with this mange crap that is going on. What do you think the northeat part of the state's population. and will we see more fox and maybe even bobcat in this part of the state in the years to come due to the mange killing a few of them off.... and is it worth it to try and hunt them anymore this year, we just got a fresh snow cover and i am itching to shoot something... what is you input? sick and tired of doing this in my dorm room

[wolfer 1]

the coyotes are still huntable for awhile if fur is what you are after, but this time of year their pelts will start fading fast, a good yote last week may be a ditch dog this week. and this may or may-not matter, to each their own, but being in heart of breeding season quite a few of the bitches have already bred so the ones you shoot now won't be producing anything for you to pick on next fall. (before anyone gets all fired up I am aware there will always be coyotes,like I said to each there own). as far as populations go any more I don't believe that anyone part of the state has a significant advantage in numbers however there does seem to be very localized areas that will contain more coyotes than others, I have talked to hunters in the panhandle as-well as from around Valentine and back east around G.I. and pretty much have heard a lot of the same, #'s are down somewhat over all. There are plenty of songdogs still out there, you just have to work a little harder to get them.In S.W. NEB. we have more fox and cats than we have ever had and it is due in large part to the fact that the overall coyote population has declined somewhat. I cant say that I totally blame manage for the decline I think that there are other factors at play in the population decline, locally here the last few years the field mouse population has been down somewhat and that has a big effect on coyote numbers.Also the coyotes that are still here are not the same kind of coyotes that were here 10 or even 5 yrs. ago, due in large part to us hunters, just as we have evolved in our hunting tactics so have they evolved in the way they stay alive,I will give you one example: in this area there are so many hunters using howlers(mostly incorrectly I might add) that It is rare to have them answer even at dusk. There is 1 spot that I hunt that really illustrates this It's by some R.R. tracks that has a access crossing to a field,for years when a train would blow its whistle at that crossing coyotes for a mile or so in every direction of that crossing would howl, then I noticed last year that when the whistle would sound nothing would respond to it, even though minutes later I killed a coyote off that set.then last summer I ran into a local high school kid that also hunts that property and found out that him and a friend had been hunting that pasture on the weekends at night using a howler to call the coyotes,when I asked what howls had been working the best for him I got "Just a coyote howl I guess".Point is there still maybe a decent population in the area your hunting they just may no be so conspicuous as they once were