Topic: Coyotes 1 Egress81 0

[egress81]

Yesterday I took a friend out coyote hunting; he had been out before but never had the chance to shoot one.  So I had formulated a good game plan (so I thought) and new exactly where to take him. The night before I made sure I had ammo, scope was sighted in, call had batteries, camo was all laid out, and the truck had gas. I was ready. 

 My buddy showed up on time and we got out the door at 0630 and made it to our first stand and got in place before 0700. the sun still wasn't up yet so I relaxed for a min to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, after a good check over I gave my friend the "ready" nod and hit play on the good ol’ dyin’ jackrabbit. After a couple serenades of the jack had failed to produce I hit the challenge howl, apparently that woke them up because I counted 3 different packs howling back at us. Yes! I thought this was gonna be good, but still nothing. After trying different howls and jack combos I knew these guys weren't coming in today so we decided to hit up another spot. Just as we made it to the truck we heard a coyote bark and howl about 400-500 yards away. Immediately we hit the ground and proceeded to use the challenge howl again, still no luck.

We made it to the second stand fairly quickly and got settled in. I started off with the same combo of jack and challenge howl. Almost immediately we had a pack off to our 2 o'clock position howl back at us. After a couple rounds of howling back and forth we had a dog bark at us from the back side of this hill from across the ravine. After trying different calls and squeaks we left with our rifles still clean and unfired.

The third spot yielded nothing at all not even a yip which didn't surprise me as I had only taken one dog from that spot and I always thought that it was just by luck the coyote had been there.

The fourth and last stand had been fairly productive for me and my other hunting buddies in the past and it had been a long time since anyone had hunted there as evident by the long grass that had grown in the road. After getting settled in, I hit the same jack and howl combo that never fails to produce dogs, and again after a lengthy session of jack and howl we heard a single coyote bark at us from a long ways out. After finally accepting that today was a win for the coyotes we loaded up and took the back roads home hoping to catch a coyote in the field or even a badger, but of course nothing.

So last night as I’m sitting at work thinking about what went wrong or what I should have done and why they didn’t come in I decide to get my mouth calls out of the truck and practice in the hanger.  As I stepped out back of the hanger to catch some fresh air I hear a coyote bark off across the flight line so I ran in and got my calls and headed out back. I gave a couple challenge and juvenile howls and barks but got no response. A few minutes go by and friend came out to smoke and wanted to hear the dying rabbit call. After a few good blasts I figure that its time to get back to work when out of the corner of my eye I see him , standing there , we had no idea how long he had been there,  he was in the open at about 70 yards almost to mock me and say ha-ha.
Since there is no hunting on base we just watched the coyote disappear in to the night as quickly as he had appeared.  I have this feeling that is going to be a long coyote season this year.

Me on the left.

[R_Hutch]

I can't wait to get out later. I've used mouth calls with good success in the past.

I always enjoy getting out coyote hunting.

R_Hutch

[Hubby_MC]

Have never done the coyote thing, would love to try some time. I have to say, this is a familiar situation though LOL. better luck next time!

[egress81]

R_Hutch   
i started out on mouth calls but got lazy and made a coyote caller outta my ipod and a speaker and mini amp and had since fallen behind on my mouth calling skills , which i think i am gonna start practicing again, it is much more gratifying to call them in myself then it is hitting play.



Hubby_MC
coyote hunting is lots of fun. it can be done year round, best time is usually fall and winter since they are a lot more hungry then during the Summer and late spring when the rabbits and whistle pigs are still out.  Be warned though once you get a rush from a coyote coming in 10 yards or less in front of you, its hard to stop going out.

[Hubby_MC]

sounds like our kind of addiction, need to find out about this calling thing, you buy those someplace? Or do you make your own? I assume this is the kind of activity we can engage in out on the desert! looks like 223 would surfice but would probably end up doing this with 308s. Any hints for the first timers?

[egress81]

Mouth calls are the cheapest and easiest way to get into coyotes. There are howler calls which obviously imitate locator/challenge howls and there are distress calls like jackrabbit, cottontail. With those 2 calls and some practice (the howling is harder then you think) you can at the very least talk to some coyotes if not get them to come into your trap.

or

you can spend the money on an electronic call which are very nice but also can be very expensive, but can be worth it with the wireless remote and multiple speakers. you can also build for right around 50-60 bucks if you have and MP3 player like and ipod or something similar. Jeff has made one of these and so have i and they work pretty good. http://www.varmintal.com/coy5-20.htm

Most of the places i hunt dogs is in the middle of the desert, location isn't that important but set up is, make sure to note wind direction since dogs will usually try to get down wind to get a sniff of what is making that noise.

as for weapon just about any will do I have helped a friend take one with his shotgun and 00 buck at less then 10 feet now he wants to use his bow.

Hope this helps.