Been chasing and calling coyotes in Michigan for 3 seasons now, never shot one. Kind of half as**** it for the first couple seasons but I've gotten pretty serious about it this season. Been getting a lot more responses to my calls and earlier this week I was able to call my first one in. Believe it or not, he heard me click the safety off at 82 yards (my thermal has a range finder) and bailed quickly. I'm gonna keep at it. So with all that said, anyone having any success in Michigan? It would be cool to hear some good stories about success in the Midwest.
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Coyote hunting in Michigan
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Thebear_78
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I found the best success hunting over bait piles. I would generally leave meat scrap and dog food popcicles out and would then call down wind of them. I generally leave them somewhere that I could see from a distance and scope out for incidental sniping. A lot of times a pack of coyotes would tie up the bait and fox or bobcat would hang out waiting for a chance to sneak in. They were generally susceptible to coming in to a call in those situations.
When you are calling rapid movements are one of your enemies' slower steady movements are your friend. Here in the open country that I live in I have followed coyote in my scope for several hundred yards as they came in. Too much volume is another problem for beginners, especially with the e-callers.
I got out yesterday and was able to shot my first coyote ever. Hunt was a blast
Yotes are hunted hard in MI and you might find it bit better to reduce call sequences. Guys that are doing well call very little, use pups calls and rabbit call kiss of death from huge over use. Motion Bird decoys still good. Night hunting is number one program. Some guys switched to day hunting to switch up on them.
I think that you are going through the learning curve. We didn't get so many coyotes out there because they aren't smart and wary. You've gotten a coyote, you know that your calling approach is working and you know you can execute on the shooting part of the process. I expect that you will start to see a significant increase in your success rate this year.
At 82 yards on a quiet evening, a coyote will hear the tiniest of mouse squeaks. I'm sure the safety click was very audible... the sound of impending death to an educated coyote (someone pushed their safety off then took a shot at it that missed). Again, they are very smart critters, and as they say, experience is a great teacher... if you survive the lesson.
Did that coyote take a dump just before you shot him, or did you shoot him in the middle of a movement... so to speak?
At 82 yards on a quiet evening, a coyote will hear the tiniest of mouse squeaks. I'm sure the safety click was very audible... the sound of impending death to an educated coyote (someone pushed their safety off then took a shot at it that missed). Again, they are very smart critters, and as they say, experience is a great teacher... if you survive the lesson.
Did that coyote take a dump just before you shot him, or did you shoot him in the middle of a movement... so to speak?
I have had the hydraulic shock knock the crap out of them on more than one occasion. It's brown so it wasn't on a mainly meat diet, it would be black if it was. Everything like that tells you a story and gives you clues as to where and what they have been eating that all aids you in your hunting of them.
7 pages back there is Coyote Hunting Tips, 5 pages back there is Volume and Distance, both of them have some good info in them you could look at ramblings and such from hunting coyote as well it has some information in it from my years of hunting them. I'm pretty sure you won't get bored with hunting them.
Critter Picker
Well-Known Member
Congratulations on your first coyote. I still remember my first called him in to about 50 yards. Had the sun at my back,and I can still picture those hazel eyes in my scope.
Congrats!
toolsofthetrade
Well-Known Member
Ive been coyote hunting here in michigan for over 20 years, the game has changed. was nice up until 2016, then we got year round season and center fire after dark, which was great for awhile, but between that and the more affordable night hunting equipment, there has been a huge influx of new hunters, lots of folks that have little to no understanding of howto hunt them and have little to no consideration for other hunters or property owners (trespassing, hunting land others hunt already, with or without permission, road hunting etc.) has made the already challenging coyote hunting even more challenging in some areas.
Ive found that changing up how you call, your set up and sounds along with using different methods like ambush hunting (like you would hunt deer) can often pay off.
Now they put a season back on them here (closed from april 15th - july 15th) so we shall see in the long run if that changes anything.
Ive not had great success with baiting, though in some areas Ive heard it works great (mainly in the U.P).
congrats on getting your first.
Ive found that changing up how you call, your set up and sounds along with using different methods like ambush hunting (like you would hunt deer) can often pay off.
Now they put a season back on them here (closed from april 15th - july 15th) so we shall see in the long run if that changes anything.
Ive not had great success with baiting, though in some areas Ive heard it works great (mainly in the U.P).
congrats on getting your first.
