Coyote hunting tips

[APDDSN0864]

Every one that want's it can have what I have learned freely from me I don't know it all and some things that are true in my area may not be in your area but they should give a person a place to start . I have always enjoyed sharing what I have learned with those that want to learn from me as do you APDDSN0864 from what I can tell by reading your posts here . Thank You and You are welcome Dave

Dave,
I try to learn from everyone.

Call me Ed, it's a whole lot easier than my handle.

Ed

 

[DSheetz]

Ed , you got it I will . I also try to learn from everyone .

 

[DSheetz]

Time is flying by it's already Aug. . The pups of the year should be about 3/4 grown by now in most areas and the parents will be teaching them to hunt and kill for themselves . Still being young and unsure of their abilities the young of this year are a little skittish and not very aggressive for the most part so calling should be non aggressive as well . If you like to use coyote vocalizations more mid length howls and few barks will be more effective in my area at this time . If a person hasn't been using the puppy sounds and burned them out on them they work great on the young of the year now as do the other animal distress sounds . This is the time of the year that you will see several coming to the call at the same time in my area as they are still running in family groups . Often it will be all pups coming with the adults just setting back and letting the pups charge into the sounds . By Sept. the pups will often be out hunting on their own here and maybe only one or two running together as they are getting ready to disperse and start looking for their own area to call home . Here the density of them will be decided by the amount of food available in the areas .

 

[APDDSN0864]

Time is flying by it's already Aug. . The pups of the year should be about 3/4 grown by now in most areas and the parents will be teaching them to hunt and kill for themselves . Still being young and unsure of their abilities the young of this year are a little skittish and not very aggressive for the most part so calling should be non aggressive as well . If you like to use coyote vocalizations more mid length howls and few barks will be more effective in my area at this time . If a person hasn't been using the puppy sounds and burned them out on them they work great on the young of the year now as do the other animal distress sounds . This is the time of the year that you will see several coming to the call at the same time in my area as they are still running in family groups . Often it will be all pups coming with the adults just setting back and letting the pups charge into the sounds . By Sept. the pups will often be out hunting on their own here and maybe only one or two running together as they are getting ready to disperse and start looking for their own area to call home . Here the density of them will be decided by the amount of food available in the areas .

Same here in SE NM, but we're about 1-2 weeks behind you. The pups here are just starting to move away from the den area.

I'm concentrating on trying to get the adults first, when they're away from the pups so I don't educate the pups.

Right now, pups are very easy to get to vocally respond to howls and barks and I can call very briefly and get an idea of where the den areas are to reduce the amount of searching for family groups.
I will call just long enough to get a response and then get out of the area quickly so I don't teach them about the dangers until I've pulled the trigger.
It really cuts down on travel time between sets as I have roughly 6K square miles of area I work doing predator control.
The weather has been cooler than last year at this time and we've had significant flooding from the seasonal monsoons, so the terrain and vegetation are different, and that makes for some interesting calling sets.

Ed

 

[Deleted member 115360]

I got an old female this morning, who had clearly been nursing, but had no pups near her. Her nipples were drying up, like she had finished nursing, but she was alone. She answered me alone at about 30 mins before sunrise, (legal shooting time here), and came in really slow. I almost didn't see her. In a sea of green, she came in and laid down on a tall patch of dry dirt that was almost the same color as her fur. She was a smart one, and I felt like she was intentionally using that spot to observe from because it aided in her concealment. I watched her for about 10 minutes, trying to coax her closer, and all she would do is perk up her ears and lay there and watch. Finally, I accepted that she wasn't coming and took her at 308 yards with my new .308 (kind of poetic) that I traded with a member of this forum a couple weeks back. I had to estimate the distance because she had me pegged. If I moved my lips to blow at a mosquito, she perked up, so getting my rangefinder out wasn't an option. I wasnt prepared for a shot at that distance, I left the 6.5prc in the truck, and expected shots under 200y, but when I got into the area in the dark, I set up further from the treeline than I meant to. Anyways, the shot worked out, on a very small coyote laying flat on the ground, so, a very small target. Her canines were broken and worn down.

 

[Deleted member 115360]

She was here

 

[DSheetz]

So then as you watched her did see look in a different direction then you every now and then ? Here at this time of the year she should have already been dry . Did you look at her tubes to tell how many pups she had , so that you would know how many pups you were trying to find and what age they were ?

 

[DSheetz]

Ed , I also have found that taking the adults away from the pups works best . They learn fast or die young .

 

[Deleted member 115360]

So then as you watched her did see look in a different direction then you every now and then ? Here at this time of the year she should have already been dry . Did you look at her tubes to tell how many pups she had , so that you would know how many pups you were trying to find and what age they were ?

Being a coyote, she looked in every direction constantly, but she wasn't worried about anything but my sound box and whatever I might have been. I'm sure she wasn't far from her pups, but I didn't see any sign. I skipped the dissection. I'll just assume she had some, and in about a month when they are bumbling toddlers, Bill and I will slip over there and kill them with a saltwater crocodile distress sound because they will be too dumb to know any better.

 

[DSheetz]

OK

 

[DSheetz]

Those questions were ask for me to gain knowledge of the coyote from your area . If she was still nursing that means the pups were maybe 6 weeks old as the coyote from here stop feeding them at about that age as they do in most areas . The marks on the tubes tell me how many she had and what age they are because they shrink with time so that by the time the pups are 3 months old the lumps here will only be the size of peas . If she was looking in one direction more then another she was watching her pups that she had put in one spot and had them staying still if she had been from here . If she still had a mate or maybe another young female also with her and the pups they most likely will take the pups some place else if they were here .

 

[Deleted member 115360]

Those questions were ask for me to gain knowledge of the coyote from your area . If she was still nursing that means the pups were maybe 6 weeks old as the coyote from here stop feeding them at about that age as they do in most areas . The marks on the tubes tell me how many she had and what age they are because they shrink with time so that by the time the pups are 3 months old the lumps here will only be the size of peas . If she was looking in one direction more then another she was watching her pups that she had put in one spot and had them staying still if she had been from here . If she still had a mate or maybe another young female also with her and the pups they most likely will take the pups some place else if they were here .

She was dried up beyond nursing. There was just some pea sized nipples and noticeable sagging. I don't cut into them very often, and definitely not in the summer time in the TN heat. I knew what you were asking, and she didn't appear to be keeping an eye on any pups. Right behind her was a sheer ditch about 10' deep with a wet weather spring in it, but behind that is the swamp of no return, so she could have left her pups in there, and I would have had to get bitten to get close enough to see them in there. Probably gators pythons and chupacabra in that swamp. Probably coyote pups too

 

[DSheetz]

This time of the year I have had good luck with what Bill Austin called his sunrise serenade . Most of the calls used today just call it a group howl but it's the same one he had recorded on his cassette tapes . I like to set it up so as to get it started at the beginning with the volume fairly high and only play it one time then just set watch and listen for up to 20 minutes before moving to another set up . That's what I find works to locate them at this time of the year and often the older ones will come on in to visit . It's mostly a low key process now till maybe October here . I will point my speaker straight up wards the way the coyote would do it themselves with my caller right beside me as I'm well concealed and they tell me what direction they are from me .

 

[APDDSN0864]

This time of the year I have had good luck with what Bill Austin called his sunrise serenade . Most of the calls used today just call it a group howl but it's the same one he had recorded on his cassette tapes . I like to set it up so as to get it started at the beginning with the volume fairly high and only play it one time then just set watch and listen for up to 20 minutes before moving to another set up . That's what I find works to locate them at this time of the year and often the older ones will come on in to visit . It's mostly a low key process now till maybe October here . I will point my speaker straight up wards the way the coyote would do it themselves with my caller right beside me as I'm well concealed and they tell me what direction they are from me .

I have made the rookie mistake of playing a serenade over and over, thinking that I needed to do that to draw them in...

I think I'll compile a list of rookie mistakes that I've made...should be worth a grin...

Ed