Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

On page 80 I talked about checking the female coyote to see if and how many pups she had birthed . It will tell you that info for several months but by mid to late summer the lumps on her uterus will have healed . I haven't been able to find my chart that I had with the ruler on it that tells you the age of unborn pups some times it's nice to have that info to get an average date that they will pup in your area over the years . That's why I figure that most will be born in mid April here .
 
We've been listening to the coyote talk some now and have put together a few parts of it and it's starting to come along for us . We know that the male has a deeper tone then the female and that the pups are even higher pitched ( as with people ) . So then we are learning that the same coyote doesn't have the same pitch all the time either and that depends on the situation just as with people . An old male that is just wanting to talk to his mate is lower pitched . But when he's mad , startled or wanting somebody else out of his area he will often sound almost like he's squealing and his howl will be short with another howl tied right to it lasting only about half as long as his hello howls do each . When he just wants to let his partner know he's around he may do a long low toned howl and wait a couple of min. then do it again then start into a locator series such as the two standard length howls two barks and then one standard length howl .They aren't aggressive so the tone isn't high pitched and there is quite a bit of time between the series of them and only a couple of barks after the first two howls then a howl after them . But you take that same coyote that has another coyote in his area he wants out of his area he will bark a lot and his howls will be high pitched like screams short in length with several short howls together and barking . He may even start showing himself and going away from you to see if you will follow especially if there are pups close by . When they have their pups out camping in the brush and the pups start to wander around some on their own the older ones will locate them with some mid range pitched barks and short howls that are also mid range pitched . Now we see that the tone they talk with has a lot to do with what it is that is happening at the time as does the placement of barks and howls and why I like to make notes about the sounds they make with the dates and time of the day ect. . And I just like to hear them say hello to the sun coming up and setting .
 
DSheetz said:
We've been listening to the coyote talk some now and have put together a few parts of it and it's starting to come along for us . We know that the male has a deeper tone then the female and that the pups are even higher pitched ( as with people ) . So then we are learning that the same coyote doesn't have the same pitch all the time either and that depends on the situation just as with people . An old male that is just wanting to talk to his mate is lower pitched . But when he's mad , startled or wanting somebody else out of his area he will often sound almost like he's squealing and his howl will be short with another howl tied right to it lasting only about half as long as his hello howls do each . When he just wants to let his partner know he's around he may do a long low toned howl and wait a couple of min. then do it again then start into a locator series such as the two standard length howls two barks and then one standard length howl .They aren't aggressive so the tone isn't high pitched and there is quite a bit of time between the series of them and only a couple of barks after the first two howls then a howl after them . But you take that same coyote that has another coyote in his area he wants out of his area he will bark a lot and his howls will be high pitched like screams short in length with several short howls together and barking . He may even start showing himself and going away from you to see if you will follow especially if there are pups close by . When they have their pups out camping in the brush and the pups start to wander around some on their own the older ones will locate them with some mid range pitched barks and short howls that are also mid range pitched . Now we see that the tone they talk with has a lot to do with what it is that is happening at the time as does the placement of barks and howls and why I like to make notes about the sounds they make with the dates and time of the day ect. . And I just like to hear them say hello to the sun coming up and setting .
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How do you locate them this time of year? I cannot get the coyotes in my area to make a sound right now. I haven't heard a howl response in a few weeks. Even trying to locate them at night, (which seems to work almost year round) isn't working. Any tips?
 
They don't talk much when they are ready to have or have young pups mostly due to the fact that they are tied to a small area for now it's just instinct to preserve them . I do a lot of tracking this time of the year but also know where they are most likely to be by past years and knowing coyote habits and I don't get aggressive with the coyote vocalizations or they will just show up and look at you with out saying anything . Being a longer distance from them out of their home range helps them to feel more at ease to talk often just set and listen for them to talk on their own is best now so knowing when they are most likely to do that and being there for it is key . Some times a lower volume group howl will get them to talk but here they will not talk again for at least 30 min after they have talked so then waiting a little longer into the morning helps . It's time consuming , takes a lot of foot work , studying and patience this time of the year . It helps to be as cautious as they are when you are out in their world thus why I say to act as if they would shoot you if they caught you in their area . If you are going to make a mistake with them try to let it be on the side of caution .
 
IDK, I went out for a half day last Sat. and killed 4, all came to howls except for one and I just happen to sit in the right spot at the right time and killed it before I even did any calling. Then I went out yesterday all day long and called in 12, on just 10 stands, which included a quad, a triple, two pair and one single. All of them vocally responded to me at the beginning of each stand except for the quad. Only had one stand yesterday that had howlers that I couldn't get to show. We only got 6 killed yesterday in an area that gets flown.
I almost only used howls to call all of them in. I did use just a tiny bit of a pup distress to finish pulling some of them on in. We watched the lone male yesterday come from a mile, after he responded vocally. He had dried blood on his front legs, face, and neck but I have no idea what he had been eating on.
I know it's not natural for a coyote to howl repetitively over and over, but that's basically what I've been doing the last two times out. Seems strange but it worked.
 
TRnCO said:
IDK, I went out for a half day last Sat. and killed 4, all came to howls except for one and I just happen to sit in the right spot at the right time and killed it before I even did any calling. Then I went out yesterday all day long and called in 12, on just 10 stands, which included a quad, a triple, two pair and one single. All of them vocally responded to me at the beginning of each stand except for the quad. Only had one stand yesterday that had howlers that I couldn't get to show. We only got 6 killed yesterday in an area that gets flown.
I almost only used howls to call all of them in. I did use just a tiny bit of a pup distress to finish pulling some of them on in. We watched the lone male yesterday come from a mile, after he responded vocally. He had dried blood on his front legs, face, and neck but I have no idea what he had been eating on.
I know it's not natural for a coyote to howl repetitively over and over, but that's basically what I've been doing the last two times out. Seems strange but it worked.
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Where in the rocky mountain range are you hunting them?
 
TRnCO that's pretty much the way I've had luck this time of the year also . And paying attention to what they say back to me to use that sound .
 
Hello Gentlemen and Ladies ,

Well , it has been 2 and 1/2 weeks since the most recent post by "Professor" DSheetz , and now , with Spring in bloom , most of our hunting has probably taken a backseat to more mundane activities , such as making a living .
Ranchers and livestock owners are awaiting the calving and lamb season , so now is a good time to post stories of the "RAMBLINGS and SUCH" , as the title of this thread implies .

Tell us some stories of exciting , unusual , or humorous happenings , that you have experienced while hunting , or observing , any and all of the majestic creatures that we pursue .

On April 20th , this thread will be 1 year old , since DSheetz started and opened it .
The title "Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyotes" says it all .
What a tremendous wealth of knowledge has been shared to all of us .
It has been quite informative , and most enjoyable .

I hope that each and every one of you , and your families are doing well .

If I may borrow the title to Bob Hope's theme song , "Thanks For The Memories".

DMP25-06
 
It has been awhile since I've written anything . I've been doing some studying on other things and just didn't take the time to write anything . I made a couple of new knives fixed a couple of AR's for friends and a few other things as well . There are a lot of good people on this site that have considerable knowledge on hunting , tracking ect. . This is the time of the year that I always looked forward to a little slack time before the very busy time when the predators got busy trying to feed their young and made my life hectic in trying to stop them from doing that with lambs and other young of the year . This time of the year the coyote are quiet and hard to get them located at times but they don't know to cover their tracks so that was my tool of choice . So many people use a siren to try and get them to talk and it does work well most of the time if you aren't too close to them and don't run it so long that you miss them howling . Some times they will get to a good place to answer it so it takes a little time for them to even answer that . They will stop answering the siren if it's used too much as well , the coal mines use them to warn of an up coming blast and a few ranchers use them to call their cows to feed them . If you are too close to them it may scare them and they won't answer it . I've had them not talk and just show up to it also . I have also had them talk to a siren that was on the highway or when the town tested their civil defense sirens a few miles away . It's another tool in your kit and like all the others you need to learn how , when and where to use it as well as to respect it and not abuse it , which some people have a hard time with that as it's a new toy for them so they just have fun playing with it till it gets the new worn off of it the same as their new e-call . It's in the 30's with snow falling at this time living on the edge of the foot hills with the mountains to my south and west then the plains to my east and north it's hilly , draws , sage brush , buck brush ect. here and the snow had melted off except for the deep drifts and in the deeper draws but they say we might get from 12 to 18 inch's of new snow in the next 24 hours typical spring in the foot hills . I'm sure glad to see the grass turning green and the inch or so of moisture we could get is welcomed .
 
I truly enjoy the challenge of tracking when there isn't snow on the ground . It's more about training yourself to be fully aware of your surroundings using your senses , sight , smell , hearing are all used to the best of your abilities feel and taste can also be a part of it as well . You can train to use all of your senses any place you are at any time by thinking about using them and being aware of you and your surroundings . When you want to track some thing the way you use the available light plays a big part on how well you can see the small details . Looking into the light source hurts that ability so side or light behind you is the best when you can if you have to walk a draw with the sun in your face try to walk off to the side of it so you don't destroy the tracks and stop turn around and look back for tracks . When you have a lot of bigger sand particles it will be just slight marks . Walking farther up the draw will let you find a place where a small finger of earth sticks out into the draw and the animals have a slight trail crossing it where the prints show up better . Predators don't leave a wide trail in the grass but you can see if they are using the same trail in it often as they do when they are getting close to their denning or bedding areas it's mashed down grass 3-4 inch's wide when you look at it some times it helps to kneel down for a different angle view of the area and often you will see a small bare spot with a couple of tracks in it . When you are close to these areas the tracks will be going in both directions to and from the area . Any trails used by livestock are places that need to be looked at and are good places to learn what it is you are looking for when you are just starting out tracking . I know most of you know this but there may be some one new to tracking and wanting to start . The people I started learning how to from were far better then me at it and as a young person I had the area and time to figure out quit a bit about tracking , time , practice and the desire to are all on your side you don't have to be in the orange alert stage to have your senses on high and in use . Not every one wants to or needs to be real good at tracking but I find it enjoyable and it was such a big part of the job in control work that so many who just wanted to be fair at the job over looked . Another great tool for your tool kit with any type of hunting .
 
So many times in control work it's more about killing the right animal then taking high numbers . Over the years I 've watched the new guys come and go and so many times when they first start out they want to get high numbers killed so here often they take an easy way out and call the plane or chopper . One evening I got a call the guy tells me who he is and that he had been told he should call me as I may be able to help him . He then went on to tell me that they had flown every day for 30 days and killed a lot of coyote but that he was still loosing a yearling ewe every other night or so . I arranged to meet him the next morning , it was a 35 mile trip out to meet him then we took my truck on out 10 miles to his pasture that was 3 sections with another section of school section added in . . I wanted to meet him around 9:00 in the morning so I would have good light and the buzzards would be up . We got there and found new kills by the buzzards circling , I went over to them and take out my knife skin the necks and jaw back . There I find large canine tooth marks spaced over an inch apart and in the dust I also find large tracks that tell me it is indeed a coyote doing the killing and that it's a large male . We go back to the truck where I drive over to an old stone house site that probably was abandoned in the 20's dust bowl era but still has walls enough to break up my truck outline . I pour a cup of coffee and set there drinking my coffee and waiting the guy asks me so why are you just setting here . Well I'm waiting for things to calm down after we've stirred them up by being in the area driving around . After about 30 minutes I get out of the truck and slip around the corner of the wall set up and let out my interrogation howls wait a couple of minutes and repeat it just as I've finished my second series of howls I hear one long lone howl out around a mile to my right and front . I get back in my truck and wait a few minutes then drive farther down the road and curve back towards where the howl came from to a wind mill and water tank where I do the same thing , wait for nearly half an hour then I get my siren out open the truck hood and set it up put my ear plugs in and run my siren for 30 seconds or so turn it off pull my ear plugs out and wait in a few seconds I again hear one long lone howl coming from the same area as before . I now have a good location on him so I call the chopper pilot . He comes in and picks us up but it's not a real good hunting day as it's gotten partly cloudy and the light doesn't show coyote well but he says he's tired of hunting this sob lets see what we can do . I point out the area that he howled from we fly there and begin the hunt circling and looking for him . After 10 or 20 minutes the pilot says he doesn't think I really know where he's at and thinks he's taking us back to the truck . At about that same time I see him he's laying flat down in a cow trail , coyote coyote I say to the pilot he says where I tell him he's looking but says he can't see him and tells me don't shoot till I spot him I want to know why I haven't been able to find him . He edges toward him some more till the coyote breaks stands and runs , kill him kill him the pilot shouts I shoot him with the 12 ga. loaded with 3" #4 buck shot we land and go inspect him his teeth are well worn he's 6-8 years old and has been hunted before from the air and learned that if he laid still most people wouldn't see him and would just go away after awhile just not this day . The pilot pulls a 100 out of his pocket hands it to me . I tell him no wait till we are sure it's the right one . Several days latter he calls and asks me can you meet me at such and such restaurant day after tomorrow I owe you lunch and some money the killing stopped and you saved me a lot of time and money . Now that sirs gives you a good feeling knowing that you were able to do a good job and get the one that was the trouble maker . Time is your best teacher when you take it and learn from doing it over time then seeing where you are messing up and doing your best to make new mistakes not the same ones over and over .
 
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