Hunting & Fishing Let’s start a coyote thread.

Shot a third but I couldn't find it. Might go back and look in the daylight.
IMG_20221022_201852305.jpg
 
Got this one this morning. He came flying in full speed and actually yanked the decoy out of my Lucky Duck Revolt before I dropped the hammer on him with the Barrett Rec 7 . That thing is insanely accurate . I hit him right in the spine and he looked like he was struck by lightning. Actually decent fur for the desert, too. 3 stands and 2 dogs today.
31B1F23B-268C-44C7-9A1E-88BECC5D149F.jpeg
 
Question for you guys that have been doing this a while.

Last night I took a hasty shot on a coyote and missed him.

When this happens is that stand basically finished and you need to go somewhere else or will they come back in if you keep calling them?
 
Question for you guys that have been doing this a while.

Last night I took a hasty shot on a coyote and missed him.

When this happens is that stand basically finished and you need to go somewhere else or will they come back in if you keep calling them?
Nobody can answer that question.

It is unknowable. Some people will swear to you that the coyote you missed now has a PhD from an ivy league university and he will start a billboard campaign to end coyote hunting of all types while he works on his memoirs.

I think if you go back quickly and sit the call in the same spot and play similar sounds, your odds are low, but they are still ruled by their instincts. He may not have any idea what happened and ran as hard as he could for 3 counties and you'll never see him again no matter what, or he may have watched you walk back to your truck and heard you cussing. Nobody knows.

Don't dwell on it. Only liars hit every coyote that comes in.
 
Coyotes aren't dumb after being shot at. It will probably hang back and approach more cautiously next time.
Give that particular stand a few weeks off and try again. You never know.
I don't want to start an aguement here, but some coyotes are absolutely dumb after being shot at. I've seen them stand around after being missed multiple times, with no idea what was happening. I've seen them missed and then run right back in to the call a few moments later. I've seen them missed multiple times on the way to a call and keep right on coming in like they weren't being shot at.

Sometimes you feel like they are beating you at some elaborate game of chess, and there are some particularly smart ones out there, but by in large, they are slaves to their instincts.
 
I agree with @Hecouldgoalltheway and @Ranchhand - I had a pair come in last year and killed one, while the other ran for a bit, then stopped and kept hanging around in the brush, watching me and basically refusing to leave. The shot was too risky; enough cover to where I didn't want to make a risky shot, but sparse enough I could see him. Then, after I picked up my call to walk out (he had left by then), I head back to my pack to put away my call and remote and there he is, about 150 yards away and watched me until I was out of sight, peaking from behind a tree. Weird.

Earlier this year, I shot and missed and that coyote put in the afterburners and I bet he's still running. LOL! They are indeed all different.
 
You know I did, and it was spot on. Drill one last week at 496 yds, and whiffed at 250 this week. I always tell people if you've never missed a coyote, then you haven't called very many in.
I miss them all the time. Way more often than I'd like to talk about, and my zero is almost always just fine. 🤣
 
Question for you guys that have been doing this a while.

Last night I took a hasty shot on a coyote and missed him.

When this happens is that stand basically finished and you need to go somewhere else or will they come back in if you keep calling them?
Shoot & hit or shoot & miss - have the call set to automatically go to coyote pups in distress, I've had them come back after a miss (usually females) and others come in to pups in distress after a shot, you never know
 
Shoot & hit or shoot & miss - have the call set to automatically go to coyote pups in distress, I've had them come back after a miss (usually females) and others come in to pups in distress after a shot, you never know
You just have to keep calling. If they came in to rabbit, keep playing rabbit..etc. especially shooting suppressed, they often don't even seem to understand what a suppressed shot was. The flipping to a ki-yi or a pup distress after a shot is usually most effective during early fall before the family groups are fully busted up, and late December through March for breeding/Denning seasons. Otherwise, just keep using what brought them in.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 338dude
What electronic callers are you guys using? I have a foxpro patriot and for smaller little things at low volume, it does good. But the howls and barking just sounds so fake. I hunted with a guy who had a nice foxpro and when it turned on, it sounded like an actual pack of yotes were there.

I’ve been debating between lucky duck and foxpro. I’m leaning towards the lucky duck. It’s just hard to spend $400-500 on a caller and not like it.
 
I've got a schockwave and an outlaw, and my buddy has a super revolt. I've spent time with all of them and a dozen older calls.

The best money out there is the icotec outlaw. Best sounds for the money. Speaker volume and clarity are as good as anyone's, plays two sounds at once, great remote, decoy, the whole bit for half the price of the others. Will also play sounds of almost any format.
 
What electronic callers are you guys using? I have a foxpro patriot and for smaller little things at low volume, it does good. But the howls and barking just sounds so fake. I hunted with a guy who had a nice foxpro and when it turned on, it sounded like an actual pack of yotes were there.

I’ve been debating between lucky duck and foxpro. I’m leaning towards the lucky duck. It’s just hard to spend $400-500 on a caller and not like it.

I'm no expert coyote caller. So take this for what it's worth.

I've had different e-callers over the years. Theses were the cheaper variety with menus on the remote controllers that sucked. They lasted me for a couple of years and broke or the batteries leaked.

I just purchased the FoxPro Hi-Jack. I was debating between that one and the Shockwave.

I settled on the Hi-Jack because it already has the rechargeable battery pack installed and I wanted the installed decoy feature. I also wanted it because it's a little smaller and more portable than the Shockwave.

I tried it out last night for the first time. I had only a .25 caliber air rifle as the mission was to coax the racoons from the barn and various out buildings with the racoon calls.

The mission changed last night. As soon as I got out of the vehicle about 30 minutes after sunset, I heard several groups yipping and howling like they were competing glee clubs.

I set the caller up on a tripod about 30 yards from me and attempted to use racoon calls to no success. So I stopped calling for about 30 minutes.

Then I heard a group of coyotes that about 200-300 yards from me start their serenading. I responded with a marvelous rendition of my own. This called a couple in but not within airgun range. Even if I had my AR-15, I would have past up a shot due to no backstop.

After a few minutes of coaxing with various calls the two that got within 100 yards moved on when a group of real coyotes started competing with me. The two lost interest in my caller and moved on to join the real coyotes.

About an hour later, I got one to come in to about 100 yards with some female vocals. He would have been in a good position for my Ar-15 but for lack of a backstop. I watched him sit down, point his snout skyward and carry on a conversation with my Hi-Jack. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

He lost interest and moved on. After that, I decided to go home.

The next time I go out, I'll have to get in a position where the wind favors me and with a good backstop for my AR-15.

I almost forgot, the Hi-Jack is a heck of a lot louder than all my previous e-callers. I didn't have to go up to full volume. IIRC, I might have gone up a little less than half-way on the volume scale. For most of the time last night, I was about 1/4 of the way up the volume scale. The menus were extremely easy to use and with light intensity turned down low, I was able to read everything without my glasses.

I hope that information helps.
 
Called Up And Killed 17 in one day, or off dead piles ? Rest of the story ? That's got to be some kinda record

It's definitely possible, with good shooting and a lot of stands. But my first guess would be night hunting.

All daylight.
All calls.

Know the area well.

Was a comp.
They took home some serious cash.

And yeah, my friend is pretty badass.

Wish I could get em like he does.
 
All daylight.
All calls.

Know the area well.

Was a comp.
They took home some serious cash.

And yeah, my friend is pretty badass.

Wish I could get em like he does.
I have no doubt that it is possible. There have been teams turn in 50+ in a 24 hour tournament. Out west where they are thick, it can definitely be done. I've had days even here in TN where I could have killed 10 coyotes in a day if I could have put a bullet into every one I saw. I couldn't, and I've never killed more than 4 in a single day.
 
That’s awesome!

I realize the answer is “it depends” but to kill that many at once are you having to cover miles of ground and tons of stands in a day?

Just curious because where I hunt you can hear them yipping/howling all around but I usually only have one or two come in over 2-3 stands.
 
Hadn’t thought about staking it down but great idea.

Do you typically call in conjunction or better luck just letting them find it?
They won't need any help finding it, but depending on how safe they feel about the area, they may only be on it at night. However, until it's gone, they'll be in the area, so doing a set nearby is not a bad plan.
 
Went for a drive this pm after moving snow all morning. No coyotes spotted or called in. There must have been 50 magpies on a deer ribcage/hide. Probably 2-3 feet of powder snow in the area. It doesnt look good for the already depressed deer herds here.

I'm trying to do my part in predator control...my season is off to a slow start.
 

Attachments

  • 20221202_150900.jpg
    20221202_150900.jpg
    201.7 KB · Views: 45
Got my first dog today. Suppressed Savage model 12 in 204 running the 40gr vmaxs. She was 300yds out. Got out the truck with my buddy to run a few stands this morning and didn't even hardly have the rifle in my hand before he pointed her out. He ranged it and I shot. Think I'll be using my 223 I'm having spun up for those further shots.

F32A0E5A-D6BB-4F6A-B496-35B17E536F59.jpeg
 
IMG_20221204_130738_704.jpg


Haven't been able to get out to do much hunting deer, coyote or otherwise but with the number of coyotes I've been getting on trailcam in the yard I set a few Saturday afternoon. These were the first traps I've set in about 15 years and ended up with a first night catch with this dog. Goal this year is to get a few hides to practice the whole fur handling process.
 
Are coyotes more or less likely to come out when the moon is in brighter stages?
Ask 10 experienced coyote hunters and you'll probably get 8 different answers. I used to be fairly well convinced that new moon cycles were the best time of the month for coyote activity, and I'll still give it a slight advantage for peak activity, but I had a bunch of full moon activity in the last couple years, and now I don't think it is nearly as impactful as life cycle, barometric pressure, storms, wind, temp, etc. The conditions that make it good are hard to nail down. Some of my best days have come when nothing seemed right, and then I've gone dry for weeks in a row when conditions seemed perfect. They do what they do, and only they know why. Anyone who thinks they can accurately predict coyote movement is probably a little foolish. It seems that nature moves together though. If you're seeing deer and other critters out everywhere, coyotes are probably on their feet. When you go into the woods and it's dead silent, might be hard to call up a dog. If you almost need earmuffs to drown out the birds and bugs, then it seems the coyotes are also on the move. Of course, I wouldn't bet on any of that. I hunt when I can. I might avoid a new or really good spot until I think everything is lined up perfectly, but I hunt anytime I can get away, weather can suck it..
 
For those that do way more coyote hunting than me and using a 223, 53 gr vmax or 60gr vmax's? Will be running either out of a 20" 223.