Coyotes

[Art 20]

Sunday afternoon my son and I went for our first try at coyotes. We decided to try the hunting club where several gents had reported seeing and hearing coyotes recently during their final deer hunts of the season. The sightings were all on the south end of the property but there wasn't a good place for us to set up there due to the orientation of the fields at that end of the property and the WNW wind we were having. So we opted to try the big open gas pipeline running through the north end of the property which would allow us to keep the wind in our faces while observing a view of about 1000 yards from one spot and about 700 yds from another. We used a borrowed electronic call. We did a lot of distressed rabbit calling and a little coyote yipping and howling while glassing the pipeline but we never saw anything but one deer all afternoon. Pity it wasn't still deer season or we'd have had that one quite easy. I don't know if there just weren't any coyotes on our end of the property or if they spotted us and slipped off before we spotted them.

 

Having since watched some videos via the internet on coyote calling I am looking to buy a mouth call for our next attempt. The electronic call is quite limited in that it makes just a few sounds over and over rather than varying the sound as a real trapped rabbit would. I did notice that the electronic call garnered a lot of interest from crows, hawks, and buzzards which was somewhat encouraging. I hope we can make another attempt soon with a new call and try the south end of the property. If we ever get the knack of putting one over on these coyotes I'll let you know. Even if we don't get the knack of it quick at least my teenage son is out hunting with me instead of staring at the computer all day.

[Gooner 143]

Nice one mate not always about the kill, being out there with your lad in the fresh air is better than being in doors in front of the PC

[foxing machine 144]

good look with it mate keep us updated atb fm

[patdahat 41]

that sound's like fun what's the law there on lamping?, i have seen a few dvd's where they have been calling load's fox's by day, i tried it but with very little success compared to night time with the lamp. work's on fox's it might just work on the coyote.

[Art 20]

Coyotes are much more active here at night. Sometimes the kids and I sit out by the pond at night and build a fire and a pack of coyotes sets up a howl at the edge of the pasture across the road that will stand your hair on end. Heard them catch one of the ranchers calves one night and there was an awful racket then. I have heard that coyotes are usually more solitary animals out west but here they often hunt in packs at night and hunt solitary in the daytime. My brother was deer hunting a couple of weeks ago and while sitting on the ground got surrounded by a pack. One came in very close but as soon as it spotted him the whole pack ran off. He said it made him a little nervous having them all around him for a minute there.

 

Unfortunately the law doesn't allow hunting most game including coyotes at night here. You can hunt raccoon here at night with dogs but that doesn't particularly interest me. I talked with a friend at church this morning and he said that hunting coyotes in the afternoon works much better in the west than it does here and told me I should try again at sunrise in this area. I've got a birthday this week and hope maybe someone has bought me a predator call. If not then I'll look for one on amazon or basspro.com later this week. If we ever succeed at calling one in I'll let you know. Usually all of the coyotes killed around here are taken by opportunity while deer hunting or taken in steel traps. I don't know anyone here that actively hunts them as everyone is after deer, hogs, rabbits, squirrels, and various birds in the cool season and fishing in the hot season. My friend at church sets steel traps for coyotes for a few weeks before turkey season. Personally I don't favor those steel traps as you might catch someone's dog. Also, I got my hand caught in a well concealed steel trap once while duck hunting and have held a bit of a grudge against them I suppose. I can tell you it'll wake you up good and fast when one of things grabs you.

[DIDO.1 22,846]

'I've got a birthday this week and hope maybe someone has bought me a predator call.'

 

love it! just picturing you dropping hints for 2 weeks before hand then being gutted when nobody gets you one! lol

[Art 20]

Quite likely. My wife was probably already done with the shopping before I ever mentioned that one. Can't complain though. Already received a new gas grill from the in-laws.

[Art 20]

The family gave me a little birthday party this evening. Received, among other things, a predator call. Supposed to sound like a rabbit in distress. Now I just have to learn how to use it properly. I'll be spending some quality time on youtube I guess. My 6 year old son played with the new call a while. He gets a pretty good sound out of it. Maybe I just need to take him along to be my caller, eh? Come to think of it he can make almost the same kind of noise without the call. lol

 

By the way, my wife was the one that gave me that call and she doesn't even really like how much time I spend in the woods. She's great! Amazed that she has put up with me for over 22 years now.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Art

[j j m 6,561]

good write up bud

[The one 8,511]

Hope your lucky with it mate and post some picts

[Art 20]

So far I haven't figured out how to include pics on my posts. Uploaded some to my gallery but don't know how to post pics here. I see the image icon on the toolbar but it just asks for a URL and my pics are saved in the laptop, not saved on the internet, so not sure how to proceed. Will keep trying to figure it out.