My Experience and technique hunting Coyotes

[Dr4Body]

My Experience and technique hunting Coyotes in the Northern, high desert of California. Plumas County.
  Typically.....(For the novice)   I start out by using a coyote introduction call (Female) wait two minutes...use a rabbit or mouse or Mule deer wounded fawn call ....turn it up for 30 seconds then stop for a minute. Make sure the wind is crossing you or in your face, be ready to shoot the moment you turn on the sound. Always look downwind (Behind you)  because many times... this is where they will come from.  Even if they are coming straight at you they will move to the downwind side of you to "sniff" the prey.   During pup "emergence" season (late July early August) use wounded pup sounds. Always return or call back what you hear coming from the dogs if you can.

Group howls are good "locator" calls during the fall and winter...also it's a good finishing call... before you leave the area you have been calling or hunting. Stay at least 15-20 min at each stand. On windy days use high pitched sounds. Travel a mile between set locations. A half mile in deep forest areas. Always look for the easiest route for the coyote to come in to your E-caller...place the caller right or left of you 20 to 50 yards away...never in front of you. Wear camo…no rings or shiny watches...Be patient...one out of five sets produces. Wait two weeks before returning to the same area to call after killing a dog.  Remember this... If the birds of prey are not out..(crows, ravens, magpies, hawks) it will be bad hunting for coyotes...Rain and wind are not bad for hunting. No birds...no dogs... Watch for Mobbing Crows or magpies sitting on a fence in a field...they will be on  something dead... a dog could be nearby ... especially in the AM. Always hunt downwind of cattle and sheep...dogs will walk and hunt with the cows...Know the difference between calves and coyotes...Do not hang dogs on the barbed wire.

You can call dogs at all times of the day...AM and evening are the best.  I stop using dog howls after 9 AM. They will know you are a fake. They seldom communicate using howls after 9 AM but they will bark at you if they see you. Dogs will try to get down wind of the screaming prey...kill them BEFORE they get into your "Cone" of scent...otherwise they will smell you over a 1000 yards away. Learn to shoot an orange consistently... at 400 yards...then go hunting. Oh, did I fail to say sit (still) in the "shadows"...if you must move, move your rifle when the dog is moving... . If they are going away from you bark like a dog at them...he will stop. They will generally stop 100 yards away to see what the hell you are "even if they smell you". Dogs will look at their other "mate" on their way toward you ...if.... there are two or more dogs in the field.(Look for more than one dog in the Fall) Also... and this is BIG...a group of dogs will howl at your call. Then they will be quiet ...you will think they have gone away...Nope...they’re sending in a lone "Scout".... to see who you are....an aggressive dog bark will be followed by a Challenge....you give them a challenge call right back...don't play a mouse or rabbit to their challenge bark...wait....wait...there is a dog headed your way...trust me!!! One dog will always lay back and send in the youngest or less dominant dog...try and shoot the one furthest back... and work your way in toward the closest dog. Play a wounded pup or adult sound right after you have killed a dog...do not stand up...there could be more dogs in the area...I have had 3 separate sets of dogs come to my call in 20 minutes...each set came from a different direction and each produced a dead dog. Remember, a howl after 9 AM doesn't produce...use a wounded pup or wounded adult sound...that will work better after 9.    If pups kill something.... they will howl over their kill (as a group) after 9 AM.

 
  Many Coyote Packs will start their hunting day by howling from their den "Before" they begin their hunt together. I believe they are alerting any other Lone Dogs or packs in their area to stay away...we're coming, this is our territory. You will hear this happen at daybreak, wait two minutes and then turn on your caller. Don't be surprised if 3 or 4 dogs come charging in at the same time from different directions...all keying on your call...it gets real busy and it's hard to decide which animal to shoot first. Pick one and stay with him until he's down. Good luck! Oh, forget buying scents...you'll save cents.

[farmboy]

You are much more technical than I am.  I generally just pack a rifle around and shoot them when I see them. Only ever tried calling a couple of times but I did not have any luck just did not do it right. I called dogs away from there yard but never any coyote s.you just gave me my first calling lessons. Which call do you use? I one thing I have done that works very well and I read about it years ago from an American agriculture publication and that is when you are driving the coyote will stand a watch a truck until it stops and as soon as you stop they will run. So you slow right down the coyote watches the truck and the passenger hops out his door with rifle the truck speeds up and the man outside loads the gun and bang dead coyote.

[farmboy]

By the way what caliber gun do you prefer? Myself my favourite coyote gun is a 6 mm Remington. Have used 223s 22 250s 17 Remington. Also tried a 17 hmr the other day did not like it and shot one once with a 22 lr. Shot a few with a 12 gauge a number of years ago.  The most common load I have used is a Sierra 60 grain hollow point. The hide is not worth anything after  that but the coyote never gets away. Do you sell hides?  My main reason for hunting them is to save the sheep and goats around here. When I was a young man l got asked to try out to be a shooter for the agriculture department. I did not try although I should have. Making a living while having fun would have been a good job.

[Dr4Body]

I roll to a stop and act as though I do not see them...I do not look their way until I am ready to shoot...(They can tell if you are looking at them from a 1000 yards) slamming on the breaks is a NO, NO.  Sometimes, I pass by...drive down the road...turn around and have the rifle ready to do what you just said.... as the driver slows the shooter steps out from the far side... as the driver proceeds down the road.   Not bragging but the technique I have written about nets me 50-60 dogs a year.   Watch the down wind...that is where they will be coming from or working towards to "smell" what it is that is crying out.  Move when they are on the move toward you...you'll see them looking back for a partner or sniffing the wind as they come in to your position...that's when you adjust your position (quickly).  Thanks for the interest in reading my editorial :)

AS to my rifle...Remington VTR, Model 700  Cal. 243.  Loves an 87gr. VMax bullet, hand loads, Leupold 6X22 scope.  Don't you have wolves up there?   I have property in Antelope, Montana but no wolves.  Keep me in mind if you decide you want a partner to hunt wolves...that is on my bucket list...:)   You could be my guide!

[farmboy]

At one time you could buy a tag for wolves have not looked at that for awhile. The wolf population is get huge in Montana Idaho Alberta and British Columbia. Large enough that the elk numbers have been falling. They were reintroduced much to the ranchers expense. I will read the guide and see what it says my understanding is they are mainly in the foothills and the mountains. What is left of the hides with that bullet? The sixty grain I use leaves a hole the size of a breakfast plate. The 223 I have was leaving an exit hole about the size of a silver dollar with a Remington cor loc bullet. Not near the instant death of the 6mm but still quick. I bought a case of those cor loc bullet s years ago and just tried them two years ago gave a few to two friend both told me they shot very well in there guns as they have in mine. If I remember correctly I paid about fifty dollars a thousand for them should have tried them back in the day and bought more of them. Shot quite a few with Sierra 55 grain Spitzer software points out of a 22 250. They left a hole about the size of the loc cor bullets but coyote s died quicker.

[sakorick]

Best Yote hunting tips I have ever read, many thanks. Now I know why you re so successful. I need some tips on how you would hunt a 180 acre farm.......I don't see many during the day. A pack of Yotes are real trouble here. I think I need a better call.

[davidlt89]

Bait them Rick! God bless

[farmboy]

Bait them Rick! God bless

Lol a good place to find them is around the dead piles at the cattle feedlots.

[Dr4Body]

Rick...I would take any meat scraps you have to the same place every week...put out a game camera too...set up a shooting spot 150 yards away, well concealed but easy to get to without allowing them to see you as you arrive.  I would bet if you keep baiting the spot ...your game camera will tell you when to arrive.  You could set traps too if you suspend the meat about two feet off the ground on a post.  Wrap it in chicken wire...use gloves...find the prevailing wind side...shoot with the wind in your face.   I killed two dogs today in the sage brush of Nevada.  Call just at shooting light...Buy yourself a Foxpro caller...sell a rifle and get a good one...you won't be sorry...it's an addictive sport. :)   Get fat and scraps from the local meat market...take a bucket to them, they will gladly fill it, (I do this ) then I seed the area.  I have never shot a dog from my "Fat" but I do kill many in the early morning off a dead ranchers cow or deer.  The local ranchers call me when they slaughter or have a cow that dies (I wait three days until they get real ripe)  My problem is bear...they always tear up my cows too soon.  Then I have to wait for them to leave and for the dogs to come into the carcass,  Watch for birds on a dead animal...great place to find coyotes and fox.  My best hunting is when the Birds of Prey are out at the same time.  They are after mice and voles ...coyote food...the more birds the better the day is hunting dogs.  I watch Magpies, Ravens, Crows, and Red tailed Hawks they let me know if a coyote is around.  Magpies will literally follow a coyote to eat his scraps.   Good hunting!

[davidlt89]

Lol a good place to find them is around the dead piles at the cattle feedlots.

Did not mean that as a joke....it is literally the only way to get coyotes up here. You rarely see them and we have tons of them. We have a lot of cover here. Calling will not work in the summer...there needs to be snow on the ground and food needs to be hard getting to get them to respond. If one things is out of order when they come, they are gone.

Some guys up here build shacks for the winter and set out their bait appropriately. maybe on a GOOD night you might get two...if everything is clicking! And I can only talk for "our" coyotes up here in Maine, but they are tough as nails...better make a good hit or you are not taking anything home! We have coyotes get as big as 70lbs up here, first one I trapped was 50lbs.

I used beaver carcasses last year, waited until it was freezing out and froze them together and to the ground. lots of guys actually fill a five gallon pail with meat, fill it in with water, and let it freeze. They then empty their bucket where they want to shoot and watch from their shack. I use my living room window. we call it a meat popsicle! God Bless.

[Dr4Body]

I hunt them in Sage brush, with a shot gun #4 shot or OO.  Close combat and fun as hell.  Coming nose to nose practically...it works.  I sit back to back with my hunting friend... low on the edge of the sage brush which can be 4 feet high down to 15 inches.  Place the E caller out 30 yards away with the decoy dancing about on a poll.  Would love to hunt them in Maine someday!  We don't have feed lots...the whole place is a feed lot..LOL tens of thousands of acres, sage, grasslands, Pine trees, lava flows, 6000 ft. elevation.  Elk, Mountain lion, bobcat, deer, antelope and tons of bear.  You never know what will be coming into the call.

[davidlt89]

they are fun to hunt, just tough!! I do like to shoot them, but nothing compares to trapping them and getting a good fur!!! I am still waiting on farmboy to get one skinned:grin: God Bless.

[farmboy]

The one farm I had there was a thirty thousand head feedlot on the south west corner and on the north west corner there was another thirty thousand head feedlot. My section was in between and had a few grass coulee s running though it. With dead piles at either feedlot there was lots of shooting every time I went farming. One year there was fifteen active dens. Lots of shooting that year. I always do better in the summer for finding coyote s  just out more mainly.

[farmboy]

This is flat open country here at just over three thousand feet. Are coyotes are no where near seventy pounds. Do you have some dog or wolf cross breeding going on? Every once in a while I see a coydog around. If I am going to skin one someday I am going to need to use a different bullet . One thing that always amazed me is when I have shot lots of coyotes in the chest and that sixty grain Sierra will blow there heart and lungs out the exit wound the coyote gets knocked down then gets up and runs thirty  feet. They have to have been running beforehand to get this to happen.

[farmboy]

Saw a pair today I did not bring a gun. When I took a load of barley to the yard I brought a rifle back but did not see them again. I am sure when I get to the middle of the field they will come out.

[farmboy]

Well DR I never thought about animals other than coyote s and dogs coming to the call. That could get a bit hairy!  Please do tell.

[Dr4Body]

Our dogs are in the 35 to 40 lb. class, I killed one a year ago the was maybe 45lbs.  large for this area.  My 87 gr. V-Max bullets will blow up inside if they hit bone.  Sometimes there isn't an exit wound.  You should always carry...if I lived up there I would perhaps.  I want a wolf...I would gladly rent a room a motel room, Loft ....whatever to kill a wolf.

[gitano]

Speaking of "coming to the call"... When I was a kid hunting/calling coyotes with my uncle Coy, we always had more owls come to the call than we did coyotes. Not that we didn't have coyotes, just more owls. Once up here, I had an owl just about take my head off. I'd been shooting snowshoe hares all day and was finished up at dusk. I thought I'd sit down and give a few toots on my "squealing rabbit" mouth-call. I don't think I had been sitting there for more than 5 minutes when, as I was squealing, a great horned swooped down and struck! It was a very good thing I had a large, felt hat on. We both tumbled, and the owl made no 'hasty retreat'. He lay on the ground clutching my hat and looking at me with mouth agape. When I went for my hat, he took off. Owls are dumb as a box of rocks, and it isn't just this instance that causes me to say that.

Paul

[Dr4Body]

Once while whistling for my hunting partner, I had the same experience, but I used my 45 cal. 1911, he kept coming back diving on me.  Finally the AAA got him to leave.

[farmboy]

Getting any coyote s in the last while. I think I dryed up my local supply lol. The sheep and goats look relieved!

[farmboy]

I took a poke at one today came close but he will live another day. He was over a third of a mile away.

[Dr4Body]

Just returned from a three day trip...In response to your post...there are always dogs here.  I saw 8 last week, four in one group and 30 minutes later four in another group.  Wasn't ready for them either time...I need to cary my shotgun this time of year...had one so close I could have beat him with the rifle...but the minute he smelled me he was in the high sage brush and I couldn't make a shot...I don't like educating them, if I miss.

[farmboy]

Yes it really different here wide open flat farmland bow that harvest is done except for me there is very little for them to hide behind they just run.

[farmboy]

[/IMG]

[farmboy]

[/IMG]

[farmboy]

One of my tenant s is from northern Saskatchewan we were telling hunting stories and he told me his uncle was having major coyote problems. The house was twenty yards from the Bush. He was losing pigs calves a horse to coyote s the horse was a partly grown colt. The coyote s were coming into the yards every night. He wired up some spotlights on the outside of his house. When he heard the coyote s he opened up his bedroom window turned on the light and shot them with a twelve gauge. First month 184 coyote s first year 584 coyote s all out the window. He said this year not many. He was worried about his small children as there were so many around. He got twenty dollars a piece for bounty money. Turn in the feet. Wild story but I believe him.

[gitano]

Again... Wow!

Nice picture. Thanks.

Paul