Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

In 1987 I was given a little dog that was a cross with a blue healer and who knew what else he was black with a star on his chest. My daughter named him hunter. I hauled him around with me every day from the time I got him till he got too old and needed put down. We were out one morning set up in a rock pile calling, he would set a few feet from me and not go out to play with the coyotes but would bark at them from my side, if they talked to us or when they got fairly close. I had been howling and didn't get any coyotes to answer me, when hunter bristled up and did some low murmuring growls, looking over at the side of a hill. I howled again and saw some movement out about 3/4 of a mile. There were two coyotes setting over on the hill side, now and then one of they would get up mark his area and do some kickbacks. We tried for several more minutes, but they wouldn't cross over the line into another coyote's area. I had killed a pair from the area I was in a week before. We just sat and waited but they just stayed where they were for nearly half an hour more. I slipped out of the rocks and down into a draw went to my truck and went calling in other places for the rest of the day. The next day we slipped into their area from the back side of where we had been the day before got set up in a saddle and did some howls, up from the bottom of the draw where they had been the day before they charged toward us, I shot one and hit the injured coyote howls and squeals Hunter barked the coyote stopped I shot it. We went down the draw and beside a small patch of sage brush we found the den with 8 pups in it.
 
So many times, when I have been out locating for the helicopter or airplane, I would have coyotes that answered me from maybe two miles away. They don't come to you from that far away most of the time because they are in their areas this time of the year and don't want to intrude in another coyote's area. But they will talk to you if you are using the correct sounds, the same way we will visit with our neighbors and say hi to them, pass the time of day and such with each other. So when you are locating for the aircraft you don't really care if they come in to you, you just want to know where they are so you can direct them to the location. But when you are actually the one doing the hunting on the ground you want to find their boundary lines so that you can at a later time, in the next day or two, you can then go into their area and talk to them using the vocalizations that will get them to come and want to get you out of their area, especially. when they have pups they are protecting. Just another thing that doing control work teaches you to do that the occasional pleasure hunter can also use, if they talk and don't come but are telling you where they are it might just be that you aren't in their area so then you know the next time, but probably not that day, you know to get yourself into their area deeper. If this is an area that you will be calling year after year then you also know to make a note of the boundary line that you just found, for future use. The lines aren't always clear for us to see or smell, they might be a stock trail or fence line, but they can also just be a feature in the land scape, so when you get a coyote that is telling you where they are remember it and take advantage of it the next crop will know about them too. The same as with good denning areas will be used by generation after generation of animals.
 
DSheetz said:
So many times, when I have been out locating for the helicopter or airplane, I would have coyotes that answered me from maybe two miles away. They don't come to you from that far away most of the time because they are in their areas this time of the year and don't want to intrude in another coyote's area. But they will talk to you if you are using the correct sounds, the same way we will visit with our neighbors and say hi to them, pass the time of day and such with each other. So when you are locating for the aircraft you don't really care if they come in to you, you just want to know where they are so you can direct them to the location. But when you are actually the one doing the hunting on the ground you want to find their boundary lines so that you can at a later time, in the next day or two, you can then go into their area and talk to them using the vocalizations that will get them to come and want to get you out of their area, especially. when they have pups they are protecting. Just another thing that doing control work teaches you to do that the occasional pleasure hunter can also use, if they talk and don't come but are telling you where they are it might just be that you aren't in their area so then you know the next time, but probably not that day, you know to get yourself into their area deeper. If this is an area that you will be calling year after year then you also know to make a note of the boundary line that you just found, for future use. The lines aren't always clear for us to see or smell, they might be a stock trail or fence line, but they can also just be a feature in the land scape, so when you get a coyote that is telling you where they are remember it and take advantage of it the next crop will know about them too. The same as with good denning areas will be used by generation after generation of animals.
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Mr Dave, I've got a question for ya about locating. I use to go to a Ranch between Wibeau & Baker Montana in the summer and fall. I could go cuz I was single and because of my schedule I had the time. Behind Virgil's house was a large hill, probably 300 ft. The coyotes would howl & Mr Virgil or I would swear we knew the approximate location but we couldn't ever find it. Ok, I think they are over there! Put the sneak on, sit down, look, they would howl again, lol ok they are over the next hill, nope. The game went on. Mr Virgil lived there for many years, he said he couldn't never find them by their howling. Did all your time in the field teach you locating? Virgil's area was rolling prairie with a breaks area on his east side, we had access to other ranches also due to Virgil being a Rancher & handy with a wrench to the point that the Ford dealership in Glendive had him rebuild rearends and warrantied his work.
 
Yes time in the field taught me well but having good hearing helped the most, as well as having very good eyes when I was younger. I have been out with a lot of people that would say the coyotes answered from this place, but they actually weren't there. I have heard coyotes that were in a slight draw or depression, and it made them sound like they were somewhere completely different. Time spent listening to coyotes and the open country I am in helped me learn to locate them more accurately by being able to see them when they were talking. So many times, I have seen coyotes that would decoy people and other coyotes away from the pups and other things that they didn't want them to be around like a kill by showing themselves and displaying and barking as well as short half howls, like birds that are nesting do.
 
Locating coyotes by listening to them is a lot like locating turkeys by listening to them or hearing a squirrel or a bird up in a tree and locating it, the more you do it the easier it gets. if you are only locating a couple a year it's different then locating several in a couple of months every year. One of the ranchers I worked for asked me to go with him to locate for a plane one morning. We got out to the designated location and when it was time I started howling. After the second series the coyotes answered me, I told him we have four adults talking and where they were he kind of just looked at me and said okay if you say so. In a few minutes he said I see them they are trotting across that hill side. The plane showed up he gave it directions to the coyotes they got one on the first pass but lost three of them. We were looking for them when I saw one stand up in a patch of tall grass and got the plane on them again so a lot of times when you are locating you are also looking for them to be just standing setting or laying down, one morning I got a coyote located for the plane, but it started coming to my howls. pretty soon it stopped looked in one direction and laid down in a cow trail with its head on its paws in the direction it was looking, pretty soon I heard the plane. I have seen more than one coyote do that, either they were chased and lost or shot and survived. I skinned a lot of coyotes with shot in them a couple of crippled ones with shot in their legs. I skinned a coyote with a big abscess on its right hip one time that had a 22 caliber 36 grain round nose bullet in it. But any way locating is an art and the more you do it the more you learn about doing it, it's not only listening but looking where I live, and that probably makes a big difference, being able to see for some pretty long distances.
 
With age, and exposure to gunfire, comes hearing loss.
For me, it has been unequal in that I have lost more hearing in my left ear than in my right.
This has made it harder for me to quickly get a fix on the location of the coyotes.
I don't have the equal "stereo" effect and terrain features make it even harder since they tend to reflect the sounds.
I wish I had the option of amplified hearing protection earlier in my life so I could have more of my hearing now.
I use the Howard Leight "Sport" hearing protection now any time I am out on foot hunting and it helps greatly with locating the coyote but also hearing rattlesnakes!

Take care of your hearing and eyesight now!

Ed
 
Are you right handed Ed ? So many right handed shooters lose more hearing in their left ear. I use phonak hearing aids now if it's not windy, if its windy they will make you even more crazy with the wind blowing by them. The VA set them up for my hearing loss and with it being windy here so much of the time they get used inside and hearing protection used when around loud noises. They aren't hearing protection and turning them off isn't the same as using hearing protection some people think they are as they fit in your ear.
 
Yes, I'm right handed. I've known about the left ear vulnerability for years and now I'm living it…

We don't think about the damage being done while we are hunting.
Some folks mistakenly believe that because they don't suffer pain from shots fired while shooting at animals that they are not suffering damage.
Our bodies block the sound from our minds as part of the focus on taking a life, whether we are hunting or in a gunfight with an adversary.
The damage is still there.

Ed
 

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