Coyotes won’t come in on a call

This is a great thread. Not to steal the thread, but what about bobcats? What secrets do you have? I have only shot one, and that was followed up by a coyote on the very next stand (those were the days: when FoxPro was housed in a 9V battery flashlight case).
 
Bob cats take a long time as a rule ( like any thing there are exceptions ) I have seen them out a 1000 yards just set and look twitching their tail for 10 or 15 min. . Then get up and slowly walk a few to a 100 yards closer and do it all over again or just come creeping in all the way . A general rule of thumb is they don't like the volume very loud if you have it too loud and you have fresh snow you will see their tracks behind you when you leave the stand . Like fox most like higher pitched sounds . Quite often when you have been on a stand for 30 min. you will notice a slight movement and what you may think is a new rock , a cat will be crouched down watching you and the movement you see is the tail twitching . I have watched cats walking in to the call taking an hour or more to get to where you can shoot them but then I have also had them jump down off of a cut bank and land beside me as well. One day in 1998 I saw a large male cat come up from the back side of a ridge out around 500 yards . I turned the volume down and let the puppy squeaks just play . It took him 45 min. to come into about 25 feet of me . He then sat down and watched me for another 10 or so min. His eyes were locked onto the fox pro the whole time and each step was slow and cautious both front and back feet . I saw him a couple of times start to put his foot down then stop and move it sideways or back ward some before setting it down . Time means nothing to them .
 
Bob cats take a long time as a rule ( like any thing there are exceptions ) I have seen them out a 1000 yards just set and look twitching their tail for 10 or 15 min. . Then get up and slowly walk a few to a 100 yards closer and do it all over again or just come creeping in all the way . A general rule of thumb is they don't like the volume very loud if you have it too loud and you have fresh snow you will see their tracks behind you when you leave the stand . Like fox most like higher pitched sounds . Quite often when you have been on a stand for 30 min. you will notice a slight movement and what you may think is a new rock , a cat will be crouched down watching you and the movement you see is the tail twitching . I have watched cats walking in to the call taking an hour or more to get to where you can shoot them but then I have also had them jump down off of a cut bank and land beside me as well. One day in 1998 I saw a large male cat come up from the back side of a ridge out around 500 yards . I turned the volume down and let the puppy squeaks just play . It took him 45 min. to come into about 25 feet of me . He then sat down and watched me for another 10 or so min. His eyes were locked onto the fox pro the whole time and each step was slow and cautious both front and back feet . I saw him a couple of times start to put his foot down then stop and move it sideways or back ward some before setting it down . Time means nothing to them .
Couldn't agree more,the dozen I've killed in West Va,and couple dozen in Arizona were easy to kill most dropped with a 22 CCI Velocitor. But as stated approach a call cautiously,some not so,nothing written in stone when hunting predators.
 
I too run a shockwave. Look for rodent distress bird distress sounds. I wont play a cottontail sound. Everyone uses it. If I did it would be like a baby bee cottontail sound very low volume. Make sure dont set caller too far away. At low volume add a decoy movement. Then u have sound and sight covered. Just because u dont have the animal in that area use the distress sound anyway. We dont have jackrabbit or Africa rabbit or birds dont mean the wont work. Try chicken in distress too. They make kitten in distress sounds too. If u dont have one get a mini blaster hand call by Burnham Brother calls in Tx. It makes sounds that other calls can. Dont walk thru the area in front of u where your going to call. I always circle it. For me everytime a coyote hits where i walk in he's gone other way. A decoy can be a Turkey feather on line and swivel on a stick. Right now ticks are so bad. Plus its be 90 to a 100 here. Just too hot. There is alot of food for them this time of yr. I have use like a challenge howl then goto a puppy in distress low volume. I seen the young coyotes out. I have seen 2 run over on the highway.
 
Last edited:
I too run a shockwave. Look for rodent distress bird distress sounds. I wont play a cottontail sound. Everyone uses it. If I did it would be like a baby bee cottontail sound very low volume. Make sure dont set caller too far away. At low volume add a decoy movement. Then u have sound and sight covered. Just because u dont have the animal in that area use the distress sound anyway. We dont have jackrabbit or Africa rabbit or birds dont mean the wont work. Try chicken in distress too. They make kitten in distress sounds too. If u dont have one get a mini blaster hand call by Burnham Brother calls in Tx. It makes sounds that other calls can. Dont walk thru the area in front of u where your going to call. I always circle it. For me everytime a coyote hits where i walk in he's gone other way. A decoy can be a Turkey feather on line and swivel on a stick. Right now ticks are so bad. Plus its be 90 to a 100 here. Just too hot. There is alot of food for them this time of yr. I have use like a challenge howl then goto a puppy in distress low volume. I seen the young coyotes out. I have seen 2 run over on the highway.
I run an Icotec night-stalker with decoy,and have called them in with calls that one wouldn't think would work.Blue jay distress,robin distress,kitten,piglet,rat,vole,with 140 sounds and about 70 more downloadable it never ends.
 
Where I live the pups will be starting to get out on their own by late August or early Sept. normally I don't have much luck with coyote sounds at this time of the year . I think that the pups are so young that they are cautious of other coyote at this time of the year .
 
I had another one of these experiences. I watched a big old coyote slowly trot in from 1000 yards. Every hundred yards or so he would slip into a bush and disappear for 5 minutes or so. Once he was 350/400 yards out he sat behind a bush with just his head peering out for another hour.

I did some googling and found this article of a guy who was invited to call coyotes for a biologist here. Pretty interesting, especially since it is from my general hunting area.

"Upon hearing the initial prey distress cries, the test coyotes would usually run to a downwind position without exposing themselves and remain there until we left. They would later approach our stand area to investigate. One wary old alpha pair (the male was 10 years old) waited 17 hours before approaching the calling location, and then spent 45 minutes at our stand site sniffing around."


I don't have 17 hours. I hope my rifle build is done soon so I can shoot them wether they come in or not.
 
I built a 6.5x284 for the ones that decided to stay out a long way . At 600 yards it put 10 rounds in 4 inch's and at 1000 it put 10 in 8 inch's letting the barrel cool down between shots as to my way of thinking for coyote hunting it's the cold bore shot that counts .
 
I run the 120 gr Nosler acu-bonds . I started out with Nosler Trophy Grade loaded ammo that I got on sale from them buy one get one and it liked them so then I when with the load data on the box and tried to duplicate it for M V and seating depth . I ended up using Varget with the factory seating depth and only pushing the shoulders back .002 and .002 neck tension , Remington primers . A1 in 9 twist 26 inch Savage barrel .
 
ReemtyJ , I started out with an F-class Savage barrel at 30 inch's and 1-1/8 diameter 1 in 9 twist . I took it up to Hazzer Bulky at Bisson Barrels out of Spotted Horse Wy. had him turn it to a #5 taper and cut it to 26 inch's then put it on a savage long action in a McMillon a5 stock bedded the action and broke it in as per Savages recommended procedures . I ended up running Nosler 120 BT's with 44.5 grains of Varget . Each charge weighed as well as each bullet weighed . The brass was all Nosler ( made by Norma) each piece was fired one time then I set the die to bump the shoulders back .002 . I ordered a Lee precision cutter for the 6.5x284 Norma case length and cut them all to length de- burred them inside and out . I hand primed them with 9 1/2 rem. I seated the bullets to 3.230 which is .002 over the factory loads . It helped that I found it to like the factory loads that I found on sale from Nosler to get started and have some thing to work with from the start .
 
Top