Question for the pros on here.

rankin76

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 30, 2013
Messages
172
Location
yakima Wa
I have been out the last few days hiking and calling coyotes on some new property. I've put in 13 1/2 miles on foot in the last two days and have seen one coyote leaving.

Don't get me wrong, I feel very fortunate to have this 30 square mile spot to hunt, but dang…. It may be the toughest place I've ever hunted. It shouldn't be though. There is Dairy, a calving facility and a Lambing camp, with several different dead piles.

The first day I heard some coyotes howling, then a few days later when I was there, nothing….

Any ideas? I have literally tried everything and sat longer on stands. Im not sure if it's been over hunted, or to much pressure. I do know that there are a few wild dog that have killed a couple Ewe's. The ranchers do not want them around.

Any ideas about my struggles would be greatly appreciated!


Bob
 
start with the basics. You heard a group howl, but are you seeing anything else for sign to give you an idea of the population?

What I'm getting at is if they aren't there you can't call em'.

If you're seeing plenty of sign I'd be asking the rancher or the ranch hands if there are others that are also hunting on the property. If there are coyotes there and if they aren't pressured, then it's just a matter of time before you figure them out. BUT if there aren't many and there's other pressure, then it's going to be a tough go.

If the pressure is low and you're seeing sign, maybe try more vocals and less prey sounds. A guy might be surprised by the outcome if you were to only do long howls for a longer period of time then seems normal.

Some ranchers believe that a guy can't have too many coyote hunters without understanding that it only gets tougher for everyone if they are all trying to call coyotes. I had one ranch that I quit going to for this very reason. Although the ranch had plenty of coyotes, it was almost impossible to call them in any more. Too many other places to hunt with less pressure, so I just moved along to greener pastures.
 
I have seen other signs, and did have one check out one of my stands, and disappear. From the sounds of howling on the first day, there are two groups.

I do need to ask the ranchers if there are other hunters that hunt there. There is a herder that walks with the sheep, he said he hasn't seen any sign of them lately.

Thanks for the reply.
 
What TRnCO said is so very true . When some ranchers let every body and their cousins hunt, it makes it harder for all . It's hard to clean up after others that have educated the coyote . Are you using an e-caller ? If so stop and use some hand calls for awhile . This is the time of the year that they are thinking about sex more then food . They should be setting up an area to be denning and pupping in now if they are a breeding pair . If they aren't a breeding pair they are notoriously hard to call at any time of the year . As TRnCO said this is the time of the year they respond to vocalizations . I don't like to use aggressive coyote vocalizations any time even now as there are a lot of non dominate coyote out there especially if there has been many other callers around because they probably got killed first . Long lone howls wait a minute or even two and do it again for up to ten minutes then you can go with a couple of howls of average length and two barks and another howl give it a couple of minutes and do it again for up to 15 minutes . often I will start with this series of vocalizations with out the long lone howls or just the long lone howls and nothing else using one or the other by them selves . Keep track of the moon and where it's at in the sky if I am right it's been high in the sky during a lot of the day light hours . they and the prey animals will be more active two hours before and two hours after moon rise and again the same with moon set but not very vocal with it up during the day unless it's real cold and then they will do some talking when they get up from their nap and want to meet up . Then it will be two short partial howls and two quick barks repeated 30 seconds to a minute apart so they can hear a reply to it . They will do this several times if they don't get a reply . Bait piles aren't always productive if they have been pressured hard at them they learn not to use them or only when they feel secure they won't be bothered at them . If they have been pressured hard they will be very cautious hence the nick name gray ghost . If there are feral dogs that are of any size the coyote will be cautious and often not very vocal , do you think you would talk much if every time you said something you got your butt kicked , I wouldn't either . As your doing your walking look for sign , don't sky line yourself walk as quietly as you can , avoid walking where you don't have visibility such as in the bottoms of brushy draws . When your on your scouting walkabouts travel lighter then normal , water , a snack , rifle and a couple of hand calls and binoculars , look at the sign in stock or animal trails going and coming from the brushy or rocky areas . If you think you heard two separate groups of coyote talking you may only have four coyote at this time of the year up to a possible six , they are in breeding mode paired up and setting boundry lines . The size of their areas depends a lot on the prey base the more available prey the smaller their home areas the less available prey the larger their home area . Best of luck to you , Study and study your prey some more learn what when and where at what times they are in your new area the four w's what , when , where and why apply especially when you go into a new area , they have made it their home for most of their lives you just got there . Often when I got a call to do control work I didn't do anything but look for the place to find them at first , then I called after I knew pretty much where they were , when they would be there , why they would be there , where there boundry lines were . Tracking if you can , rocky areas and real grassy areas , are hard tracking , tells you so much and will save you a lot of time as well as effort hunting for something that isn't where you are hunting and calling .
 
What TRnCO said is so very true . When some ranchers let every body and their cousins hunt, it makes it harder for all . It's hard to clean up after others that have educated the coyote . Are you using an e-caller ? If so stop and use some hand calls for awhile . This is the time of the year that they are thinking about sex more then food . They should be setting up an area to be denning and pupping in now if they are a breeding pair . If they aren't a breeding pair they are notoriously hard to call at any time of the year . As TRnCO said this is the time of the year they respond to vocalizations . I don't like to use aggressive coyote vocalizations any time even now as there are a lot of non dominate coyote out there especially if there has been many other callers around because they probably got killed first . Long lone howls wait a minute or even two and do it again for up to ten minutes then you can go with a couple of howls of average length and two barks and another howl give it a couple of minutes and do it again for up to 15 minutes . often I will start with this series of vocalizations with out the long lone howls or just the long lone howls and nothing else using one or the other by them selves . Keep track of the moon and where it's at in the sky if I am right it's been high in the sky during a lot of the day light hours . they and the prey animals will be more active two hours before and two hours after moon rise and again the same with moon set but not very vocal with it up during the day unless it's real cold and then they will do some talking when they get up from their nap and want to meet up . Then it will be two short partial howls and two quick barks repeated 30 seconds to a minute apart so they can hear a reply to it . They will do this several times if they don't get a reply . Bait piles aren't always productive if they have been pressured hard at them they learn not to use them or only when they feel secure they won't be bothered at them . If they have been pressured hard they will be very cautious hence the nick name gray ghost . If there are feral dogs that are of any size the coyote will be cautious and often not very vocal , do you think you would talk much if every time you said something you got your butt kicked , I wouldn't either . As your doing your walking look for sign , don't sky line yourself walk as quietly as you can , avoid walking where you don't have visibility such as in the bottoms of brushy draws . When your on your scouting walkabouts travel lighter then normal , water , a snack , rifle and a couple of hand calls and binoculars , look at the sign in stock or animal trails going and coming from the brushy or rocky areas . If you think you heard two separate groups of coyote talking you may only have four coyote at this time of the year up to a possible six , they are in breeding mode paired up and setting boundry lines . The size of their areas depends a lot on the prey base the more available prey the smaller their home areas the less available prey the larger their home area . Best of luck to you , Study and study your prey some more learn what when and where at what times they are in your new area the four w's what , when , where and why apply especially when you go into a new area , they have made it their home for most of their lives you just got there . Often when I got a call to do control work I didn't do anything but look for the place to find them at first , then I called after I knew pretty much where they were , when they would be there , why they would be there , where there boundry lines were . Tracking if you can , rocky areas and real grassy areas , are hard tracking , tells you so much and will save you a lot of time as well as effort hunting for something that isn't where you are hunting and calling .
Good stuff. Thank you!
 
I also think this is a rough period. We are right on the eve of breeding in most areas. You could probably call the same areas exactly the same next week and you'll be shooting them in self defense.
 
I also think this is a rough period. We are right on the eve of breeding in most areas. You could probably call the same areas exactly the same next week and you'll be shooting them in self defense.
I was thinking the same thing! I've had droughts like this before, but man… it's a perfect place. I'm going to rest it up a bit, contact the ranchers and work on my diaphragm and hand call game at home in the meantime. Or hit some of my other spots.
 
Keep track of all of the conditions , what time of the year it is , weather , where the moon is in it's cycle of raising or setting as that plays a big part in animal activity more so then the stage of the moon , full moons during the night have caused me to have less sucess but for the most part the moon stage of coming full or declining from full doesn't seem to make as much difference as the rise and set times . This is the time of the year when they aren't very interested in socializing with outsiders as much as running them out of the areas they have decided to call home .They mostly are just running in pairs now and you need to be in their area for them to be very responsive . At this time of the year often less is better and a little bit of coyote vocalizations on a hand call is better then any thing that you have been using to this point in time because of the mating season they are more interested in breeding and defending their mates then eating . That is why a few well used coyote vocalizations work better now then prey based calls . Nobody knows every thing about the coyote but when you take your time make note of how things are going when and under what conditions over time you will start to realize that under certain conditions this won't work as well as that under these conditions but this works better now then that will under this set of conditions . If what you are doing today doesn't seem to be working think about what the circumstances are so when you find those conditions next you will know to change up what you are doing for that set of circumstances . Every year around this time you will see on here where people are having dry spells with their standard calling methods it's not all due to them having heard those sounds and being educated to them some of it is the fact that they just aren't interested in eating as much as breeding , defending their areas and mates at this time so if you think about changing to a few simple coyote vocalizations at this time of the year it might pay off for you in the end . For years I have tried to explain why that calling sounds are seasonal and why I use some sounds at certain times of the year but not others but then it was my job to kill the ones doing the killing so it paid for me to be more cautious about what I did then for others that were just out for the fun of it . This is one of those times when the prey sounds aren't in season .
 
What is the terrain like? Brush, timber, rolling hills or? I don't call very much anymore because everyone does it and it's hard to get anything to come in. I figure out where they feed and where they bed and find a good spot between the two that I can walk into in the dark and I've been very successful doing it!
 
What is the terrain like? Brush, timber, rolling hills or? I don't call very much anymore because everyone does it and it's hard to get anything to come in. I figure out where they feed and where they bed and find a good spot between the two that I can walk into in the dark and I've been very successful doing it!
it's rolling hills sage brush and wheat fields
697420CD-1414-4ABD-B9E0-3A0785FCFD1F.jpeg
 
Best advise I can give if you don't already know.... Work cross wind and stay out of sight when you move. Use a hill or whatever, but stay out of sight. Try different calls. Any kind of rabbit almost never works anymore. Fawn distress and bird sounds work better. This time of year it is coyote sounds. Be unafraid to try something different. the dogs are pretty smart, use their noses better than bloodhounds. their noses cannot be defeated with anything I am aware of other than a bullet. Use that against them. They will always circle around and come to a call from downwind. The ones here will also do it from at least 1/4 mile away. If he gets in your scent cone you will almost never even see him. If any of the above doesn't address your problem, then more on. the area is over called.
One more thing you could try. Time of the hunt. If they are normally hunted in the daytime hunt @ night or vise versa. Middle of the day can also be productive in an area with pressure.
 
Best advise I can give if you don't already know.... Work cross wind and stay out of sight when you move. Use a hill or whatever, but stay out of sight. Try different calls. Any kind of rabbit almost never works anymore. Fawn distress and bird sounds work better. This time of year it is coyote sounds. Be unafraid to try something different. the dogs are pretty smart, use their noses better than bloodhounds. their noses cannot be defeated with anything I am aware of other than a bullet. Use that against them. They will always circle around and come to a call from downwind. The ones here will also do it from at least 1/4 mile away. If he gets in your scent cone you will almost never even see him. If any of the above doesn't address your problem, then more on. the area is over called.
One more thing you could try. Time of the hunt. If they are normally hunted in the daytime hunt @ night or vise versa. Middle of the day can also be productive in an area with pressure.
Thanks for your input!
 
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