Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

[Bucklowery]

She has been stalking around the fields chasing turkeys. The nephews had seen one during bow season and one game camera

Thanks

Buck

 

[JiggyIi]

How is the prey base? If it was low this past year, they may not have had many pups. Were there any diseases running thru them this year? All of that plays a part in how many there are in an area. When their numbers are down, they are more cautious as well. It's getting close to December and breeding season is just around the corner. They might not be talking much at this time especially if their numbers are low, they will be quiet. With breeding season coming up they will be starting to vocalize with whines, whimpers and chirps, as well as low growls that aren't of a threatening nature. Several years ago, Randy Anderson had a short section of a video that showed a coyote doing the chirps whines and whimpering when they are excited and greeting another coyote. A guy named Rick Paluett, I think that's how his name is spelled, has some videos called the verminators, might have some videos showing better how to do those sounds. Adult deer blats are working at this time of year as well, so many people have been running rabbit sounds, a lot also use and overuse coyote vocalizations, that aren't normal for this time of the year. They aren't real territorial at this time of year so if you choose to use coyote vocalizations try keeping them more in the friendly range such as interrogation howls, two longer howls a bark and one howl, wait for up to five minutes and repeat this up to 30 minutes. Few barks or alarm sounds now, and you should get responses. At the end of January is when they will be getting the urge to pair up and then you can start to become more aggressive with the coyote vocalization. The female tones will be working good now and later the male tones will be doing better as they get paired and start setting up their home ranges. Two short howls and two barks with 30 seconds wait then repeat at this time later in the day will get them to answer it's kind of a gathering call asking if anyone wants to get together and go hunting, done in male or female tones. When doing control work, I often used a siren for locating them. I didn't have much luck calling them after using the siren, but they would often come into the siren, so I would find them one day and go back in a day or two if we weren't flying for them, and they weren't causing problems. If you have an e-call and don't use hand calls, try some of the deer calls or some of the bird sounds as well as some of the non- threatening coyote sounds, I try to stay with the adult sounds as I needed my backup sounds for killing the killers in the spring and didn't want the left overs to be trained about them, so I stayed away from puppy sounds or other sounds that weren't normally in nature at this time of year.

lol once again I'll Beg for you to write a book

 

[windypants]

She has been stalking around the fields chasing turkeys. The nephews had seen one during bow season and one game camera

Thanks

Buck

Good job!

 

[windypants]

The prey base is good again this year—lots of voles, rabbits and grouse. The dens I found only had 4 or 5 pups, probably because I got the older females. I've been waiting for hunting season to end to go out around the country. And I haven't been calling our locals much— don't want to make them call shy. We had a foot of snow a month ago and they were pretty visible then, but now that the snow is gone I can't even find them with the thermal. I'll get out and try the female howls and prey sounds and see what I can find.

Thanks, Dave!

 

[DSheetz]

Buck: She is a pretty cat, nice white belly with good sharp outlined black spots, a good gray blue back not the rusty red of so many bobcats. I was selling some fur on time when a guy brought in a nice big cat that had been stretched on a coyote stretcher so it didn't have the rounded nose like it should, The fur buyer was good about it and told him I will pay you more if you use the correct stretchers, I asked him if he wanted me to show him the correct stretchers and to help him redo it. I brought him over to my house soaked his cat in some warm water, wrung the water out good and turned it skin side out put it on one of my stretchers for bobcats. pulled the legs out flat and stapled them to some cardboard to keep them flat tucked some paper towels into the legs to show him how to do them when it dried enough to turn it right side out and told him he could bring the stretcher back in the spring. Windypants: they are probably as you said laying up in the brushy draws and stands of trees hunting the mice and voles as well as the grouse then. How is your wind this year? We are having quite a bit of it here this year and the smaller animals are hanging out where they can stay out of pretty well. I was in hopes that with the El Nino it wouldn't blow as bad as the last couple of years. We got about six inches of snow out of this last artic front but some pretty cold temperatures. We have been running around 20 degrees colder than average temps for this time of year. I did notice that the moon was up during the day last week.

 

[windypants]

It's been breezy here, but not bad at all for November. Last year we had quite a bit of snow, so I think that kept them out in the open more, hunting the fields and wind swept ridges.

 

[JiggyIi]

Buck: She is a pretty cat, nice white belly with good sharp outlined black spots, a good gray blue back not the rusty red of so many bobcats. I was selling some fur on time when a guy brought in a nice big cat that had been stretched on a coyote stretcher so it didn't have the rounded nose like it should, The fur buyer was good about it and told him I will pay you more if you use the correct stretchers, I asked him if he wanted me to show him the correct stretchers and to help him redo it. I brought him over to my house soaked his cat in some warm water, wrung the water out good and turned it skin side out put it on one of my stretchers for bobcats. pulled the legs out flat and stapled them to some cardboard to keep them flat tucked some paper towels into the legs to show him how to do them when it dried enough to turn it right side out and told him he could bring the stretcher back in the spring. Windypants: they are probably as you said laying up in the brushy draws and stands of trees hunting the mice and voles as well as the grouse then. How is your wind this year? We are having quite a bit of it here this year and the smaller animals are hanging out where they can stay out of pretty well. I was in hopes that with the El Nino it wouldn't blow as bad as the last couple of years. We got about six inches of snow out of this last artic front but some pretty cold temperatures. We have been running around 20 degrees colder than average temps for this time of year. I did notice that the moon was up during the day last week.

We have had snow here in Northern MN but its all disappeared. Monday night was below zero but now its 40° Today and nice again tomorrow. Very few deer but lots of Wolves

 

[trapper1954]

Thanks for all you write, rock solid.

 

[trapper1954]

Calling contest on the Mescalero Res. Years back with my homemade calls, took a second that day.

 

[DSheetz]

A huge thank You to all that help with this site. I truly enjoy hearing about other people's experiences and seeing their pictures. I have had so many experiences that I like to share with other people and so have other people, it's just so enjoyable to visit with others about our times in the field or preparing to go out. I started calling during the time when you could buy ready-made hand calls but still made my own often just to see if I could. Then when tape player calls came out, I would make some recordings of animals in my area, they were original, and no other person had them but there weren't the numbers of people out doing it either. You all are the ones that keep this site and others going for us all to enjoy!

 

[highfinblue]

I have had some great days calling coyotes, and never pass one as I live on a small farm with chickens, and I like to deer hunt. I've seen what coyotes do with deer fawns, I know they're only being coyotes, but my grandpa was a tuff cuss, and he brought me up with the idea if they're eating what we eat we weed out the competition. As I said earlier, I have had some great days calling them, and I've had plenty of zero days. The particular day I am going to tell you about a friend, and I were set up on a bluff overlooking a draw, and we were calling bobcats, but certainly would not have passed up a coyote. We're sitting about fifty yards apart and he has his video camera to record the action. Back in those days I used a mouth call exclusively and was going back and forth between calls and I kept thinking I was hearing something behind me, but the way I was situated there was no way to turn around and look without too much movement. I kept calling and all of a sudden, I heard something running in the leaves right behind me. I turned to look because I didn't care if it did see me at that point, and a big racoon was about three feet from me, and he jumped right onto my back and bit the crap out of me; that sucker brought blood lol. My friend was cracking up laughing and when he finally composed himself, he told me he had watched that critter sneak up on me and finally launched his assault. I asked him if he got it recorded and he laughed and said he forgot to turn his camera on. I'm glad he got to enjoy the show, I sit with something at my back now.

 

[74honker]

That's a great story highfin. Dave, I just read that BLM outlawed the use of M44s.

 

[DSheetz]

Gotta love a good cut bank just for that reason, highfinblue. I got called one time for some racoon control, so I took my son and coon dog out to do it. Gizmo was a black brindle mountain cur, well-mannered and eager to help and please. My son and I set up on a dyke then cast Gizmo he treed 13 coons in one tree near the guy's garden. I let my son shoot them out for him. So, we then decided to do a little coon calling with my hand call. I was using a Circee jackrabbit to make coon cub squeaks and growls. Pretty soon I heard noise in an irrigation ditch to our side then my son let out a scream as a big bore racoon was running straight at him from the ditch bank. A week later I went back out and the rancher wanted to go with me. I cast Gizmo we hunted and got a couple of racoons treed. I told the guy it was time to go back and told Gizmo to load up, pretty soon I heard him jump in the back of my truck, then the guy said don't you need to call in your dog and put him on the lead. So, I told him I told him to load up and then I heard him jump in the truck. When we got to the truck Gizmo was waiting there the guy looked at him then me and said I have never seen a dog like that he minds well and understands you. Back then you could also buy a racoon squaller made by Murry Burnham.

 

[DSheetz]

74honker, yes, they have been working on doing that for several years. There are 26 laws or rules of use for them, enacted by the federal government. But unfortunately, so many people don't think they were meant to be followed by them. A little bit of common sense goes a long way in their usage as well. You need to be considerate of others that want to use that land as well and think about that aspect of their usage as well. Signs are to be placed at all entrance points (access points) telling of their use in that area. With in ten feet of each unit's placement there is to be a stake sign saying that one is placed there, with an arrow pointing towards it. These signs have a resemblance of what one looks like. They are also bilingual American English and Spanish, red and white in color with a skull and cross bones on them. As with so many other things in our world and life in the United States of America a few people not doing the correct actions or using some common sense and showing a little amount of consideration of others has taken its toll on the rest of us. Sadly, so many of the freedoms that we have taken for granted and lost are due to just a few other persons bad acting!