I am fairly new to coyote calling. How far from your vehicle to you go before setting up? Just curious. Thanks.

duckster

Well, it depends. If there is a farm yard near by, I just park the vehicle there since the coyotes are used to seeing vehicles. I then go around 300-500 yards away. With the owners permission of course. If the terrain is hilly then only around 300 yards since the dogs don't usually circle behind much more than 200 yards and if the vehicle is hidden, this doesn't seem to bother them. Not many people call coyotes here so they aren't too afraid of parked vehicles. Now if it is moving then so are they.

Duckster - I don't think there is a hard, fast answer to your question. Sure, the ideal situation would be to get your vehicle out of sight and as far away as reasonable. But the biggest coyote I ever shot came up on me from behind and went right past my vehicle! Go figure.

Here is the bottom line with coyotes. They are smart animals...but they aren't BORN knowing all about varmit hunters. They gotta learn it the hard way or be taught by mom and pop.

Coyotes in areas heavily worked by varmin callers can be really cagey. Coyotes that have never heard a call or seen a varmit hunter can be dumb as a post.

You have every degree of smarts in between. On one end the animals will come to anything. On the other side of the coin, they will run the other way at the sound of a call. I've seen them do both.

Thanks for the information. I plan to do some of my hunting here in the Sandhills of Nebraska, and if you have to leave your car at the road, it can be a mighty long walk. Leaving the car behind a hill 500 or 600 yards away would be a simple task. The coyotes on our ranch have not been formally hunted in at least 5 years, so hopefully they will be of the dumber variety! Thanks again for the info.

I guess it really depends on where ya live Duckster.

Down here, we hunt from the back of our trucks, I have a platform made for the back of mine that I mount a couple of swivel seats on. Keeps your feet out of the rattlesnakes.

Coyotes are hunted heavy here all year round, this is sheep, goat and cattle country. We hit them hard in the spring until bout the end of May, after that, its to hot. We normally start up again in October.

We have hunted them both ways and it doesn't seem to make much difference, we get about the same number from the truck as we do from the ground with the truck out of sight.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting,

Pecos

Pecos,

Do you hunt from the truck in daylight or at night? With the truck there, how close to the coyotes come in? Are you using electronic calls or mouth calls? Thanks for the info.

I too am wanting to start hunting coyote's and would like some info from some seasoned vets.When is the best time of year to hunt them?Is it better in morning or evenings?I was considering getting a Phantom digital caller,is the best type of sounds on that caller?Thanks in advance!

Duckster - We hunt from the trucks day and night, however during the day, we mostly drive pasture roads, stop and call a bit and move on. At night we will set in one place for up to an hour.

We have had them come with in bout 10 feet at night.

We use a lot of different calls, I personally use CRIT'R calls, and a foxpro electronic, mostly we use cottontail, jackrabbit, woodpecker, with our electronic calls.

There are lots of great hand calls out there, jest have to try several to find the one you can use the best, I still have a couple old Burnham Bros calls that I was given by them back in the 50's, work jest as well as when they were new.

I have only limited expereince with the Phantom electronic and it seems to be a quality call, my hunting pardner uses the foxpro and I like it.

Hope this helps.

Pecos

Pecos - It sounds like you've probably got me beat in the varmit calling game. I haven't seriously done it in a long time, and then mostly in New Mexico.

Virtually all of the calling I've done in Texas has been at night and just for fun without even taking a weapon, if you can believe that.

One thing I'd like your opinion on is the EFFECT of weather. Cloudy nights seem to generally produce a LOT more critters coming to the calls.
Have you noticed any difference between types of weather?

By the way, I started on Burnham Bros. calls and their stuff was my favorite for years. I ultimately learned to just call with my mouth and got dang good at the rabbit and mouse immitations. This technique has seemed more effective to me than any mouth held calls I've ever tried.

Pecos45 - Yup, weather does have a large effect on calling. We have found that we have the best luck at night with no more than half moon, we really prefer quarter to no moon. Cloudy nights are great no matter what phase the moon is in.

Wind is a problem also. We rarely go out if the wind is much over 10 mph. This applies to any game animal we hunt, varmints, Deer, hogs etc. We have found that once the wind gets to 15 mph or more, nothing moves around much so we stay home.

When I say "we" I am including the 3 guys I usually always hunt varmints with.

Hope this helps.

Pecos

Pecos - Thanks. You confirm exactly what I had noticed. I hadn't thought so much about the wind but now that you mention it, I remember going out one night as a winter front was coming thru. I thought the calling would be great because it was low, heavy overcast and black as pitch. Even a slight drizzle. HOWEVER, the wind was blowing like the dickens.

I called half a dozen places and never saw an eye.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

My brother, another friend, and I are going out in the morning to see if we can call some in. He has an electronic caller we haven't really had a chance to use much yet. I think it's the Phantom refered to here. It has several different ones, 9 or 12, something like that. It either has 200 or 300 foot of cord for the speaker. We'll see how it goes in the morning.

Duckster;
What part of the Sandhills are you in? I grew up in NW Custer County. Anyway, on my last trip to Cabela's in Sidney I bought a video titled "Calling All Coyotes" by Randy Anderson. He's from up around Naper somewhere. It's worth a look and he has some useful advice in it.

Happy Hunting,
Ben H

Brent from Palmer - how did your hunt go? how did the electronic call work ? where did you go? I am interested in doing some varmint hunting this winter, any advice is appreciated - thanks - KMule

Here is how we do it and it works....Put side boards on your pickup, hunt at night. Put a cassette on a pillow on top of your p.u. cab..Use kittens, half grown rabbit, or meadow lark tapes..stand in back of pickup. Have a rifle and a shotgun handy..Give a few loud calls with a mouth call, then turn the tape on, use a q-beam light with a coffee can over the lens and covered in red celophane or a red lens, coyotes ignore a red light but will run from a white light. park on a high spot for coyotes or if after foxes get in the brush. I always hunted the simi arid regions of west Texas.
It is good to wear tan or green clothing and ball cap....

Hello;
You guys are making this so complicated, you'le scare our poor neophyte into just giving up. I don't pretend to be an accomplished caller,but I can usually call one up within 10 to 15 minutes. They aren't really that smart. Granted, since the bottom fell out of the pelt market, we are overrun with them out here. What I've found is that when weather makes them work for their dinner and they have a litle hunger in their belly, they will come a running. That's why I like to hunt them when the temperature is well below zero and there is some snow on the ground. I generally youst cross the road from our place and walk a hundred yards into the bush. Hell, sometimes they walk right past the barn Dress? White camouflage.
Griz

KMule,
Never got to use the caller or hunt for that matter, a guy we were with had wheeler problems so we were screwed. Had to spend the day and night getting back from the Knik glacier.

My brother almost hit one in the trail up by Gunsight Mountain snowmachining yesterday, he left his Taurus .17HMR in the truck, it just stood there looking at him. Aint that the way it goes. I have to adjust the valves on my 6 wheelers before I head out again, I'm really looking forward to dismantling the machines just to accomplish that.

Ben,

Ranch is in north central Nebraska, Brown county, just north of Ainsworth.

Brent - I can relate to the motorized transport problems, seems they require constant maintenance - I am currently without any type of off road machine and plan to hike / snowshoe into some areas to (hopefully) whack some varmints - I am outfitted with white for goats / sheep and this may help fool the varmints, may purchase an electronic caller to aid in the fun - kinda wish marmots were legal as Lost Lake (towards Seward) is crawling with them - will venture outdoors over Christmas to look - sure glad winter solstice is (barely) past, craving more sun - take care - KMule

KMule

I plan on heading out on Tuesday for my first try at calling coyotes. I'll be borrowing a friend of mine's Predator game caller. My rifle will be my 358 Norma Mag, the smallest rifle I have until my 22-250 Encore barrel comes in . Hoping that the 250 gr Swift A-frames will punch right through with too much pelt damage. I'll probably try Pt. McKenzie since it is close. Will either ski or snowshoe in sonce looking out the window, it looks like the snow is coming down pretty heavy.

Brent / efryman - this morning went to crap as I was called to work - snowing now so will call today a wash and go tomorrow to (hopefully) call up some coyotes - have heard that Pt. Mac is good, especially on a good bunny year - I don't have an electronic call, will try with mouth call "wounded bunny" - will go to Johnson Pass trail or thereabouts - a 358 mag??? holy smokes!! guess you won't need to worry about any "late" bears Good Luck - KMule