Coyote Hunting

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With the season coming up soon I was just wondering what kind or tactics, calls, and what weapon do my fellow hunters use?

I have been hunting coyotes for a few years now and am still relatively new to it. I have been hunting in general sense I was 14 and I am now 28 mostly deer and birds. i have always shot the odd coyote I saw during other hunting seasons but am new to hunting just for them. I have bought quite a few calls over the past few years trying to find what works best for me. I have plenty of camo, a blind and other necessities and was looking for advice and tips from fellow hunters.

I would like to thank you in advance for any help, tips, or advice. Also I have a good bit of land and access to even more so maybe at some point if someone wanted to go out together in Douglas they could give me some pointers first hand.

Questions I have:

-What kind of calls do you use? ex.- electronic, mouth, brands, styles, different species?
-Do you use cover scents or lures/ attractants?
-Do you prefer to hunt day or night?
-What type of weapon do you use?
-Do you stay put and use a blind or jump around and not?
-If you prefer to hunt daytime what time of day do you find more productive?
 
I'm no expert, haven't had much luck in the few times I've gone out, but I will answer your questions with what I have done, and what has/hasn't worked for me. I usually go with my father, one of us will work the call and the other keeps watch and gun at the ready.

Calls - we have a cheap-o electronic that hasn't proved effective at all. We have a couple of mouth calls for crow and duck, neither yielded any results. The best luck we've had is with a bellows style call that looks almost exactly like this: http://www.fntpost.com/Products/Scotch+Game+Calls/Scotch+Bellows+Predator+Hand+Call Compress and expand like an accordion, shake it around, cover the open end partially with your hand, vary the speed and volume of the call etc.

Cover scents or lures - No cover scents, we try to setup so we're down wind from where we'd expect the coyotes to come in. I've read that raw eggs or raw meat work well, but we've only tried on one occasion, so I can't say either way how effective it would be.

Day or night - We've been going at night, but I am interested in trying to get out in the early hours of the day

Weapon - We're hunting almost exclusively on WMAs at night, so it's been Mossberg pump 12 gauges with HEVI-Shot Dead Coyote loads: http://www.hevishot.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=2&category_id=14&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=73

Stay put in a blind or jump around - We will typically setup in a natural blind, basically trying to find some light cover that helps break up our outlines and keeps us out of plain sight. Usually in the tree line under some low hanging branches. We had some good luck calling in a couple of coyotes one night but got a little too excited and tried moving to a different spot to try to lure them out, bad idea. They got spooked and wouldn't come out of the deep cover of the tree line. I'd say setup in a blind over looking a somewhat open area that still offers some areas of cover as they tend not to like running out in the open.

Even better than my input, I'd suggest you check out www.coyotegods.com if you haven't already, the site's owners are very accomplished hunters and there is a lot to learn from their community.

I don't know where Douglas is, but if you've got some good spots, I'd be interested in possibly checking out some of them with you when the season starts up.
 
Have used a distressed rabbit call at night - quite the experience because it brought out every predator in the area - all of sudden there were what seemed liked thousands of eyes out there. Every owl, fox, fisher, coon, and coyote seemed to come out. I only went once, but the distressed rabbit call worked great.
 
Have used a distressed rabbit call at night - quite the experience because it brought out every predator in the area - all of sudden there were what seemed liked thousands of eyes out there. Every owl, fox, fisher, coon, and coyote seemed to come out. I only went once, but the distressed rabbit call worked great.

Same. bagged two one night last year with a cheapo multi call from dicks. Tried all of them but the only one a had any luck with was the distressed rabbit. I hunt on my property in a tree stand at night. Sometimes i'll throw some gamey meat out in the middle of a log landing and just see what comes.
 
Check out Foxpro digital call, some of the best and loudest calls you can get. I'm picking up a Firestorm. This will allow to to separate myself from the call upwards of 100 yards which is a great advantage.
 
I have been looking at a FoxPro I had a Phantom and thought it sucked. Has anyone used night vision or just moonlight with our wonderful law of no artificial lights?
 
+1 with the Foxpro Calls. That is really the way to go.

I do most of my hunting at night with NV or on snow with a good moon. If you are calling, the key is to hit a lot of spots. After 20ish minutes, if a coyote has not come in to your call it probably is not going to so move on. Hitting 5+ stands in a night is the way to go.

If you are hunting over bait stay put and try and stay warm.
 
I'm not a pro by any means but this is what I know and like to do with Coyotes.

There's a ton of different ways to hunt coyotes and some of the better ones have been covered here. I like Electronic calls if there is only going to be 1 or 2 people. Put the call away from you in a slightly different direction so they coyote isn't looking for it straight at you. If you have 3 people hunting I like to have some one move about 50 yards to my right or left and hit the calls. This way when they come in their attention is focused on them, same idea as the electric calls. Always hunt downwind, no scents needed then.

-What kind of calls do you use? ex.- electronic, mouth, brands, styles, different species? I like using Cottontail distress, female coyote whimper and a basic ki yi

-Do you use cover scents or lures/ attractants? Scents no, there are some good lures you can get.

-Do you prefer to hunt day or night? Both are cool, I find it easier at night.

-What type of weapon do you use? Rem 700 VSF 22-250 w/ 4x14x40 scope

-Do you stay put and use a blind or jump around and not? Move around when possible

-If you prefer to hunt daytime what time of day do you find more productive? Night usually easier.
 
Jay, what do you use for night vision? I have a ATN scope (don't remember what model) its about 4 years old the thing weighs a ton and I don't have a weapon to dedicate to i so I don't use it much. I am always afraid of loosing my zero putting it on and taking it off.
 
I've been out bear hunting 3x's so far this year, called in 2 dogs with my bear call (fawn in distress). Could have taken one with the 308. The other came in too fast over my right shoulder to get the scope on him. Maybe with a fast draw from the .357, he got to within 40ft of me before hi-tailing it. If it was in season I would have had one for sure.
 
I personally hunt dogs with a 22mag. all the spots i hunt you wont get a shot outside of 100yds. It's quite and it's a tack driver.
 
I'll have to read the MA fish & game laws again. I thought electronic calls were banned in MA.

Watch out for bears when calling. They come in pretty hot and hungry. Facing into the wind, make sure to look behind you. I haven't heard of anyone being mauled, but heart attacks are very possible.
 
huh. Reading that link provided by Magsrgod reveals this: "(b) during the hours from ½ hour after sunset to ½ hour before sunrise, handguns are restricted to those chambered not larger than .38 caliber, and rifles to those chambered not larger than .22 long rifle;"

I always thought you could use something like a .223 to shoot them at night but it looks like a .22 LR is the limit?
 
This thread made me read the regs again as well and I realized the same thing - night hunting is limited to .22lr. I don't much about rifle calibers but I assume 22-250 is larger than .22lr? So this would be a no go at night? I guess I will stick to shotguns.
 
So, what do you guys do with the coyote once you kill it? Do you eat the meat? Just wondering - inquiring minds want to know (just curious). Thanks!
 
No I cant use my 22-250 at night here, I just moved here from Colorado and you could there. Here I would look into the largest rimfire you can get your hands on or a Shotgun. .22lr win mag(I think they call it) or something like that would probably be the best bet for a rimfire cartridge. They also make Coyote Specific shotgun loads, which are basically re-packaged Turkey loads if I remember right.

When the OP asked when is easier I said night because night is easier. I'll be hunting during the day here because I love sleep and can't use my normal rifle. Sorry to cause confusion on this. I might consider getting a big ass 22 rimfire if I can across one for the right price... hmm buying more guns always sounds fun!
 
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I'll tell you what, around here go up in a tree stand, throw some old meet down, and meow like a kitten. All I can say is around here you need to have a quick shot, and a great eye. Everytime I see a coyote they are hauling ass.
 
No I cant use my 22-250 at night here, I just moved here from Colorado and you could there. Here I would look into the largest rimfire you can get your hands on or a Shotgun. .22lr win mag(I think they call it) or something like that would probably be the best bet for a rimfire cartridge. They also make Coyote Specific shotgun loads, which are basically re-packaged Turkey loads if I remember right.

When the OP asked when is easier I said night because night is easier. I'll be hunting during the day here because I love sleep and can't use my normal rifle. Sorry to cause confusion on this. I might consider getting a big ass 22 rimfire if I can across one for the right price... hmm buying more guns always sounds fun!

Thanks for the clarification. It was your post that I was thinking about but now I understand now that the 22-250 and night hunting occurred in Colorado. Sorry to here that you now live in Mass and have to deal with our stupid laws but welcome to the state and to the forum.
 
Haha thanks, it was pretty tricky deciphering all the laws when I came out here but I don't really own any AR's so it wasn't that bad. I don't like the fact that theres a cap on the amount of guns you can buy here though.

In CO you couldn't coyote hunt with anything over .23 caliber so all the standard coyote loads were still good(.204,.223,.222, 22 Swift, 22-250 and so on). Here it looks like you can hunt them with just about anything you want during the day, so if you have a deer rifle you can knock them off with that if your not looking to keep pelts.
 
Magsrgod, there is no limit on the guns you can buy here. The state legislature talked about it, but it never came to a vote. When you go to purchase and they run your info, they might put you "on hold" if you were buying multiple firearms but there is no state limit.

I believe you are corect that during daylight you can hunt them with whatever rifle.
 
Hmm, was the cap possibly on selling guns? For some reason the number 7 is sticking out in my mind on transactions you can make. I will have to look into it again.
 
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