coyote calling tips please

[518BowSlayer]

just got a FoxPro patriot and was wondering which calls you guys use and how long and such. probably gonna just do early mornings and late evenings to start because I don't have any night gear yet. plus one of the spots I plan on going to is a cut corn field right behind some neighbors houses and I don't think they would appreciate gun shots in the middle of the night. plan on doing some night hunting down there eventually but gonna have to go way back in the woods. I have no experience predator hunting so any help would be appreciated. haven't seen any foxes on this property but there is at least 1 bobcat down there. would love to get one of them. lots of coyotes though. thanks

[airedale]

I am not a big time varmint hunter so this is not an expert's advice but over the years I have dabbled with the Varmints and have had some moderate success. I keep my calling relatively simple,  I do no calling at night, all my calling is done during daylight hours mostly with mouth blown calls, where in addition to Varmints I have had Hawks, Owls Crows and even have had Deer come in to the calls out of curiosity I would guess. I would say 15 minutes is about the average time I call at a set.

I basically use three calling sounds 99% of the time, for long range various dying Rabbit sounds, the more agonizing sounding the better, a Squeaker or Squirrel whistle for short range and a dying Woodpecker which is mostly for Coons but it has brought in Foxes on occasion and even a Skunk once.

Also I do things a bit different by many times using one of my Airedales on hunts, they are trained to sit close to me when I am calling and will many times alert me to something coming to the call far in advance to my actually seeing it due to their superior senses. They will stand steady until the shot is taken a lot like a Retriever in a bird hunting blind. Many times they will be spotted by the Fox or Coyote but it is actually to my advantage as much like one of those electronic decoys that flutter around, a dog does not spook them off immediately especially so with a Coyote, it will hold the focus of the varmint while I carefully take the shot.

Below is a sequence of a Coon I had come in on the run and could not get a good shot off, me and my Airedale TJ were busted and he took off in high gear but no problem as I released TJ to chase and he promptly ran the coon up a tree after a short run.

Al

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by airedale

[moog5050]

Unless focusing solely on yotes, we usually start with distress calls:

bay bee cottontail 

some of the rodent distress calls

titmouse tantrum

nutty nuthatch

platinum gray pup distress

then I would throw out yotes pups in distress 1 or 3

if we haven’t seen anything or we get a vocal response, as per LEGs suggestion I have used the following

single female long howl (1 or two series)

submissive yote female (few minutes)

pair of yotes

 back to pups in distress

run the earlier distress calls for 5 min before switching and start with low volume increasing as you go unless it’s windy then crank it from start

you can try different calls - what works on one night might not work another and as they get educated, something they haven’t heard much might work like fawn in distress

look up Andrew Leland articles for other specific calling sequences.  Have fun.   Be patient.  And sometimes silence for several minutes brings em in. 

[moog5050]

By the way, we usually only run 3-4 distress calls before going to yote vocals.   And don’t feel limited to what is mentioned above.  Fox pro has tons of different calls

[rachunter]

I second the Andrew lewand books I have a few,but always go back to this one.He also has a website but it's geared towards contest hunting.{not for me}

 

 

[airedale]

For the dyed in the wool Coyote hunter below is a book that I can recommend, written by a fellow that was originally from NY named Gary Strader, I met him when  came to my place many years ago to talk about my Airedales after multiple conversations with him on the phone. This guy was a Coyote hunting fanatic and ended up being one of the best Coyote hunters in existence. Shortly after I met him he pursued his passion and moved out west and became a government animal control person. Gary's book is available from the site below he also has his own site.

AllPredatorCalls.com 

http://www.wildlifetech.com/pages/gary.htm

Edited January 12, 2020 by airedale

[rachunter]

4 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

By the way, we usually only run 3-4 distress calls before going to yote vocals.   And don’t feel limited to what is mentioned above.  Fox pro has tons of different calls

Do you guys have and use the fox bang feature? I'm thinking of giving it a shot next weekend.

[518BowSlayer]

this has been amazingly helpful! thanks to all of you!!!

[TreeGuy]

Don't over think or over call.

Start low volume with an animal/bird distress, plenty listed that are great.

Amp up volume as time goes on. Don't be afraid to pause / wait / restart calls.

Fox typically commit, so if you see them coming hard, get on the gun and get ready

If they don't, play with the volume. Go silent. Change calls. See what turns them.

Coyotes. If I was focusing on yotes I would plan on being quiet or silent more than playing calls.

Vocalizations are a great way to bring em in, def do NOT over call with them.

Know what vocalizations mean what, yodel vs invitation vs challenge etc. Keep in mind anything with a bark is a very agresive call and needs to be used sparingly.

Foxbang.... MEH. Great feature till you bump your remote and start blaring a call on accident. I have pup distress set as a preset and is the "user" button on my remote, so I can quickly play it without fumbling through calls. To me, it's basically the only call you need to play after a shot and can be very effective. If you plan on using foxbang, keep a good hand on your remote and make sure you don't bang it off your gun or anything hard.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[moog5050]

2 hours ago, TreeGuy said:

Don't over think or over call.

Start low volume with an animal/bird distress, plenty listed that are great.

Amp up volume as time goes on. Don't be afraid to pause / wait / restart calls.

Fox typically commit, so if you see them coming hard, get on the gun and get ready

If they don't, play with the volume. Go silent. Change calls. See what turns them.

Coyotes. If I was focusing on yotes I would plan on being quiet or silent more than playing calls.

Vocalizations are a great way to bring em in, def do NOT over call with them.

Know what vocalizations mean what, yodel vs invitation vs challenge etc. Keep in mind anything with a bark is a very agresive call and needs to be used sparingly.

Foxbang.... MEH. Great feature till you bump your remote and start blaring a call on accident. I have pup distress set as a preset and is the "user" button on my remote, so I can quickly play it without fumbling through calls. To me, it's basically the only call you need to play after a shot and can be very effective. If you plan on using foxbang, keep a good hand on your remote and make sure you don't bang it off your gun or anything hard.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
 

Foxbang has caused a few unintended calls to start blasting out when remote taps gun or rest.  

[Nomad]

3 hours ago, TreeGuy said:

Coyotes. If I was focusing on yotes I would plan on being quiet or silent more than playing calls.

I don’t know squat about coyote hunting , the 8-10 I’ve shot over the years have all been from a deer stand . I was talking to the land owner the other day, it’s a very large farm , spread over a couple of  towns and he knows tons of hunters in the area . He feels there’s so many guys hunting them with calls in the area,that they’re well educated now .

He just sits  quietly dawn and dusk, others trap them .