Syracuse.com - Coyote hunting isn't as easy as one might think

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"You can fool their eyes, fool their hearing, but you're not going to fool their noses," one veteran hunter said, noting that when a lot of coyotes hear the rabbit or other commonly used distress sounds they make a point of circling 100 yards or so downwind to be sure there's no human involved. (See video) Watch video

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The well-known, cartoon character Wile E. Coyote didn’t get his name for nothing.

In nature, coyotes have fantastic vision and hearing. They’re smart and can easily smell a hunter from a couple hundred yards away if the wind is right.

Jeff Brown, of Fayetteville, and hunting buddy, Vince Fusco, of Cazenovia, were out Monday morning hunting coyotes on private land just outside of the village of Cazenovia.

“I’m telling you the total excitement of seeing them come to your call. I’d put it right up there with calling in a turkey, or bow hunting for deer,” said Fusco, who bagged a cinnamon-colored coyote a couple of weeks ago and plans to have a full body mount made of it.

Monday, the two hunters were using a radio-controlled predator-calling device, capable of emitting sounds such as a squealing rabbit or fawn, crow calls, a screaming fox and a bawling calf. Connected to the device was fake head of a squirrel/rabbit connected to a bushy tail, which thrashed around as the calling device emitted screechy, irritating sounds.

They tried three different locations. One was in a section of hardwoods; the two other spots were in hedgerows looking out over wide-open fields.

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“Once they get their eyes on that decoy, I’ve seen them make a beeline right for it. If they get close enough they’ll pounce right on it,” Brown said.

The two were dressed in mostly white camouflage clothing to blend in with the snow. They lent this reporter a white sheet to help keep him out of sight.

At the first location in the woods, the hunters heard a rustling behind them. Afterward, they noted a fresh set of tracks.

“He must have circled first to make sure it was safe and decided to head off,” Fusco said.

They tried two other locations. There were plenty of tracks, they had crows circling when the calling device started sounding — and at one spot they even drew a curious red-tailed hawk. No coyotes were seen.

Coyote hunters are a mixed bag and the state allows a wide variation of techniques. There’s no daily bag limit. One can hunt them day or night. The use of dogs and baiting is allowed. Hunter can use everything from .22-caliber rifles to shotguns to high-powered rifles — even in areas where hunting deer with rifles is banned.

Gordon Batcheller, chief of the Bureau of Wildlife of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said coyotes were first noted on the state’s landscape during the 1920s. They are omnivores and very adaptable and have since spread to nearly every county.

Coyotes were unprotected until the 1970s, when they were classified as a small game animal, similar in stature to a rabbit or a squirrel. The main reason for establishing a season, Batcheller said, was because it was recognized that hunters and trappers valued their fur. The hunting season ends in late March because “that’s when they’ve established their dens and taking care of their pups, which continues through the summer.”

Recent research has shown, he said, that eastern coyotes, which average 30-40 pounds, are bigger than their scrawny western counterparts as a result of crossbreeding with eastern wolves. They always appear bigger than they are, he said, because they’re so thickly furred.

He said surveys have shown there are some 63,000 coyote hunters and about 7,700 coyote trappers in this state, with a total coyote population estimated at 35,000.

There is a market for their pelts. A recent raw fur auction at the Pompey Rod and Gun Club attended by area trappers saw them bought on the average of more than $20 each. A coyote Mountain Man hat, complete with head and legs down the back, retails for more than $200.

Al LaFrance, of Pompey, has hunted coyotes for more than 20 years. He uses a combination of mouth and electronic calls.

“This season has been terrible,” he said.

His theory is that years ago, very few people were doing it and it wasn’t as difficult to get a coyote. When he started, he said, an electronic caller ran him about $1,400. Today, a hunter can pick one up for as cheap as $40.

“You got a lot of amateurs out there and they’re educating the coyotes,” he said. “These are smart animals. You only get one chance. If that coyote figures somehow that the call is connected to a human, you’re not going to see him again.”

He said a lot of beginners overuse the rabbit distress call, which he called “the dying rabbit blues.”

“You can fool their eyes, fool their hearing, but you’re not going to fool their noses,” he said, noting that when a lot of coyotes hear the rabbit or other commonly used distress sounds they make a point of circling 100 yards or so downwind to be sure there’s no human involved.

LaFrance said last weekend he was at a coyote hunting competition in Canandaigua. A total of 14, two-person teams showed. Only one coyote was shot. He said he recently switched to a caller device that has 101 sound options.

“This will run through a cycle,” LaFrance predicted. “The ones who thought it was easy will give up and put their guns on the shelf. The die-hards like me will continue going out day and night because we love it.”

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog