Hunting & Fishing eastern coyotes

[calebintn]

Do any of you guys have any luck calling eastern coyotes? I live in Mid TN and never have a successful call, used to live in oklahoma and call em in almost everytime.
Am I missing something, I use primos mouth calls and a powerdog digital caller.

 

[acehigh]

Re: eastern coyotes

I've pretty much abandon the rabbit calls altogether. Try the calls that mimic the coyote howl and bark. Make sure they aren't circling you downwind. I'm sure I've missed more for that reason than any other.
John

 

[calebintn]

Re: eastern coyotes

I do alot of howling with no luck.

 

[ARCOREY]

Re: eastern coyotes

I've been calling my ass off with various custom hand calls and my Foxpro FX3 for several years with very little luck. I can get the foxes, but the coyotes are way tougher for me. I think it's an eastern thing. Every now and then one shows up, but it ain't no Randy Anderson or Byron South type hunting environment here. I'm going to alter my methods this year and take more of a trapping approach at them and use baits and scent misting/drags with my calling. The few called came in to distress calls, mostly cottontail and jack rabbit sounds. They're tough here in the east

.

 

[calebintn]

Re: eastern coyotes

Doesnt sound right but the best I have ever done in tennessee is by playing a tape of pup distress for thirty min straight then two would come about twenty minutes after the tape stopped. Killed both of those dummies though.

 

[acehigh]

Re: eastern coyotes

How's the population? Are there enuff to be a problem? Are you seeing lots of sign?
John

 

[longshooter]

Re: eastern coyotes

The wind is your friend. Aim your caller 90 degrees into the wind. Keep your scent off the incomer. When he comes in, he will not be looking in your direction. Good luck!

Longshooter

 

[TapoutSniper]

Re: eastern coyotes

We have a lot around here... Not very responsive to calling at all... I'd say only about a 10% success rate on calling. I've found the easiest way to kill them is to hang around fresh mowed grass fields... They tend to come out and eat the rabbits and critters that got cut up. I've shot several from the cab of the tractor bushogging too lol. They also like to hang around the cow pastures and slurp up afterbirth from a fresh calf... Hope that helps!

 

[Jon Lester]

Re: eastern coyotes

Saw one standing upwind and hit a distressed rabbit. He bolted like he was shot at. Next day he cruzed by chasing a doe and I made his innards outtards.

 

[Dennis_in_VA]

Re: eastern coyotes

"Outtards"

I like that.

What did you turn him with?

Evidently he has either been shot at while/after hearing that sound or you had it too loud.

 

[lovetsx]

Re: eastern coyotes

i have all the calls and have never called one in. I do better shooting them while they hunt field mice. I have had the call scare them off.

 

[knockemdown]

Re: eastern coyotes

Eastern coyotes will come to the call when:

1. the sound piques their interest by either:

---a. sounding like food
---b. sounding like another coyote
---c. sounding like another predator feeding

2. you don't booger them out on the way to your stand site

3. they don't bust you on their approach

4. they feel like it

After hunting coyotes both here and out west, I have come to the conclusion that there is a difference in hunting them. Terrain, human populations & the animal itself are all factors...

Calling them here in the EAST ain't rocket science, but it ain't that easy either...

 

[yotechsr]

Re: eastern coyotes

Its not that they aren't present, they have the upper hand with available cover and food. Who is to say they arent watching! They are sometimes too clever creeping in to see whats making the noise. Also, if eating is good in the neighborhood they will be wary or sleeping!? (feasting during the whitetail offspring births and whitetail firearm season) Anyhow I have had the most success with a distressed rabbit call(old quaker boy cottontail screamer) and moderate success with my fox pro and decoy. I have also had good luck with a fawn bleat. Good friend of mine has taken two and missed one this year just doing a kissing sound on his hand. I tend to hunt the same areas and very much believe once you have fooled them they will not fall for it again. Try another call. One other note out of all the dirty dogs I have called out only one somewhat surfaced during the day!
I have never hunted out west but It seems they are more opportunistic and used to ranging for food. Here I have been told they will stay in a 3-5 mile area with several denning areas. Ah but what the hell do I know..

 

[xs hedspace]

Re: eastern coyotes

Had one come in to a turkey box call. Unfortunately, when I leaned over to take the shot, the call fell off my lap, and hit the stone wall I was sitting against. Instant afterburner bugout---I never had one come in to the dying rabbit call. Bait, like gutpiles work best.

 

[sixpack340]

Re: eastern coyotes

here in pa where im at theyre a little scarce. calling them in is next to impossible. only a few have been taken here in my area and i think it was just dumb luck while hunting whitetail. on my parents farm we have an all year pass to kill coyotes and fox because they've been decimating our baby goats and ducks. i think thats mostly fox though. fox wont leave a mess or hardly any sign of attack, coyotes leave a mess. usually theres no sign except tracks.

 

[Jon Lester]

Re: eastern coyotes

Through this years 2 week gun season 5 seperate instances of one or more coyotes chasing healthy does were witnessed in our camp alone.

And yet we cant determin where all the deer have went.

 

[JRB]

Re: eastern coyotes

I have been able to call a few in here in Western NC. It is real easy for them to circle you and you never know it. Then you are busted. I think that they respond to calls, just a lot of the time you never see them. Far more are killed here by deer hunters than they are by calling.

 

[Breeze260]

Re: eastern coyotes


I've had the best luck at night with a red spot light. Remember not to over hunt an area with the same calls. If you get busted and don't know it and keep going back with the same calls you wont have any luck either.

My first isn't she pretty

 

[HighCotton]

Re: eastern coyotes

calebintn
Don't do the night hunting. TWRA will throw you under the courthouse. My boss got busted for it a few years back. We still give him crap. He honestly didn't know but it was a real pita.

 

[alien319]

Re: eastern coyotes

Well, two reason I believe they are tougher to call here on the east are over calling and the over abundance of available food sources. They don't always feel the need to eat. Out west, it is a little more scarce and I think they go hungry for a longer period of time than east. Just my .02 cents.

Brent

 

[knockemdown]

Re: eastern coyotes

I'm the furthest thing from a professional, but I do take some videos on my pocket Canon when I call & kill a coyote here in NY. Mostly for my own enjoyment & partly to show my predator hunting buddies "out west" how different the terrain can be back here...
Pardon the amateurish video, but it may give you guys some ideas of how to get them killed in the woods of the East. I usually hunt alone, so getting a kill shot on camera has not been a priority, I'm happy to get a bullet in one!

NY coyote video

 

[ARCOREY]

Re: eastern coyotes

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Jon Lester</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Through this years 2 week gun season 5 seperate instances of one or more coyotes chasing healthy does were witnessed in our camp alone.

And yet we cant determin where all the deer have went. </div></div>

Same thing up here. No deer to be found on a normally flourishing hunting lease, but interesting piles of coyote crap with lots of white deer hair in it

.

 

[Hootiewho]

Re: eastern coyotes

I have been hunting them here in the east for about 8 years now. It took me a good 4 years to figure out how to do it, but you cannot watch those videos of coyotes blazing across a hugh open field and expect that is how it is done here. You have to put your time in scouting, location calling in the evenings after dark and early mornings. You will find that your best results will come from hunting think cover, the thickest cover you can find. Me and my hunting buddy started out with a 24" barrel 22-250 and long barreled benelli shotgun and have since gone to 18" shotguns and Colt 6933's. Shots are rarely over 50 yards and the 11.5" barrel is a dream in thick cover.

If you try baiting, you will have better luck putting out a bait pile, refreshing it a few times then call (especially coyote vocalizations) within a few hundred yards of your bait pile.

Your best luck will come from hunting at night. I purchased a PVS-14 and started calling at night and my sucess went out the roof. Night time is the only time a coyote will behave in the east like they do in the west and break cover to cross open ground. The laws have since changed in my state on night hunting and I cannot risk having my expensive gear taken. During the day, a Coyote will go 3/4 of a mile out of his way to get downwind of you to check you out before he commits to coming into the call, if you call open areas. Their comfort level in approaching is so much higher in thick cover.

Hunt right before approaching storms, especially snow storms; there is a magic period right before a storm that is the best time to be in the woods.

Starting late December, play with the male/female howls; this is breeding season and a hot time to hunt as well.

One thing that took me a while to accept is how far between stands should I go. I figured that because the call was loud, everything within a mile would hear it and come. This is simply not the case here in the east. I go about 200-300 yards between stands and this is just about right for my areas.

Good luck and have fun. Learn to hunt into the wind. The wind is the most important aspect of coyote hunting.

 

[calebintn]

Re: eastern coyotes

Great video, what kind of camera do you use?

 

[pickpick]

Re: eastern coyotes

I try calling here in Northeast Ar. It pays off about one in fifteen. Lots of open fields and fence rows. I have called up as many as 5 in a group on a distress call though. We can't hunt coyotes at night, but I think I could kill more that way. These dogs around here are educated, meaning if you lay your foot on the brake in a pickup they cut out.

 

[knockemdown]

Re: eastern coyotes

thanks calebintn, its just a little point&shoot Canon SD1100...

Yep, they sure do respond better and more aggressively at night, but I just enjoy watching them as they 'hunt me' so much, that I rarely hunt at night for coyotes. I'd rather call & kill five in a year in the daytime, then 20 at night. Only time I go at night anymore is to specifically target fox...

You can surely kill coyotes in the daytime and they will, on occasion, expose themselves & cross an opening to respond to a call. When that happens, it seems like one pack member 'takes point' (for lack of a better term) & comes while the others hang back or circle wide...
Thats another way that hunting differs here from out west. Our coyotes act more like wolves in that they do seem to do business as a 'pack'. IF/when I call one in, the vast majority of the time two or more will actually respond. But as described above, only one commits fully to the call, while the others hang back...

Just my experience in the last 12 yrs or so...