My dad first got me interested in coyote calling when I was around 13. I'm 53 now. How I call kinda depends on what I have going on at the time. If I'm checking traps and things are dead, I might call a few stands on the way home. I don't count that as serious calling even though I often shoot something. If I'm dead serious, I'll go to one of my favorite areas way farther than my traps, get there at sunrise, and make as many stands as I possibly can- often running back to my truck. If I call something in every 4 or 5 stands, I'll call it a good day. Making between 12 and 15 stands is about as many as I can do. I won't usually call in high wind or around a full moon. In my experience, I just don't do well. My favorite times to call are calm days right after a storm, and around a new moon.

In my opinion, the biggest mistake I see people make is the use of overpowered scopes, especially in cover like sage. I've seen more guys all outfitted with 22 power Nightforces act like coyotes are gonna give up and climb in the back of their trucks. Then they can't find them in close calling, and don't at least bring a shotgun. Give me a 1x6 any day of the week. Even a fixed 4. There is a place for high power scopes, just not often in calling as I experience it.

On a different note, when my dad died and I was cleaning out his garage, I found a few of his old calls. This was a year ago or so. I want to find some kind of glass case or other display to put them in.

Something you'll find while researching online about calling coyotes is a lot of "never-do-x" or "you-must-always-do-y". Coyotes don't wear watches, they can't count and they can't read. Run your call however you want. I like the on-a-gain off-again approach but know of many who like to let it run non stop. Fine to start off at low volume but I don't think loud is going to scare a coyote unless it's 20 feet away. I usually start quiet but have had them come charging in close after 20 minutes when I have cranked the volume all the way up. I've read many times that I should never howl because that scares other coyotes. Huh? Think about that for a second. I almost always start with howls and have had many pop up in range or howl back within seconds. I like to howl with a hand call. Fox pro howls don't get much response in my experience.

Like already said I think it's very important to approach a spot as quietly as possible. Car doors and human voices can be heard by coyotes much farther away than we probably think.

good info. thanks Osky

I suck at both. Been trying for years to call something in and the only time I succeeded was the very first time I tried with the foxpro I got for Christmas when I was about 15-16. Cousin and I had sat and played distress calls for about 20 minutes and had no action, nighttime, well we decided to start playing with the different stock sounds on the foxpro, and ended up calling in a grey fox after we'd hit every call on the caller, cousin missed. I try to get out, have tried hand calls, decoys, foxpro, tried for greys, reds, coyotes, bobcats, and wolves when we had a season. Go out with the caller on full moon, snow covered nights. What are some of the things you refer to that are "totally different things"? if you don't mind my asking.

I started in '69 with Weam's and Circe hand calls, or a piece of cellophane off a pac
of cigarettes if I didn't have a call with me when I saw a varmint. That is what we called them then. Predators! oooooh scary. Good stuff for TV stars.
I got a good deal on a Burnham brothers cassette, six volt, monstrosity with three cassettes a charger and booklet. The speaker had fifty or sixty feet of wire and a carry case. It weighed about twenty pounds but it was loud had fair sound reproduction and it worked good. Over the years I've called in red and grey fox coyote, bobcat, coons, crows feral cats, coaty mundy (sp)
skunks, civit cat (ringtail)
& a few owls and hawks. I prefer to call at night but can't now do to where I live. By the way you older guys probably remember the six volt head lamps with the battery on your belt. For a thrill, have an owl snatch your headlamp and watch cap off your head about one am. Or a grey Fox run across your legs from behind you. A lot of the development in technology has made it more attractive to more people but the basics still rule. Approach the setup with stealth.Keep movement on stand to a minimum.
The Burnham brothers advice, "If you are serious about hunting for fur carry a twelve gauge with #4 buck" is still good advice. Don't disregard the basic hunting skills and shooting skills or you will educate coyote, not good! I feel that because of the shows and articles a lot of people think they can just go plop down in the brush turn on the caller and here they come! Yea right! I honestly believe I have had coyote bust me because I moved MY EYES to fast. Going out tomorrow morning about five
Don't really expect a bonanza, most of the coyote around here have a PHD from people that educated them with sloppy techniques and run&gun tactics, and poor shooting. But I don't have the time to go eighty miles for a morning hunt to find some with only a master's ha ha. When a varmint is coming to a call they are on high alert. Keep that in mind, shoot straight and kill them. Don't educate any more of them than you can help. Calling today on public land is 500 times less productive than it was when I was young. Think there is five hundred times fewer varmints? I don't. I think a lot of them associate a call with people just like turkey and elk. Develop your skills and rely less on gadgets. Happy calling.

I to have called many years now, with a few dead dogs to count, the single most defining thing for me out here was to stop worrying about which way the wind was blowing.

Yes I keep track of it, but if I find a location I feel is doable and looks shoot able, I make the stand regardless of how the wind is blowing. To many times now that them dogs failed to read or watch that book or vid that say's watch down wind, it's where they will come from, just ain't so all the time !

I guess the second thing would be if the wind is blowing real hard, I still will go, but I'll go to the secluded windless areas where dogs are to be laying out of the wind.

The last thing is learning patience when calling and not giving up, you fail most of the time now day's because the dogs are now so educated they are not interested in moving to the sound, not because they don't want to, but because they feel threatened by what they have found there before.

When you think you have been calling a spot to long give it 10-15 more minutes. Calling coyotes I couldn't tell you how many times I thought enough is enough. Get ready to pack everything to the next stand and here they come.

For you experienced ones, when calling do you prefer prey distress or coyote calls? I would assume the time of year will dictate it to a degree.

Typically, I’ll stay with prey calls . Why call just coyotes when there are lots of additional predators that may show ? Won’t happen using ki-yi’s , challenge howls , and so on .

That being said , they’ll definitely work for coyotes but I don’t like using them without a decoy dog . Their behavior is completely different when responding to the two .

Great thread!

I’d go out during the day .

I guess re reading my posts it looks like I only go at night. I've hunted substantially more during the day, just make it a point to go out on full moon snow covered nights. I've come to the conclusion that I just stuck at it, being I've done a fair bit and never killed one.

Learn to use an open reed call. Closed reed calls freeze up in the cold weather.

The more ground you can cover, the better. I'd rather make two twenty minute calling stands then one 1-hour stand.

In my limited experience, shooting coyotes in the dark is harder than it sounds. The coyotes may be more active and more apt to expose themselves at night. But handling calls, lights, and weapons all at the same time and shooting accurately after dark is not so easy.

I would have killed more coyotes if I carried a shotgun all the time. Rifles are great for long shots and I carry one most often, but where I live, quick shot opportunities at moving coyotes in cover seems to be more common than coyotes out in the open at over 50 yards range.

Use a good quality buckshot. Copper or nickel plated and buffered shotshells are more important than the choke you use. Don't use the cheap, plain-lead buckshot. Get the Winchester Supreme, Remington Premier, or Federal Vital-Shok grades of shotshells. They are well worth searching out because the hold a much tighter pattern.

Around here, the coyotes seem to stick to the cover during daylight hours. Don't expect to call them out into an open field on a regular basis. Catch them following ditches, weedy fencelines, and edges of woodlots.

I seem to have the best luck on the coldest days of the year.

Calling coyotes does seem much less effective now than it was 10-15 years ago.

(1) Call your first 20 or so predators to a shotgun, nerves and impatience will make it tough to connect with a rifle for a inexperienced caller.
(2) Make your movements with the gun slow, controlled, and fluid,... Quick, jerking movements will put them on the run.
(3) Scent matters, watch the downwind side, but you can sit crosswind, or quartering wind, to maximize sightings.
(4) Approaching the calling stand is where 90% of the screw ups happen, quietly shut the truck door, watch the wind, walk in like a stalking Indian, pick a quiet approach route.
(5) Learn to love handcalls, they trump electronics in todays over-called areas the majority of the time, call quieter than what seems necessary to your ears.
(6) Camo on everything, headnet, gloves, gun, etc.
(7) Pay attention to birds scolding, or staring cattle, horses, deer, etc. looking in a direction other than your calling...Animal senses are superb and they will tip you off to incoming predators.
(8) Learn to call in the daylight, where you can make the most use of your own senses until you gain experience.
(9) With handcalls, really put emotionalism into your calls, trailing off at the end with the dying quivers...Make it bleed!!
(10) Have fun, predator calling is a premium hunting experience, nothing compares for excitement IMO...Also remember firearm safety, things can and do happen fast with multiple predators responding at times...Goodluck!

Scopes were mentioned above.
For daytime shooting my absolute choice would be a straight 4x with a 50mm light gathering front. Don't know of one or if it would come with the reticle I prefer. I'm old school, I know where to hold at yardage after a bit of practice.
Keep it simple. The night belongs to my 12 gauge thumper.

Osky

Good thread!!

I always had better luck on dark nights without the moon too.

You can say that again. Getting a show on TV was the worst thing to happen to coyote hunting. Now, everyone and their dog goes out, doesn't have a clue what they're doing, and makes it harder for the people that have been doing it before it was the cool thing to do.

I figured that picture was taken at your camp. Looks like some of your hunting students!

Same here!!