Filming and Calling Coyotes

I have been "calling" Coyotes and other animals for 30 years. Predators, however, are by far my favorite to hunt. Coyotes are something else, you can be calling, in what looks like a wide open area,and the next thing you know there is a coyote looking right at you from 30 yards! They seem to appear from nowhere. Coyotes are a master of using whatever cover is available and they can blend in like you would not believe.

I am writing this post, as I am putting together a video on Calling coyotes, and thought that I would keep a record of how it goes, give tips on what works for me and maybe improve others "take" on coyotes, so lets start.

Friday the Seventh of November: When filming I like to use my digital caller it allows me to get the sound out away from me. By placing it 40 to 100 yards away, I can move around a little more without drawing the coyote's attention to me. This morning, on my first stand, my digital caller quit me. This is the reason why I always carry hand calls with me even when using an electronic caller, so out with the old reliable hand call,the green Critter Call. This call works very well for me, but had no taker on the first.. Stand two, I was looking over a fairly steep canyon and broken country on the other side with lots of sagebrush for cover. I started my first series of Deer in distress calls and was on my 6th series when I could hear a crow calling. The crow was coming my way, about two minutes later there was a coyote 100 yards out, at the bottom of the canyon looking in my direction. I was in such a position that I could not look though the camera to get video of him, so I turned the camera in the direction he would come up from and hoped I would get some film of him as he came in. I gave him some lip squeaks and up through the sage he came. I had the advantage of having the sun at my back and in his eyes he stopped at about 60 yard and I put the 29 gr hp 17 Rem. right in the chest and let me tell you , he never new what hit him! This is the first year that I have used a 17 Rem. I have a friend who uses one and I have seen him drop coyotes out to 200 yards with a 25 gr hp. So far, I have killed three coyotes with this caliber with very little hide damage. I have film of five kills on coyotes since September. It's a lot easier when you are hunting with two people, because it is tough trying to keep a coyote in the camera frame and shoot him too!

This is just the first in a series of posts, of tips, tricks and techniques, I will share, as filming of my first video progresses. I hope this will help other predator hunters have more success as well.

T. Martin