Calling in coyotes

Filming and calling coyotes( Mix thing up a little)

2009-01-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

Calling and Filming Coyotes (Mix things up a little)

January 23, Friday morning, just going down the road to one of the local rancher’s place to call for a few stands.
Had some rain last night in the form of ice pellets, a little slick out and crunchy. It’s just light enough see well and film. My first call of the morning was three lonely howls and waited 3-4 minutes then made 2 more lonely howls and waited 4-5 minutes. My next series, I went to the cottontail distress cries using my green critter call, nothing showed after about 10 minute of calling, but I could hear a coyote howling way out there to the south. Got back to the truck without falling on my butt and off to the area where I think that coyote is. The snow drift, that was blocking the road before, has melted enough so that I could drive through and get to the spot I wanted to call from. If the coyote I heard was around, it would be able to hear me. I used the lonely howl just as I did with the first stand. Before I got to the second series, a coyote started to howl back and began to threat bark at me.
I gave it two more lonely howls and waited for about 4 minutes. The coyote was about a half mile away, was still in the same spot and was still threat barking. Using my green critter call I started the ki-yi, or hurt coyote, distress and went into the deer in distress call, then back to the ki-yi and deer in distress for about 40 seconds. I then waited for 30 seconds and did the whole sequence over again. I did this for about 4-5 minutes and then did the deer in distress about every minute and a half. The coyote had stopped it’s verbal cussing at me for being in its territory, so I figured it was coming in. I always like to look at the positive side of things. At the 15-minute mark, I spotted the coyote about 80 yards below me coming through the rabbit brush. Boy can they blend in! I was having a hard time finding the coyote in the camera. The coyote was now out in the open and coming toward me. I was snugged up to some rabbit brush to breakup my outline, The coyote was at 40 yards, when I woofed, it stopped. I put the crosshairs on the chest and squeezed the trigger, the 17 Remington and 29 gr Wood Chuck Den bullet did the rest, the coyote never new what hit it. Another one bites the dust! So, try mixing things up a bit with the calls, it surely did the trick this time!
T.Martin

Calling and Filming Coyotes (New Area)

2009-01-25T17:58:00.000-08:00

Calling and Filming Coyotes

Tuesday the 13th of January of the New Year, it’s clear and cold this morning. Loaded the four wheeler into the back of the truck and headed out to the desert to call some coyotes.
Stand one: Walked in about 200 yards, set up and started calling. Twenty minutes passed and nothing showed...heard some coyotes howling in the distance a long way off.
Stand two: Unloaded the four wheeler and got on my way to the stand. This area is new to me, have not called in this area before, found it during deer season...rough ride up this road, nothing but big rocks. Stand two was the same as the first but no coyotes howling and the wind is starting to blow.
Heading for stand three: This area is open sage and full of lots of little ridges and ravines, it’s a big area, looks like there should be coyotes here. Parked my four wheeler and walking down a small ravine so as not to skyline my self. At the bottom, I set my Foxpro in some sage and walk up the bank about 40 yards and sat down with sage around me, but with a good shooting lane left, right and wide open in front of me. I could see for 500 to 600 yards all around... there had to be a coyote here. The distressed cottontail cry cut through the wind and in less than two minute a pair was high-balling it to me, they were flat moving! I turned the camera on, located the coyotes in the view finder and they were nearly on top of me. When they first appeared, they were 400 yards out and closing the gap fast, too fast. The wind was blowing from my left to my right and the way they were going they would soon wind me. I turned the caller off when I first saw them. I think they thought the sound was coming from more to my right. With trying to keep the camera on them and get the gun in position they were darn near on top of me.
I lost the lead dog in the camera, so I barked to get it to stop at 30 yards out, put the cross hair on it's chest and squeezed the trigger, it went down just like all the others have when the 29 gr 17 rem hit. The second coyote took off like a rocket! I tried to stop it with the hurt pup yelp, but he was having none of it and was gone in a blink. I called for 10 more minutes but nothing showed. When coyotes come in that soon to a stand, don't get up for the coyote you just shot, keep calling, another one might show up, I have had it happen many times. Didn't get much film footage this time, sometimes things happen too fast for just one person.
T.Martin

Filming and Calling Coyotes ( Happy new year coyote )

2009-01-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

Hello to all! Hope you had a good Christmas and Happy New Year. The family and I went to my folks for Christmas, which was only 450 miles away...and in a different state...and yup, did it snow... didn’t get much time do any calling over there, but maybe this spring. Got back home to a lot of snow here. Up early this morning, the day after we got home, need to feed the horses, they're about a mile or two down the road, its too dark to go just yet. Had coffee...looked outside, it is now light enough to see...you may want to know what there is out there besides Big Bucks, deer that is...Mister Coyote likes to linger out in the fields in the morning. I have a spot I like to park and glass on the way to the horse pasture. Just got parked, rolled the window down and there about 500 yards out is Mister Coyote, walking along a ditch bank road. I pull the brake, roll down the road to close the distance. Frozen snow and ice on the road sounds like...well, you know, it’s loud.
Mister coyote is now watching me coast down the not so silent road to about 250 yards from him. I know he is in total disbelief of what he is seeing, only for this reason...he stood there and let me get out of my truck, rest the rifle across the hood and...miss him! Well that was all it took to bring him back to reality, so from 0 to 60 in one second Mister Coyote was off and running towards the butte, but in order to get there he would have to cross the road in front of me...hmm...
Tiptoeing across the ice trying to get back in the truck, without falling on my butt, can look like a circus. In the truck and down the road we go. I can see Mister Coyote running for the road, we are now converging together. Who will be there first? He is beginning to slow and I hit the brakes, sliding right on past him, I put on the emergency brake and wait till the truck stops. In the mean time, Mister Coyote has made his way across the road behind the truck. I manage to get out with out falling on my butt put the cross hairs on him and take my fist of four shots before he went down about 50 yards out. The little 17 rem proves it self again on coyotes with the 29 gr Woodchuck Den bullet and no hide damage.
TMartin

2008-12-17T20:48:00.000-08:00

Filming and Calling Coyotes (Don’t get fixed on one thing)

It is Wednesday, December 17. It is cold this morning, 0 degrees! I am off to call and film coyotes this morning on a local ranchers place, he has had some coyotes chasing calves around. So I going to see if I can call and film some coyotes and of course shoot them. It is flat cold let me tell you, hope the camera works, not sure if my trigger finger will. The area I am calling is partly open with sage and rabbit brush throughout. Where I set up, I can see left, right and straight ahead for about 120 yards before it drops in to a little valley. It rises on the other side at 300 yards, then drops off again into a deep canyon with lots of fingers running down it. At about a half mile out is the ranchers hay field and then his house. The coyotes are usually between where I am setup and his house. The digital caller starts with the cottontail in distress, after about 3 to 4 minutes, I increase the volume to a loudness I like and stay at that volume until I see a coyote. Man it’s cold! At the 14 minute mark I see a coyote coming in. He is about 80 yards out. I move my camera and get it focused on him, the only thing is, my gun is sitting right next to me and he is looking in my direction. He starts looking behind him and gives me the chance to pick up my gun and put the cross hairs on him. I squeeze the trigger, he spins once and falls over dead. I believe the reason he was looking back is there is another coyote coming. It is at this point that I realize I forgot to push the record button....something to remember next time but at least I got the coyote. The next stand is about 2 miles as the crow flies, but 5 miles to drive. About a mile from the stand location, a coyote runs up the hill and in the direction of where my stand is! The stand is on a hillside, not the best for calling and trying to get film, but it is the best of any stand in this area. Looking down the hill I can see for about 200 yards, uneven ground with rabbit brush scattered over the area. I started the digital caller with the jackrabbit in distress. At the 8 minute mark, I can hear the pounding of feet as the coyote comes running in and stops at 35 yards down and to my left. I'm trying to turn the caller off and swing the camera over to the coyote when he spooks and runs down the hill. I bark at him hoping he will stop, but no luck, he just keeps going. A minute later, he's making his way up the far hillside and I'm watching him go with my binocs, when I look down and at 40 yards there's another coyote that came from below looking right at me! He turns and is gone in a flash. No film. No coyotes. Dang!
So, don't get to fixed on one thing when hunting coyotes, you just might miss another one that's coming in!
T Martin

Filming and Calling Coyotes (There's more than one way to shoot a coyote)

2008-12-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

Filming and Calling Coyotes
There's more than one way to shoot a coyote

Besides calling or stalking coyotes, don’t overlook a stand on live stock kills. Farmers and Ranchers are always losing animals for one reason or another, and coyotes in many cases, just can’t past up a free meal. First, be sure to get permission to hunt over such kills. If asked, most Farmers and Ranchers will let you hunt coyotes, in some cases they are more than happy to have someone volunteer to eradicate their varmint problems.
Once permission is obtained to hunt over a kill, go look the area over to find an approach in which you are not likely be seen or heard. Look for a position where you have a good field of view and plenty of shooting lanes. It is a good idea to check wind directions. Down wind or cross wind is preferable for your positioning. Try to get a spot that allows you the closest shot possible. I like it to be under a 100 yards, for me, the closer the better.

One of the local Ranchers recently let me know that they had a horse die and he had dragged it off into an area about 400 yards from the barn. The coyotes had been on it and he wanted them thinned out. The first thing I did was to locate the kill and look for the best shooting position. I found a spot about 150 yards away with about a 20 foot elevation on the kill. The only problem was that the ground dropped off pretty steeply just past the kill, so any coyotes below would not be seen. That was the only real drawback to this spot, other then it was 150 yards away, but, I would be able to shoot in a prone position and could steady my gun for a good shot. The wind was blowing from west to east, which was the direction I would come in from. I was up early the next morning and drove to just over a ¼ mile from the kill and walked the rest of the way. I had no sooner left my truck than coyotes erupted in howls all over the place, some, very close. I climb up a small dirt mount to get a look up the road and glass. I soon saw two coyotes walking toward me at about 250 yards. I was not in the best spot for a shot, being in the open. I slowly sat down, got my shooting stick ready and my gun on them. I located the two coyotes in my scope and could tell that the male had seen me. He didn’t know what I was but I could tell by his body language he did not like it and was getting ready to leave. With the cross hair on him I squeezed the trigger and watch them both go from 0 to 100 in 1 second! A miss! So, off to the kill I went, only to see another coyote leaving after he'd spotted me. The next morning was clear and cold as I approached my stand. I began to glass the kill and could see one coyote on it. The coyote was tearing at the hide and chasing away magpies. I crouched as low as I could and crept up, then crawled the rest of the way in to my shooting spot. The cross hair rested right behind the shoulder when the trigger was squeezed. The report of the “whop” told me I'd hit my target. I could see through my scope, the coyote drop, and almost as quickly, jump up and ran down the hill and out of sight! He only went 50 yards then dropped. This is the first coyote I shot with the 17 Rem and the 29 gr bullet that ran off, but over a four day period I killed 3 more coyotes. They all dropped in their tracks. The 17 Rem has been, by far, the easiest on hides of any caliber I have used and the 29 gr bullet has just been lethal on all the coyotes I have shot.
T.Martin

Filming and Calling Coyotes ( Try a"stalk")

2008-12-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

Filming and Calling Coyotes
( Try a “stalk”)

Well, we all know that the idea of calling is to get the animals we are calling to come to us, however, that is not always the case, if conditions are right, trying a “stalk” might improve your take on coyotes.

I got out for a few calls on the morning of December 5, I was in an area where I had seen coyotes in the past. This area is open grassland about a mile square, with about 300 acres of sage in the middle. To the north, it rises up about 400 feet and has a series of ravines running down. To the east it rises about 200 feet and this is where I set up in a small patch of sage. I always glass an area before I start calling because coyotes can be just about anywhere. I glassed the area and had seen nothing. I then gave my first series of deer in distress calls and glassed the area again. My next series, I did the same. On my third series, I was glassing when I spotted a coyote. He had just come out of one of the ravines about 600 yards out, was looked in my direction, then started to slowly walk away. I called and he looked back, then just kept walking away. Guessing he was not going to come in, I waited until he dropped into the next ravine, got up, went down the hill and out of sight. I was able to walk within 150 yards of where I had last seen him. As I walked up the hill, I began to glass for him with every step I took. Finally, spotting him, only 150-yards from me, sitting down looking the other direction. Kneeling down, I readied my gun but when I got up to look for him he was gone. Where he had been sitting, the ground dropped off and I figured he was just below and out of sight. Going down on the ground, I crawled about 20 yards, to get a better shot location. He had been lying down, if I’d have walked up any closer, he would have spooked for sure, making for a much harder shot, at least for me. When I got to where I wanted to be for the shot, I gave a “woof-woof” and he pooped up. I put the crosshairs on his chest and the 17 Rem 29 gr did the rest. I am really liking this caliber. When skinned, there was only a ¼ inch hole and that was it. He only moved about a foot from where I hit him. So if the condition is right, try a stalk on coyotes.
T Martin

Filming and Calling Coyotes (with howls)

2008-11-23T21:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I found some time to get out and do one stand on the morning of November, 23 in an area about a mile from my home-base. The Coyotes where I live have a fair amount of calling pressure on them, so they can be difficult to call in with distress calls. If you have the same problem, in your area, try a sound they may not be used to, or that they don't hear lot of.

On this morning, I thought to try some howling. I have not heard a lot of other callers doing any howling out here, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was clear and cold, just getting light enough to see at 7:30 AM. I had my last cup of coffee, truck was warmed up, gun and camera loaded and ready to go. I hadn't gone a half mile when a coyote ran across the road in front of me at about 300 yards. It was running for a corn field on the west side, by the time I stopped, I just got to watch the corn engulf him as he disappeared. So off we go to my stand location, which was not too far, and in the right direction for this coyote to travel. I parked about 300 yards from my stand and walked in. the wind was blowing in my face as I moved in as quietly as I could. My set up was in a small patch of sage brush at the top of a wash, about 75 yard wide and 30 feet deep, with a gentle slope to the bottom. There was sage in front of me on the other side of the wash, to my right. A small grove of cotton wood trees were growing in the bottom of the wash but it was open enough to see OK. On my left it was wide open grass for a half mile and then a butte rises nearly straight up for 600 feet. I got my camera set up and gun positioned. I glassed the area and then gave three howls... long lonely howls... Almost immeditly, I had three magpies fly in, sit and chatter at me for a few minutes, then fly off. I let about 6 to 8 minutes go by before I gave two more long howls. In about three minutes, I could hear magpies chattering and they were getting louder. I could now see at least twelve to fifteen magpies landing in the trees, flying up, circling and landing in the next tree, coming in my direction. At about the fifteen minute mark, I spotted movement in the brush. I swung my camera over in that direction and zoomed in. I got my gun positioned and I was ready. The coyote stepped out from behind the brush, looked up the wash, looked in my direction and sat down about fifty yards away. I leaned over and put the cross hairs in the middle of his chest and slowly pulled the trigger. The 29 gr. 17 REM did its job, the coyote just fell right over. When I skinned him out, all that the 29 gr. bullet did to the hide was put a 1/4 inch hole in the skin, no sowing on that one.

I don't do a lot of howling for coyotes, but when I do, I will not "howl" many times in a row, only a few long lonely howls, every six to eight minutes and will sit a stand for up to 30 minutes if I feel it is a good area. I like to use the long lonely howl and do a lot of glassing. I prefer to use distress cries, but in areas of high pressure, I'll often try something different, something out of the ordinary. You just never know what coyotes will responded to they will often surprise you if you give them the opportunity.
T.Martin

Filming and Calling Coyotes

2008-11-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

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