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Old 12-25-2012, 08:37 PM
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Nomercy448
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
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Turkey calls can work certain times of year, but in my experience, they're not as successful year round. If you are over-run with turkeys, and they're a normal foodsource for coyotes in your area, then you might have better luck year round with it than I have experienced.

Here's a copy/paste job from one of my other responses regarding what calls to use during which part of year (and why I focus on distress call sounds):

Over the last 20yrs+ of calling coyotes, I'd be confident that 90% of my dogs have been drawn in by cottontail distress sounds, regardless of which state I was in.

For me, it's pretty simple. Certain sounds work great certain times of year, while other times of year, they'll be hit or miss. The sound of a free meal is great all year long, so why not use that as your go-to call? I use higher pitched cottontail or rodent distress because it's an easier meal than larger animals, like jackrabbits, or fawns/deer. Bird distress sounds are good most of the year too, and are really good for drawing in bobcats.

I occasionally bring dogs in on coyote vocals, but they're more selective for certain times of year.

Specifically:

Female in heat sounds/whimpers: B1tches come in heat generally late winter, so I'll usually only use female wimpers in late january, or February through march.

Female invitation: Female howls are good through most of the year, but do very well for me in the breeding season, late jan/early feb through march.

Male territorial howls and challenge barks: Coyotes are very territorial during mating season, welping, clear up through when the pups are mobile. Male coyotes will get very bold in Jan-March, so they'll investigate intruding males like crazy.

Pup distress: Pups are generally born in April to May, so I'll use super high, low volume, short "peeps" of pup distress during that time. Then through the summer, the pups will be getting bigger, more mobile, and their voices will change. By late July-August, I'll use some small pup barks, then pup distress with more power, volume, and length.

Fawn distress: I'd keep it around mid-late spring to early summer (april-june timeframe), since that's when the whitetails are usually dropping fawns.

Turkey vocals: It seems that turkey sounds work best during mating through the first month or so of a new hatch, between March up through June.

All that seems like an awful lot to keep track of, and for what it's worth, not many of those timelines match up well with prime fur conditions. The simple solution is distress calls. Coyotes have to eat all year round. Sound like an easy meal, and they'll come.

During the fall, you'll see a lot of adolescent coyotes running around that don't have a CLUE what's going on yet. No, they're not very big yet, but younger dogs are super easy to call. A desperate, exciting distress call with a lot of action and emotion will bring these pups in at a run.

SO, ultimately, we're only a few weeks away from males getting pretty territorial for breeding season (late december now), so you can start working in some male vocals, or normal distress. Female invitation always works, but you can turn up the heat with it in about 30-45days.

Turkey calls can work any time of year if they are a normal food source for your local dogs. Play sounds to reflect a lost turkey in distress, and preferrably on the higher pitched (smaller turkeys) side. A big raspy hen isn't anything to mess with, you want to sound more like a young hen or jake that has lost it's way. Again, personally, it's not a high percentage call for me this time of year. Female invite and high pitched cottontail distress is what I'm playing right now (been mixing in a little distressed chicken since it's mid/late season and dogs have heard a lot of cottontail already this year).
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