Originally Posted by Nomercy448

Coyotes will eat deer all year long, sometimes they're just smaller than other times of year. Most open reeds that will do a decent fawn distress will do a reasonable "juvenile deer" bawl too, just slide a little deeper on the reed.

Coyotes are instinctual - despite what Chuck Jones might have lead Wile E. to believe about himself - they're not geniuses. There's no logical processing center in the canine brain, they don't have the capacity for reason - if something sounds like a meal and doesn't sound like a threat at a time when the coyote is hungry (virtually always), they'll come check it out.

I've called hundreds of coyotes with Jackrabbit calls over the years in areas that don't have jackrabbits. I've called with fawn distress in February, called with coyote pup distress calls in October... If it sounds like a meal, and doesn't relate to a threat, they'll come check it out...

Originally Posted by super_hunt54

Like I said in my first response Mercy, "kinda sorta know". It's more along the lines of what they have learned and how much pressure is on them as well as human population densities and all that sciency jazz. While no they are not geniuses, they are MUCH smarter than most like to give them credit for. Them getting "call shy" actually DOES show that intelligence. In the eastern part of the country, yotes are much more "shy" and wary than your western dogs. Unlike the idiots we have here that will come to just about anything any time because they have little to no fear of humans. Yotes around here make a fence post look like 185 IQ genius! But them Eastern dogs actually seem to be much smarter. Docs tend to spout off about what animals can actually think or not think but in all reality they have absolutely NO clue whether or not they do have logic centers. My feelings are, if they learn about calls and get wary of them, they have a processing center of SOME sort which leads to more intelligence than given credit for by most. I've been hunting yotes from both ends of the country and in the middle for a lot of years and seen some pretty dang sure signs of higher intelligence over them years. Just like Bears know when the Samon runs should be starting, yotes know when they should be seeing Fawns dropping.

Originally Posted by Nomercy448

You can teach your dog to sit - he doesn't learn the english language, he just knows if he hears you make a certain sound and he does a certain behavior, he'll get a treat. That's not logical reasoning, that's behavioral imprinting. Your dog doesn't logic out - "if he liked it when I sit, he'd really like it when I sit up and juggle tennis balls..." If you touch a hot stove, your brain doesn't need to process what happened to know it was damaging. It's instinct - not logic.

In the last ~15yrs, I've hunted coyotes in at least 26 states that I could recall tonight. From Maine to California, they're all the same:

1) Set up where you can see the dog before they see/smell you
2) Sound like a meal
3) Don't sound like a threat
4) Shoot the dog when it comes in range

They're cowards - the consequence of NOT coming to a meal is missing a meal, the consequence of coming to a threat death. That's not rocket science, it's simple survival - fight or flight, and coyotes have a high flight impulse. They survive because they're survivors. If you woke up every day and your only compulsion was "don't die," you'd get really good at it.

Guys give them far too much credit. They'll follow low lines that we can't even perceive and pop up downwind - maybe never revealing themselves - and make a fool out of hunters, but there's nothing complicated about calling coyotes.

It might not be the 100% success or the 15min or less game that calling videos make it out to be, but they're just coyotes.

Bears know the salmon run happens a certain time of year, and whitetails know my feeders will go off a certain time of day. That's not high level intelligence. Push the button, get a result. Push the button, get a result. Feel hungry, eat, hunger stops. Thirsty, drink, thirst stops. Hear a threat, run, don't die. It's pretty simple.

Coyotes will come to fawn distress 365 1/4 days a year just as well as they will any other day.