Nomercy448

Different regions and terrain types around the country will have different demands for how predator callers plan their hunts, and different hunters will all have their own theories about what methods work best, so I’ll just kick this one off with how I do it, and hopefully some of our other hunters can chime in with their methods as well…

I hunt in the Midwest. Kansas is home, so we have a lot of open cattle pasture and crop ground, sparse pockets and strings of dense trees around waterways. While I'm on the road for work, I hunt a bit in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and South Dakota, with a few hits here and there in other states when I could over the years (NY a couple times, AZ, NM, TN, LA, MS, forgetting any?), most of my "regular visit" states have been similar terrain to one end or the other of Kansas, somewhere between "fairly wooded" and wide open grasslands or desert.

In general, coyote calling is a volume game. Whether you are a casual predator caller with only a few spots open to hunt, or a contest caller in a ragged run-and-gun race against the clock, predator callers will be much more mobile than any other type of big game hunting.

Duration

For coyotes, depending on the season, and location, I generally plan between 15 to 30min of calling at a given set. Most of my sets are within a quarter-mile or so walk from the truck, then I’ll get settled in and wait 5min or so before I start calling. All callers have different ideas about whether they should call continuously, or have a lot of silent breaks between call sequences, in my experience, both work. After 15-30min of calling with no response, I’ll cut the calls, wait about 5min for the area to settle (watching for a slow-comer), then bail. In areas where coyotes have to travel further, or in densely wooded areas, I’ll lean towards longer sets, in areas where I know that the coyotes should be closer from the start, then I’ll cut the calling shorter and move on. At night, I’ll generally call shorter, midday, I’ll run longer.

The time I have available and the number of properties I have at my disposal can also dictate how long I spend at a set. On my home turf, I have access to around 25,000acres within a few hours’ drive, so a free Saturday with the missus in fur season might mean a dozen or two dozen sets, calling from 5am through midnight. During a contest, it’s common for guys to only spend 5-10min on a stand, and hit 30 sets in a day. If I’m doing some night hunting, I generally run shorter sets, in the 15-20min ballpark, and try to get in as many in 3-4hrs as I can. On the other hand, I travel all over the Midwest for work, where I won’t usually have as many properties open to me as I do near home. An afternoon/evening of calling might only be 3-4sets, so I can dedicate more time to each, say 30-45min, even an hour on some sets.

(Cat sets I almost always play the call continuously, or as continuously as I can without passing out at least, and I’ll spend 45min to an hour on that set).

Proximity/Dispersion

I usually try to put at least a half mile between my sets when I move, but it’s not 100% necessary. The terrain and wind can really affect how coyotes move, so I do have a few sets that I can park in one spot, walk into a property on one side of the road and call cross wind on that side, then walk back onto a property on the other side of the road and call a different set. I like to cover a lot of ground when I’m calling, so I typically try to find the best few set locations on a given area that will access as much as possible, then move a few miles and try for a new set of dogs, but short thrown sets can work. If I have two sets that are too close together, I may hit one this week, then the other angle on the next visit.

If you’re doing your job scouting, then you should know what the population is like, and how coyotes are traveling in an area, so you should be able to “compartmentalize” the area. If your scouting intel reveals a pattern that “if they’re not over here, then they’re probably over there,” then you can close-set an area, but usually you can isolate set locations that will cover a given groups normal travel pattern, and if they aren’t in that area, you have to move over a half mile or more to find the next group.

One disadvantage of calling sets close together is that you know you’re likely calling the same dog as the last set. Most guys assume this is bad because it “confuses the coyote”, but I honestly don’t think that coyotes put that much thought into it. My theory, however, still agrees that back to back sets shouldn’t be close together because if a given coyote ignored your calls for the first 30min he could hear you, he’s not going to come in the 2nd 30min either, so you’re just wasting your time.

Frequency

How often you go back to a given set will depend on a lot of different factors: food supply, coyote population, hunting pressure, response on your last visit, etc. I don’t like to educate coyotes, so I rarely go back with the same lanyard of calls if I’m not giving them time to forget between hunts. I have had some sets produce on back to back days (don’t make a habit of it), and I have had sets that if I came twice in a month the coyotes would hang up at 600yrds and bark at the calls. I typically lay off a given area for at least a week, preferably 2wks between visits, but again, it’s not written in stone. I called the same spot 2-3 nights a week for a month during college and shot 14 coyotes there throughout the month, but then again, that spot had ZERO hunting pressure, huge coyote populations, and my cows were calving. I could shoot coyotes there whether I was calling or not. For most sets, a week or two between visits if you didn’t see anything, and 2-3wks if you shot one (especially if you didn’t clear out ALL of the coyotes that came in on a multiple) usually does the trick for me.

OhioNovice

Thanks for the help! I think I'm on the right track, even if I haven't bagged one yet. Had one run right by, but he was so quick I wasnt fast enough to get my cross hairs on him.

One set Ill call for a little while, then I move to the adjacent corner of the property around 1 mile away. Then Ill go across the road to another field maybe 1.5 miles away. Then If I haven't had any luck I go farther down the road to a different track which is 3-4 miles away.

It didnt work out last weekend because when I went to the first two spots I kept calling in Turkeys! As soon as the birds came into the field I had to stop calling because Turkey season opens this week and I didn't want to get busted and spook the birds. At least I know where to hunt for Turkeys next weekend!

Ive got a Foxpro Wildfire; On full blast (off course depending on terrain) how many acres/miles can I expect a coyote to hear the call?

Nomercy448

In ideal conditions I've watched dogs come to a spitfire/wildfire from around a half mile. That seems to be a pretty universal rule of thumb for the way I call, no matter what calls or caller I'm using, but some callers are louder than others. Maybe i should say it's more about how far a dog is willing to travel? which obviously varies depending on the dog and the day. Running a caller full blast can backfire on you sometimes too, so ease into and out of it.