Coyote Question [/align][hr]

My brother in-law has an elctronic caller with a mega style speaker. It has a 12' cord on the speaker, reaching preatty far. My question is - which tape is the best to play.

Fawn in distress
Rabbit in disstress
Coyotes howling

And how long to you play the tape?

Or are mouth calls better?

Any information will be great, for the newbee!!!!

Did some research online and some say best electronic call is a wounded wood pecker...............[/align]

where do you live. if you are where cotten tails live use it. if you are where jack rabbits are use it. never tried a wood pecker but im sure it would work. as far as how long you play it. i like th animal to hunt for the sound so i will play it a minute, wait 5 minutes, 30 seconds. wait another 5 or ten minutes 30 seconds, wait five minute then move to a different stand. but other like to just play it the whole time they are at a stand. its really up to you. remember to choose your stand wisely. and be very conceled. i whare full body camo from head to toe.

Any distress call will work. Coyotes don't reason and if they hear something dying, they come to it.
The exception is that later in the season, they start thinking more about breeding and less about food. Coyote sounds work better then. a challenge howl or high pitched female howl works great from mid feb on.

TRUE, any distress call can work, and true they don't reason, BUT they don't and won'talwayscome to a call of any kind. Sometimes, they just wont'/don't come to a call.
There is no exception, they have to eat all year. A couple of reasons that later season tactics/sounds need to change. #1) later in the season they have been educated to the point where they simply won't come to just any distress sound. If they've been shot at after responding, they do tend to learn from that experience, #2) howls work better during breeding season because howling is how they communicate. They are territirial and will defend their home territory against nomade coyotes, plus they are looking for mates, hence the female invitational howl works well.
If a guy could find coyotes late in the season that have not been called for a year or more, distress calls would be the first calls to use, no matter the time of year. However, howls can and will work any time of the year also, BUT they work better during mating and denning season!

Any idea when the breeding season kicks in? Would be hunting eastern coyotes in PA.

late jan/ early feb/ setter77

Thanks big time novice on the predators.