longspring

I've got all the gear, guns, lights, calls,camo, but can't seem to put it all together. I've caught fox in traps in the past, but this hunting is new to me. I've been out 3 times so far and haven't seen anything, but I did hear coyotes the first night out. I've been following this board for about 2 weeks, decided to register today. My first question is when calling at night, should i use my light all of the time or only if I see or hear something. I'm in PA and the nights have been cold, and partly overcast and with snow cover visibility has been fair, but I feel like I'm doing something wrong
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coyoteseeker

many people have ask that same question on this board and without being there to see your set up,calling,and exactly how your doing it,its diffecult to say what your doing wrong.believe it or not you may not being doing anything wrong,are the predators in your area educated?? if they are this makes for tough calling.some guys leave it on others turn it on and off,its a matter of personal preference.myself,i scan the area then turn it off and remain motionless and listen.if i hear somthing i will turn it on,if i don't i will turn it on and rescan the area.is your light to bright?? do you have a red lens over the front??sometimes with snow cover its difficult to stay hidden,the predators can see very well on these types of night.full moon and snow cover i stay home,its just like daylight to a predator and day light hunting fox is not real productive.generaly speaking the darker the night the better.hows your calling?? does it sound real?? are you using to much volume?? like i said earlyer,without being there these kind of questions can go on and on.give us some more detail on your set up,what animal your targeting fox(grays or reds)or coyote.ask your self questions like how i,m i getting to the stand,walking,four wheeler,truck.i'm i making to much noise going to the stand. i'm i skylined while on stand.can a approching predator see my truck before he gets to me. does my camo work with my surroundings.its the little details like these that can ruin a hunt before it starts.details,give us some and maybe folks here can figure out whats going on.

longspring

Well, I've been setting up with the wind in my face, while trying to keep my down wind side visible to any down wind critters. I haven't been turning my light on until I'm ready to stop calling, that is about after 15-20 minutes. I'm using snow camo, and am usually hunkered up against a bush or tree,keeping as still as possible. One area near home I've been trying for fox, have seen both red and grey there in the past. Got permission to hunt a farm where the owner has seen three coyotes running together, thats the spot where I heard them, but they souded pretty far off. I've also been using fox urine to cover my sent, don't know if it's neccesary or not. I've been using the electronic caller mostly. Distressed woodpecker, rabbit, rodents and grey fox pups, for fox, and for coyotes, long coyote challange and distressed housecat. Around home I don't believe that anyone else is hunting, haven't seen any tracks, but at the coyote spot I don't know if neighboring farms are being hunted. thanks for any input you can give. I haven't seen anything yet, but this is just as exciting as getting my first deer, I can't get enough of this excitement.

coyoteseeker

well from what you described all sounds good except one thing,&quot;not running the light till stopped calling&quot; most predators will show up in 3 to 10 min,waiting 15 to 20 before scanning the area with the light,you maybe missing them.the idea behind sucsessfull predator hunting is to see them before they see you.what might be happening is there showing up early and picking you before you know they have showed up.this is one reason i like snowless-dark nights,your able to pick there eyes from great distances,sometimes several hundred yards,this gives the hunter a big edge.with snow cover things are much brighter and its harder to pick there eyes untill there close.make a sequence of calls for 1 to 2 min and then start scanning the area with your light,move your head slowly from side to side.never jerk your head back and forth,slow deliberate moves only.you will be surprised at how fast a fox or coyote can and will show up sometimes,especially when dealing with grays.as far as cover scents,well some guys swear by them other don't waste there time.if your going to use a cover scent then use a skunk essence,if you can find it.its become hard to find in recent years.when dealing with grays cover scent are not nessasary,most times they bust in so fast from any and all directions it proves to not be nessesary.reds are a little more coutious and alot of times will try to circle you so a cover scent can help but i personaly never had a luck with fox urine.if i felt it nessasary i used skunk scent.now when it comes to coyote, never had any luck using any kind of cover scent.i have even heard reports that fox urine accualy spooked coyotes.coyotes have the amazing abilty to disern many scents at one time.even with a strong oder like skunk they can and will detect your scent mixed in there and leave the area faster then they showed up.the most important thing here is to always use and be awear of the wind.if the wind swirles or shifts and they(fox or coyote)get a nose full there going to spook regarless if your using cover scents or not.but if they seem to work for ya then by all means use them.now before i say anything good or bad about elec callers,do you have any hand calls???if you do practice with them and try using them over the elec caller and see if it makes a difference,it just might.you need to be skilled with both types of calls but in the long run you will see that hand calls consistanly produce more responces.when using the challange call for coyote your automaticly elimanating any responces from young and or juvanial(sp)coyotes,they do not and will not come in to get there butts kicked.if its used right you will bring in alfa males to run off the intruder.one thing you must relize about alfas(male or female)there smart,cunning,slick and very hard to fool.they have been around for at least several years,problably been hunted-shot at-chased by dogs,in other words there educated.these guys will put the skills of any hunter to the test and most times come out the winner.generaly speaking when dealing with adult coyotes,don't speak untill your spooken to.unless your using a group howl tape for locating purposes only,at this time you can speak first.a howler hand call is also very effective in bring in coyotes when used in conjuction with distress calls.i find the higher pitched howlers to be more effective at bringing in yound and old coyotes.the deeper older sounding howlers will make the young ones hold back for obvious reasons.i carry both types,the deep one for those always exciting challange situations.an important thing to know when working reds is there volume sensitive.when targeting reds always start your calling sequence off at low volume,if nothing shows in side of 5 min then crank it up slighly for a few seconds then bring the volume back down.as a red comes in or if you set up right on top off one,loud volume will couse him or her to hang up amd ultimatly leave the area.hope some of this helps and remember when you don't have an experienced caller working with you its a hit and miss learnig experience.stick with it and in time you will get the hang of it.

longspring

Thanks for all of the advice. I do have one call that I got several years ago, but I'm not very confident in it. It's made by woodwise, called the screamin howler. I don't think it sounds realistic, just my opinion. Could you recomend some &quot;good&quot; calls, in your opinion. One last thing, most of what I read about coyotes is about western coyotes. I'm in PA, and I've read that eastern coyotes are actually a cross breed between western coyotes and timber wolves which occured as western coyotes expanded their range through michigan and minnisota. Do you know if this is true and does it make any difference in how I should hunt them.

coyoteseeker

just about any hand call made today is of good quality and will call in predators.buy closed reed and open reed calls and practice with them untill you sound like your dieing.a good place to find calls is www.allpredatorcallss.com this one site carries a real good and large selection of calls,take a close look at the verminator series.as far as being a difference between east and west,no not realy.the main difference is the easterns get bigger.the biggest difference is in the way you hunt them,tactics here in the east are a little different becouse we are in thick country and you just can't see them like you can in some western states.theres alot of speculation on how and why the eastern coyote is much bigger then his western counter part.it would make sence in thinking its becouse there inner bread with wolves,and this is problably what happened.but on the other hand,in the wild a wolf any wolf will kill a coyote on site.they are bitter enimies and wolves will not talorate coyotes in the same area so its realy hard to say.