Fawn distress?
 

Do any of y'all have productive stands with fawn distress. Down here in Florida where I hunt you will see fawns with spots all the way up until December. Just wonder is this or could this be as productive as say a rabbit in distress? I have never tried to use it except during archery season when calling in does.

I have tried the fawn in distress call during the spring. All I every had come to the call was does.


:D Al

works purty well on lions and bears and bobcats, here. coyotes and foxes will respond also.

I probably should keep some secrets to myself, but I do tend to use fawn distress more in the late winter and spring to help better trick the coyotes that have heard every Tom, Dick, and Harry blowing on a single cottontail distress reed or blasting Lightning Jack out of their FoxPro all winter long...

It tends to yield a slower response than smaller game distress, except for the occasional hard charging territorial dog that comes in after it at 100mph.

I've Called in many Coyotes using a Fawn Call and even a few Deer especially in the Spring when the Doe's are raising their Fawns!

Thanks guys I will be trying it on Monday. We are suppose to get a cold front coming through on Sunday and the low in the morning will be around 30 degrees. So with 45 degrees in temperature change we will see if they are moving.

Brandon, right now it may be just a bit to early to try that call. Yotes are far from stupid and they sorta kinda know they shouldn't be hearing fawn distress bleats this time of year. Instinct, as always, rules the predator and their instinct would be to use extreme caution when approaching that call at this time of year. They would more than likely circle it 3 or 4 times before coming within 100 yards or more depending on the surrounding cover and wind. Hit that bugger in late winter, early spring like Mercy said and you would probably have them coming in pretty hot and heavy.

I was taking a poll on one of our local forum down here and a lot of our local hunters said they see spotted fawns all the way up until February. We have about three different ruts down here in NW Florida. With that in mind when do you think would be the best time? The same time you mentioned or would it matter then?

Brandon, they tend to keep their spots longer in warmer climates because of the cover. I've seen Southern Georgia whitetail 8 month old deer with light spots. You don't have 3 separate ruts in Florida, you have different times of rut in different areas of Florida. From July to October (North to South) the rut kicks in on different dates throughout. If anything you have fawns dropping earlier than anywhere else in the country not later. Florida actually has about the longest STATEWIDE rut sequences of just about any other state. But it starts so early and it is so all over the place it is difficult to pin down in each county.

I apologize I should've rephrased myself the place I hunt our rut starts around middle of January and goes all the way to middle of March. While hunting during these times over the last 8 years I would see bucks starting to chase, then middle of Jan they start to lock down and breed. It will slack of for about a week or two because we get some hot weather that rolls in then the first week of February to middle of Feb is the second peak and I have seen a third peak towards the middle of March. Me saying three different ruts, a little confusing, I meant three different peaks of the rut. The only way I can think of why it is like this is our buck to doe ratio is extremely uneven. I wouldn't be surprised if it at least 20 does per one buck. Most of our fawns drop middle of July to August and have seen them drop as late as September but I have only seen spotted fawns as late as the middle of November. I really do appreciate y'alls help on helping me out with coyote hunting. This is the 2nd year going at it and I am starting to get the hang of things.

Called in two coyotes last week with a estrus bleat call. I was attempting to whitetail hunt but ended up with coyotes. Went back out a few days later with a electronic coyote call and nothing. I always get coyotes coming in when I least expect them, that's why I enjoy it so much.

You got that right. In St Johns county the peak of the rut was early and mid August. A month before the season. If any FWC officers are on this site, let's make the season start in July 20th and run until November 31st. Hunting the post rut all season long is ridiculous.

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...

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.

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.

Sorry for all the questions. I am probably the only one that target coyotes in this area on this WMA or at lest the 8 years I have been hunting it I have never seen anyone that does it. So the coyotes aren't call shy, I just want to make sure before I go out just throwing a call out at the wrong time of year. I appreciate the input.

Your set-up (forcing them into a "shooting area") and the wind are the most important considerations !

Get in a good hide (bring sticks), call softly and be patient.

A decoy helps to keep their attention off of you.

Sounds like you found a good spot................. so don't just educate them - kill'em instead !!!