Trouble killing coyotes

[Wiscohunter1234]

I’m in need of some advice, I hunt southeast Wisconsin all thermal. I am decently new to the thermal game and have made probably close to 10 different sets so far this season. I have tired cloudy nights, clear nights mostly all low wind 5-0 mph anywhere from 0 degrees to 30 degrees . I am hunting 10-15 acre fields surrounded by either hard woods or swamp or both. I am playing wind to my favor every set, knowing that it’s a huge part of being successful. I have been playing around with sounds seeming nothing is working great, distress sounds, howls male and female, coyote pup distress the whole nine yards, and trying to transition into mating noises as we get into January. I have yet to call in one coyote, I know my spots are not pressured very much and I’m making sure to not hunt them to often. every other week or so. Am I missing something or are my spots just dog crap? I went out last night and played coyote group yips and got responses from a few different groups within a mile or so and nothing came in. Any advice for a fellow hunter?

 

[MO00]

One thing I’ve notice, and it’s a fine balance, is you have to give them a little wind. Maybe you are already doing this but I used to go to spots where the wind was “perfect” in that it was blowing back into some timber or something and I’m overlooking the whole field. Especially when you’re running Distress they’re going to try to get your wind. Obviously it’s A very fine balance and you can’t make it easy for them to wind you but you also have to be to where you could see one trying to circle or even check downwind to see if something has circled you.

Another thing that I think gets a lot of people is starting off unnaturally loud and scaring stuff thats close/mid range. It’s best to work up the volume ladder because if you play rabbit on 100 and you’ve got one over the rise he’s gonna know there isn’t a set of rabbit lungs that can get that loud.

Keep after em, it’ll work out!

 

[omicron1792]

Honestly you have to be close to them to get them. They won’t come in from a mile.

A lot of the guys you see on YouTube have thousands of acres to hunt. They bounce around till they find them.

On smaller properties it’s a waiting game. They will start moving at some point and come through your area. I stay put and call about every 45 min. I have found I can kill a coyote every single night if I’m willing to wait all night. I’m usually not willing to do that, but if I have yotes on camera that means when they make their circuit they will come through. Might be at 6pm. Might be at 3am.

Talk to friends with property and many will let you hunt them. If you have 4-5 spots you can hop around and one will usually be close enough to call them in.

 

[satchamo]

Thermal hunting isn’t what it once was. Coyotes are adapting to it. But it’s still generally more productive than day hunting (coming from a day hunter).

Coyotes move, a lot. Like more than probably any other animal in the area. You can call a spot 5x and not kill one until the 5th time when the stars align. I think it’s just a game of odds and you need alot of places to go. Even with 30 places to go I find that 5% of those spots will produce 90% of your coyotes. Some places are just doggy and I don’t always I understand why.

 

[Wiscohunter1234]

One thing I’ve notice, and it’s a fine balance, is you have to give them a little wind. Maybe you are already doing this but I used to go to spots where the wind was “perfect” in that it was blowing back into some timber or something and I’m overlooking the whole field. Especially when you’re running Distress they’re going to try to get your wind. Obviously it’s A very fine balance and you can’t make it easy for them to wind you but you also have to be to where you could see one trying to circle or even check downwind to see if something has circled you.

Another thing that I think gets a lot of people is starting off unnaturally loud and scaring stuff thats close/mid range. It’s best to work up the volume ladder because if you play rabbit on 100 and you’ve got one over the rise he’s gonna know there isn’t a set of rabbit lungs that can get that loud.

Keep after em, it’ll work out!

I have been trying my best to hunt crosswinds as you where saying to make them feel as if they have the upper hand yes, I have the fox pro hellcat and usually start my set out at 5-8 and work my way up to about 15 over a 4 minute span with the max on the hellcat only being 20.

 

[Wiscohunter1234]

Honestly you have to be close to them to get them. They won’t come in from a mile.

A lot of the guys you see on YouTube have thousands of acres to hunt. They bounce around till they find them.

On smaller properties it’s a waiting game. They will start moving at some point and come through your area. I stay put and call about every 45 min. I have found I can kill a coyote every single night if I’m willing to wait all night. I’m usually not willing to do that, but if I have yotes on camera that means when they make their circuit they will come through. Might be at 6pm. Might be at 3am.

Talk to friends with property and many will let you hunt them. If you have 4-5 spots you can hop around and one will usually be close enough to call them in.

That’s not a bad idea as I have been getting pictures of coyotes a few times a week, I have been trying to acquire a few spots so I have the option to bounce around and call some different properties but haven’t got lucky yet, thanks for the advice brothr

 

[Wiscohunter1234]

That

Thermal hunting isn’t what it once was. Coyotes are adapting to it. But it’s still generally more productive than day hunting (coming from a day hunter).

Coyotes move, a lot. Like more than probably any other animal in the area. You can call a spot 5x and not kill one until the 5th time when the stars align. I think it’s just a game of odds and you need alot of places to go. Even with 30 places to go I find that 5% of those spots will produce 90% of your coyotes. Some places are just doggy and I don’t always I understand why.

that’s kinda what I’m beginning to pick up, I’m going to continue to find new spots and hop around in hopes to find a honey hole, maybe my spots are just junk, they seem like they should hold coyotes but like you said they move so much you just have to catch them as they are crossing by. thanks brother!

 

[omicron1792]

That’s not a bad idea as I have been getting pictures of coyotes a few times a week, I have been trying to acquire a few spots so I have the option to bounce around and call some different properties but haven’t got lucky yet, thanks for the advice brothr

No problem. You can also try bait and scents. Try to get a spot they come to regularly and at specific times. I have patterned them on gut piles. Otherwise they are really hard to pattern.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

trying to transition into mating noises as we get into January.

too early for this IMO

Honestly you have to be close to them to get them. They won’t come in from a mile.

Not true at all, i've been predator hunting all over montana, wyoming, the dakotas, Minnesota and canada for going on 30 years and have called in many from over a mile.

Using a thermal isn't the easy button that many folks believe. If you can't call them during the day you're going to struggle just as much with thermal.

If you have snow on the ground and its loud and crunchy they could be hearing you walk in on these smaller fields/properties.

Are you going back & calling the same spots over & over? I rarely call the same spot more than once or twice a year (partially because i have so many spots) unless its with a different wind direction or a spot i know will continue to replenish with new coyotes once i harvest the ones outta there.

If schedule allows key in on times when barometer is high or rising. Some of the best times is right after winter storm or multiple days of very high winds.

I see a lot of new coyote hunters struggle with using coyote vocals in the wrong manner or way to often because thats what they saw the guys doing TV. Knowing what vocals and when to use them come with experience. Like you mentioned above you got some responses before but never got anything to commit so you probably tried throwing the kitchen sink at them and all you did was educate them.

 

[omicron1792]

too early for this IMO

Not true at all, i've been predator hunting all over montana, wyoming, the dakotas, Minnesota and canada for going on 30 years and have called in many from over a mile.

Using a thermal isn't the easy button that many folks believe. If you can't call them during the day you're going to struggle just as much with thermal.

If you have snow on the ground and its loud and crunchy they could be hearing you walk in on these smaller fields/properties.

Are you going back & calling the same spots over & over? I rarely call the same spot more than once or twice a year (partially because i have so many spots) unless its with a different wind direction or a spot i know will continue to replenish with new coyotes once i harvest the ones outta there.

If schedule allows key in on times when barometer is high or rising. Some of the best times is right after winter storm or multiple days of very high winds.

I see a lot of new coyote hunters struggle with using coyote vocals in the wrong manner or way to often because thats what they saw the guys doing TV. Knowing what vocals and when to use them come with experience. Like you mentioned above you got some responses before but never got anything to commit so you probably tried throwing the kitchen sink at them and all you did was educate them.

I too have killed 100s of coyotes. I think the difference is location. In southeast you won’t be calling them in that far. You just won’t. Not on a regular basis.

 

[Laramie]

I have learned to call less frequently and for shorter periods. I'll wait 10-15 minutes after the first 10-15 seconds of calling. Then I repeat and it's often 20-45 minutes before I have one come in. I give every spot one hour at minimum and may only call 3-4 times during that hour. My last calls are lip squeaks followed by the last 5-10 minutes of waiting before I move. I have had several dogs that were held up finally come in to the lip squeaks.

 

[Wiscohunter1234]

too early for this IMO

Not true at all, i've been predator hunting all over montana, wyoming, the dakotas, Minnesota and canada for going on 30 years and have called in many from over a mile.

Using a thermal isn't the easy button that many folks believe. If you can't call them during the day you're going to struggle just as much with thermal.

If you have snow on the ground and its loud and crunchy they could be hearing you walk in on these smaller fields/properties.

Are you going back & calling the same spots over & over? I rarely call the same spot more than once or twice a year (partially because i have so many spots) unless its with a different wind direction or a spot i know will continue to replenish with new coyotes once i harvest the ones outta there.

If schedule allows key in on times when barometer is high or rising. Some of the best times is right after winter storm or multiple days of very high winds.

I see a lot of new coyote hunters struggle with using coyote vocals in the wrong manner or way to often because thats what they saw the guys doing TV. Knowing what vocals and when to use them come with experience. Like you mentioned above you got some responses before but never got anything to commit so you probably tried throwing the kitchen sink at them and all you did was educate them.

I am going back every other week just because I have yet to see or shoot a coyote out of that spot, as far as throwing it at them, everything I have research says to throw a couple different sounds at them all in different context to try and tell a story and peak there Interest as they will not come in until they hear something that triggers them. Nobody said that that would educate them as they can’t tie danger to any of those sounds as they didn’t wind me or even know that they weren’t communicating with a real group of coyotes

 

[Wiscohunter1234]

I have learned to call less frequently and for shorter periods. I'll wait 10-15 minutes after the first 10-15 seconds of calling. Then I repeat and it's often 20-45 minutes before I have one come in. I give every spot one hour at minimum and may only call 3-4 times during that hour. My last calls are lip squeaks followed by the last 5-10 minutes of waiting before I move. I have had several dogs that were held up finally come in to the lip squeaks.

I may have to try this maybe they are just over called to and need some more space between calling!

 

[WhoGarrDen]

Have you checked out any of Geoff Nemnich's stuff? He just did a decently informative piece on the hornady podcast.

 

[coyotekilla]

So I was in your shoes 3 years ago. I had filled my buck tag on early archery and had nothing to hunt in the fall... so I decided to take up coyotes. Bought a cheap (1,200) dollar thermal, and a box of used gear. It contained a foxpro Shockwave, a rabbit decoy, a bog deathgrip tripod and a red head lamp. I occasionally got a fox to come in, but id miss it, was having a heck of a time.

So I got permission to hunt like 30 farms in my area, probably 20k acres. Went and invited a pair of coyote hunters from 3.5 hours away to come hunt my properties. They showed up and put 8 dogs in the truck that night and I learned valuable lessons on what I needed gear wise, and what I needed to be doing.

The atn Thor turned into a rix l6, I bought a supressed 22-250 to solve the range estimating problem, loaded more tunes on the Shockwave. Bought a fatboy tripod to replace the bog. Last I replaced the Shockwave with an x24.

So I started in Oct, wasn't till mid Feb that I finally killed a fox, they came up, I got a coyote in the head with the 22-250. Got like 15 more that year, mostly with them calling but did manage to get like 4 of them by myself.

Last year, implementing what I've learned from them and better equipment I got 37 and a bobcat in the truck. This year I'm at 41 and counting, year ends in another month.

Keep at it, you will get there. It takes patience, preservance, a little luck , and alot of miles.

That's coyote #1

 

[Wiscohunter1234]

So I was in your shoes 3 years ago. I had filled my buck tag on early archery and had nothing to hunt in the fall... so I decided to take up coyotes. Bought a cheap (1,200) dollar thermal, and a box of used gear. It contained a foxpro Shockwave, a rabbit decoy, a bog deathgrip tripod and a red head lamp. I occasionally got a fox to come in, but id miss it, was having a heck of a time.

So I got permission to hunt like 30 farms in my area, probably 20k acres. Went and invited a pair of coyote hunters from 3.5 hours away to come hunt my properties. They showed up and put 8 dogs in the truck that night and I learned valuable lessons on what I needed gear wise, and what I needed to be doing.

The atn Thor turned into a rix l6, I bought a supressed 22-250 to solve the range estimating problem, loaded more tunes on the Shockwave. Bought a fatboy tripod to replace the bog. Last I replaced the Shockwave with an x24.

So I started in Oct, wasn't till mid Feb that I finally killed a fox, they came up, I got a coyote in the head with the 22-250. Got like 15 more that year, mostly with them calling but did manage to get like 4 of them by myself.

Last year, implementing what I've learned from them and better equipment I got 37 and a bobcat in the truck. This year I'm at 41 and counting, year ends in another month.

Keep at it, you will get there. It takes patience, preservance, a little luck , and alot of miles.

That's coyote #1

I’m going to continue at it! As a hunter I feel like the most exciting stuff besides pulling the trigger is trying to learn the way these animals think and react to different things, always a pain in my a** but fun ant the same time to learn a new animal to hunt! Thanks for the inspiration brother!

 

[dirtytough]

A couple things I see posted on here I totally disagree with.

Coyotes will come from a long ways. Day or night.

If I want coyotes to stop that are coming in I pause the call.

Volume. If a coyote can’t hear it, it’s not coming in. Play loud.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

I too have killed 100s of coyotes. I think the difference is location. In southeast you won’t be calling them in that far. You just won’t. Not on a regular basis.

So how is your statement relevant if you’re talking about southeast when OP specifically states he’s in Wisconsin. Also out of curiosity as I’ve never hunted in the southeast how many stands do you make while predator hunting where you can typically see over a mile ?

 

[omicron1792]

So how is your statement relevant if you’re talking about southeast when OP specifically states he’s in Wisconsin. Also out of curiosity as I’ve never hunted in the southeast how many stands do you make while predator hunting where you can typically see over a mile ?

Zero. 300 yards is a long shot.

But with locator call you can get a callback and guess distances.