Legendary Whitetails: I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert coyote hunter. However, my lack of success has yet to deter me from the sport, if anything it’s driven me to learn more about coyote hunting. For many of us, coyote hunting is a way to stay outdoors after the deer season has come to a close. Not only that, but we are also helping the local deer herd with any successful outing. Over the last couple years, my buddies and I have transitioned from rookies to what I would now call “intermediate” coyote hunters. The only way to continually hone your skills is to constantly learn from your mistakes and take the advice of better coyote hunters.
More predator coverage from ODU: https://www.odumagazine.com/topics/hunting-archery/predator-hunting/
Here’s a short list of common mistakes made by novice coyote hunters and how you should go about improving upon them:
1 – Scout
When we first started giving coyote hunting a try, we would basically march into an area that looked like it would hold coyotes and set up. Typically, we would set up over a large field, frozen river, or basically anywhere we could see a couple hundred yards, set the call up, and wait. Nothing in the area said there were coyotes around other than it looked good. Empty trip after empty trip left us boggled.
Years later, we rarely hunt any of those “good” looking coyote areas because there’s no sign of coyotes. If you don’t want to spend time scouting before your hunts you should take mental notes of where you see scat, tracks, dens, and coyotes themselves throughout the deer season. Shed hunting is also a great time to figure out where these wily creatures are spending their time. In the end, just remember you can’t kill what’s not there.
2 – Same Call, Same Results
This was and probably still is one of our biggest faults as intermediate coyote hunters looking to take the next step. Like many ‘yote hunters, our go-to call has always been the squealing rabbit. Why? I don’t know, because it sounds good??? That and maybe those darn western-state predator hunting shows that seem to have coyotes come in by the dozen.
While we’ve had minimal success with that call, we seem to rarely change it up. This year will be the year though… After reading many articles and blogs on coyote hunting in non-western states, it sounds like the dying rabbit is decent in the fall, but once these coyotes hear it a couple times they are much more cautious. A bird in distress, like a turkey or woodpecker, seems to be what the pros recommend. We shall see.
3 – Picked Off
Are coyotes spotting you before you’re spotting them? I guess we will never really know, will we? Perhaps our calling techniques are better than we thought, we just aren’t seeing them. Coyotes are very smart, especially when they’ve been avoiding deer hunters all season long. A lot of times, a coyote that’s on their way into a call will hang up on the edge of cover to survey things first. If he catches you moving or catches whiff or your scent, you’ll never know they were there.
Continue reading – http://community.deergear.com/the-hunt/5-mistakes-made-by-novice-coyote-hunters/