Hello everyone, I’m new here to this forum so please work with me I’m getting situated with getting to know the locals =P To give a quick background of myself I am an Officer in the NJARNG, Graduated Federal OCS in Ft. Benning, now I am a Signal officer in the 42nd Infantry Division. I know my way around the woods well, I’m a young guy 27 and not knew to the area I’m working for coyotes. However, I am new to the whole coyote scene and hunting predators. I have two years of unsuccessful hunts. I have good gear, a Turbo Dogg ecaller, Rem 700 .223, great ghillie camo. A small collection of mouth calls. I mainly depend on the turbo dogg as I’m no pro caller, however in a different area I have had GREAT responses from my mouth calls…my first time really hunting coyotes after weeks of practicing, a group of dogs freaking out over your call really gets the blood pumping!!
Anyways, I’m here in upstate new York, trying my hardest to work this part of the Adirondack park that I know like the back of my hand. I grew up with these woods, and I know them well. I’ve made some maps out so you guys can understand my situation and my struggles.
Here is the general layout of the area I’m hunting, Its very thick, with spotted with small open fields. I am hunting the fields that I’ve scouted that have dog scat along the trails. There are tracks and lots of small bones, broken bones and hair in the scat so I’m pretty sure its yotes. In the field I have marked ‘1’ I dragged a deer carcass out this winter and its gone, lots of signs of yotes all over. The fields are not cut grass maybe a foot in a half of ferns. There is a main horse trail that runs through these areas, and they usually see very little action this time of year. In the summer they are used moderately to heavy use. This area is not hunted heavy, in 15 or so years of hunting I have never ran into anyone other than occasionally my uncle. I have included a terrain map as well, the contour of the land is rolling foothills. There are some major ridges by the lake, however where I am hunting you will see elevation of maybe 20-30 meters tops. Knolls rising here and there along the trail 5-10 meters it is very easy land, the trails are sand, and loaded with coyote tracks.
I spent the last few weeks/weekends hunting this area giving it 2 days of hard hunting, and then a week and a half off, and then giving it [beeep] this weekend. I would usually sit in silence during the day, and not hear or see a thing. So the other night, I worked up the guts and went out alone, and let me tell you what. I have been through a lot of training in the Army, but hunting predators at night is a whole different game. In the army we have battle buddies… in yotie land I felt totally outnumbered.. hahah
I have included a map of the entire area where my sets are, the wind, and where I have heard coyote callbacks and where I have seen coyote tracks and scat. I can tell the dogs are using the main horse trails because of all the tracks, and there are a whole winters worth (and some fresh) scat all along the trails. I tried to hunt these open fields where the trails run through, in the morning, night, and dusk. All to no avail. My logic behind this is I would catch a coyote running these trails thinking it has a free meal. I must include, where “1” is marked on the map (where I had put the dear carcass there are broken pine saplings. It looks like a pack of dogs destroyed this area. Scat all over, LOADED with deer hair. Okay so let me continue.
The yotes will call back to my locator call. They GO NUTS at night. They ignore it during the day/morning. It sounds like the hounds of [beeep] are alive at night, and its completely dead in the morning. Logically if I can think like this, they are moving into the area at night to hunt, and bedding down somewhere else during the day. However I have seen dog tracks all around the backside of the lake- I believe they are bedding down there? I am not sure. I do not know enough about yotes to know how to identify a bedding area. The yotes will ignore all my cottontail in distress sounds, so I switched up to some baby jackrabbit, and this morning I believed I have 2 yotes/other predators come to jackrabbit.
When I examined the scat, there are a lot of small bones mixed in, I’m going to assume they are rabbits. So this morning I called, and called… (after reading all day today, I believe I over called) However, I did hear what I think are yotes catching my scent and bolting. I heard branches snap and what sounded like running. I’m almost positive I educated 2 yotes this morning, and hey they educated me I educated them… I’m not worried I’m here to get some answers!
I included 3 photos of the 4 sets I had this morning. I had no vocals from the dogs, just silence. I did have the crazy stick breaking/leafs rustling noise [beeep].
Ok…phew sorry for the book guys, but I figured I’d go in as much detail as possible to help educate others out there in my shoes wishing to get good at this.
My questions, after reading all this what I believe to be nonsense on the internet, maybe its not but???
Help me debunk this, or tell me its fact.
1-You can only walk into the wind..a yote can catch your scent a mile away (literally a mile) and you would never call him in. If this is the case….than I would always have to drive north east since the wind usually blows from the NE.
I’ve read [beeep], that yotes will always circle downwind…well in the North East, I am in fields that do not offer a large enough area to get a yote in the open circling down wind? How do I hunt them in the fields I’m in?
2-Northern coyotes will not break into an open field like we all see them do on TV. They will be skiddish and less likely to bolt in towards a decoy or a call.
---So I’ve read your supposed to sit on the outside of the field in the woods and hunt them? I do not get this logic. With the setups I have provided the images can someone show me where a proper north eastern coyote setup would be? Am I supposed to set up an ambush downwind of my caller to try and catch the coyote? For instance, I would set the caller about 100 yards upwind, with the decoy the yote will go towards the caller and I will set an ambush up approx 25-50 yards off the edge of the field?
Right now my setups are on the edge of the field, and I can’t get a yote, a fox or anything to come into the field. My clothes don’t smell, I take EXTRA caution to make sure everything is in the wood shed months before season starts etc. etc. The clothes are all packed in airtight containers with a layer of dirt.I just need some advice on how to hunt these eastern coyotes! Please someone jump in and help me out!
*****Also, a note. The coyotes called back on SET 1- they did not call back on any other sets*****
Anyways, I’m here in upstate new York, trying my hardest to work this part of the Adirondack park that I know like the back of my hand. I grew up with these woods, and I know them well. I’ve made some maps out so you guys can understand my situation and my struggles.
Here is the general layout of the area I’m hunting, Its very thick, with spotted with small open fields. I am hunting the fields that I’ve scouted that have dog scat along the trails. There are tracks and lots of small bones, broken bones and hair in the scat so I’m pretty sure its yotes. In the field I have marked ‘1’ I dragged a deer carcass out this winter and its gone, lots of signs of yotes all over. The fields are not cut grass maybe a foot in a half of ferns. There is a main horse trail that runs through these areas, and they usually see very little action this time of year. In the summer they are used moderately to heavy use. This area is not hunted heavy, in 15 or so years of hunting I have never ran into anyone other than occasionally my uncle. I have included a terrain map as well, the contour of the land is rolling foothills. There are some major ridges by the lake, however where I am hunting you will see elevation of maybe 20-30 meters tops. Knolls rising here and there along the trail 5-10 meters it is very easy land, the trails are sand, and loaded with coyote tracks.
I spent the last few weeks/weekends hunting this area giving it 2 days of hard hunting, and then a week and a half off, and then giving it [beeep] this weekend. I would usually sit in silence during the day, and not hear or see a thing. So the other night, I worked up the guts and went out alone, and let me tell you what. I have been through a lot of training in the Army, but hunting predators at night is a whole different game. In the army we have battle buddies… in yotie land I felt totally outnumbered.. hahah
I have included a map of the entire area where my sets are, the wind, and where I have heard coyote callbacks and where I have seen coyote tracks and scat. I can tell the dogs are using the main horse trails because of all the tracks, and there are a whole winters worth (and some fresh) scat all along the trails. I tried to hunt these open fields where the trails run through, in the morning, night, and dusk. All to no avail. My logic behind this is I would catch a coyote running these trails thinking it has a free meal. I must include, where “1” is marked on the map (where I had put the dear carcass there are broken pine saplings. It looks like a pack of dogs destroyed this area. Scat all over, LOADED with deer hair. Okay so let me continue.
The yotes will call back to my locator call. They GO NUTS at night. They ignore it during the day/morning. It sounds like the hounds of [beeep] are alive at night, and its completely dead in the morning. Logically if I can think like this, they are moving into the area at night to hunt, and bedding down somewhere else during the day. However I have seen dog tracks all around the backside of the lake- I believe they are bedding down there? I am not sure. I do not know enough about yotes to know how to identify a bedding area. The yotes will ignore all my cottontail in distress sounds, so I switched up to some baby jackrabbit, and this morning I believed I have 2 yotes/other predators come to jackrabbit.
When I examined the scat, there are a lot of small bones mixed in, I’m going to assume they are rabbits. So this morning I called, and called… (after reading all day today, I believe I over called) However, I did hear what I think are yotes catching my scent and bolting. I heard branches snap and what sounded like running. I’m almost positive I educated 2 yotes this morning, and hey they educated me I educated them… I’m not worried I’m here to get some answers!
I included 3 photos of the 4 sets I had this morning. I had no vocals from the dogs, just silence. I did have the crazy stick breaking/leafs rustling noise [beeep].
Ok…phew sorry for the book guys, but I figured I’d go in as much detail as possible to help educate others out there in my shoes wishing to get good at this.
My questions, after reading all this what I believe to be nonsense on the internet, maybe its not but???
Help me debunk this, or tell me its fact.
1-You can only walk into the wind..a yote can catch your scent a mile away (literally a mile) and you would never call him in. If this is the case….than I would always have to drive north east since the wind usually blows from the NE.
I’ve read [beeep], that yotes will always circle downwind…well in the North East, I am in fields that do not offer a large enough area to get a yote in the open circling down wind? How do I hunt them in the fields I’m in?
2-Northern coyotes will not break into an open field like we all see them do on TV. They will be skiddish and less likely to bolt in towards a decoy or a call.
---So I’ve read your supposed to sit on the outside of the field in the woods and hunt them? I do not get this logic. With the setups I have provided the images can someone show me where a proper north eastern coyote setup would be? Am I supposed to set up an ambush downwind of my caller to try and catch the coyote? For instance, I would set the caller about 100 yards upwind, with the decoy the yote will go towards the caller and I will set an ambush up approx 25-50 yards off the edge of the field?
Right now my setups are on the edge of the field, and I can’t get a yote, a fox or anything to come into the field. My clothes don’t smell, I take EXTRA caution to make sure everything is in the wood shed months before season starts etc. etc. The clothes are all packed in airtight containers with a layer of dirt.I just need some advice on how to hunt these eastern coyotes! Please someone jump in and help me out!
*****Also, a note. The coyotes called back on SET 1- they did not call back on any other sets*****
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