I kind of skimmed through this tread so I can’t address all that is said and may recover over some things.
I hunt the Southeast and have not hunted the northeast any farther than VA. In the areas I have hunted it is mostly small farms and public lands and they are all scattered out through several counties. I do not have a lot of places maybe around 10 to 15 places to hunt here where I live now. This is why I scout so much before hunting an area.
If I rush in and cold call areas my chances of being setup wrong and educating coyotes increase. Plus there are many callers here hunting the same coyotes. My only edge is finding out where and when the coyotes or going to be on that piece of property. Then setting up on them in a way that will create the least stress, while they are coming to the sound.
I show and tell others how I hunt my areas but, also encourage them to listen to other successful callers and adapt all this info to their area and create their own style of hunting.
I was fortunate to have started hunting coyotes back when they first came to my area in numbers the early 80’s. I was very young and I would shoot the first coyote at the first possible chance. Was very fortunate the coyote numbers exploded in my area then and was able to kill a lot of coyotes.
Then the coyote population decreased and my land availability went south when the new hunting lease craze started. I soon realized for me to continue to be successful I needed to do more than randomly call. No internet or other coyote hunters to talk to then so I was in essence all alone in my quest.
I spent many hours listening to coyotes down the old dirt roads and following them along their route. Listening to the farmers telling me where they heard them last night. Then going into the woods finding out why they were there and what they were doing.Tracks,scat and fresh kill sites can tell us allot.
The next step after calling and killing several by doing this was to see how they react to different setups and sounds. This is the fun part! Calling coyotes without a gun to see how they react to sounds and setups was a whole new level of my learning. Without a gun I was more relaxed and more observant to what was unfolding before me.I quickly wanted to know how close I could get one to me.
Here are a few things I learned quickly by doing this.
The quick comers that are fast paced and run straight to you are the ones you don’t worry about. These coyotes are coming anyway. They are usually young and dumb, starving or they are aggressive to something going on in there area. These coyotes make up only 10 to25% of coyotes in a given area at best.
Then you have the ones that expose themselves in open areas but hang up around 150 to 250 yards. If they are 2 or more coyotes then they may have been somewhat educated in the past. If there is only 1 coyote more than likely it is a transient coyote not wanting to fight with the home team and or is skittish being new to the area and not established yet.. These make up anywhere to a low of 20% to a high of 40% it depends on how much pressure they have had with calling and how many transients you have.
Then you have the largest group 50 to 80% these are a mixture of all the above. They come in strong until they reach the bounds of their safety zone. Then proceed to find a checkup point them angle down wind. Most callers never see these coyotes because of setup. These are challenging and create the best personal gratification for me.
The next time a coyote is holding out there look and see what is between you and him creating his uneasiness? What terrain or vegetation can you setup in to make him feel at ease all the way to the sound? Create a setup that gives him a natural checkup point?
I know my percentages don’t add up to 100% because the coyotes vary from one grouping to another. They may vary more or less in your area also.
Don’t let numbers get in the way of you setups and calling. I know several great coyote hunters that kill very few coyotes. Time to hunt, coyote numbers and land availability has alot to do with numbers. You have all seen coyote hunters that have high numbers of coyotes, access to tons of farm land and calling uncalled coyotes. These hunters are constantly getting new land to keep their numbers up. They often tell me and others the old places don’t have as many coyotes. In reality they don’t have easy coyotes there anymore. They usually just put the caller out on the edge of an open area and call. Sadly these are mostly new hunters and want to tell everyone how great they are and give advice.
Listen to the guys with years of doing it successfully before there were the numbers we have today.Sleddog ,Ackey,GC come to mind on this board. Even though they hunt differently they kill coyotes to the degree they are comfortable when they go a field.
Main thing don’t do exactly as I do but adapt all the info you can get to your area and let the coyotes in your area be the deciding factor in how you setup.
