how did you get into coyote hunting

My Dad got me started, at a pretty young age by todays standards I guess. But by "started" I don't mean killing. And while Dad was hunting coyotes a lot in the winters, I only got to go occasionally. Most of his trips were multi day, with a buddy of his. And they were pretty serious about it. At that time, the fur check for a decent winter of calling would pay for a brand new truck.

The four or five times a winter I got to go with, starting when I was about 8 years old, I was mostly just a pack mule. Dad was an early devotee of e-callers. I remember his little Johhny Stewart 45 RPM record player. But he had moved on to other stuff by the time I started going with him. By the time I was going with him, he was using a stupid big and heavy reel to reel tape deck that took what seemed about a couple dozen D cell batteries. That thing seemed to weigh a ton to me. Speaker was a big metal horn speaker with a long cord. I got to carry that too.

Dad took me all kinds of hunting starting from about as early as I can remember. I never lacked for all the .22LR and 12 gauge ammo I could burn. But he wasn't fooling when it came to $100 coyote pelts. In addition to the tape deck and speaker, I was allowed to carry my Rossi .22 pump action Win. 62 copy. But I wasn't allowed to shoot at coyotes on stand. I only got to shoot jackrabbits walking back to the truck after the stand.

But for a few years, I got to see plenty of coyotes called in and killed. Got to see more than a few catch our wind, or see us, or bug out for whatever reason. Got to see kind of what worked and kind of what didn't.

I did kill a few coyote during those years, age about 8 to 12. Targets of opportunity while jackrabbit or bird hunting. But had yet to take a shot on a called coyote.

Dad put it to me plain, early on. Told me I was going to have to my myself a centerfire before I could start shooting on stand, and that I was going to need a deer rifle soon anyway. And that the only sensible thing I could do was buy myself a Model 70 in .270. Sooo... When I was 11, I put a said rifle on lay away at the beginning of summer and mowed lawns to finally bring my prize home. For, I think the princely sum was $180.

On my 12th birthday in Nov., Dad gave me a Leupold M8 4x, base and rings - and a Torel Deluxe "Gunslinger" sling with black snakeskin diamond inlays. Which I still use that sling regularly to this day, it's on my main squeeze calling rifle .17 Predator.

A week later, sitting on stand, new Model 70 cradled lovingly in my arms, I saw the head and chest of a coyote pop up over the top of a rise 70 yards away. Afterward, Dad said he thought I would NEVER shoot. But I didn't want to blow it and took my time and rolled that old dog coyote head over heels backwards.

Been hooked ever since. Soon as I bought my first car, I was getting out by myself with handcalls and my .270. Still have that .270, too.

And for Christmas that same year, I got a Pacific reloading press, a set of RCBS .270 FL dies, one coffee can full of fired .270 brass and another coffee can full of reclaimed 4831 - and a box of Hornay 110 gr. hollow points. Pretty sure I was the only kid in my Jr. High that had a reloading setup in his bedroom or who spent most of his money on primers and bullets.

- DAA
 
Mostly hogs at nite but heard the yotes howling at daughter's place so decided to try it. Just one so far but they are around. Just put a thermal on the Henry 308W to try. If the weather gets better and I can stay away from the Docs, I'll go more often.
 
I've hunted since I was old enough to throw a rock, but I'm not sure what got me started on coyotes. All I know is that one day about six years ago I decided to by an acrylic cottontail call. I grabbed my youngest son and we went out and called. As fate would have it, we called in a coyote on that first attempt and said to each other, "this is way to easy". I was hooked from that day forward. I have learned since that this coyote hunting thing isn't always easy. It is addictive and all consuming, but easy it is not!
 
I actually started calling coyotes in probably 1981 when I was 14 years old. Although I really don’t count this as my starting point. I knew a couple old timers that were calling and killing coyotes for their fur. I was immediately drawn to it. So I bought a wooden hand call and went out to make my fortune. Well needless to say it didn’t work out how I thought and after a dozen times out calling without success I gave up.

I went back to what I knew how to do, duck and goose hunting along with deer and elk hunting. With a lot of walleye and catfishing.

Fast forward to 1988 and again I got the coyote bug. Started reading some books about it, namely “Varmint Hunters Digest”(1977) by Jim Daugherty and “Professional Predator Calling”(1979) by Ed Sceery. Again I was hooked and this time I started to get it. Ever since I called and killed that first “called coyote” in 1988 that’s all I’ve really cared about.lol
Then I really got hooked a couple years later when I bought my first howler(Sceery howler)

Now thousands of coyotes later, I still can’t get enough. Hopefully that stays with me until I can’t physically hunt them anymore.
 
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Started hunting in my mid to late twenties. Started with small game and waterfowl and slowly progressed to bigger game. About 3 or 4 years ago a buddy from undergrad suggested we try out coyote hunting. We had seen videos of it and it looked relatively simple. We bought red headlamps and a small icotech caller. We called coyotes with that intro caller and headlamps for a winter with no success. I then bought a Foxpro Inferno and we hunted for 2 more winters only ever hearing them a few times. By this point I had become obsessed and kept climbing the tech tree. I bought my first cheap thermal and quickly realized I couldn't ID past 150ish yards. Right around then is when I found PM. I became a sponge and just read non-stop, learning and honing my knowledge. At the time I was in graduate school and decided I would buy myself a nice thermal for my graduation (Iray Rico G 640x50). That really opened the flood gates and I've been slowly buying more equipment. I bought and X24 and managed to get more responses from coyotes, part of it was that I understood stand selection better. I then bought a suppressor and a tripod and that helped with stand set up as well. I was finally able to get my first one last October after chasing them for 3 years. I've become addicted to chasing them. If I'm not chasing them I'm thinking about it and constantly looking for new places to call. Suffice it to say that this is the most expensive hobby I have.
 
Coyote came into my area after a major red fox die off(mange from hog confinement buildings startups). I was 8(1968) when I stalked a(first) fox during a snow fall at Christmas break. Shot it with a single shot 20 ga. Trapped and shot fox on through the 80's(several fur price cycles) as coyote took over switched to trapping and shooting them. No real time spent calling either fox or coyote back then. I shot many more during the day spotting and stalking than anyone I knew who called. Wasn't legal to use lights at night, so all day hunting. Even back then you could call to fox that were laying within rifle range and they wouldn't look let alone get up. See that a few times and it makes more sense to just go shoot them. We (2 buddies)started making road trips to NE South Dakota. Heavy snow than(before the runoff formed all the great fishing lakes in the glacial area) gave us a taste of what calling could do. We would snowshoe around cattail sloughs calling(distressed rabbit) shoot fox until we had a heavy drag back to the truck. Move to the next area. Stayed in cheap motels, fox paying the way. Get a truck bed full and go home to put them up.
 
I started out going on deer and duck hunts with my Grandpa and older Cousin when I was 6 years old. My grandpa used to do a lot of deer hunting for meat and since he ranched and raised livestock, he hunted predators to prevent property damage, especially during calving season. To say he liked to hunt predators would be an understatement.

When I was 10 years old I got my hunter safety card and my folks bought me a Rem 870 20 gauge to hunt waterfowl and upland game birds with. Older Cousin and I hunted ducks along a river behind the local sewer plant. I shot my first limit of greenheads back there when the limit was either 3 drakes or 1 hen per day. Anyway, back then it was an untapped duck magnet on the edge of town surrounded by corn, beans, sugar beets and wheat. Today, there is a highway that runs right past there and is surrounded by shopping centers, walking paths, and city dwellers who ride bicycles, jog and walk their pets right through there.

I think about those days often. It was a time when we were living a dream in the moment and time seemed to stand still just doing our thing on fall and winter days hunting greenheads and the occasional diver duck, canada goose, or pheasant. Back then it was all just the norm in a seemingly different world. It actually had a profound impact on me in a positive way.

Anyway, when I was in my late teens I took an interest in coyote hunting, older Cousin got me into calling coyotes...at the time my Uncle was having issues with coyotes on his farm and my Aunt was afraid a coyote would get her puppy dog...so I bought a Rem 700 in .223 and a Leupold VXII 4-12x40. I shot my first 7 coyotes there and got hooked on it started traveling and making stands at other spots. Today, I don't make it out as much to hunt coyotes as often as I used to, but every once in a while I still go. It just tends to take a back seat to birds more often these days. With that said, I recognize the importance of predator hunting and predator managment not only for healthier populations of waterfowl and upland game birds, but in the ranching and farming world as well.
 
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Years ago I was a member of a deer club that was loaded with them. Hearing them going off at sundown always got me interested so I went and bought a cheap call. I went a few times, but no luck and at that time wasn't really into it so I didn't pursue it any further. So years go by and I'm turkey hunting. I kinda nod off and all of a sudden I'm awakened by this loud BAM, I jumped up and looked and a coyote rolled my decoy. That peaked my interest again so I went a few more times, but nothing. So, lost interest again.

Well, about 3 years ago a pack showed up and made a den on my deer land at my house. They would get so close to me that I literally could feel it when they would go off in the evenings. This is also just a few hundred yards from my front porch. So...... I decided to try it again. This time I bought a Primos Alpha Dogg on sale.

The hunt that got me hooked....

The den was actually right across the property line on my neighbors which was small, thick planted pines about 5' tall. My side, at the time was a 10 year old volunteer cut over that was so thick with sweet gums and crap that you couldn't walk through it. I had a few 4wheeler trails through it, but that's about it. My land comes up to a hill and there's a ditch with some hardwoods on it down in the bottom, the ditch is also the property line. So I set up on the hill with the call facing the neighbors with my 20ga rabbit gun with #4 buck shot. As soon as I turned on the call a pack of coyotes fired up within 50 yards of me. The only thing was, they were already on my side and BEHIND me. Before I could get turned around good, two huge coyotes came running as fast as they could right to the call which was only 15 yards from me. The lead coyote rolled as it slammed on breaks so it wouldn't run over my call. He then got up and took off. I peppered him in the butt as he ran off and the other hurried up and turned around and went the way it came from. It was all over in a matter of seconds. I didn't get either coyote, but it got me very interested in coyote hunting. I went several more times and didn't call in anything, but this time I didn't quit. I got me a NV scope and started baiting them. I killed a good bit off the bait, but wanted to start calling them also so I bought a used X24 and then a thermal scanner and started night hunting which increased my success big time.
 
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