New Coyote Hunter

goofynewfie

New member
hey folks! New to the forum and brand new to coyote hunting. I'm from SW MT, and like many enjoy the fall chasing deer, elk and bear (with varying degrees of success). I decided to take the leap into coyote hunting this winter.

I've only been out a couple of times - the first using hand calls exclusively and yesterday putting to use an Icotec 320+ caller that I picked up used. My standards were pretty low going into these first two hunts, but I was pleasantly surprised to have called in one yote yesterday! I was hunting some public land that was a mix of wheat stubble and rolling hills of bunch grass. Very little in the way of cover, other than the occasional juniper. On my third of four stands, I made the mistake of choosing a stand with not much line-of-sight on my downwind. I used a mix of coyote howls and distress sounds. After 20 minutes, I sat up from laying prone ready to call it, turned around and saw the coyote coming in behind me (and downwind) about 50 yards. It either saw or winded me so took off in a trot. I whiffed an offhand shot and that was that (I don't have a dedicated coyote gun so I'm slinging 150 grains out of my Ruger .30-06).

That being a first for me, I've been doing the play-by-play analysis in my head trying to figure out what I should do differently next time. But I'm pretty hooked now and eager to glean some knowledge from everyone on this forum.
 
Try calling a crosswind stand so you can see the downwind side. Don't give up it's going to click one day.
 
Thanks, @AWS . Yea hindsight I should have done just that. Rookie question for using an e caller - if you're sitting at a crosswind, where would you set a call/decoy? Out in front? Upwind?
 
Where I place the e caller depends on the stand. Slightly up wind is a common place I'll put the e caller. After calling in hundreds of coyotes, I'm still find many errors I make on stands. There is lots to learn but many great sources available.
 
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