Scouting a 30+ mile road into the woods (advice wanted)

Newpond0

Newpond0

Active member
I have a road near me that goes way way deep into the woods and a reputation amongst the locals of having lots of coyotes. About a month ago I tried out my new caller close the start of the road in the late afternoon and got a response from what sounded like a whole pack of them but that area is a little too close to the cabins at the beginning of it to hunt it legally.

Anyways, after 10 miles in there’s no more cabins. Lots of rolling hills that are fairly open but with thick spots and ponds too. I’m gonna bring a shovel today as there’s still some deep snow spots on the road prevented me from going deeper last time.

The thing is there’s non stop 4 wheelers driving around that road. I did a bit of locating calls in the middle of the day last week but the 4 wheelers kept driving thru as I was playing my caller just off the road.

On the Bill Martz dvd he says locating should be done after 9 or 10:00 pm and that the coyotes prefer quiet areas to live. Would you guys forget about locating during the day and only try at night? Knowing that the road is noisy would you go for hikes to get further off the road to locate? Or would you focus on looking for terrain features from maps beforehand?

Also, is the season (denning) playing a role in all this and them not responding even if nearby?

There is a lot of ground in there and I’m gonna drive in there today hopefully all the way to the end of it just to have a better look

Edit: no night hunting allowed here. Seems like the only time to get away from the 4 wheelers is at night, dawn, or by distance off that road
 
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Sounds like an adventure. Around my area we have winter snowmobile trails through private/public land. Day or night coyote are very spooky of sled noise. Seems like it takes about an hour after the evening sled activity ends before there is coyote movement. During the day I do not see coyote near the trails, except for first week of Feb breeding time, when coyote are chasing females and on the move day and night. I would consider getting at least out of hearing range(about double distance you can hear the bikes).
 
Newpond0 said:
I have a road near me that goes way way deep into the woods and a reputation amongst the locals of having lots of coyotes. About a month ago I tried out my new caller close the start of the road in the late afternoon and got a response from what sounded like a whole pack of them but that area is a little too close to the cabins at the beginning of it to hunt it legally.

Anyways, after 10 miles in there’s no more cabins. Lots of rolling hills that are fairly open but with thick spots and ponds too. I’m gonna bring a shovel today as there’s still some deep snow spots on the road prevented me from going deeper last time.

The thing is there’s non stop 4 wheelers driving around that road. I did a bit of locating calls in the middle of the day last week but the 4 wheelers kept driving thru as I was playing my caller just off the road.

On the Bill Martz dvd he says locating should be done after 9 or 10:00 pm and that the coyotes prefer quiet areas to live. Would you guys forget about locating during the day and only try at night? Knowing that the road is noisy would you go for hikes to get further off the road to locate? Or would you focus on looking for terrain features from maps beforehand?

Also, is the season (denning) playing a role in all this and them not responding even if nearby?

There is a lot of ground in there and I’m gonna drive in there today hopefully all the way to the end of it just to have a better look

Edit: no night hunting allowed here. Seems like the only time to get away from the 4 wheelers is at night, dawn, or by distance off that road
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I hunt mostly open rolling hills/harvested crop land & pastures. With scattered stands of timber. During the day time hours. Most coyotes will avoid the outer 1/4 mile areas. However after dark, they will/may come right into towns/farmsteds & acreages on the hunt. IMO IF...a coyote does not feel threatened & is at ease. It may come to a call sound.
 
It’s super rare to get vocal responses during the day in my area. I also don’t do the locating thing. If I did, it would be after dark. As for calling where there’s a lot of human/ wheeler noise, I’d try to get away from that. I would for sure try to call AWAY from the activity. Coyotes are far more likely to investigate a sound from deeper in and away from active roads and trails.
 
I think I would just hunt it anywhere I wanted to at daybreak for a couple hours and for the last couple hours of daylight. No results, move deeper/further from the 'traffic'. Here (SW PA) they seem to become accustomed to "normal" traffic disturbances.
As 0168 said, daylight howling is almost non-existent in these parts.
 
I think coyotes get used to the constant traffic, and if they have no negative encounters with ATV's, the noise probably won't bother them.

Just outside of Denver, there is a fairly large chunk of National Forests lands that are set aside for off-road motorcycle use, and it is used pretty heavily. A friend of mine is there frequently and he tells me stories of coming around a corner and there is a turkey/deer/elk in the path.
 
BB (before Biden) there was a lot of oilfield traffic on one of the ranches I hunted and coyotes got used to the "traffic"didn't pay a lot of attention to the noise, so was able to call them in close to the (caliche) roads. AB, oilfield took a nosedive needed to move away from the caliche and use the dirt two tracks more.
 
Shovelled snow for 2 hours up there today to get thru and got stopped by a conservation officer who said way more deep snow on the road up ahead.

To start I'm gonna park the truck near the last snow at dusk and walk in with the headlamp and locate call from the road and see how it goes. I don't know how I'm gonna take note of where I'm howling from in the dark.

If I'm not getting responses I'm guess I'm gonna have to walk into the woods close to dark and locate then...man I don't like the sound of that at all 😳 lol
 
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limbhanger10 said:
Beautiful country Newpond!
What about some narrow coves with open terrain and calling to opposite shore or hill?
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Thank you. Do you mean setting up near the edge of the inlet facing towards the water and calling across the water? Hoping the coyotes route is along the waters edge towards me?
 
crapshoot said:
Screw the coyotes. Target wolves.
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I don’t think there’s many wolves left here. Lots of coyotes though, government give $25 for each one and another research outfit gives another $35 until theirs budget runs out. So $60 (cad) per dog right now

Edit: around $42 usd
 
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