Shadow: Patience is the key to a successful coyote hunt | Outside

With the coyote population and modern technology at their peak, it’s no wonder hunters pit their skills against those of the cunning coyote.

Modern technology has certainly led to some additional success with a segment of hunters, particularly those who hunt at night with “night vision” or “thermal imaging” equipment. These new tools are certainly impressive and they increase the death rate for many hunters.

I am not negative about this style of hunting. It’s just not my favorite thing. I like to hunt in daylight and be able to see coyotes as they approach the area and I am skeptical but tempted by the sounds of the caller and / or decoys. Besides, even at my old age, there are other things I prefer to do in the dark.

I really enjoy using mouth calls where the hunter controls the volume, pitch, and type of sound, but I would readily agree that electronic calls have considerable advantages.

The biggest advantage of electronic calling is the separation between calling sounds and the hidden hunter. Coupled with some sort of decoy, this attracts the coyote and makes the hunter’s detection much worse.

I regularly couple the two to get a more varied attraction. Then I stop the muzzle calls if I think quarry is approaching and ignite a mechanical decoy.

The Mechanical Rabbit is a great tool and, coupled with a coyote silhouette lure, is very effective. The problem with much of this is that you quickly get to the point that there is just too much going on on the site.

Due to a bit of a delay due to other tasks, I ventured to one of my nearest and favorite booths or “seats”. I normally try to back up against an object like a large haystack or a tree trunk. your body and necessary movements.

Anyway, I settled into a row of fencing adjoining a cornfield on one side and a wooded area on the other. I placed the decoy and the caller about 50 yards into the cornfield.

I used several sounds to no avail, however, I found the last sit of the evening and the first in the morning to be the most productive. It was too late to consider moving to another location, so I chose to “stay out”.

Coyotes tend to roam more freely in low light conditions, and about half an hour before sunset a large brown male came out of the woods across the field and jumped on my lure. It happened so quickly that I struggled to catch up with it. I ruined her day very close to the decoy and sat quietly while changing the sound of the call to “coyote distress” mode.

In less than five minutes, the second dog circled around and fled across the cornfield, obviously sensing something abnormal. Maybe he saw me throw another ball in the room. He rolled like a rabbit 140 steps and – it turned out – “he” was a pretty important woman.

I started another round and sat quietly again, returning to a distressed bunny sound. To my surprise and delight, the third coyote ran across the field and, being a large male, was upset that the other male was lying next to the decoy rabbit he intended to have for. The diner. He made a circle around the first coyote and the decoy and stopped. Bad gesture on his part!

This made it possible to harvest three coyotes in less than 15 minutes from the same position. All were mature coyotes capable of decimating large numbers of game bird nests as well as killing domestic calves and white-tailed deer. Since the coyote has no natural predator in our part of the country other than the automobile, it is imperative to control the population so that some of the other most vulnerable species can survive.

My most important point in the above is that I could have shot the first coyote and successfully completed the hunt. In the meantime and with extra patience, I got one of the very few “triples” in my life as a coyote hunter. I got a number of “doubles”, but triples are a rarity in the daytime hunt.

I wish you a Merry Christmas, a happy hunting and extra patience in all your endeavors!