Coyote Hunting Part 2
ATN Ambassador, Joshua Franklin, discussed the basics of general coyote hunting in Part 1 of our Coyote Hunting series; Location, Seasonal Advantages and your Approach & Setup. This second installment of our Predator Hunting Tips, Tricks & Tactics will help you plan on which calls one should use during a particular season. Helping you to #OWNTHENIGHT and #BETHEPREDATOR!
A Call for Every Season
An age old question that you can probably date back to the very first Johnny Stewart cassette player with the ol' Cottontail Distress or Woodpecker Distress cassette is, "What sound do I play?" Granted, back then, there wasn't the luxury of e-callers and sound libraries. So, what sound does one play exactly? This question is better answered by becoming more familiarized with coyotes. The coyote hunting calendar year can be subdivided into 4 distinct seasons of the calendar year.
Breeding Season
January, February and March - 1st Quarter; this is, more often than not, when you're going to run into the breeding season for coyotes. This can vary somewhat based on your geographical location, but more often than not, this holds true for most places. This is the time of the year where you can really put those coyote vocals to use to strike a chord with a love struck coyote! Male and Female lone howls, estrous chirps, female whimpers, duet howls and pup distress can be your saving grace!
Dispersed Pups Season
July, August and September - 3rd Quarter of the calendar year; this is where you will be running into the end of the denning phase and the crop fields will be cut down and become huntable again. During this time of year you are probably dealing with crazy hot days, and hot and humid nights. You swear mosquitoes could carry off a 300 lb. man and there is enough humidity in the air to make you run for your A/C as soon as you crack the truck door open. However, it's not all bad news! You can make the most of those early morning/afternoon or late evening sets, and you can do your homework on the packs of coyotes living on the property you will be hunting. This will pay dividends when you are ready to move into your stands in just a couple of weeks! Locating and observing the coyote population a couple of different times in the area you will be hunting, but not actually hunting them, will confirm where coyotes are frequenting or staying. Move into your stands right after daylight or right before dark to get setup with your shotgun and some vocals! Lone howls, pup fights, food fights and pup distress can all be extremely convincing if you slip in the backdoor of a coyotes "house" and make them come see who is there!
Territorial Establishment Season
October, November and December - 4th Quarter of the calendar year; lastly, but certainly not least, is the territorial establishment part of the year! Pups have been kicked out of their homes, they are on their own and are out exploring right now. They are young and dumb and extremely easy to hunt, compared to an older established pack that has had every sound under the sun thrown at them, including several rifle rounds...half a dozen times. This is when you can really get a lot of use out of Mouse/Vole Squeaks, Woodpecker distress calls or rabbit distress, coyote vocals, coyote fights and pup in distress calls. Remember what's coming next, right? Breeding season!
Other Considerations
If food is in abundance, chances are, you're going to have a harder time convincing a coyote to come in to a distress sound than you would be with coyote vocals. Why? Well, coyotes never get tired of hearing their own voices! How many times have you been out in the woods and heard a woodpecker in distress or a dying cottontail rabbit? Yeah, not many here either. How many times have you went out and heard coyotes howling, barking and carrying on? See my point? Learning how to properly apply the time of the coyote's life cycle with the proper sound is absolutely critical to having sustained success. You may have luck with a couple coyotes using Sound X, but look at it over the longevity of 10, 20 or 30 stands. Ask the individuals you follow on social media or in magazines how they are consistently killing coyotes every single time they go out. They will tell you, "Talk coyote, to the coyotes". Using this logical approach to your calling setup and understanding the coyote life cycle can help you become a better and more efficient hunter!
Here at ATN, when you succeed, we succeed. That is just a proven fact. We want to provide you with the best information to enable you to become a better, more successful predator hunter. Make sure to like and follow our Facebook page, as this is only Part 2! Joshua Franklin's Part 3 of the Coyote Predator Hunting Tips, Tricks & Tactics will dive even more in depth into some of the characteristics of coyote hunting, dive more into the day/night hunting and discuss some equipment as well!
