Conquering Common Coyote Hunting Scenarios

Conquering Common Coyote Hunting Scenarios

By Troy Hoepker

A coyote’s notorious ability for escaping trouble is somewhat legendary and if you hunt them very long at all you’ll witness their gifted talent over and over. But the more experience you get at seeing coyotes approach and knowing their habits, the less they will escape. Whether you’re a regular reader or if you’ve casually picked up a copy of The Iowa Sportsman Magazine and drifted through the pages in the last decade or more, it’s likely that you’ve read of a coyote escaping me from time to time. In the next couple of pages let’s go through a few scenarios that commonly present themselves as difficulties a coyote will display towards a hunter and how to deal with them.

The Hung Up Coyote
Let’s try and tackle the worst of the worst; the coyote that you know is there but won’t commit to coming in closer to your calling. This little bugger is one of the most frustrating coyotes that you’ll encounter as a caller. You might see him pacing or stopped and watching from a long distance away unwilling to come closer for some reason. The biggest reason this happens is either because of a flaw in your set up or because of a territorial boundary. The coyote has a fear, instinct or uncertainty of coming to the location where you are. As a hunter you have to examine the possible reasons why and it starts with the set up. Oftentimes callers predetermine their own failure before the hunt ever even begins because of the location they chose to set up in.

Here’s an example of what I’m describing: A hunter comes to the edge of a 100 acre field of hay, corn or bean stubble and places their caller out in the open field in front of them with no cover for the caller. He then begins blaring sounds and when a coyote comes to the opposite edge of the field the coyote knows exactly where the sound is coming from but has no approach to stalk it’s prey without cover to hide itself. The coyote may also be able to see that there is not another predatory animal in that location to torment the animal he is hearing. He is now “hung up” and the hunter made him that way. Intrigued by what he hears, but unwilling to take the risk of crossing open ground, he’s content to sit and watch or return to where he came from.

Hopefully that scenario illustrates the point that a successful coyote calling experience begins and in many cases ends with a good set up. Once a coyote has a sense of doubt creep into it’s mind, no matter the reason, that coyote just became much harder to call the rest of the way in. When a coyote is hung up and stays visible or continues to stay in the same location without immediately leaving it does so because of something it has seen, heard or had a sixth sense about using a combination of eyes and ears. Once he smells something he doesn’t like all doubt is removed and he’s gone. A coyote’s nose never fails him. Their hunting tendencies come into play to keep them out of dangerous situations and most generally we see coyotes hung up because we’ve played the wind right but unfortunately we’ve left a sense of doubt about the location of our ambush site. Consistently choose good ambush sites that include some amount of cover to help make a coyote feel comfortable to stalk your sounds and you’ll see less hung up coyotes.

Every so often you’ll have a coyote hung up because of an invisible boundary. A territorial boundary can make a coyote skittish to cross into another coyote’s range. In some of these cases you may even hear the coyote howl at you and never see him. Sometimes challenging the coyote can work and sometimes maybe a pup distress call can work, but often times you’ll have to relocate on that coyote to kill him. When you relocate you’re going to want to reposition yourself on the coyote’s side of anything that might be the likely territorial line. Territories overlap and there’s usually no such thing as a distinct line but rather it’s more of a buffer zone that defines a territorial line. But there are times when structure or natural environmental features define that line such as fence lines, rivers, roads, tree lines, or clear cuts to name a few. Get around a fence, or a river, or even a two-track road and you may just cross into an area where a coyote feels safer to come to your calls.

A Coyote Trying to Escape
When a coyote is in your grasp and then senses something amiss their attempt to escape the situation will flat out rattle some folks. The scenario is this: You’ve been calling and at last, you’ve spotted a coyote coming! Everything is going according to plan, the coyote is trotting in and is now well within your comfort zone of being able to shoot and kill but as long as he’s coming you’re content with him coming closer to make your chances of killing him greater. All of a sudden, he changes directions! His body language changes and now he’s on the way out. He’s either smelled something he doesn’t like or saw or heard something he doesn’t like? What now?

You have decisions to make in the blink of an eye and they better be the right ones or your coyote will be in the wind in a heartbeat. The way we analyze our response begins with the coyote’s body language and it’s reaction to whatever startled it. The next biggest thing I can recommend is trying to stay as calm and cool as possible. (I know…… it’s not always that easy!) When a coyote stops and looks in, if he takes any step backwards be ready. If one of his ears twitch backwards, along with a head turn lookout. If he turns and moves back a few steps before stopping again to look, get ready for a coyote that will come no closer. These movements indicate an instinct to flee because of something they’ve saw, something they’ve heard or they dislike like a decoy or another critter responding. Sometimes I swear they also just instinctively feel a trap. A coyote that acts like this is killable if you play your cards right. Be patient and let the coyote kill itself. The worst mistake most hunters make is moving the gun on a coyote that can obviously see them because they think they can out-quick a coyote and shoot it. When a coyote sees something it is unsure of it will always look back again. Let him go ahead and trot nervously away moving yourself to reposition the gun only when the coyote is also moving if you can. Wait for him to stop and look back again and take your shot. Often times you can even bark or howl them to a stop once you’re in position for the shot you want.

If they hesitantly take their time to leave and get over a hill or behind trees, there are times you can even call them back for a second look. Their body language will tell you how sure or unsure they are of the situation. It may require a longer shot at times but a longer shot that you are ready for is oftentimes better than a rushed high heartbeat shot. The other thing to think about is how often you call the area. If a coyote simply isn’t sure what is amiss and acts that way, then there are times when it’s best to just let the coyote get away instead of giving him an education. That same coyote may be callable again the next time you are there. If they smell you forget about it, they are already educated.

As long as a coyote hasn’t smelled you, they’ll usually always look back. If a coyote is coming in and spins around on a dime and heads back the way he came with no hesitation at all then you’ve got to aim quick and fire quick. There’s a difference between how a coyote acts when he’s seen something he doesn’t like and when he’s smelled something he doesn’t like. When they smell human scent, I swear they can turn around in the their own skin. They trust their nose as sure as the sun comes up. It never lies and you’ll know the difference in the coyote’s body language. Once they’ve smelled you, it’s likely they won’t look back much. Some will leave with the afterburners lit and some will leave on a trot but rest assured, they are leaving! Rarely does howling at them, barking at them or putting out any distress sounds slow them down. Take aim with the proper amount of lead and pull the trigger if you can.

Multiple Coyotes
The scenario: You’ve called a coyote in, you can see him coming and all of a sudden a second coyote comes into view. Then another one comes trotting in behind the other two!

Congratulations, it’s always exiting to call in multiple coyotes but you’d be surprised just how often all of them get away if you’re not as cool as a the other side of the pillow. Here are several rules that I follow when confronted with multiple targets.

Number one, if there is a coyote coming that is already lined up with my gun barrel and I’m comfortable with the shot, I stay on that coyote so I keep movement to a minimum. Trying to move on a different one has the potential to bust you with all of them. I focus in on one target.

Number two, I’ll let them all come as close as they will possibly come. The farther I can draw them into my kill zone, the more chance I have at getting a second or third coyote.

Number three is not getting overly greedy. Once my first target is as close as comfortable I’ll either stop it and shoot it or shoot it on the fly. If I stop it with a bark I know that there’s a good chance I’m stopping all of the coyotes with the bark. Personally, I like to take the shot on the first coyote unannounced if possible. But the main thing for me is to make sure I get at least one coyote on the ground. After the first shot is fired it’s chaos after that, so make sure you get one!

Number four is acquiring the next target after the first coyote is dead. I’ll go for the next closest coyote usually unless there is another coyote that is in the open more or has a better shot angle. I’ll usually be howling loud with my voice at this point trying to slow down any runners. Sometimes at the sound of the shot the other coyotes will see the first coyote drop and take that extra millisecond to process why the first coyote is acting that way. Sometimes this gives you time, sometimes it doesn’t.

If you have a partner the rule I go by is that the caller has the lead coyote all the way. Any secondary coyote is the partner’s shot. If two coyotes are together coming in, then the coyote on your side is yours. Having a plan like this helps eliminate confusion at the moment of truth.

The Anonymous Howler
The scenario is this: You’ve been calling a little while and keep hearing a coyote howl at you but the coyote never seems to move or show itself.

If the coyote is barking his fool head off, there’s a good chance that you are busted. Something about your arrival or setup has alarmed this coyote and he’s not coming but is instead alerting everything on the planet that you are out of your place! Your option is almost nothing.

If the coyote is howling however, than it’s a different story. If you have little experience with howling coyotes than simply mimic his sounds with a howler and learn. If a coyote begins howling after you’ve made sounds he’s howling at you and he’s saying something. A long low-pitched howl that slowly rises in pitch and ends abruptly without any yodel is an interrogation howl. With this howl the reason he hasn’t moved is because he’s letting any answer to his howl be the answer he’s looking for. Challenge it with another interrogation howl, domain howl, or challenge barks and you’ll likely have a coyote coming within a few minutes.

If the howls repeat themselves and include sharp barks leading into higher pitched yodeling howls that change octaves quickly you can also challenge them right back with the same type of howl or give a low-pitched gravelly howl and there’s a good chance you make that coyote mad enough to come running.

If you hear social pack howling but only hear it the one time, good luck. It’s hard to pull in a pack once they’ve all sang in chorus to your calling. Anything can work and anything can fail, but it’s low percentage that they all come running unless they are close in proximity. If they are far away the best advice I can give is to reposition on them as quickly as possible without another word. Close the distance and begin calling again. I’ve had better success with this tactic than anything over the years especially in the dark.

There is no such thing as a carbon copy coyote hunt and every coyote is different and similarly every scenario you encounter will have it’s own unique reaction from the individual coyote in front of you. But take a few of these coyote tendencies to the bank when it comes to the most common coyote interaction scenarios. Hopefully just one of these little tips will help you close the deal on an Iowa prairie wolf this season!