Calling coyotes in the high Rockies

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Predatorspath

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Hey guys! I’ve been hunting coyotes in the high Rockies for 4 years now and I’m running into the same problem and I’m stuck again. I only kill one or two coyotes up here. I go out to the desert county and I have no issues calling coyotes and killing coyotes. Has anyone had experience hunting 6600ft plus? I use both hand calls and electronic calls and typically sit 15-20mins and I’m very aware of my wind. In the desert I usually get dogs under 10 minutes. What am I missing yall?
 
No coyotes?
There is a LOT of competition with less food.
Down lower, there is way more food. AG land is perfect for food for coyotes, and don't forget, grasshoppers are an easy food source for coyote pups.
Find medows, or where they cut for feed, there will be a lot of mice.
7000 feet is not the problem; food is the issue. Don't forget, Wolf will not allow coyotes in their range.
 
Widow maker 223 said:
How much food is in the higher areas? This will dictate where they are and how many you call in.
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A lot around where I hunt actually! Turkeys, rabbits, deer. I also hunt in areas with sheep and cow ranches. It’s not uncommon at all to throw out a locate call and find 3-4 plus spread across the landscape. When the snow comes on and gets a crust we will see 6-8 above 10,000 feet in January. It’s just strange because I can’t tell if it’s the way I hunt and I need to sit much longer than I do normally?
 
Badbrass said:
No coyotes?
There is a LOT of competition with less food.
Down lower, there is way more food. AG land is perfect for food for coyotes, and don't forget, grasshoppers are an easy food source for coyote pups.
Find medows, or where they cut for feed, there will be a lot of mice.
7000 feet is not the problem; food is the issue. Don't forget, Wolf will not allow coyotes in their range.
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No we have a ton of coyotes! And we do have a few wolfs but it’s Colorado so I sure you have heard about that mess. But they don’t drive the coyotes as bad yet as like Wyoming.
 
From my experience which is not extensive. In the Cascades the snow would get so deep the deer and elk move down to lower levels ground squirrels and mice were buried too deep for coyotes to reach. The coyotes move out of the high country also. When I cross country skied the high country almost never saw a coyote track. Also the deep snow makes travel difficult for them also.
 
Some very good information has already been written .

Food is key in the High Country, and snow depth plays a large part as well.

Deep snow makes it tough for a coyote to walk in, and tougher to find a meal. If the snow crusts over, it's easier to walk on, but harder to dive into to grab a mouse.

In general, you'll have better luck in North, Middle and South Parks, than you will over Hoosier Pass, for example.

I like hunting the High Country because the pelts are usually very nice, and I like the lower elevations because I can increase the body count.

Give it more time on stand, say at least 20 minutes. Give them time to get to you.

Are you seeing a decent amount of coyote tracks?

Generally, I'll find them along river or creek bottoms and sage flats vs. deep in the forest at higher elevations.
 
K22-hornet said:
Some very good information has already been written .

Food is key in the High Country, and snow depth plays a large part as well.

Deep snow makes it tough for a coyote to walk in, and tougher to find a meal. If the snow crusts over, it's easier to walk on, but harder to dive into to grab a mouse.

In general, you'll have better luck in North, Middle and South Parks, than you will over Hoosier Pass, for example.

I like hunting the High Country because the pelts are usually very nice, and I like the lower elevations because I can increase the body count.

Give it more time on stand, say at least 20 minutes. Give them time to get to you.

Are you seeing a decent amount of coyote tracks?

Generally, I'll find them along river or creek bottoms and sage flats vs. deep in the forest at higher elevations.
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Ok that seems to be what everyone is saying is to stay longer on stand in the high country. I find a ton of coyote tracks I do hunt the creek bottoms a lot! I’m in the Carbondale area so I’m hunting the foothills of the flattops and when we snowmobile the flattops we see way more coyotes in 5ft of snow when it crusts up! So I will start staying longer maybe that’s where I’m going wrong by not sitting long enough!
 
Here in Arizona I call from 3500 to 7000 ft. Snow is usually not an issue here. But the higher I go the less successful my stands. I suspect that in the low country they are more densely populated and can get to the call faster. Calling longer may be a good idea for higher, rougher country. If they have to cross difficult terrain to get to you they are probably less likely to come in, or may take longer to get there. Most coyotes I call show up within 10-15 minutes. However I have had them show up at the 30-35 minute mark when I've sat longer than usual. This usually occurred in areas with fairly rough terrain.
 
Huachuca Caller said:
Here in Arizona I call from 3500 to 7000 ft. Snow is usually not an issue here. But the higher I go the less successful my stands. I suspect that in the low country they are more densely populated and can get to the call faster. Calling longer may be a good idea for higher, rougher country. If they have to cross difficult terrain to get to you they are probably less likely to come in, or may take longer to get there. Most coyotes I call show up within 10-15 minutes. However I have had them show up at the 30-35 minute mark when I've sat longer than usual. This usually occurred in areas with fairly rough terrain.
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I really appreciate yall for the info! I’ll put all this into my stands and hopefully I’ll start seeing better results!!
 
I used to hunt that exact country. I lived in Carbondale area for 35 years. I have called all over the Lincoln Creek, Richmond Ridge, Lost Man, Independence, The Crown, Missouri heights, Reudi, Four Mile, Basalt Mountain, Avalanche Creek, and Cottonwood pass. Coyote hunting got really popular several years ago and all those places got much harder to hunt, lots of newbies standing out in the open with a caller in their hand, or calling from the seat of the truck. Everybody and their brother seemed to be a coyote hunter around 2019 to 2023. I killed lots of coyotes in some of those areas, enough that I think I damaged the population, but it probably recovers quickly.

I never did any good while using a snowmobile to access the high country, day or night, NEVER. Even hiking a mile or more away from the snowmobile. A lot of the truly high country, like above 9000' in the winter does not hold many animals of any kind. The snow is too deep for coyotes or bobcats to get down to mice, voles, and squirrel like rodents. In the winter I hunted on foot (snowshoes) from about 8500' and lower. Most of the coyotes I killed, averaged about 30 per year, were in the 7000 to 8000' range.

I hunted the high country in the early fall, sometimes with great success. I've killed them at 12,500' in September and October. But, there aren't that many coyotes living up there even in the summer. I would go to an area the first year and kill 3 or 4, the next year maybe 1 or 2, the 3rd year was usually not worth going.

Might be fun to try hunting at 9500' and higher in the winter, but far more effort for far fewer coyotes. You might see lots of coyote tracks on the snowmobile tracks, that's because snowmobile tracks are highways for them. And one coyote can make a lot of tracks.
 
Bluebird said:
I used to hunt that exact country. I lived in Carbondale area for 35 years. I have called all over the Lincoln Creek, Richmond Ridge, Lost Man, Independence, The Crown, Missouri heights, Reudi, Four Mile, Basalt Mountain, Avalanche Creek, and Cottonwood pass. Coyote hunting got really popular several years ago and all those places got much harder to hunt, lots of newbies standing out in the open with a caller in their hand, or calling from the seat of the truck. Everybody and their brother seemed to be a coyote hunter around 2019 to 2023. I killed lots of coyotes in some of those areas, enough that I think I damaged the population, but it probably recovers quickly.

I never did any good while using a snowmobile to access the high country, day or night, NEVER. Even hiking a mile or more away from the snowmobile. A lot of the truly high country, like above 9000' in the winter does not hold many animals of any kind. The snow is too deep for coyotes or bobcats to get down to mice, voles, and squirrel like rodents. In the winter I hunted on foot (snowshoes) from about 8500' and lower. Most of the coyotes I killed, averaged about 30 per year, were in the 7000 to 8000' range.

I hunted the high country in the early fall, sometimes with great success. I've killed them at 12,500' in September and October. But, there aren't that many coyotes living up there even in the summer. I would go to an area the first year and kill 3 or 4, the next year maybe 1 or 2, the 3rd year was usually not worth going.

Might be fun to try hunting at 9500' and higher in the winter, but far more effort for far fewer coyotes. You might see lots of coyote tracks on the snowmobile tracks, that's because snowmobile tracks are highways for them. And one coyote can make a lot of tracks.
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That’s awesome! How long did you have to sit on stand up here? I know sounds can change over time for what works but what did you notice working the most? Vocals or distress? I want to get a set of skis to hunt from so I can get to places most people don’t want to go to! Also to get where the lions hang out on basalt mt!
 
I didn't use vocals much, when I did I don't think it did me any good. People would sometimes tell me I needed to sit longer, so I started keeping track of how long it took coyotes to come in. Sitting past 15 minutes produced very little, I sat up to 30 minutes during my "test", the number of coyotes I got after 15 minutes was very small. Like one in 40 stands would produce a coyote after 15 minutes. Unless you can see them coming in from a mile or more and they just aren't that excited about your calls and you can keep switching it up while watching them to see what works, I think the longer stands in that country are a waste of time. Over the years I would guess that 95% of the coyotes I shot or shot at while calling came in within 10 minutes.

All standard prey sounds worked, early on my favorite was snowshoe distress, but had lots of success with all rabbit distress. Prairie dog works well there too, even though the nearest prairie dog is probably 100 miles away. Called in a Lynx in Lincoln Creek many years ago. Red squirrel distress was also pretty good, even out in the vast sage areas in the northwest where there aren't any.

I did pretty good doing spot and stalk coyotes when they got call shy.

Lions are all over, Cattle Creek has been known to produce, as well as Red Canyon The lions are where the deer are at this time of year.

I'm no expert, lots of guys kill way more than I did. But I did pretty good in big high remote country.
 
Bluebird said:
I didn't use vocals much, when I did I don't think it did me any good. People would sometimes tell me I needed to sit longer, so I started keeping track of how long it took coyotes to come in. Sitting past 15 minutes produced very little, I sat up to 30 minutes during my "test", the number of coyotes I got after 15 minutes was very small. Like one in 40 stands would produce a coyote after 15 minutes. Unless you can see them coming in from a mile or more and they just aren't that excited about your calls and you can keep switching it up while watching them to see what works, I think the longer stands in that country are a waste of time. Over the years I would guess that 95% of the coyotes I shot or shot at while calling came in within 10 minutes.

All standard prey sounds worked, early on my favorite was snowshoe distress, but had lots of success with all rabbit distress. Prairie dog works well there too, even though the nearest prairie dog is probably 100 miles away. Called in a Lynx in Lincoln Creek many years ago. Red squirrel distress was also pretty good, even out in the vast sage areas in the northwest where there aren't any.

I did pretty good doing spot and stalk coyotes when they got call shy.

Lions are all over, Cattle Creek has been known to produce, as well as Red Canyon The lions are where the deer are at this time of year.

I'm no expert, lots of guys kill way more than I did. But I did pretty good in big high remote country.
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Heck yea! I’ll put some of those to work! I really appreciate the feedback! Thanks for taking the time to help me out hopefully I start having more success
 
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