rockinbbar
New member
When down at the ranch last week on Sunday while Barbara was sleeping in, I got out to check the cows, water & perhaps make a stand or two.
The area that involves this hunt is at the base of the mountains, and in a very large grassy plain in which there's little or no cover at all.
You can see from the pic how open it really is... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Anyway, I really need to hide the truck.
These coyotes have been called on, it's late season, & they are in no mood to just come running to anything they hear...especially if they can see a truck or something else out of place.
I knew the wind was out of the north...straight ahaed as I was driving in, and I would hunt and make my stnd in the same direction, so I parked behind an old water tank so that anything coming in won't catch sight of the truck.
You can barely see the back doors of the Tahoe open behind the tank.
In front of the parking place at the tank, you can see a yucca with several branches. That serves as my shooting stand.
closer still in the picture, you can see a cholla cactus...it's about 50 yards from the yucca stand...
That's where I put my caller. I stick it inside the cactus.
This seves to hide the caller, and it gets the caller off the ground for the sound to carry farther in the relatively still morning air.
Ok, the caller is set...
I quietly go back to the yucca, where my ALPS chair, & SniperStyx await me.
Buster settles in at my side as I pull on my facemask & don the hood of my ghillie.
I start out with the sounds I am using...softly at first.
Cottontail distress.
I've found that a softer distress sound like that will immediately bring in a coyote that may be layed up closer than I think. (I've killed lots of coyotes that way....they never knew I was there, nor I them, until I started out calling.)
One more reason to not just "start blasting" the sound right away.
I let the soft sounds play about 2 min., slowly increasing the volume as I check the area.
No sign of movement.
Ok, nothing has moved close.
Now I need to get the sound out there so they can hear it from afar.
I have a theory...just my personal belief that now I need to "Get Their Attention"....
I play a jackrabbit distress sound that is mixed with high-pitched wailing & raspy alternating sounds. This serves my purpose of getting their attention from afar....I pretty much 'crank' this sound out there. I want them on their feet & excited to come have an easy meal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
After about a minute & a half of this sound, I see that it has worked!
.....about 3/4 of a mile to my northwest I spot movement!
Coyote! Light colored...he's coming in at a trot with his head up and ears perked.
The coyote stops & looks around to see what else might be coming in....
He sees that he's alone and continues his wary approach....
(As I've said, the coyotes here have been called before.)
I watch the coyote for several minutes.
He never breaks from his trot except to stop, smell the wind, & look around to see what his competition might be for this hot meal.
As he starts get closer, I start to lower the volume of the caller.
A coyote KNOWS where that sound is coming from. He probably knew within a few yards where the sound was located the moment he came into my view.
Now he's about 350 yards from the cholla that holds my caller.....
I switch sounds to a more subdued jackrabbit sound that isn't as excited....more like the jack is getting weak, and being "shaken & bitten" by whatever is causing his dimise....
Volume is not very high. As he gets closer, I lower the volume even more.....Then put the remote down & let the scene play out, with the coyote as the main player of focus.
He's now within a 100 yards and I start to look for the oppurtunity to make a quick, clean killshot... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
The coyote has kept up his trot from 300 plus yards to about 75 yards....25 yards from the caller. I see the wary caution in his face now. He wants the rabbit, but can't figure out why it's in that cholla!
When he gets to with about 15 yards of the caller, he stops & looks into the cactus as if to locate that rabbit.
My crosshairs find the chosen spot and as he looks straight up at the caller, my 55 grain V-Max takes him straight-on...right through the boiler room.
The light recoil of the .223 AR allows me to actually watch him close his eyes as he topples over, dead before he hit the ground! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
I at once start playing a Ki-Yi...adult coyote distress that I have pre-programmed just for that purpose.
In a lot of cases, while I'm focusing on a good kill-shot on an incoming coyote, there my be more that have entered into play & are in the area that I'm not aware of. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
I'll play that Ki-Yi for usually about a minute. Nothing moving still.....I switch back to the loud, excited jackrabbit distress. I let the rabbit sing to them for a bit over a minute...sometimes longer in coutry that might conceal a predator better.
But, as the open country affords me to have a great view of what is coming in, I can clearly see that the stand is over. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
I hit the mute button & Buster goes out to inspect his prize as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I keep him close by my side unless there are multiple coyotes in the stand, or one that is shot & doesn't fall right there.
Buster works with a simple "hiss" from me. He'll go out & take on a wounded coyote to insure it doesn't leave the stand, or he'll go out & approach a dead one....
(In LOTS of cases, when there are more than one coyote in the stand after I shoot, he will draw the attention & focus of the others left to wonder what just happened.)
As the others are watching HIM, I'm settling those crosshairs, watching for another shot as the Ki-Yi & Buster are doing their thing.
Wasn't the case today though....just a single male.
Buster sure likes to pose with them too! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I might add that this is the FIFTH coyote taken in a year from this exact location, open country set-up!
I feel sure it isn't the last... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
I apply these techniques when calling in open country all the time. A lot of the time, it's very successful.
I'll be driving by a spot that has NO elevated stand location, but just looks like there may be coyotes in the area & use any cover avl. to me, such as a "low-spot" to park the truck & make a stand....a set of corrals, or a windmill/tank location works too.
(coyotes won't pay much attention to those areas...they know that something is there all the time...If you add a vehicle, it just won't capture their attention like parking in the open does.)
I know this is long, but I wanted it to be informative as well. I hope you can perhaps use some of the information about how I call open country in the way YOU call.
I also welcome anything you may add that I might have left out, or you feel is important when calling open country such as this.
Please feel free to add your personal experiences as well! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
Thanks for looking!
Barry
The area that involves this hunt is at the base of the mountains, and in a very large grassy plain in which there's little or no cover at all.
You can see from the pic how open it really is... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Anyway, I really need to hide the truck.
These coyotes have been called on, it's late season, & they are in no mood to just come running to anything they hear...especially if they can see a truck or something else out of place.
I knew the wind was out of the north...straight ahaed as I was driving in, and I would hunt and make my stnd in the same direction, so I parked behind an old water tank so that anything coming in won't catch sight of the truck.
You can barely see the back doors of the Tahoe open behind the tank.
In front of the parking place at the tank, you can see a yucca with several branches. That serves as my shooting stand.
closer still in the picture, you can see a cholla cactus...it's about 50 yards from the yucca stand...
That's where I put my caller. I stick it inside the cactus.
This seves to hide the caller, and it gets the caller off the ground for the sound to carry farther in the relatively still morning air.
Ok, the caller is set...
I quietly go back to the yucca, where my ALPS chair, & SniperStyx await me.
Buster settles in at my side as I pull on my facemask & don the hood of my ghillie.
I start out with the sounds I am using...softly at first.
Cottontail distress.
I've found that a softer distress sound like that will immediately bring in a coyote that may be layed up closer than I think. (I've killed lots of coyotes that way....they never knew I was there, nor I them, until I started out calling.)
One more reason to not just "start blasting" the sound right away.
I let the soft sounds play about 2 min., slowly increasing the volume as I check the area.
No sign of movement.
Ok, nothing has moved close.
Now I need to get the sound out there so they can hear it from afar.
I have a theory...just my personal belief that now I need to "Get Their Attention"....
I play a jackrabbit distress sound that is mixed with high-pitched wailing & raspy alternating sounds. This serves my purpose of getting their attention from afar....I pretty much 'crank' this sound out there. I want them on their feet & excited to come have an easy meal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
After about a minute & a half of this sound, I see that it has worked!
.....about 3/4 of a mile to my northwest I spot movement!
Coyote! Light colored...he's coming in at a trot with his head up and ears perked.
The coyote stops & looks around to see what else might be coming in....
He sees that he's alone and continues his wary approach....
(As I've said, the coyotes here have been called before.)
I watch the coyote for several minutes.
He never breaks from his trot except to stop, smell the wind, & look around to see what his competition might be for this hot meal.
As he starts get closer, I start to lower the volume of the caller.
A coyote KNOWS where that sound is coming from. He probably knew within a few yards where the sound was located the moment he came into my view.
Now he's about 350 yards from the cholla that holds my caller.....
I switch sounds to a more subdued jackrabbit sound that isn't as excited....more like the jack is getting weak, and being "shaken & bitten" by whatever is causing his dimise....
Volume is not very high. As he gets closer, I lower the volume even more.....Then put the remote down & let the scene play out, with the coyote as the main player of focus.
He's now within a 100 yards and I start to look for the oppurtunity to make a quick, clean killshot... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
The coyote has kept up his trot from 300 plus yards to about 75 yards....25 yards from the caller. I see the wary caution in his face now. He wants the rabbit, but can't figure out why it's in that cholla!
When he gets to with about 15 yards of the caller, he stops & looks into the cactus as if to locate that rabbit.
My crosshairs find the chosen spot and as he looks straight up at the caller, my 55 grain V-Max takes him straight-on...right through the boiler room.
The light recoil of the .223 AR allows me to actually watch him close his eyes as he topples over, dead before he hit the ground! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
I at once start playing a Ki-Yi...adult coyote distress that I have pre-programmed just for that purpose.
In a lot of cases, while I'm focusing on a good kill-shot on an incoming coyote, there my be more that have entered into play & are in the area that I'm not aware of. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
I'll play that Ki-Yi for usually about a minute. Nothing moving still.....I switch back to the loud, excited jackrabbit distress. I let the rabbit sing to them for a bit over a minute...sometimes longer in coutry that might conceal a predator better.
But, as the open country affords me to have a great view of what is coming in, I can clearly see that the stand is over. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
I hit the mute button & Buster goes out to inspect his prize as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I keep him close by my side unless there are multiple coyotes in the stand, or one that is shot & doesn't fall right there.
Buster works with a simple "hiss" from me. He'll go out & take on a wounded coyote to insure it doesn't leave the stand, or he'll go out & approach a dead one....
(In LOTS of cases, when there are more than one coyote in the stand after I shoot, he will draw the attention & focus of the others left to wonder what just happened.)
As the others are watching HIM, I'm settling those crosshairs, watching for another shot as the Ki-Yi & Buster are doing their thing.
Wasn't the case today though....just a single male.
Buster sure likes to pose with them too! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I might add that this is the FIFTH coyote taken in a year from this exact location, open country set-up!
I feel sure it isn't the last... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
I apply these techniques when calling in open country all the time. A lot of the time, it's very successful.
I'll be driving by a spot that has NO elevated stand location, but just looks like there may be coyotes in the area & use any cover avl. to me, such as a "low-spot" to park the truck & make a stand....a set of corrals, or a windmill/tank location works too.
(coyotes won't pay much attention to those areas...they know that something is there all the time...If you add a vehicle, it just won't capture their attention like parking in the open does.)
I know this is long, but I wanted it to be informative as well. I hope you can perhaps use some of the information about how I call open country in the way YOU call.
I also welcome anything you may add that I might have left out, or you feel is important when calling open country such as this.
Please feel free to add your personal experiences as well! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
Thanks for looking!
Barry
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