Calls n Cows

tripod3

New member
I have been calling one ranchers place for years and most of their neighbors. It is calving season and they call me at even the sign of predators.
Knowing the livestock I am very careful what I do or use to call.
They have recently let someone else try calling and it rattled the cows pretty bad causing some problems.
This worries me about their views when they contacted me today. They stated it has not been a problem with me and they were surprised and unaware that done without consideration it cost them money now. Who knows later developments.
This has been discussed before here and many guys could care less. I do and they have become friends.
In this case newbies haven't ruined it for me but sure tried.
 
Originally Posted By: DotZeroSo, what's on the 'not what to do' list, when calling around stock?

Not all stock is the same or even the same all the time.
Calf sounds can be risky.
Large loud coyote sounds close can rattle them
or they can bunch up running and leave calves behind or trample their own calves.
Young heifers can run through fences and calving heifers are unpredictable.
Overall it increases stress.
Later in the year they become more curious to calls and can ruin a hunt for you by circling close.
Maybe the newbies should only get to call in the bull pasture.
 
Too bad to hear that. Glad they reached out to you so that you could assuage their fears. We don't get cows running from us, in fact, we have just the opposite problems. They sometimes come right to the call. They seem to really like rabbit calls, puppy distress, etc.
 
Originally Posted By: SnowmanMoToo bad to hear that. Glad they reached out to you so that you could assuage their fears. We don't get cows running from us, in fact, we have just the opposite problems. They sometimes come right to the call. They seem to really like rabbit calls, puppy distress, etc.


Deer too.
We have had does come running in full bore and try to stomp The "coyote".
Gota turn off the caller or they would crush it.
Horses too.
 
Originally Posted By: SnowmanMoToo bad to hear that. Glad they reached out to you so that you could assuage their fears. We don't get cows running from us, in fact, we have just the opposite problems. They sometimes come right to the call. They seem to really like rabbit calls, puppy distress, etc.

Was lucky they asked cause they didn't understand calling tactics either.
Cows will come in to the call here too at different stages and ages.
Some guys do fall calving and others winter/spring calve. Two of these may be neighbors.
Having wolves,cougars, and coyotes it adds up.
This week a lost day old calf equals $225, 3 week $350, 1 month $400. Adds up fast and this year the severe weather has cost extra losses.
 
Quote:Deer too.
We have had does come running in full bore and try to stomp The "coyote".
Gota turn off the caller or they would crush it.
Horses too.

I have had does come in wanting to stomp me. Some of them have a huge buck right behind them. Called/shot a nice coyote in a bull pasture and couldn't even get a pic before they smeared it, lucky it wasn't me.
 
Originally Posted By: SnowmanMoToo bad to hear that. Glad they reached out to you so that you could assuage their fears. We don't get cows running from us, in fact, we have just the opposite problems. They sometimes come right to the call. They seem to really like rabbit calls, puppy distress, etc.

This has been my experience also. Cows will bust me way before a coyote will. Are you using mouth calls or electronic? electronic calls will at least not get 20 cows in my lap like a mouth call will. This time of year the coyotes stay close to the cows waiting for the newborn sick calf or more my experience is the afterbirth. I hang out near the cows and usually glass until I find the coyotes then take long shots this time of year. Got one last week at 385 yards... Im not sure who was more surprised, me or the coyote since he knew I was there.
 
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Originally Posted By: FirehandOriginally Posted By: SnowmanMoToo bad to hear that. Glad they reached out to you so that you could assuage their fears. We don't get cows running from us, in fact, we have just the opposite problems. They sometimes come right to the call. They seem to really like rabbit calls, puppy distress, etc.

This has been my experience also. Cows will bust me way before a coyote will. Are you using mouth calls or electronic? electronic calls will at least not get 20 cows in my lap like a mouth call will. This time of year the coyotes stay close to the cows waiting for the newborn sick calf or more my experience is the afterbirth. I hang out near the cows and usually glass until I find the coyotes then take long shots this time of year. Got one last week at 385 yards... Im not sure who was more surprised, me or the coyote since he knew I was there.

I use both but don't have problems because I know what not to do and when.
It was a newbie that caused problems, I was not there.
 
cows are goofy, some run to the call and some run away from the call and some could care less. I try to set up far enough from cows that they won't react one way or the other even though they may be able to hear the call.

Now horses on the other hand, I don't even want them dumb bastids to hear my call, talk about being stupid. They are way worse then a cow ever dreamed of being. I absolutely don't even want them to hear my call.
 
On my two favorite ranches it is hard to stay completely away from cattle. One ranch stocked with young steers, the other has breeding stock; all are pretty wild range cattle that will spook at the sight of a man.

I like to stay a couple hundred yards or more, but in sight of cattle where terrain permits, and often have been alerted to approach of coyote(s) by the cattle.

All cattle seem to show an interest when they hear the call, but can't remember the young steers ever being attracted or spooked by the call, but a few times the breeders have surrounded the call. Most of the time they just stare at that distance, but do not spook from, nor come to the call.

Regards,
hm
 
If the cows come to the call do the coyote hang back? Can you shoot past the cattle? If they are wild range cattle that could prove a problem. Have you thought about slingshots to brush back the stock? This is from a person from Minnesota with dairy cattle used to people. When I lived in ky a neighbor had jacks in the pasture next door. Coyote lived a precarious existence coming anywhere near them.
 
Quote:If the cows come to the call do the coyote hang back? Can you shoot past the cattle? If they are wild range cattle that could prove a problem.

If you are asking about wild stock in S. Tx., coyotes will run right through the cattle on the way to the call, but I won't shoot toward the cattle or close enough to them to disturb them.

Regards,
hm
 
Great thread. I never think about this kind of thing due to the fact that I am always on public land. Still run in to cattle now and then but don't give them much thought. Usually set up a little ways from them and they leave me alone and I leave them alone. That being said I use that elk calf in distress during the spring and I have had some pretty angry elk cows come and want to put a beating on me a few times. I always say I am gonna take pictures but I never do.
 
Cows are the devil!

I hate them with every fiber of my being.

They aint good for nothing but eating.

With that being said, I avoid them like the plague! I hate when they go crazy and start running around wild like a bunch of heathen. Not that I really care about them, but I dont want to upset my farmers. I can hear them now up at the coffee shop telling all their neighbors how I was stampeding their cattle. Especially when I have the dogs along, that is really bad.

In reality most farmers know their cattle are idiots. They know they do stupid things and its not always my fault they act like fools. Still, I avoid them as much as humanly possible.
 
Ranchers know cows are stupid and can create ways to die. They just don't want someone helping them to an earlier demise.
Ranchers also would like to find the cows where they left them.
Yes there has been coffee talk and even whiskey talk about this ordeal with the disruptive callers. Several locals have asked me about it.
 
Ive had farmer tell me not to worry about the cows running wild. They will and need to get use me being there. There are people who overreact in all walks of life.

It wasnt me, and you wont find anyone more respectful to landowners. I am not defending anyone, please dont take my post as that.
 
Quote: Cows are the devil!

I hate them with every fiber of my being.

They aint good for nothing but eating.

You keep saying that but I will never forget the stand where you and I watched those yearling heifers run that coyote in a big circle only to deliver him right into our laps....darndest thing I ever seen....
lol.gif
 
Coyotes like to hang by cattle for lots of reasons. I have called coyotes through, by, around and about every possible way with cattle. However, when you get a group of cattle that go nuts by running in any direction, I don't have success calling coyotes on those stands typically unless it is a long time later.

You can't always predict. I have set up right next to a herd and they don't hardly even lift their heads, and the next stop you go, you are 1 mile away and they come and almost trample you. I was raised on a cattle ranch and have worked cattle for 30+ years, and still can't always predict how a herd of cattle will react when you start calling.
 
I have found around here that some herds or
individual cows either care or dont care.

A pasture @ 3/4 mile behind my house none of
the cows pay any attention to the call or coyotes.

The pasture directly behind me has 2 older cows
out of about 20 head that runs coyotes out,
Ive had it happen 3 times with coyotes I had
called over the past few years.

Another that I hunt around has about 40-50 head
@ half will watch me the whole time Im there
but wont charge in the other half wont stop eating.

Crazy Bulls are another story.
 


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