eastern coyotes vs western coyotes

Originally Posted By: JJTAlwaysWishingEh... you may be a better caller/hunter whatever you want to call it. Maybe I shouldn't say you're wrong. But being able to see a coyote is the hardest part hunting eastern coyotes. No telling how many eastern hunters go out make 20 stands not kill a single coyote, but actually call in 19 coyotes and never know. Atleast hunting out west you CAN see what your shooting at. A lot of eastern coyote/predator hunters use shotguns. Why? I'm sure you know. But I'll elaborate for those who dont. Because they come in so close and don't ever stop moving. Anybody can learn how to shoot out to "2 miles" although I think that's complete bs and unethical as [beeep]. But I'm just hoping you are joking. I think the eastern caller has to be a better shooter/caller and a downright better hunter in general. When an eastern hunters sees a coyote, he can't hesitate even for a second. As soon as a shot opportunity opens they have to take it, a western hunter can say "oh I don't feel like a 2 mile shot today, I'll just wait till he gets within a mile." But hey whatever, opinions are like... well you know.
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Have a good day.

In honesty though I shouldn't argue, everything I say will be shut down within the first 5 people to see my post. Mainly because 90% of Predator hunters on this site hunt where? Drum roll please! Out west!

Ps. The eastern coyote hunter doesn't have very much info to base their strategy off of, why? Because it is so difficult to just pick up calling and learn how to and people get discouraged rather quickly. I've seen people on this very site talk about killing 10+ coyotes on one single stand out west, the eastern coyote is way to smart to walk in after seeing 9 of his cousins killed.

I agree with everything said here.

6MM06's pics are spot on for what the eastern terrain is like, THICK. Average is 35-40lbs and we see high 40's each season, western yotes look like our pups.

Someone else mentioned seeing multiple on the roadways out west... I think it took me around 18 years to see my first one in person here in Mass and I grew up on a farm.
 
the only coyotes i ever see in the daylight are the ones I call in. I live in the country & travel about 300 miles a week well tending, on back roads & 4 lane. a lot of fields along 4 lane. may see 1 or 2 a year run over.
 
Originally Posted By: jayatnightI Think were all over looking one of the main aspects of this.. Being out in there hunting.. Lol.. Cant kill if your not hunting..

That's very true, although I have questioned many times why I continued to hunt with no success for long periods of time. Getting a coyote once every two or three years gets very frustrating. That's what many eastern hunters have to contend with. But when I do get one, all those empty stands are quickly forgotten.
 
Originally Posted By: 6mm06 That's very true, although I have questioned many times why I continued to hunt with no success for long periods of time. Getting a coyote once every two or three years gets very frustrating. That's what many eastern hunters have to contend with. But when I do get one, all those empty stands are quickly forgotten.

OldTurtle says it best in his signature
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Quote: It's a fine line between Hunting, and sitting in one spot looking Foolish...

Regards,
hm
 
Yes if you are only get 1-2 a yr.. you either hunting other animals or not out in the woods.. or you are setting up all wrong

I know an old timer that wears zero camo on while siting in a lawn chair and kills atleast 40 a yr
 

Originally Posted By: jayatnightYes if you are only get 1-2 a yr.. you either hunting other animals or not out in the woods.. or you are setting up all wrong

Well, I hate to rain on you boys parade, but that isn't so. You are judging me from afar with little information on which to base those remarks. I don't claim to be the best caller out there, maybe not as good as you, but my calling techniques are as good as most from what I have observed from hunting with others, Tony Tebbe in New Mexico for one, and a couple of guys in Arizona too, and a couple of guys around here.

I have limited amount of area to hunt and getting harder all the time. Finding good calling land around here is not so easy, especially given the small tracts of private owned land as well as the thick, steep mountain hillsides. Some places I just can't call, or can't call well, kind-of like the old saying "you can't get there from here." Some of those areas are only accessible from one location, and the wind seems to always be wrong. Plus there are other reasons too, such as low coyote numbers and also the fact that there is a tremendous amount of hunters back here, many of whom are blowing predator calls etc. all the time. I have even heard of coon hunters at night, noisy and with dogs, blowing on them.

There are a host of reasons. One of the best areas I had to hunt (company land) suddenly changed hands and was locked up with hunting by lease only. Then later the Game Commission managed to get it reopened as PALS land (public access land) and now the area has about more hunters than trees. Game Wardens are having to patrol the area due to poaching of deer. It's not a large area to begin with, so you can imagine just how difficult it might be to even try to call a coyote there. To make matters worse, I can't hunt the land when a game season is out, in other words around January or February when deer hunters are out of the woods, I can't hunt it thanks to the new rules.

As well, the Game Commission has twice put out bait bombs in my immediate area and killed a fairly large number of coyotes from what I have been told, lessening my opportunity.

I do have a couple of coyotes visiting my bait site at the moment, from time to time, and actually have more now than for a while. I resorted to baiting (legal here) as a means of getting an occasional coyote. Even with that, the coyotes don't commit to the bait every night. I have trail cameras set up over the site and have noticed their behavior for a few years now. I set my cameras to video which gives me a better indication of their behavior. I have seen coyotes hit the bait on a given night and not return for a month or more. I keep my cameras running on video 24-7 and have actually gone 2 months without seeing a single coyote, and that is with bait there all the time.

I generally don't shoot coyotes this time of year (my own personal thing) but I may try to take one out soon if it continues visiting. It is missing one leg, Tripod as I call it. It visited two nights ago but not last night. Bait is there all the time, so go figure why. I have killed 11 coyotes from my bait site (with night vision) since 2011 and have been doing that for a while and not calling, or not calling much.

Calling is now less productive than it was when I first started over 10 years ago. Back then I used to call an occasional one and had a little more action. Within one week after I killed my first coyote, I then called and killed another one. I also called a black one and another one that busted me (in the woods), and I called yet another one and killed it. After a while of calling it got harder, land got locked up and coyote numbers were way down.

So.......It is what it is. That's why I long for another western hunt, or another place even in the east that has better odds.

Don't judge what you don't know.


 
Quote:Well, I hate to rain on you boys parade

Hey David, I'm afraid, after re reading my post and your reply that you took my post as derogatory, and can see where that could be a possible interpretation. Believe me, it certainly was not meant to be! In fact, I admire your persistence.

Hunting is like playing cards, ya can't win if ya don't get the cards. Not all hunting grounds are equal and, if the coyotes are not there no one can call 'em. You hunt some really beautiful country, but heavy brush is extremely difficult to hunt not to mention the difficult terrain.

Personally, I get as much from getting out in the brush as I do from shooting a coyote and obviously you do too.

I've always found OT's signature as humorous, as it pretty well describes many of my hunts, and certainly did not mean it to be a reflection on your hunting skills. So, please accept my apology for any misunderstanding, and keep after them!

Regards,
hm
 

No problem HM. I have known you for a long time and you are a stand-up guy in my book. I wasn't quite sure how to interpret what you said, and I decided not to respond at all until Jay joined in. That did it. LOL.

I realize how discussing on the Net vs in person can be. A guy can't always explain himself or see the various facial expressions and body language that means something different than what was actually said. No harm done, and I thank you for being up front about it all.
 
Yeah, my dry wit often gets misunderstood and I get myself into trouble.
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By the way, that picture of the clouds in the valleys is beautiful. Was it taken in the Smokies?

Regards,
hm
 

Originally Posted By: hm1996By the way, that picture of the clouds in the valleys is beautiful. Was it taken in the Smokies?

Regards,
hm


No, it was taken about a mile from my house (Virginia), on our family mountain farm. It's not really a farm per'se but we used to run cattle on it and now only cut hay. It's a nice view for sure, but rugged as heck when you get down into it. That is a fairly good bobcat area and I did call a coyote up out of that area one time - the one where I was wearing the snow camo. When I call on the farm, that's the main area a coyote would respond from.

I must be going about it all wrong and I guess my methods aren't very good after all. Maybe I need to take Jay's advice and get a lawn chair. Heck, if I could kill 40 coyotes a year with that method, then why walk these steep and thick hillsides?? I might even get a set of bib overalls. That might increase the numbers by a few. LOL.

Some more views of the hollow in the photo, taken from the farm.








These are for you, Jay. Would you recommend any particular color lawn chair to use here?












Wounded a coyote one time (my only wounded one) that went down the hollow into the thick stuff.
I tracked him in the snow until he hit the laurels. The tracking suddenly came to a abrupt halt.
There was no way I could walk through that stuff.










This is the most open area on the farm that I have to hunt. I did call a coyote up to the
field however, out of that deep hollow.






Wish I could say I got these two by calling, but I didn't. Got them the same night at my bait site.
If one method doesn't pan out, then change methods, right. But also, this was a few years ago
before the Game Commission took out several coyotes.






I don't mean to post so many photos and maybe get away from the original topic. Just sharing how things are here for me.
I'm sure that some other eastern guys have it as tough or worse, but that doesn't mean we give up.



 
heck, you are really slacking 6mm. young mr jay done killed 40 already in 2016. going to kill a 100 by the end of the year.

Originally Posted By: jayatnightBeen a good season for me so far around 40 coyotes down since 2016 has started... aiming for at least 100 this year..



cough, cough.
 
"Not all hunting grounds are equal and, if the coyotes are not there no one can call 'em."

i knew there was a secret to this.
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6mm06 we do not get near enough pictures and stories posted here. Post away.
 

Thanks Redfrog. I didn't want to appear to be showing off or posting too much. I know that guys do like photos, I know I do. They make a post better and illustrate the point better. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Hopefully mine makes a strong statement about coyote hunting in certain parts of the east.

The coyotes I have taken are nothing compared to what many of you on the forums get. I have taken a relatively small number compared to a lot of others. My friend I mentioned earlier has taken 32 coyotes this past season, and he lives in the east, a bordering state to mine, so what I have done is small in comparison.

Here's a couple more photos of the thickness of the area where I hunt.








I really enjoy calling coyotes, but I don't do it much anymore because it isn't very productive now. I mean, I can probably call one occasionally but that would require a lot of stands over a long period of time, with little results for my effort. That's why I have resorted to baiting, and even that is not as productive as a lot of guys might think.

For eastern guys who hunt terrain like me, there is an alternative to consider "IF" it's legal and something you might want to do. Baiting. That keeps me in the game and allows me to take a coyote now and then. Truth is though, that I only get one or two coyotes a year generally, maybe three but that's a good year. Baiting is not as easy as it might sound. It requires a lot of work keeping a site baited 24-7, checking cameras and deciding when to hunt.

I purchased a small storage building and turned it into a hunting shack, my hobo shack as I call it. It's only an 8x12 foot building but it has given me a lot of pleasure staying down at the farm. I insulated and heated it and have a comfortable bunk where I can rest for the night. Peace and quiet is a reward unto itself, not to mention the possibility of getting a coyote.





Once a coyote hits the bait and if it returns again, I then try to stay the following night at the farm. Sometimes it works out and sometimes I don't see a coyote for a month or two, or even longer. I usually don't hunt summers as I mentioned earlier, but have on occasion. That's just my personal preference.

Here's some photos of my bait setup. Off topic I know, but maybe will give someone an option to consider if calling is not good in your area.

All of these photos are of different coyotes.


















So just because the calling may not be good in a particular area doesn't mean you have to sit home on the couch. Sometimes there's ways to stay in the game.


I posted a photo of this coyote in my original post on this thread and then realized I didn't call this one, so I removed it. This coyote was feeding on a dead new-born calf.
The hillside speaks volumes of the terrain here.





 
Thanks for the great pics and the explanation David. You got me wondering about the terrain issue in regards to my own personal experiences. Guess you could say I've got the best of both worlds here in Az. Most folks think of Az as a blistering desert, and true enough it can be that. However less than 100 miles north we find national forest land that vaguely resembles some of your pics, except that the most prevalent trees would be pine and cedars. Massive valleys, thick cover, lots of hillsides and mountains. For many years we have hunted these areas in the summer months and it is delightful due to the cooler temps at that altitude. Even though it is extremely difficult terrain, surprisingly, we tend to do very well. The coyotes wreak havoc during the birthing season on the elk, deer and antelope. There is a certain plateau area where vast herds go to birth the young. Your post sent my thinking in a direction it hadn't gone before. It seems to me that it must be coyote populations and not terrain that is the problem in your area, coupled with the fact that there is very little privately owned land in Az. We have seldom had ocassion to ask permission to hunt predators and then only in the southern part of the State. Sadly, each year it becomes more and more dangerous to attempt to hunt south of Phx due to increased violence from the cartel drug runners and illegals. The dead body count goes up every year. Frankly I miss the good old days here, but alas, they're gone for good. Actually I'd like to figure a way to bait a few of the cartel runners, Lol.
 
Wow.. one comment which I wasnt even trying to be rude about.. and world comes down lol
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ya a white and brown one make sure it fold up really squeaky thas also a really good caller the squeaky lawn chair.. Lol..

I guess it the fact I around 10k acres of farm land to hunt that everyone else just deer hunts.. its timber land(mostly knee high right now)/slightly rolling hay fields mostly...

(of course you are going to have a hard time hunting on the side of a hill in the woods..)


and I could find the online article about the man I would..

and like I said the last 5 trip in June have been a bust...

and how many of you are out in the field 4 or 5 days a week?

and you complain about less coyotes get out and talk to ppl find new set?

When I started I was hunt on 3 acres on around my house and was getting kills.. and my 2 cam at my house still gets pictures of them on their lil sneaky path ways..

maybe you dont wanna change your game up?


rant away!
 
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Armastablasta,

Arizona is a diverse area from what I experienced when hunting out there. Within a short drive, we went through areas of little to no vegetation, to more vegetation, then trees and canyon like areas. It was nice and different, and lots of coyotes.



Jay,

There's no need for me to respond to your post or answer your questions. It's obvious you don't have a clue and you don't know how to talk respectfully to people either, so I will leave it at that.

 
I can say the same about you.. you seem to act as the know all...

I was no way disrespectful to you... more or less the other way around.. go on with your big head

maybe its just you have no sense of humor.. have a nice day..
 
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