Kirsch
Active member
I am going to go off on a tangent a bit on this topic. This is a very common comment on all parts of this forum and all over the Internet especially as the year progresses. Coyotes get harder and harder and harder to kill. In Night Hunting forums, you hear the comment coyotes circle me at 300-400 yards and I am missing too many coyotes with my thermal.
300-400 yard shots with a thermal are doable with certain thermals. Have I killed coyotes at this range with the Super Yoter, absolutely. Would I want to make a living at shooting at this range on a consistent basis, no, not with any thermal. If you take an average coyote marksman, and have them shoot at coyotes with a day scope at 300-400 yards, standing using a tripod with no rangefinder, what % of coyotes do we think a person would kill? I would place a bet not a super high %. There are a few that will say they could, but I can say I am not one of them. If thermal was as accurate as glass scopes or better, people would be using them at shooting competitions, correct? We all can agree thermal scopes aren't as precise as glass, but they have so many other advantageous, and are getting better all the time.
There are two recommendations I provide to people who tell me they can't get coyotes to respond like they used to. Adapt and Find Additional Ground.
Adapt: The first advice is to tell the person asking not to call and setup like they used to. If we don't adapt and change, the coyotes do and success continues to plummet. My calling patterns have changed dramatically over the years. I use very little distress compared to years back. Part of my history of success is making slight adjustments to stand set up, etc. A coyote is conditioned because they encountered something like this before and had a bad experience. Then you have to present them with a scenario that is different than their previous experience. Take notes, document what sounds you used on what stands, etc.
Find Additional Ground: I don't care what state a person lives in, there are lots of landowners who don't like coyotes. You may have to knock on 100 doors, or call 200 people but the time is well spent. One of the main reasons my coyote numbers increase from year to year is the amount of work I put in the off-season. I put ads in online forums, I have a forms introducing myself in areas that ranchers visit, I send out tons of letters, I call lots of people, etc. It almost becomes a full-time job. This is what I do to make sure that I can get access to enough land that I am not calling the same properties dozens of times a year. Many will not go through this effort as it is effort and in some cases can be expensive.
There is ground to be hunted if you put in enough time and effort. It isn't easy. I will add a third element and that is planning.
Planning: This is also a major change in how I hunt. I look at the forecast and plan every stand before I leave the house based on the wind, and other considerations such as amount of snow. I have this all on my phone including the roads/trails I am going to drive, where I am going to park, and where I will be set up. If the wind may be changing, I have a secondary calling location in the same area marked on ONXmaps before I leave. This can and does make a difference.
The purpose of this post is to try to help people who are struggling. If you pick up a tip in any of my ramblings, it was successful.
These comments are not meant as a debate, but instead to have people take a look at how they hunt, as I do every time I go hunting to see if there are ways that I can be more productive. If I was hunting the same way I did 20 years ago, I would kill very few coyotes. We all need to learn, and I am no exception.
For me personally, I compare myself to only one person and that is myself. I want to see if I am being more successful or less. If less, is there something I can do different to try to change that? [/b] If people want to add other tips to help, I welcome it.
300-400 yard shots with a thermal are doable with certain thermals. Have I killed coyotes at this range with the Super Yoter, absolutely. Would I want to make a living at shooting at this range on a consistent basis, no, not with any thermal. If you take an average coyote marksman, and have them shoot at coyotes with a day scope at 300-400 yards, standing using a tripod with no rangefinder, what % of coyotes do we think a person would kill? I would place a bet not a super high %. There are a few that will say they could, but I can say I am not one of them. If thermal was as accurate as glass scopes or better, people would be using them at shooting competitions, correct? We all can agree thermal scopes aren't as precise as glass, but they have so many other advantageous, and are getting better all the time.
There are two recommendations I provide to people who tell me they can't get coyotes to respond like they used to. Adapt and Find Additional Ground.
Adapt: The first advice is to tell the person asking not to call and setup like they used to. If we don't adapt and change, the coyotes do and success continues to plummet. My calling patterns have changed dramatically over the years. I use very little distress compared to years back. Part of my history of success is making slight adjustments to stand set up, etc. A coyote is conditioned because they encountered something like this before and had a bad experience. Then you have to present them with a scenario that is different than their previous experience. Take notes, document what sounds you used on what stands, etc.
Find Additional Ground: I don't care what state a person lives in, there are lots of landowners who don't like coyotes. You may have to knock on 100 doors, or call 200 people but the time is well spent. One of the main reasons my coyote numbers increase from year to year is the amount of work I put in the off-season. I put ads in online forums, I have a forms introducing myself in areas that ranchers visit, I send out tons of letters, I call lots of people, etc. It almost becomes a full-time job. This is what I do to make sure that I can get access to enough land that I am not calling the same properties dozens of times a year. Many will not go through this effort as it is effort and in some cases can be expensive.
There is ground to be hunted if you put in enough time and effort. It isn't easy. I will add a third element and that is planning.
Planning: This is also a major change in how I hunt. I look at the forecast and plan every stand before I leave the house based on the wind, and other considerations such as amount of snow. I have this all on my phone including the roads/trails I am going to drive, where I am going to park, and where I will be set up. If the wind may be changing, I have a secondary calling location in the same area marked on ONXmaps before I leave. This can and does make a difference.
The purpose of this post is to try to help people who are struggling. If you pick up a tip in any of my ramblings, it was successful.
These comments are not meant as a debate, but instead to have people take a look at how they hunt, as I do every time I go hunting to see if there are ways that I can be more productive. If I was hunting the same way I did 20 years ago, I would kill very few coyotes. We all need to learn, and I am no exception.
For me personally, I compare myself to only one person and that is myself. I want to see if I am being more successful or less. If less, is there something I can do different to try to change that? [/b] If people want to add other tips to help, I welcome it.
