Getting skunked by Coyotes in S. Utah

ProRoad

ProRoad

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Hey all. I am new to Coyote hunting but not a new hunter. I have been trying to find some Coyotes near Cedar City Utah on about 15 days since January with multiple stands per day, some mornings but mostly evening and leave at dark. (not night as I don't have a thermal) I have not seen or heard one yet. I use the FoxPro Hellcat Pro with various sounds, lately playing more Coyote vocals. After studying Coyote hunting for several months, I have tapered down my calling and have more silence and try not to blast the call too loud until later in the stand. I try to always have the wind in my favor. I wear camo and think I have done a pretty good job of being quiet and invisible. (I know, you can always do better) I have seen rabbits, groundhogs, Coyote tracks and scat. (I have also seen two long dead coyotes with lower jaws removed which is a Utah bounty requirement). I hunt BLM land in areas that have cover but also large open spaces, . I have not seen another human while hunting in any of the places I have gone. Maybe I am just going to the places that they have been hunted by thermal hunters. Are they just over hunted due to the bounty in Utah or what?
 
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Myself and 2 others were hunting between Colorado city and Lake Powel one year calling all the sagebrush flats and plum couldn't buy a coyote. We changed elevation enough to start getting into the trees (cedars and pines) and it was like someone flipped a switch.
Maybe try creeping out of the sage a bit to where the trees start.
 
I have property north of zion and east of kolob reservoir thats at about 8000ft elevation. In all my years of coming up there, i have NEVER heard a single coyote at night. Only ever seen one live one sitting on a bluff at about 9000ft and one dead one hanging on a fence on the road that cuts across the mountain from kolob to Cedar. I haven't called a lot in southern Utah but have a few handfull of times. Elevation isn't always the answer or magic key but sometimes it can help. Calling where the coyotes are is key. Some time high, sometimes low. Just enjoy the time in the outdoors.
 
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Yes, I mostly enjoy the peaceful time on stand, and the sunsets! This is great info. I'm going to head out and find a new location at a bit lower elevation this eve. 4500 to 6000 ft.
 
The main thing, always, more than anything else, is to hunt where there is a decent number of callable coyotes. Do you hear much howling in the late evening? If there are very many at all around, you should.

I never hunt them this time of year, so don't have any real advice on how to's.

- DAA
 
I have not yet heard any howls at all. That's one of the reasons I ask if the Thermal hunters have cleaned up the areas that I go. And, is this time of year the toughest time to hunt them for any reason?
 
No, this time of year is far from the toughest time, in my opinion. A couple of months ago is the toughest time. I just prefer to let them mate, breed, raise their pups and complete their life cycle before I start hunting them. I like coyotes more than deer, or turkeys, or quail, or whatever they might be eating. I've always said any deer that doesn't end up as coyote turds is just going to waste. I'm a coyote hunter.

I have hunted them this time of year. For damage control purposes. Ride alongs with full time professional ADC guys, mostly. And, just my opinion, based on only a small amount of actual experience, but this time of year it's all about locating them. Would not bother to cold call. But once you have them located - and I mean precisely, and set up on them right, calling them in this time of year is almost stupid easy.

Locating them isn't necessarily very easy at all though. You need to locate the core denning area, not just where they are at some random time. And neither is setting up on them right all that easy. Wind has to be right, etc.

I get no satisfaction at all out of calling in and killing a breeding pair this time of year. I've only ever done it in real life stock killing situations. And got no satisfaction, jut grim "job done". And I don't even do that anymore. I turned down everyone that asked for so long, nobody asks anymore. I don't care how many sheep a coyote kills. If I won the lottery I'd get a C5-m Super Galaxy and load it up with sheep and push the sheep out of it over my favorite coyote hunting area. I have done a good bit of calling this time of year with only a camera though. And have had no problem calling them in, once properly located.

Hard to really say anything definitive, from here, but it sounds like there are just very few coyotes where you are hunting. And that's never from other guys cleaning them out. Unless it's professionals running steel, air gunning and denning. Real professional removal stuff. Recreational guys never put much of a dent in them. Ever. If there are a lot of other guys hunting, the coyotes just yap and go downwind and fail to commit a lot. But they'll still leave lots of sign that they are there. It doesn't sound like you are even seeing much sign.

- DAA
 
Dave, at my age of 61, I guess it is still ok to be a Noob. I read the attached article and really appreciate the advise. It struck me that what you wrote is basically, "How to find Coyotes for Dummies". In fact it is so logical that it is easy to not follow, and screw it up, as many of us do every time we go into a stand blind. In my case, I could see right off that I am calling in areas that have a very low density of Coyotes. Very little sign, if any at all. One pile of scat in many miles of road as opposed to 100 ropes in a mile, as you described. This gives me hope, as I think I have been setting up my stands correctly and staying hidden and quiet, with correct wind. Now, all I need to do is some road scouting. Cheers! Brian.
 
I started hunting last November. I've probably put in about 10 days of hunting IVO Cedar City (my in laws live there and we go down about once a month). Lots of coyotes get killed on the ranches in Hamiltons Fort (and also ranches near Enterprise, and Beaver). I've also never run into another coyote hunter, even though I'm doing it weekends on public land, not that far from civilization. Similarly, I'm a day hunter. I've also scouted a little up on whatever it is we are supposed to call the plateau where Cedar Breaks is, and tried my luck a bit down towards Zion and Kanab. (I saw a coyote last August south of Zion on the way back from a hike.) I'm pretty good at finding tracks and scat where I go, though not like the super high volume DAA describes.

Last November, when I was still young and optimistic, I managed to call in my first and second coyote down there in the junipers in my first two stands of the day. All my coyote research was paying off! Because I am the world's worst coyote hunter*, I didn't even get a shot off. I was set up with my shotgun and the first one came in at around 25 minutes of calling, but breezed past me in a split second at about 50 yards. Then I moved oh let's say a mile or so. I set up stupidly again, this time with a ravine situation, and so after just 3 minutes of mouse squeaks one comes into view across that ravine for a moment about 80 yards out, a wee bit too far for my shotgun. (I mix it up between shotgun and rifle down there on the theory the coyotes that like the thick stuff are less likely to get blasted by night hunters.)

One might think that was a promising sign that I was at least on the path to hunting success, but I haven't managed to call in another damn coyote down south or up north since (that I was able to identify, anyway). I did bump a coyote in the open sage brush in March IVO Old Iron Town. Now it's been a couple of months and several full hunting days and I haven't seen one (granted, it's been denning season).

*I've bumped a coyote as close as ~20 yards (he was bedded down in some junipers and it was quite windy, so I scared the hell outta him walking in), and as far as 600 yards (I was walking down a hill while he was on his way in the valley). I've bumped a couple of others driving out in the west desert. But what really seals the deal here is that driving down the highway I passed a coyote chewing on a cow carcass like 20 yards off the road. I managed to pull over, get my rifle out, lined up the shot, and then I missed the son of gun from ~275 yards as he was trotting calmly away. He then uncalmly booked it as I tried about 9 other rounds on him... (what's the point of an AR-15 if you don't use volume of fire?) I'm actually a pretty good shot, but it turns out I had improperly zeroed my rifle because I had tried out max point blank range for the first time and the ballistic calculator I was using had defaulted to a bolt action scope height instead of AR... Luckily, my main outdoor hobby before this was hiking, and so coyote hunting is just a bit of walking around with a gun to my next sitting spot. I'm on the fence about upgrading to a better call (I have an entry level one), but if I do I won't have that as an excuse for why they don't come in.
 
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capitol said:
Catch223 you dont need a new caller. Ok, wait. Which caller are you running now?
Click to expand...
Just the Icotec 300+ with the decoy added. The default sounds are limited, though I could purchase more via the app.

I'm eying the Icotec Outlaw Pro with the rechargeable battery. Then I won't have any excuses on the sounds front.
 
I have not gone out in a few months and hope to start up again soon. I have the Fox Pro, Hellcat Pro and it seems to work. I have called in 30 Elk with it..... Maybe a Coyote will show its self this year. I am about to start my Deer scouting in the Beaver west and I have high hopes!
 
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