Originally Posted By: Irish_80Yeah we we've got coyotes and a pretty good population I think. BIG SNIP
That all sounds good to me- dunno what the problem is, although I have a couple of ideas to fly by you just for fun.
1) I have areas where there will be coyotes at night, but not when I'm calling. During the night, they hunt the open grasslands but come daytime, they hole up in cover. I call cover most of the time (although I've gotten some off the grasslands, too). Just be sure that you hunt where the coyotes are when you're calling. I hope that's not an obvious and stupid suggestion...
2) I called my first coyote (35 years ago) by absolutely blasting on the call. I'd called gently and normally for about 15-20 minutes and I was mad because nothing had come in (for the 100th time), so I just started blowing on the #$#@%# call as hard as I could, constantly, non-stop. A minute later, I noticed a streak of dust out on the prairie. It was moving my way. I kept calling and before long I spotted a coyote just absolutely hauling toward me. Long story short, I missed him and he hauled back the same way he'd come. But, my first success was thanks to doing something completely different.
3) I know that in the early days, I made way too complicated setups. I'd setup on top of a mesa where I thought the call would carry. Well, great, but that means that the coyotes would usually have to climb. Animals conserve energy and they don't climb on top of the mesa unless there's prey up there (which there wasn't). I used to hike up canyons and call there. Again, no coyotes- they're out in the transitional habitat. Very hard to describe but over time, with lots of observation, I got better at figuring out where the coyotes were when I was calling. Early on, I hid myself way too much, which also limited my mobility and visibility. With something like a ghillie suit or even just camo netting draped like a poncho, you can sit almost right out in the open, esp with E-caller chirping away 50-75 yds away.
4) There's nothing like having an experienced and successful caller go along with you.
5) It may also be well worth your time to go someplace else- someplace easy- just to verify that your calls and technique can indeed work. Calling up here in NE New Mexico is much tougher (or different, at least) than in S NM and calling down there taught me some lessons that I brought back to here. You oughta be close to KS and NE- have you gone to different terrain over there?
Hope that helps somewhat- I'm sure you've gotten tons of advice.