How does big game season affect coyote calling?

Ermine.

Active member
Out here in the west When the big game Rifle Seasons occur and there are gut-piles and carcasses lying out there. Plenty for the coyotes to eat. How does it affect coyote calling? Do you think it makes a difference or not? I often wonder that?
 
Other than a bit more traffic on the ranches I hunted, it didn't make a lot of difference in the number of coyotes encountered. Called a bit more often around the bone yard that time of year, and had a few stands interrupted by the traffic, but didn't notice much difference in the numbers one way or the other, of course I was paying to hunt deer on those ranches, too, but gave deer hunters wide berth and they did the same for me.
 
Up here in Canada there is no payed hunting land so it all comes down to each landowner and how they address hunters. Any landowner who allows lots of hunters will have coyotes that are on edge with all the traffic. Anywhere you can get on with no big game hunters will have fairly regular coyote hunting. As a whole the amount of coyotes you see out and about during the day goes from multiple to almost zero. Any pup stupid enough to stay around the road is dead.
 
I guess it all depends on where you are at. In MN and WI I wouldn't even bother with with hunting preds for nine days. Here in NM I wouldn't even know deer or elk season was happening.
 
Out here in eastern OR it’s kind of hit and miss right after deer and elk season. Most of my luck right now is with pup in distress and various vocals. But most of them come slow like a cat
 
In Ohio, there is no Night hunting during deer gun seasons, but half of the state are in the woods during Deer Rut each year and success rate per stand goes down significantly despite more Coyotes on the ground. When our gun season is over, then it begins a steady incline upward.
 
I lose a few spots,,,but it all gets back to normal in a couple weeks

...many landowners will gut deer and or put butchered carcasses in certain spots which makes it nice for observation to set-up.
 
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I hunt several different properties in southeast Oklahoma and am only 20 miles away from the largest public hunting wildlife management area in Oklahoma over, 28,000 acres.
Since I have been retired for 21 years I decided since I could hunt any time I wanted I would not hunt during deer season. I will be back after them critters after Dec. 5th.
 
I may lose a few spots for a couple months. Not because I have to, just because I try and be considerate of the landowners revenue stream from leasing for deer.

Much bigger for me is the fact once the deer hunters shoot their deer, then they want to maximize the return on investment from their deer lease. So then they are out there calling coyotes, shooting pigs, chasing quail, riding UTVs. Generally boogering everything up and educating the coyotes through mostly in-effective calling. I have several spots that are good for 8-9 months of the year, but from Nov-Jan the coyotes will run the opposite way from nearly any type of call. I have seen that many times at night with thermal. They have no clue I am there until I hit a call. Then they literally run the other way. Only way to get them those places is stalk them in the dark, and very subtle squeaks/rodent sounds. Or catch them over dead livestock. For sure if you blast the electronic rabbit or pup distress at them they are gone.

Edit to add: Bow season starts first of Oct here. Rifle first of Nov, and runs through mid-Jan. Oct, Nov, Dec there are lots of hunters in the field. By Jan they are cold and tired. By mid Feb the coyotes are breeding and back to normal.
 
I think deer season has a very negative impact on our coyote hunting.
Where I live in Virginia most of the deer hunting is done through organized clubs that run deer dogs. There is not a bush that a deer dog does not run under here at one time or another. I have heard several deer hunters complain about all of the coyotes that they run while deer hunting. Added to the dog pressure are all of the available gut piles for the coyotes to eat and everything is out of whack.
Coyote hunting does not get back to "normal" until about 10-15 days after deer season closes in early January.
 


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