How long should a calling session last?

R

Ran6er

New member
I'm new so here is what I have tried so far with limited success.

Let things settle down from walking in.
Call once about 10-15 seconds loud to soft, kinda mix'n it up. Wait about a minute do it again but softer.
Wait 5-10 minutes repeat.
If nothing has showed itself after round 2 i'm moving on

Any thoughts on how to improve my plan
 
+1 on what Chupa said but I will go for 30-45min and sometimes with the ecaller I wil stop it at the 15min mark and change up the sounds a little. I may start off with a bird sound and then at 15min switch over to jack distress and then at 30min switch to cottonatail. Or sometimes just let the same sound play for 15min then shut it down for a min or two and start it back up soft and increase the volume every min or so. It just depends on how I feel. There is no real majic sequence or sound out there. In Wisconsin with out seeing the lay of the land I would guess that you are not staying long enough.
 
Originally Posted By: jrcampbellWhat these guys said. At night I will sit for at least an hour, have had quite a few yotes show up close to the hour mark.

Do you call for the entire time, or do you stop calling and just stay on stand to see if anything shows up later?
 
I stay a min. of 15 min. after calling BUT will extend that to a min. of 30-45 min. if I have had a vocal responce.
 
I usually call for 45 min, sometimes a full hour, or til I start nodding off. Lol. Happens sometimes. really depends on the situation. I don't call all that many in, if I remember I set the alarm on my phone for 45 min then usually sit for a bit after I shut call off. Although this year I pretty much said heck with the yotes and have been goin after the foxes, aven't been sitting much longer than half hour.
 
I have a cottontail distress hand call (for now).

OK - So maybe I am overthinking this, but a die'n rabbit will not call continuosly for a half an hour. Won't that sound un-natural?

The take away for me appears to be to call a LOT more in each set.

Thanks everyone for your input.
 
It's been interesting reading different viewpoints on this and I don't think there's any true right or wrong way when deciding how long you're on stand, how long you call, etc. By reading some of these posts I think I'm in the minority, but I tend to wait quite a bit between calling sequences. I'll call for 45 seconds - 1 minute; take a few breaths, then do it again. Then I wait for 3-4 minutes before calling again. I only do this a few times; and if nothing comes in, then I move on; usually only spending a max. of 30 minutes. It's a trade off in my opinion. Either you wait longer on stand and get the one that comes in to your set at the 45min-1 hour mark; making less stands/day, or you move along a little quicker and get several more stands in per/day increasing your opportunity to cover more ground and get quicker action. Neither one of these options is better than the other; they both work. There are a lot of factors involved which may sway your decision. How long do you plan to stay out? How much property are hunting/have access to? Etc. Someone above stated that if the stand feels good, to stick it out. I totally agree. Likewise, if you feel like the stand sucks, pick up and move on. Trust your gut.
 
With my coyote calling, I howled at a majority of my calling stands. I would begin with a lone howl with my open reed call and pause for 5-10 seconds then follow with a couple of barks and howl, another short pause and finish with a lone howl. The use of various howls is important in territoriality with coyotes. A howl may sound the alarm that a coyote has invaded another coyotes territory and most coyotes will come in silently, without howling back to check out their invader. In some cases, I have spotted the aggressive coyotes approaching my calling stand in the first few minutes. After a two minute listening and watching period, if I didn’t have any howling responses, I would voice howl with a lone howl, pause and then a couple of barks with a howl, pause again and I end up with another lone howl. If nothing is spotted in the next few minutes, I would start with the rabbit distress with my call for 30 seconds - pause for a minute, repeating this calling and pausing sequence. Constantly scan the calling area for the approaching predator. Listen for noises and watch for suspicious movement of other animals (birds flushing or livestock running). Callers would be surprised to know how many times they called in a coyote, but just didn't see the critter. Most coyotes will approach the caller from the downwind direction and if they scent or spot the caller, they will depart unnoticed.

Calling should begin softly; you may be closer to the predator than you think. The pattern should be a series of 12-15 long or short distress cries, lasting for 30 seconds, followed by a one minute pause, after the first two series, if no predators are spotted, increase the volume on the remaining series for maximum range. Repeat this alternate calling and waiting process. Be patient at each calling stand, I normally stay at each calling stand for only 15 minutes. Over the years, with the majority of the coyotes that I have called in - most were shot within the first 8 minutes at each stand.

For variance with your calling stands, you may start with the pup distress and later try the rabbit distress. If nothing is spotted after 12 minutes of various calls, you may try another short series of howls, wait another 2-3 minutes, if no coyotes are spotted, you can move to another stand. Most callers will move a distance of at least a mile to their next calling stand.
 
I normally like to call with the sun on my back side and attempt to pick a calling stand with a good view on the down wind side also.
 
Quote:So,

I'm set up between two packs of howling coyote. It after dark, One pack is upwind one down.

What do I do? Probably be your best bet to cut the distance down to the coyotes that are up wind of you, since you'll already have the wind to your advantage and if terrain isn't conducive to calling and killing them, go to plan B which would be.... if terrain allows, make a huge circle and get cross wind or down wind of the coyote that are downwind of your current location. Either way, ya gotta have the wind in your favor.
 


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