How many coyotes actually respond

howler

howler

New member
I have heard upwards of a dozen coyotes respond to a locator call when locating coyotes, but when setting up to hunt them after its all said and done, at best I've only called in 1 or 2(gun range), my question is do several more respond but hang back out of sight just to see how it goes for their counterparts. I mean heck if I hear 10 howls can it be that only one of these will respond. I think most will respond but how do we get a crack at em.
 
howler,one thing I think alot of us do when we hear alot of howling is try to put a number on how many coyotes are doing the howling.I know that several years ago when I first gave howling a try,I stopped the truck let out a couple lone howls and bingo,right over the hill from me the whole mountain came alive with howling.I thought there had to be aleast be 10 or so coyotes over there.So I sneaked to the top of the hill to see if I could see them.Sure enough about 500 yards out they were still howling like crazy,three coyotes were making all that racket.Well I was blown away to say the least.So now I have a idea of what to look for as far as how many are out there.I don't know if this could be what is happening where you hunt or not,just something to think about.GOOD HUNTING
 
I fully agree with UT-

2-3 coyotes can make ALOT of noise. I have howled at night using a spotlight (without a gun, because its illegal to hunt with a spotlight in this state) Had coyotes respond several hundred yards away. I would have swore there was a bunch of them coming to get me and rip me to shreds. Clicked the light on, and saw 2 sets of eyes out in the field wandering around. Whew.... close one
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Just my experience
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Nothing worse than a coyote friendly gun!!!

[This message has been edited by boatman (edited 12-14-2001).]
 
It could also be that the coyotes might ALL be responding but when you shoot the first one or two that come into sight the others are more then likely going to hightail it out of dodge.

Ryan
 
I think wev'e missed the point a little guys. My question is not about misjudging the number of coyotes that howl back but how many of the responding coyotes actually come towards the call, I have heard upwards of a dozen coyotes respond, but I never see anymore than 1 or 2 actually come in to the call, Do the coyotes have a take a number system and take turns responding to calls, I don't think so, I want to know what the other coyotes are doing, probably jsut ignoring the call and when they feel like it do respond maybe an hour later or 2 hours, I wonder how long they will respond, might be a good Idea when you know that the're lots of coyotes in the immediate vicinity to just hang loose and wee might get a crack at several ????
 
howler--I think that territorial boundaries will affect the number of coyotes actually coming into your howling. You may be hearing coyotes howling from several different directions, but you will only be in one family's territory. I believe coyotes are reluctant to cross over into another family's territory.

I have had as many as 5 coyotes come in to my howling on one stand. Last night, I did some howling just before sunset and heard coyotes answer to the SSW of me. Unfortunately, had I waited maybe one minute longer on stand, I may have gotten some shots at those coyotes. I stood up, after carefully surveying the countryside for stragglers, started folding up my plastic I use to lay on to keep dry in the snow and spotted a coyote's sillouette on the horizon to the SW of me about 600 yards away. I squatted down and tried to entice it to come in closer, but it must have busted me and my partner. About a minute later a 2nd one appeared on the ridge and a couple minutes after that a 3rd coyote showed up. Dang!! I hate that when I get up too soon! No shots fired, so I may get them to come in again later this winter.

About 1 1/2 weeks ago I did some howling on the first stand of the day. I had coyotes answering me from the NW, from the NE, and from the SE. We must have been in the family territory of the ones that answered from the NW, cause I had 3 come in from that direction. That's the spot I missed on a triple. Got the double though.
 
This question is difficult to answer for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that group howls, by their very nature, are little coyote vocal contests, each egging the others to better effort. Unless they respond from different directions, hard to say how many are involved. But, nevertheless, I will guess that most times it is groups of four to possibly six? When I have had them come into howling...after howling, it has mostly been one or two. A couple times, as many as five, which happened to correspond to my estimate, at the time. But, there are ways to find out how many are involved, if you really need to know.

I have had as many as nine coyotes respond, single file, on a day stand, but it was to a distress call, which is beside the point except for the fact that occasionally, you do have that many concentrated in one place, and they might decide to respond to a howl.

But, the other reason I think it is difficult to guess how many animals are out there is that very often, they come in without any answer, at all. Sure, you might get a response from a southerly direction from a group, and then you watch a single approach from the opposite direction, knowing that he had nothing to do with it. This is in those areas where you have the advantage of good visibility, and can say such a thing with a high degree of certainty.

In parts of the country where there is a lot of cover...Texas comes to mind, you would have great difficulty determining just how many animals you have responding to your howl, and getting a glimpse of an animal, or is it several(?) passing behind all that brush. I have been hunkered down in mesquite choked washes, and had coyotes drifting around all over the place, impossible to keep track of them.

In those situations where you hear a response to your invitation, and you know that they don't always respond....who's to say that you have three groups out there, two responding vocally, and one, not wasting your time, they are coming in? Unless you are in an aircraft, or something like that, observing, you will never know. And, that's okay, ain't it?

Good hunting. LB
 
I think that it is distance related if they are loud and say under 1 mile I would think that you chances are very good that they will approach you. If they are faint and a couple of miles away your chances are slim. Probably alot to do with territories as silverfox mentioned. I also believe that there are areas that coyote territorys overlap (especially in winter) and that it is possible to get coyotes from different directions. my expierence tell me that if you can get a coyote to howl the chances of calling it in are pretty good. you may have to move alittle to do it but they are active and in a mood to respond.

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for what it's worth. eh!
 
to clear up a few things, this is just an inquisitive mind wanting to know more about the game, the howls I gave were just to get response from the coyotes or to give me an idea where he-they might be located or how many were in the general area. I would then go to a distress call of some sort. and yes most of the time I hear multiple howls they range from close to over a few miles, I do believe that the close coyotes do and will respond most of the time, Its those buggers that are a long ways off that got me to thinking, The territorial aspect is probably the thing with those. I have watched Bull Elk and Large dominate whitetail bucks the Bulls with their harems and the bucks with their territories allow subordinate bulls and bucks into their area, as long as they behaved themselves they were ok, I think it maybe the same with coyotes, their maybe several coyotes with in the territory with only one male being dominate, but allowing other male coyotes in the area( a particular good hunting area, for the coyotes that is) and to respond to a distress call of some sort. Or maybe I'm just babbling along making a bigger deal out if it than it really is.
 
I've been told that part of the reason that the far ones don't respond is that they don't hear your rabbit call.

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for what it's worth. eh!
 
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