How many minutes for your stands?

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dave3006

Active member
Hunting the CA high desert on BLM land, I always made my stands 15 minutes long. It seemed to work well.

I moved to the Boise area two years ago. I haven’t had the greatest results. I have had several people mention recently that they make their stands 30-45 minutes in this area. I have never once called that long. But, I plan to try it soon.

What is your opinion of how long a stand should be?

Do you change it based on the terrain, season, or pressure the coyotes may be experiencing?

Do you make it shorter or longer at night?
 
SW PA here. My stands are a minimum of 30 with most being 45-50. Many 'show ups' here are after the 30-35 mark. If I have gotten a vocal response within what I think is a reasonable distance, I have no problem stretching past the hour mark and have killed many at that mark and a few after 1-1/2hrs. Opportunities are not abundant here and if I know one is around, I will stick around, hoping curiosity will get the better of it. A lot of that time will be in silence, and I always end my sets with 15min of silence, and many (maybe most) have died in this 15min.
 
20 minutes feels like an eternity to me. After about 8 minutes, I'm already mentally moved on to the next stand. Depending on time of year and conditions, I often call it quits at 10 or 12 minutes. I need a specific reason to stay any longer than 15.

I take it for granted coyotes can hear my sounds at the beginning of every stand. Else, I've picked a crappy stand.

- DAA
 
We always say 8 to 12 minutes is the golden "hour," but when it's warm and food is plentiful, there in no hurry to come in.
So we normally stick around for 45 minutes, and after we stop calling and our stuff is packed up, we try to sit quietly for another 10 minutes. After the 8 to 12 minutes( 80% of our shots), the last ten are our best time.
Winter, the temps dictate how long at -20* a 15 min set is a LONG time.
 
It all depends on how long it takes to get to a stand location and the type of cover + terrain.
I'm not gonna leave a stand in 10 minutes that took me 20 minutes to walk to.
I'm also not gonna leave a stand quickly that has thick cover and terrain that's going to slow a coyotes approach.

SJC
 
This is talked about a lot.

I don't know if there is 1 correct answer as every coyote and every situation is different. I don't hunt tournaments, but I think that is one situation that making short stands and focusing on coyotes that want to react is the way to go. I used to stay for about 45 minutes on my stands on MI ag ground. Once things started happening for me, I couldn't ignore that when I got a reaction it was almost always in the first 10 minutes or so, so I started shortening up my stands. It doesn't happen very often, but it's also hard to ignore the times you actually do get one to come in after the 20 minute mark or so. I just decide on a case by case basis. If I only have a couple spots to call that night, I might stay on stand a little longer than I would if I had a bunch that I wanted to hit. If I hear them, I will usually stay a little longer. If I have other spots to go and I don't get a reaction in 20 minutes, I'm usually out.
 
Up here they are all over the map with how long it takes to bring one out! Some stands I have them pop out within 5 minutes while other times you see one loping in after 35 minutes. I have to wonder if those yotes do that for a reason, to avoid confrontation and maybe pick up a few scrapes after.
 
With y'alls responses, I'd be interested in seeing how long you stay at your stand, area of the country and type of terrain. We know some hunt in plains of midwest where you can see 1k yards, some hunt ag fields where you can see 400 yards, and some hunt in NE woods where you can't see more than 75yds. I'm guessing stand times vary just bases on area/terrain.

For me, it's a mix of woods/fields in the NE. If in the woods, i'll do 25-35 min, even if I don't get a response. AG Fields/powerlines, if I get a response, it's been game over in usually less than 12 minutes. If no response, i'll sit for 25-30 as I don't have more than 4 stands a night.
 
all depends on the situation. there are nights we dont particularly like the wind direction and leave after no response about the 30 minute mark, even if the wind is good at spots that can happen too.

then again there have been nights were we get a reply, wait an hour or more and nothing comes in too. one night we got a single lone howl in reply to our calling. then everything went silent, we did too. the wind was great and consistent, we could see for ever on both sides of the road so we just waited. 65 minutes later 3 coyotes walked out into the field, headed to the call and all 3 died in that field.
 
For coyote stands, 20 min max but I have an unlimited number of stands to do. I also think after making a lot of stands you get a feel for the stand your at. In heavier cover I like to stay at a stand after the first coyote is shot. I've had up to four come in as singles on the same stand even after multiple shots. Sometimes they will return after being missed. Then there is the one sneaking though the cover and you have to work on it to entice it in to the open.

I don't think time on stand is set in stone, too many factors involved.
 
When I was much younger 12 to 15 minutes was about as long as I would stay on my calling stands. I had about 10 seconds of sound erased from my cassette tapes at 12 minutes and 15 minutes so I knew when my time was up.

I am pretty sure I would call in more coyotes by doing 15 minute stands in a day compared to doing less 30 minute stands in a day.

Over the years I have had way more coyotes show up in less than 10 minutes than coyotes that have shown up after 10 minutes.

I think the coyotes that come in after 15 minutes of calling did not hear my sounds until after 8 to 13 minutes of calling. What has worked good for me is increasing the volume for 30 seconds to a minute or so after calling for 10 to 12 minutes. Many times I have had coyotes show up 2 to 5 minutes after cranking up the volume and then lowering it back down some.

Coyotes have great hearing but they are not always in a perfect spot to hear the sounds you are playing.
 
Lots of merit and experience in the last 6 posts that I for one, can't disagree with. I know in my terrain sometimes moving as little as 5-10 steps can make a gobble disappear so assume the same can happen with our sounds. There are lots of times my sets may only be a few hundred yards apart because of this. I will make my sets in these small hollows to the 30min number but still have the 12-15min of silence at the end.
 
It is variable, but if I had to pick a number I'd say 18 minutes. I used to run 10-12 minutes, but started stretching it out to 1) see if it helped and 2) try for bobcats in certain areas. I've noted over the past few years that I kill more after 10 minutes than before, with many coming in at 15-17 minutes. After that, call-ins drop way off, so unless I'm expecting/hoping for a bobcat, I'm done. I made a 58-minute stand last year over very fresh lion sign hoping to lure him in and it about killed me. :)
 
As has been said, there's really no right or wrong, or an across the board, set in stone answer to the time on stand question. Where I am, and the properties I hunt, it can happen in seconds, minutes, or sometimes over an hour. And yes, I have spent over an hour on a set more times than you might think. I love it when they scream in quick, but that doesn't always happen. I would say half hour to 45 minutes is pretty normal, but it really depends on many factors.

Of everything that has been posted, I'm mostly in line with the scenarios that jmeddy and shots100 describe. I hunt a lot of smaller properties that I'm trying to pull coyotes from maybe a couple properties away sometimes, and that takes some patience. Some of my spots take me a bit of hiking to get into, so I'm not about to put a 10 minute time limit on a set that took me a half our to get to. If I get a vocal response and know there's a coyote that has heard my calls, I am more likely to spend some time working it, or waiting it out in silence.

I don't have endless tracts of land or high densities of coyotes where I hunt. I have properties scattered around with features from flat to hilly, bare ground to jungle like, dry ground to swamp land. It seems the coyotes themselves are as diverse in their actions as the terrain that I hunt them in. I don't competition hunt, so I don't feel the pressure to rush.

If quick hunts work for you, that's great. If quick hunts aren't working for you, try some longer sets and see if it works out. In the end, we all gotta do what works for ourselves in the situations that we hunt in. If you are killing coyotes, and someone tells you that you're doing it wrong... They're wrong! Lol...
 
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