Flat Land Coaxer
New member
Well I never thought Id say this but hunting coyotes is definetley easier for me in Illinois than it is in Missouri. Here I am, not used to having any public ground at all at my disposal in Illinois and now Im overwhelmed with massive parsels of public land almost completely covered in timber.
Coyotes were easy to track down in small tracts of timber in Illinois. Just find a decent creek bed or intersection in a ditch or valley and start my "who's you're daddy," woos and here they come. Obviously its not that easy every time, but my percentage of success tripled in the last 12 years.
Today, I'm 11 sets in, in my Missouri residence and no sign of any critters at all. I haven't found scat, tracks, carcasses, dens, nothin. This country is bigger and better than me by far. I found some deer early season I started to pattern, but with so many people running dogs for any varmint with fur in this area, it seems nothing sticks around too long.
I need some advice folks. The timber is sooooo thick and clear cuts are few and far between. I'm having trouble just finding sign and picking sets. My strategy so far has been, find deer, find yotes. I've got water, I've got funnels, I've got very little deer sign. I figured I would have at least been busted and had a barker by now, but that is not the case. Like I mentioned before, running coyotes with dogs is very popular in the area and I am hunting public land even though it is massive. I've tried to use the hunt stand lite app and google earth to my advantage but reading huge timber is not a skill on my resume.
It all sounds good til I get boots on the ground, then its just like, Holy crap, this is like finding a needle in a hay stack! Anyone hunting the giant that is Mark Twain National Forest or something similar, I'm all ears!
Coyotes were easy to track down in small tracts of timber in Illinois. Just find a decent creek bed or intersection in a ditch or valley and start my "who's you're daddy," woos and here they come. Obviously its not that easy every time, but my percentage of success tripled in the last 12 years.
Today, I'm 11 sets in, in my Missouri residence and no sign of any critters at all. I haven't found scat, tracks, carcasses, dens, nothin. This country is bigger and better than me by far. I found some deer early season I started to pattern, but with so many people running dogs for any varmint with fur in this area, it seems nothing sticks around too long.
I need some advice folks. The timber is sooooo thick and clear cuts are few and far between. I'm having trouble just finding sign and picking sets. My strategy so far has been, find deer, find yotes. I've got water, I've got funnels, I've got very little deer sign. I figured I would have at least been busted and had a barker by now, but that is not the case. Like I mentioned before, running coyotes with dogs is very popular in the area and I am hunting public land even though it is massive. I've tried to use the hunt stand lite app and google earth to my advantage but reading huge timber is not a skill on my resume.
It all sounds good til I get boots on the ground, then its just like, Holy crap, this is like finding a needle in a hay stack! Anyone hunting the giant that is Mark Twain National Forest or something similar, I'm all ears!
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