Never hunted at night, need help!

Sprinkman

Sprinkman

Well-known member
This weekend I'm headed out to do some scouting for deer season. I figure I might as well try some coyote night hunting while I'm out there, but I've never done it. I'll be using NV not thermal.
I'm thinking that I will set up a couple hundred yards away from the sagebrush edges, and put the call out about a hundred yards.
What things do I need to do besides put the call out?
All help is appreciated.
 
use a cross wind and set up about 100 yards below and off to the side of the call. this should put responding coyotes in front of you

do you have a thermal scanner or are you using a red light ?

if you are using a red light keep the light on any responding coyotes but not directly in their face. they wont be able to see you behind the light

if its adjustable keep the light on medium bright not real bright. a bright light can spook them
 
This could be long winded, but in a nutshell I agree with bohunr. If you catch eye shine, do not take the light off of them. Don't burn them with the hot spot necessarily, but do not take it off them completely. Your caller should be placed in a way that gives the coyotes some sense of an advantage. No different than day calling really. It just needs to give you the shooting advantage! In other words, give them a way to get downwind of your caller, but put them in a shootable position. I'm sure you know this. I'm a guy that hunts smaller properties, bordered by more smaller properties. I give quite a bit of time of silence after calling ends for one to show up. Especially if I have had a response with a no-show.

Good luck!
 
Sprinkman said:
How often do you move, or do you just stay in one place?
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stay in one place until you're sure nothing is coming in. if you get a response to the call, hang in there. one night we got one lone howl in reply but it sounded close...65 minutes later 3 coyotes entered the field, they never left

with night vision you can see farther with an after market IR light, i used a wicked light and could see clearly out to about 600 yards. this coyote is about 200 yards out

11-13-20_200 yards.jpg


three came in, three died

mike and ron coyote double_Moment.jpg
 
Now this is what i did in PA since we could only use lights until 2020 before Thermal/NV was allowed. I had been hunting Ohio and NY with thermal and NV a year or so before. And have used red lights since the early 2000s but without carrying a car battery like we did back in the 80s for fox🤣
I always adjusted my red light intensity to just get a very mild glow off deer eyes at the max range that I could see a coyote at the spot i was at..generally 150-300 yards. I also kept the scan light more on "flood" to get a wide as possible light cast. And kept it "soft".

I did things a bit different than most when hunting solo and even with a partner.
Once I confirmed a coyote or coyotes I would only do spontaneous checks with the scan light never pointing it directly at them and would position gun to the spot where i want to kill it but kept gun light above the coyote.

When hunting with a partner it was basically whoever spotted the coyote would be the designated light guy and the partner would be gunner...as the coyotes came in the gunner would get their light on them and follow and once it was confirmed by the spotter, who then continued to scan, that no other coyotes were coming in, the gunner would shoot.
 
Sprinkman said:
How often do you move, or do you just stay in one place?
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You’re going to get a lot of different answers to this question and I think the time you spend on a stand depends on where you hunt.

I hunt East of the Mississippi where farms or properties are small and SPREAD out, usually too far to go from one set to another. One farm I hunt is an hour and 15 minutes one way.

Coyotes can cover ground fast even when they’re just jaunting at 4mph. Heck they can cover 880 yds in 3 ½ minutes.

If I spent 20 minutes on a stand and left I probably wouldn’t kill 5 coyotes a year and as it is, usually I kill about 20 a year, and feel lucky to do that, but I’m a pretty patient person and I can spend a few hours on a stand. One night I got there at dusk (7:00) and killed 3 by 10:30 and never moved. You never know!

If I could hunt out West on BLM I can see moving often from one set to another.
 
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Thinking more about it, if you're scanning with lights, and shooting with NV, you can pretty much ditch the light and track the coyotes with your NV. It's a judgement call though. I have seen them come apart and quickly depart when the lights suddenly went out.

Another thought... I have to assume you will be calling open terrain. In my experience, lights have major issues with close, thick cover. Lights will reflect off of everything and light you up, and cast shadows that will move as you scan. With NV your IR Illuminator does similar except that it will wash out your view through the optic. You will lose sight of your target animal if it gets behind limbs or grass, etc. Rain, snow and fog also renders NV limited to useless.

I can see the logic of keeping the call closer to you with the lights or NV as you'll better pick up the eye shine with both if they're heading to the sound. However, the wind still needs to be considered, and coyotes will still be coyotes and do just about everything they can to throw a wrench in your well laid plans!
 
I don't have much night hunting experience. What little I have is about half lamping, half thermal. Have never used NV except to drive at night from stand to stand (thermal doesn't work through a windshield).

Two things that have stood out to me.

Coyotes will almost always go downwind at night. Almost always. Not true for me in the day. In the day, a lot of them just make a bee line for the call from whichever direction they are coming from. So you 100% have to figure the wind into your night time stands. Lamping, that just meant having good visibility and shooting lanes downwind - we always kept the caller right by us when lamping.

Call where you wouldn't during the day. Take advantage of the coyotes greater comfort in moving in the open at night. We've done well at night on stands we would never consider making during the day.

We haven't stayed any longer than we would during the day. For better, or worse, I can't say. But fifteen minutes and we're gone.

- DAA
 
Might already be to late for you but my best advice would be don't go out hunting at night if you never have yet..main reason is if you get bit by that "thermal" bug its gonna cost you lot's of money and many nights with lack of sleep.... other wise there is nothing else like it, as your standing there in the total darkness and silence your mind clears and you dont have a worry in the world besides getting some fur on the ground
 
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