New to Predator hunting

G

gooseracer

New member
Hey guys, so my buddy and I are new at this, first and foremost! We have the gun department covered(both ar-15) with decent daytime optics. We are from north central Indiana and currently hunt public land. We wanna do this as budget-friendly as possible, and Indiana requires night hunters to "carry a continuous burning light after sunset," so we have settled on spotlight hunting. I know its arcaic, antiquated, and mildly unproductive.
In the first attempt we heard other hunters calls, at least one time. It was 60 degrees and farily calm. each sit was 25-45 minutes.. and moved about a mile between stands
1. i need help picking a call. the jonny rivers exterminator is about 100$ icotech has an offering in that price range as well as a FoxPro Patriot. Preferences for one over the other and why, please.
2 is spotlighting even viable today? We both have decent weapon lights.
3 if spotlighting is no longer a viable option(even with a better call) what would be the night time optic of choice atn? dnt? Sightmark wraith? and why?
4 any one that hunts either Mississenewa, Salamonie, or je roush that spotlights and can give us an in the field how to to help us get a feel of where we went wrong on our first outing would be great help!
We've only really hunted small game before and want to branch out and help the deer and small game population!
 
Good luck with budget friendly and nighttime hunting coyotes, everyone starts there and then you get sucked into the darkness and there’s no turning back.
I think there’s videos on YouTube of guys using lights. Seems to work for them in wide open fields and elevated.
If you’re looking for a cheap call, just stick with a big names like Fox Pro or Icotec. If the bug hits, you’ll upgrade.
Good luck in your endeavors. Personally I’d suggest against ever starting hunting at night, it just leads to less than “budget friendly” purchases.
 
I can’t help you with the nighttime stuff but for callers, at lower prices the icotec’s like the 350 are really hard to beat. They have way better range with the remotes than cheaper foxpro’s.
 
I ran lights for years with success. Scanned with handheld red lights and switched to a red headlamp from a company called Night Eyes for scanning.
(link) nighteyeslights.com
I Ran gun mounted shooting lights. I managed to kill 5 to 7 coyotes a year here in NY pretty regularly which doesn't seem like much, but it was enough to keep me going back for more. As predator calling became more popular it became increasingly difficult to trick them with lights. They seemed to figure out that a light meant danger in most cases and would bolt.

I made the transition first to digital NV. I had a bad experience with ATN and personally would not recommend them to anyone. Others have had success with their stuff, so take it for what it's worth. My second NV was an Accufire brand optic that was reliable, but had some quirks. Company went under leaving customers and dealers holding the bag. A friend has had good luck with his PARD NV optic. He also has a RIX NV that has been sent in for evaluation once for an issue. not sure of the outcome or overall performance across the board with RIX NV optics.

I Made the switch to thermal and won't go back. It's pricey, but I can guarantee you that if you have a little success with using lights, you'll be wanting more before you know it. My suggestion would be that if your hunting grounds are wide open with little obstruction from trees, brush or tall grass, you will probably do well with digital NV without much issue. If you have those types of obstructions you will get washout from the IR Light bouncing off the obstructions and the animal becomes hard to pick out, if not impossible. Snow and fog also make digital NV useless.

Nothing escapes thermal. But some hate the way it looks. It will get you more nighttime coyotes for sure. But not without proper setup and call placement. Owning a thermal optic will not make you a coyote hunter. It will make a coyote hunter more successful. Good Luck!
 
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Curious what constitute a continuous burning light. Sounds like a red head lamp turned backwards and dimmer down would be carrying a continuous burning light and then use IR night vision or even thermal.
 
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these have worked just fine for us on what indiana law classifys a continuous burning light thats to be seen while any night time hunting but we hunt with thermal optics, run them on the lowest brightness level clipped to our hats or headlamps
 
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A second vote for Night eyes-I ran their gun light and dual-beam scan light before thermal. Still use the scan light to navigate/recover.
 
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