Night calling success

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smokem

New member
Compared to coyote calling in daytime ,how much more successful do you find night hunting with night or thermal vision to be.?
 
I have gone from no signs of coyotes all day...ALL day, to 5 coyotes literally running into us on 1 stand and seen several coyotes on more stands than not. In 2 weekends of day hunting to no avail, we went 0 for day hunting and 2 of 4 stands night time. The hunting is different [beeep], and takes its own strategy.
 
My success at night is 1000% more then daylight in every aspect. Response, vocals, sighting etc. I use various nvg pieces and thermal.
 
Smokem, I'm using flir ps24 and a photon with moonlight (when available). Its a recent purchase and leaves me wanting either a thermal or gen 3.
 
It is so much of a difference in my area that I don't try to hunt them in the daylight, even if I have a day off and nothing taking up my time. My areas have a lot of thick cover, like a jungle swamp. They can be 30 yards from you and you have no idea they were there. I tried lights at night, not much better. I was converted to thermal and night vision by a new hunting partner and it's a whole different ball game now. I went from hoping to see 1 coyote every 25-30 sets to seeing one every 3 or 4 sets, which for this area is ridiculously high numbers. There is NO other hunting pressure around here other than me so that helps as well. But at night I am also seeing a lot more multiples and by tweaking the set up on each stand, most are hard chargers...which increases the fun factor tenfold...which is what it's all about for me.
 
Let me put it this way, I don't hunt in daylight any more. Success rate tends to be much higher because coyotes are out hunting more after dark. You also get many more hours of prime hunting time (all night if you want) versus the 1/2 hour before sunrise and 1/2 hour after sunset when daytime calling is at its best. Kevin
 
Originally Posted By: HTRN57Let me put it this way, I don't hunt in daylight any more. Success rate tends to be much higher because coyotes are out hunting more after dark. You also get many more hours of prime hunting time (all night if you want) versus the 1/2 hour before sunrise and 1/2 hour after sunset when daytime calling is at its best. Kevin

I absolutely agree, I rarely hunt during daylight anymore. Here in Virginia, my success rate is about 10-1 night vs day.
And thermal/NV is the only way to go. Lights just send coyotes running, if you even see one at all.
 
Jase....yes thermal & NV are even that much better than red, green, purple, yellow...any color of lights. Some folks swear by lights and for some it may be their only legal option. I wasn't killing anything in the daylight, spent about $1k on Sniper Hog lights thinking it would be the ticket. I killed a whopping ONE coyote with lights in about 8 months of very hard hunting. I was converted to thermal/NV and it flipped the switch. In the areas I hunt, the fields are smaller...3 acres to 20 acres max...there is just too much brush at the field edges for lights to work. There is a reason it didn't work for me and no one else I know of or talk to around here uses them here...or least if they do, they don't kill much. It's not all about just thermal/NV letting you kill more, it lets you see more and learn more...as in how they approach, how many are really there etc.

Last night for example...at one stand at the 3 minute mark we picked up a dog with thermal that was just inside the brushline of the field. We wouldn't have seen it and couldn't have shot with lights. It didn't come in the open but couldn't get our wind because of the set up, so we just waited for him to come in the field. He ducked back in and we could see him moving left...couldn't have done that with lights. He popped back up in the brushline, but again didn't come into the field. He ducked back in so after a minute I switched to pup distress. He came back once again, but this time there were two. We could see them in thermal plain as day, but stayed just inside the brushline. Since my buddy shoots with thermal and I shoot with NV, we were waiting for at least one to step into the open for me to shoot. I could have made a headshot on the eyeshine on one of them, but was confident they would come into the field considering the setup and their interest in the call. However, as coyotes go...they never did and we didn't shoot, even though my partner could have multiple times with his thermal scope. If we had lights we would not have known they were there, what they were doing and the shadows from the trees and brush likely would have spooked them. I would have thought it was a blank stand, not knowing I just educated two dogs. Instead, I now know they are there and where they are likely to come from. We didn't get hard busted and I'm confident in going back soon to try them again from a different angle. My guess on why they didn't come in the field...A LOT of moonlight last night, so they were hanging up just inside the edge and looking. When I picked up the call, I had forgot to turn the foxjack decoy on...stupid move, as most coming to the call lately run a circle around the decoy and even had one biting it a few weeks ago.
 
I'm in the same boat as a lot of the other guys , lots of time and hard hunting with little to no results when night time hunting . I really love the sport of coyote hunting but am getting real tired of not seeing any coyotes usingmy lights exclusively at night . Can some of you guys give me some examples of your set ups. I have always wanted to look into NV and thermal but don't have the money to spend on it due to lots of other costly hunting and fishing habits . Thanks !
 
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I tend to have much better luck at night. The coyotes tend to be much more vocal and feel quite a bit more relaxed coming in after dark. Especially during the late hour of the night to early morning. I find that I have pretty good luck when I start calling around 1 or 2 a.m.
 
I hunted daylight only for 1-1/4 winters when it hit me---they don't hunt raccoons in the daylight! I did kill 2 & missed 1 before hunting almost exclusively at night.
In the last 2 winters I shot 7 & missed more than that & have killed 4 & missed 1 so far this winter & saw 5 others w/o any shot opportunities. I use lights. Sometimes it is very aggravating & long stretches w/o seeing any but I am a believer.
 
My partner and I have been going an hour after dark to about midnight with fair to poor success but the only one time we hunted the last few hours before dawn we called in a whole pack of them.

How about it guys? Are the early morning hours generally better than evening to midnight where you hunt as well?
 
Originally Posted By: bulldawg21981I'm in the same boat as a lot of the other guys , lots of time and hard hunting with little to no results when night time hunting . I really love the sport of coyote hunting but am getting real tired of not seeing any coyotes usingmy lights exclusively at night . Can some of you guys give me some examples of your set ups. I have always wanted to look into NV and thermal but don't have the money to spend on it due to lots of other costly hunting and fishing habits . Thanks !

Bulldawg I can tell you this much... Our coyotes hang up and won't come closer and often run off into the brush when I turn on my infrared illuminator for my Pulsar NV scope. I'm CERTAIN we'd have no luck at all with regular lights because they're so spooky.

The light on my Pulsar appears only as a small red dot that glows but that's enough to spook them even a couple hundred yards away. There are people that have luck with night lights but it seems that a lot of them are switching to thermal for scanning and NV for the shot. There must be a good reason for that.

Thermal and NV equipment ain't cheap and even with all the new competition in products showing up it's still very expensive. I don't have an inexpensive solution for you and I suspect you'll either give up in frustration or end up paying the price.

Back when Johnny Stewart made his cassette tapes and almost NOBODY hunted at night you could get away with a light but I'm betting that now it's hard to find coyotes that aren't spooked by lights.

Good luck... I'm saving my pesos for a Flir Thermal.
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$bob$
 
I prefer early morning. especially if you are anywhere near roads. There is much less traffic, however it can be difficult getting out of bed when your alarm goes off at 1:30A.M.
 
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