Night Crew on the Sportsman Channel!

[derbyacresbob]

I just recorded the Night Crew show that was on the Sportsman Channel. Chris Robinson got some great footage of coyotes and bobcats running right up to Chris's super bright white light that makes it look like it is day time.

Chris and his very bright white light show that a red or green light are not a must to use like many night hunters think they are.

After watching this show it got me to thinking about loud full blast volume on electronic predator calls. When I first started calling coyotes with a cassette electronic caller I had no remote to raise or lower the volume and the tape I used wasn't very loud for the first 5 minutes or so. After about 5 minutes the sound got much louder. Lots of the coyotes we killed were 5 to 8 minutes after the volume went way up.

I use full volume on every calling stand I make with 2 or 3 different loud sounds. I normally start out with a rabbit, rodent or bird sound that are not loud sounds and play them for about 5 minutes before I switch to loud sounds and put them on full blast volume. Sometimes I play the loud sound on full volume for a minute or two and sometimes I leave it on full volume for the rest of the calling stand.

Quite often the coyotes show up 3 to 10 minutes after I have switched to full volume. Over the last 38 years I have had hundreds of coyotes run right up to my e-caller with the volume cranked all the way up. So I am not a believer that all coyotes are terrified of high volume.

This Night Crew show is scheduled to be on the Sportsman Channel again on January 4th at 5:30 am PT and on January 7th at 12:30 am PT. If you use lights to hunt at coyotes at night you should watch this Night Crew episode.

Let's have some discussions on bright lights and loud electronic caller volumes.

 

[YoteslayerWA]

Not a night hunter but a hunting buddy of mine only calls at full volume and uses pup distress 90% of the time. He says why waste time using other sounds when more often than not they come in to pup distress.

 

[Softpoint]

I spotlight every night for the mile drive up the dirt road on the way home. I started with red/green light but used a white when the battery was charging on the red/green light. From what I can tell, little difference except for the green LED. I think that's because the guy at the bottom of the road spotlights from his deck with green.

As for volume I always start at low/mid volume then to high volume after 5 minutes are so. In the woods with low population densities around here reaching out is far more important than scaring them from what I can tell.

 

[OKRattler]

I run my call on full volume when playing vocals. Mid volume for distress sounds depending on how hard the wind is blowing. No real reason other than that's what seems more realistic to my ears.

I run red lights when calling at night. For a kill light I'd rather have white because of better visibility in the scope. But for my eyes it's way easier to see eyes light up with red than any other color. Green coming in 2nd. For I.D.'ing the animal white light is best for me. As for scaring the animals I think it all depends on the animal itself. I've had coyotes run off with red and green lights on them. Which tells me they had played that game before. I've had a few times when I spotted a coyote before I even started calling and on two occasions I can think of the coyotes came closer to the light. I think the light shining and lighting up the area in front of them made them come closer because they were out hunting and all the sudden they could see better. That's just my opinion. I can't say for sure why but I never touched the call and shot both of those coyotes at around 100 yards. One came at least 100 yards closer after the light hit her. I had a young coyote use the headlights of my pickup to eat grasshoppers and other bugs off of the road one night. I'm guessing they were all fairly new to the world that did that. Probably the first time they ever seen a light of any kind.

 

[hm1996]

Did a little night hunting with lights, mostly high chair on truck. Had some success, mostly w/red light, but often wondered about sweeping the light, as we did, if the moving shadows of bushes, etc. did not scare off unseen coyotes? Anyone else have that problem? Which reminds me of this:

While this is not about hunting exactly, I had a humorous experience last night. I noticed a neighborhood cat stalking something in the gutter across the street. He would creep a step or two, stop and observe, as cats are wont to do. I got a bit closer and could see something about a foot or so in front of the cat, which would move at same pace. The gutter was full of leaves and this sequence was repeated 3-4 times. Whatever the cat was stalking appeared to me to be a squirrel, which managed to stay about 3' in front of the cat at all times.
Since we have never had squirrels in the neighborhood until very recently, I decided to walk over and scare the cat off, which I did. He ran into the neighbor's yard, stopped and sat watching me carefully. I searched the gutter carefully and there was absolutely nothing there! Looking down the street, I realized the cat had been stalking his own shadow cast by a bright street light about a quarter block down the street.

With the cat still watching me, I retreated to the darkness of my own yard and watched. After a few minutes, the cat returned to the gutter and searched it carefully before leaving.

Not hard to amuse an old hunter who has not been able to get out hunting for months, is it?

 

[K9TXS]

They have an interesting show. It would be nice of them to do a bit on their light setup. They changed from what they first started with to a more portable setup.