Question - how many of you go prone calling coyotes?

BJJ223

New member
I have hunted coyotes in the high desert for about 15 years on public land. I use both a hand call and a Foxpro.

I always find a bush on a hill and try to back myself up against it. I sit indian style with shooting sticks. In my opinion, it is marginal for breaking up my outline and disguising myself. I try to stay as still as humanly possible. I have moderate success doing this.

Do any of you go prone for better concealment? I will never know how many coyotes saw me at a distance and did not come in.

Is prone better?
 
In my youth, I only called from a prone position. It does provide great concealment and the most stable shooting platform.

On the negative side, it really limits the stands you can hunt because you can't have much for grass or cover. It really limits what you can see due to your low profile. The most important reason I no longer shoot prone is as I got older, it became harder and harder to hunt from a prone position on my neck and back.
 
I only hunt prone when taking a nap while waiting for coyotes to come in and surprisingly I've woken several times to shoot a coyote looking right at me.
When I find them staring at me a second seems like a minute.
 
A lot of guys only look at the concealment aspect. Prone also offers the most stable shooting position of them all, with the majority of your body mass in contact with the earth, being able to properly load the bipod, gives you a rock solid firing position. I would say we go prone 95% of time and carry multiple bipods even tri's to accommodate rapid positional changes.
 
Depending on the terrain but if I can do it on an elevated position it is my preferred way but obviously not always possible
 
Originally Posted By: Terry LightleWould try it,but may not be able to get back up on my feet

That, too, but main obstacle to prone in S. TX is that everything down here either bites or sticks preventing sitting or lyiing on ground. Not to mention high grass and brush block view on flat ground.
frown.gif


Regards,
hm
 
If I could get good visibility I would go prone since anything over about 2 feet high is alarming to the dogs. Under 2 feet high is less fearsome to them.
 
When I use a rifle while calling coyotes I lay prone about 90% of the time.

Using a bi-pod and laying prone makes it much easier to hit the coyotes. Quite often when I am laying down and the incoming coyote sees me move my rifle to get on the coyote the coyote stops to look at me and that gives me a high percentage shot.
IMG_2702 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/156463377@N08/, on Flickr
My son and I were laying prone in the wide open country in the above picture. I had my camera and my son Wes had a rifle. When Wes moved his rifle the coyote stopped and looked right at us from about 80 yards away. This coyote did not get away.

In wide open cattle country most of the coyotes are not alarmed when they see some movement that is less than 2 feet tall.

We have had good spring rains for the last 3 years so I will be laying prone less often on the flatter ground because of the tall grass.
 
Last edited:
I think it all comes down to your calling style and terrain. Where I hunt I'm often in snow and or tall grass so prone is often not an option. I have also found being prone impedes my ability to look far to the sides without large amounts of movement.
I tend to lie back against my elbows much like Les Johnson which keeps my profile low to the ground but gives me the ability to have a large range of motion if the coyote comes from somewhere unexpected.
Case and point. Last night the girlfriend just barely missed a coyote at 100 yards. It spooked towards us then veered hard left. By the time I got him shot I was twisted about as far left as I could turn from a sitting position.
 
I don't think I have ever made a stand from the prone position. Like hm, there's just too much brush, cactus, etc. here. I can think of a few places where maybe you could pull it off, but those are very limited. Heck, I find that I stand erect more than sitting these days. I can capitalize on many more places by standing up.
 
I rarely go prone while calling coyotes but occasionally will lay out prone while calling. Derbeacresbob picture is a perfect example of a stand that I would lay out prone on.

In general I like to sit with my back against a rock or brush to break up my outline. If I'm on a hillside, I'll often lay back into the hill while calling and then move to a sitting position to shoot. I do make some stands from a standing position as well.

My biggest problem with the prone position it that it makes it much more difficult to quickly swing and shoot coyotes that come from a direction I don't expect. Sometimes they come in so fast that I barely have time to get a shotgun on them as they fly by. Second, prone can limit my field of view on many stands.

Last season I killed two coyotes on a stand while prone, one while standing and about 40 from a sitting position. I've only killed 5 coyotes this fall and all 5 where from the sitting position.
 
DesertRam is right on. I stand behind my tripod I have full 360 degree vision and can get above the bushes, cactus,etc. Laying down begs for a few thorn pricks
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the replies. For those that do go prone, are you digging bugs and ants out of your clothes later on in the day?
 
Prone would be too restrictive for me and there are few places I hunt that it would even work, even a low turkey seat can be too low. I did hunt large winter wheat fields alongside some refuges that it would have worked but found sitting below the skyline, not moving and having a decoy the coyotes would go by me not even noticing I was there.
 
I have to go prone in many places, since I maybe calling from an open tilled field toward cover during daylight. This will change when I can afford some form of night vision.
 
I have done prone, but it complicates shifting your aim, and I can't tell you how many times I have missed shots, due to a few blades of grass just in front of my muzzle. I prefer sitting for these reasons. I use a bi-pod, and I can have a solid rest by anchoring my right elbow on my right knee, and holding the fore-stock with my left hand.
 
If I didn't have any cover I would but I never don't have cover so I haven't. I've called with people that went prone and called in coyotes and they never saw them. So I just sit down on the ground.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top