Utah Coyote/Fox Hunters
I have been seeing MANY of you complaining about not getting coyotes in the heavily hunted areas around Cedar Fort, Skull Valley, Tooele Valley, Cedar Valley, Utah lake area, Loft Green, Vernon, Dugway etc.
You go out and see tracks, you see the scat of the coyotes and fox but you are not seeing the coyotes and fox when calling.
Well I have hunted these areas for 38 years, till the summer of 1999. I know that allot of the areas have built up allot since then and the coyotes and fox are still there.
You can bet they are there and getting fatter too.
Yet you can not get them to come into the stand you are doing.
I have seen on other boards many hunters in other states having the same problems. Well I am going to state what I had seen in the time I was there in Utah and how I remedied the no show on the coyotes and fox.
One:
Every Tom, Dick and Harry there in Utah has a distress rabbit mouth call. In their truck or around their neck. They think that all they have to do is camo up and sit down in the brush and blow the call to get coyotes/foxes.
WRONG:
Because of this, you as a coyote hunter have to change your ways.
Just like the coyote and fox have done.
Because of all the hunters blowing the calls the coyotes and fox now know not to respond to these calls. The coyotes and fox will sight hunt for the rabbits but not respond to the sound.
You need to CHANGE as the coyotes/fox has.
Change the sounds you use to get the coyotes/fox to come in to your calling stand.
You also need to change the placement of your calling stands too (I will cover this more farther down).
Check out the areas you are calling. SEE what pray is in the area for the fox and coyotes. If you are near a body (Lake, pond, river) of water. A regular duck/goose mouth call blown not as loud, as while hunting for the ducks or geese will bring in coyotes/fox. Plus you need to blow the call with one Quack, quack then stop same with the goose call. Remember you are in the western flight way for the water fowl.
I have seen the ducks and geese in the dry wheat fields during the winter. If the stubble is above the snow or near (within 100 miles of water) the water fowl calls will work.
If you are in an area (within 5 miles) where there are some houses with chickens, ducks, turkey, goats, sheep, etc.. Use distress calls for these animals.
A turkey call (any of them) use it NOT like you were trying to bring in turkeys. Make it sound like you are a lost turkey looking for a companion.
If you have an electronic caller (home made or a commercial) get the sound of the farm animals in distress. These sounds will bring in the coyotes/fox. In the spring use the pup in distress calls or the fawn distress calls.
Remember with the seasonal changes so changes the diet of the coyotes and the aggressiveness of the coyotes/fox.
All the call shy animals in the area have not heard many of these calls. So they will respond BUT THEY WILL BE VARY LEARY in their response.
Because they have been shot at by hunters using distress rabbit calls. They were suckered out to the open and got shot at. Remember the old saying, wonce burnt twice shy. This applies to these very cunning animals.
CHANGE WERE YOU SET UP YOUR STANDS:
Two:
STANDS
Most of you set up where you can see for along ways off. Hoping to see the coyotes/fox coming in to be shot.
You see nothing so you stop calling and head out to a new area too early.
STOP!!!
You have just educated another coyote or fox.
Why you think.
The coyote and fox will watch the area from the washes and heavy cover to see if the sound is really a human.
Some will sneak in close by the washes and the sage. They will take allot longer to come in. When you get up and leave after 15 to 20 minutes, they (coyotes/fox) think yup more humans and leave.
I have made stands and called for 15 to 20 minutes. I thought that there was nothing in the area. So I too got up. But I went walking and looking for sign.
In the washes and thick sage I found places where the coyotes had laid down and watched either me or the area. When I got up they left thus I had educated them.
So I changed the duration on my calling and the placement of my stands.
I set up in the washes or the edges of the washes where the coyote/fox felt safer responding to the distress sounds.
In some places I even got in the wash and used a hand gun or a shot gun.
If you make a call with a different sound and in the area that the coyote/fox feels safer. Plus for a longer time. For 45 minutes to an hour.
You too will start getting the call shy coyotes/fox.
Just remember you too have to change the way you hunt when the coyotes/fox will not respond.
Think like they do.
If you were shot at responding to a rabbit call and were shot at would you respond trough that again?
Now this is not gospel like the good book. Each area in Utah is different. So you have to change for the areas you are hunting.
In the mountains coyotes/fox will respond better to one call than the other then the season will change and you have to figure out which call to use again. You have to make your stand closer to the heavey cover, so you will probably have to use a handgun or a shot gun for the close shots.
In the desert coyotes/fox you will have to change to the washes and the heavy sage. Use a shot gun with a back up for the longer shots.
Now hunting around the sheep herders out in the desert.
Get permission to hunt around the sheep.
Do not use a distress call at all.
Use a piece of sheep hide and a lamb call. Some times the herder can supply a piece about one foot square. (if you offer them a trade of a case of bud) They use the sheep hide for insurance means of proving depredation to the sate.
No distress.
Just a tape of a lamb bleating. Tie the sheep skin piece to the top of the sage but out in the open set up away from the skin. With a long range rifle. And wait.
I have done this many times, for the herders when the coyotes were giving them problems. You can sit all day watching the bait (skin) playing the lamb sounds and not get a thing. Then there were days I ran out of ammo and get over 25 coyotes.
Doing this can be a feast or famine way of hunting but the herder and owner of the sheep will thank you.
Now this is just what I have seen in the 38 years in Utah hunting the hunters.
------------------
Kevin Bowler
Support NRA Vote Freedom First
I have been seeing MANY of you complaining about not getting coyotes in the heavily hunted areas around Cedar Fort, Skull Valley, Tooele Valley, Cedar Valley, Utah lake area, Loft Green, Vernon, Dugway etc.
You go out and see tracks, you see the scat of the coyotes and fox but you are not seeing the coyotes and fox when calling.
Well I have hunted these areas for 38 years, till the summer of 1999. I know that allot of the areas have built up allot since then and the coyotes and fox are still there.
You can bet they are there and getting fatter too.
Yet you can not get them to come into the stand you are doing.
I have seen on other boards many hunters in other states having the same problems. Well I am going to state what I had seen in the time I was there in Utah and how I remedied the no show on the coyotes and fox.
One:
Every Tom, Dick and Harry there in Utah has a distress rabbit mouth call. In their truck or around their neck. They think that all they have to do is camo up and sit down in the brush and blow the call to get coyotes/foxes.
WRONG:
Because of this, you as a coyote hunter have to change your ways.
Just like the coyote and fox have done.
Because of all the hunters blowing the calls the coyotes and fox now know not to respond to these calls. The coyotes and fox will sight hunt for the rabbits but not respond to the sound.
You need to CHANGE as the coyotes/fox has.
Change the sounds you use to get the coyotes/fox to come in to your calling stand.
You also need to change the placement of your calling stands too (I will cover this more farther down).
Check out the areas you are calling. SEE what pray is in the area for the fox and coyotes. If you are near a body (Lake, pond, river) of water. A regular duck/goose mouth call blown not as loud, as while hunting for the ducks or geese will bring in coyotes/fox. Plus you need to blow the call with one Quack, quack then stop same with the goose call. Remember you are in the western flight way for the water fowl.
I have seen the ducks and geese in the dry wheat fields during the winter. If the stubble is above the snow or near (within 100 miles of water) the water fowl calls will work.
If you are in an area (within 5 miles) where there are some houses with chickens, ducks, turkey, goats, sheep, etc.. Use distress calls for these animals.
A turkey call (any of them) use it NOT like you were trying to bring in turkeys. Make it sound like you are a lost turkey looking for a companion.
If you have an electronic caller (home made or a commercial) get the sound of the farm animals in distress. These sounds will bring in the coyotes/fox. In the spring use the pup in distress calls or the fawn distress calls.
Remember with the seasonal changes so changes the diet of the coyotes and the aggressiveness of the coyotes/fox.
All the call shy animals in the area have not heard many of these calls. So they will respond BUT THEY WILL BE VARY LEARY in their response.
Because they have been shot at by hunters using distress rabbit calls. They were suckered out to the open and got shot at. Remember the old saying, wonce burnt twice shy. This applies to these very cunning animals.
CHANGE WERE YOU SET UP YOUR STANDS:
Two:
STANDS
Most of you set up where you can see for along ways off. Hoping to see the coyotes/fox coming in to be shot.
You see nothing so you stop calling and head out to a new area too early.
STOP!!!
You have just educated another coyote or fox.
Why you think.
The coyote and fox will watch the area from the washes and heavy cover to see if the sound is really a human.
Some will sneak in close by the washes and the sage. They will take allot longer to come in. When you get up and leave after 15 to 20 minutes, they (coyotes/fox) think yup more humans and leave.
I have made stands and called for 15 to 20 minutes. I thought that there was nothing in the area. So I too got up. But I went walking and looking for sign.
In the washes and thick sage I found places where the coyotes had laid down and watched either me or the area. When I got up they left thus I had educated them.
So I changed the duration on my calling and the placement of my stands.
I set up in the washes or the edges of the washes where the coyote/fox felt safer responding to the distress sounds.
In some places I even got in the wash and used a hand gun or a shot gun.
If you make a call with a different sound and in the area that the coyote/fox feels safer. Plus for a longer time. For 45 minutes to an hour.
You too will start getting the call shy coyotes/fox.
Just remember you too have to change the way you hunt when the coyotes/fox will not respond.
Think like they do.
If you were shot at responding to a rabbit call and were shot at would you respond trough that again?
Now this is not gospel like the good book. Each area in Utah is different. So you have to change for the areas you are hunting.
In the mountains coyotes/fox will respond better to one call than the other then the season will change and you have to figure out which call to use again. You have to make your stand closer to the heavey cover, so you will probably have to use a handgun or a shot gun for the close shots.
In the desert coyotes/fox you will have to change to the washes and the heavy sage. Use a shot gun with a back up for the longer shots.
Now hunting around the sheep herders out in the desert.
Get permission to hunt around the sheep.
Do not use a distress call at all.
Use a piece of sheep hide and a lamb call. Some times the herder can supply a piece about one foot square. (if you offer them a trade of a case of bud) They use the sheep hide for insurance means of proving depredation to the sate.
No distress.
Just a tape of a lamb bleating. Tie the sheep skin piece to the top of the sage but out in the open set up away from the skin. With a long range rifle. And wait.
I have done this many times, for the herders when the coyotes were giving them problems. You can sit all day watching the bait (skin) playing the lamb sounds and not get a thing. Then there were days I ran out of ammo and get over 25 coyotes.
Doing this can be a feast or famine way of hunting but the herder and owner of the sheep will thank you.
Now this is just what I have seen in the 38 years in Utah hunting the hunters.
------------------
Kevin Bowler
Support NRA Vote Freedom First
