What's worse in your opinion? Coyotes that got away.

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OKRattler

Well-known member
In regard to "educating" coyotes, in your opinion what is worse, shooting and missing or getting winded by a coyote? I say shooting and missing because I've had several that I've called in and been winded by and killed them at a later date. The same can be said about coyotes I shot at and missed but it seemed like I had a tougher time getting it done a lot of the time.

The only thing about that is it seems once they've winded you once they'll try to do it from that point forward. I had one come in from behind me yesterday and by the time I saw her she was standing straight downwind. She took off of course but I started barking and she stopped at 400 yards and started barking back at me and eventually walked off. In my opinion she's still a killable coyote. I don't think she really even knew I was there she just knew something wasn't quite right.
 
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I believe tincture of time can help. Last year we called in a coyote that was shot at twice and missed (brother's rifle got bumped and was 18" off). We went back two weeks ago, same exact location (different e-caller) and called in a pair but only the male came charging into our view. He was dropped at about 75 yards when he stopped two seconds to assess. We could tell he was an old dog by the tartar on his teeth and likely the one we called in last year and heard barking at us the year before that. We will call again in a few months but set up in a different area on the same property next go around.
 
Shooting and missing, I believe, is much worse than getting winded.

A coyote hears the call, comes in downwind and smells a human. That probably makes them a little hesitant when they hear that exact sound (i.e.played from Foxpro-LuckyDuck-Icotech, etc.), and they hang up out there a ways.

A coyote that gets shot at and missed, has just earned a PhD in that distress sound and humans.

That coyote is still callable, but, not with the same call. I do not know how long their memories are, but, I have had bird dogs that would check out the exact same bush they found a pheasant in, every time we were near that bush.
 
I definitely think they are leary of certain sounds and even particular places they hear sounds coming from after they've been scared. I could have shot at and possibly hit her as she was running off but I figured there was no use in adding insult to injury so I just let her go.

I only used vocals to bring that one in and there was another barking that I never saw. I'm going purely off of the barks but I would assume it was a male coyote. The one that winded me was a female I'm pretty sure. They'll be around next season. It's getting hot outside and she's probably rubbed pretty bad by this time of year. Besides that their pelts aren't worth much. They can have and raise their pups and I'll try again at a later date. Wasn't the first and won't be the last one that gets away. Maybe they'll forget all about that incident or at least drop their guard if I slip in there next November and set up at a different spot and play different sounds. By then there might be a fresh set of ears to hear my call.
 
I think it makes a big difference what kind of country you are hunting in. Around here it’s farm/ranch country. Coyotes are accustomed to the smell and noise of humans, it’s all around them. Except maybe for first year pups they see, smell or hear something connected with humans, they move on, but will eventually come back because it’s home. I do believe when they hear a prey or howl and then get shot at, they become more cautious
 
Originally Posted By: parsonI think it makes a big difference what kind of country you are hunting in. Around here it’s farm/ranch country. Coyotes are accustomed to the smell and noise of humans, it’s all around them. Except maybe for first year pups they see, smell or hear something connected with humans, they move on, but will eventually come back because it’s home. I do believe when they hear a prey or howl and then get shot at, they become more cautious

I agree with you. But I also think it depends on the coyote as well. I've been doing it long enough and seen enough coyotes and how they react to certain situations to know not one coyote is the same as another. You can sit in the same spots every year and call in coyotes, which I do and not one coyote will react the same as another to the same sounds or situations every time. In part I think it's because we don't know what that particular coyote has been through in its lifetime up until that point when we see it.

I'd guess that coyote the other day had never had any contact or run ins with a human its whole life. I say that purely based on its reaction. Yes it ran off, but hearing me switch calls after it ran off I tricked it into thinking there was in fact another coyote where it thought there was. But at that point her nose had told her danger was present. And that saved her life. Put a different coyote that situation and it may have ran and never looked back.

This game is hard and even the best (I don't consider myself in this category)will never truly figure these animals out. Some may come close but I'm sure plenty can back me up on this when I say that as soon as you think you've got it figured out one will come along and throw a curve ball at you. They can be a frustrating animal to hunt for that reason.
 
In MO where I often hunt, guys are running dogs and 4x4's after the coyotes. Sucks when your on a stand and someones dogs run thru. Seems when the coyotes see a truck they run away.
 
Originally Posted By: CoyotejunkiIn MO where I often hunt, guys are running dogs and 4x4's after the coyotes. Sucks when your on a stand and someones dogs run thru. Seems when the coyotes see a truck they run away.

Lots of greyhounds chasing coyotes here so I know what you mean. There's places where I used to hunt where coyotes are basically non-existent. The ones that get away hear a vehicle and they're not coming. They associate vehicles with danger and for good reason. Running greyhounds has become so popular I struggle to kill half of what I used to. Just don't see them hardly at all.
 
I agree with OKRattler, it depends on the coyote.

Some of the ranches I get to hunt on I can be the very first human the coyote has smelled. Coyotes that have never smelled a human go into panic mode when they first smell a human.

Coyotes that have smelled humans and are around human scent fairly often are not as terrified of human scent as the coyotes that are not around humans.

If you shoot at a coyote and miss it and the coyote has not seen you or smelled you, you may have not educated that coyote as much as you think.

I know for a fact that ranchers driving through and shooting at coyotes doesn't educate coyotes as far as calling them in. Some coyotes are not even scared off by gun fire when they are being called in.

It also depends on how you miss a coyote when you shoot at it. If shavings off the bullet, rock, gravel, dirt or sand hit the coyote, that coyote could very well be educated if you called it in with distress sounds or coyote vocals.

Many coyotes that I don't see get educated when I drive through a ranch coyote calling after hunting the ranch 2 or 3 times. Coyotes that I don't see hear me call, hear me shoot and see me walk back to my truck and then drive off. Even when I am really efficient at killing the coyotes that I call in, I am educating coyotes that I didn't see.
 
Originally Posted By: derbyacresbobI agree with OKRattler, it depends on the coyote.

Some of the ranches I get to hunt on I can be the very first human the coyote has smelled. Coyotes that have never smelled a human go into panic mode when they first smell a human.

Coyotes that have smelled humans and are around human scent fairly often are not as terrified of human scent as the coyotes that are not around humans.

If you shoot at a coyote and miss it and the coyote has not seen you or smelled you, you may have not educated that coyote as much as you think.

I know for a fact that ranchers driving through and shooting at coyotes doesn't educate coyotes as far as calling them in. Some coyotes are not even scared off by gun fire when they are being called in.

It also depends on how you miss a coyote when you shoot at it. If shavings off the bullet, rock, gravel, dirt or sand hit the coyote, that coyote could very well be educated if you called it in with distress sounds or coyote vocals.

Many coyotes that I don't see get educated when I drive through a ranch coyote calling after hunting the ranch 2 or 3 times. Coyotes that I don't see hear me call, hear me shoot and see me walk back to my truck and then drive off. Even when I am really efficient at killing the coyotes that I call in, I am educating coyotes that I didn't see.

That's something to think about too. If I have a coyote get away like I did the other day and it hasn't been shot at and it's lingering around at a distance I don't get up and walk away right away. If it's still in plain sight I let it leave before I do. A week before that I called two in and they hung up at a 5 strand barbed wire fence 450 yards away. They wouldn't cross it. I believe it was a boundary line and I waited for them to leave before I did. Because as far as they were concerned there was another coyote there, not a person.

But I also believe on a ranch where they see and hear a vehicle and people regularly they're not as likely to be cautious of that. Especially if they're not being shot at. If they've never had a negative experience from seeing that they probably don't think much of it. In fact I've been on places where coyotes stood around unaffected by seeing a vehicle. Now if the rancher or whoever has been shooting at them from a vehicle you can tell. They'll run like they've been shot at just by seeing one. They pick up on things like that.

You talked about other coyotes possibly seeing you drive away after calling and shooting. In my opinion they don't put two and two together. I may be wrong but in an environment where people and vehicles are a fairly normal thing for them to see they probably don't think much of it. I could be wrong about that. I'm purely going by what I've seen and how coyotes react to certain things.
 
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