What's your "dead zone" distance?

R

Rhett Steele

Active member
Where I hunt, Southern Indiana, the coyote are like gobblers, if you don't get in the "zone" they aren't coming in. I watch western hunting vids and the coyote come in from a long way off. Here, an answer from1/2 mi away equates to a no show. A ridge, creek, even fence row seems to prevent the finish. I am blessed to have a lot of hunting permission, so in some areas I can move to them. Other areas its move on down the road. Too much topography and cover in my neighborhood for the long rangers to come in.

What distance can they answer and you know you have a chance?

One of these days I'd like to head west and see what it's like to see one come in from a long ways off.
 
I'm curious to see the responses. Where I live (upstate SC) I have a similar situation. I don;t have a lot of properties but a lot of public surrounded by posted land so I'm kinda stuck with where I can setup.
 
Same on the other end of the state. Iv called in multiples during breeding season from a 1000-1500yds before but its rare. Heck Iv had dogs keep yapping from 100-200yds in cover and never show themselves. If they are 100-800yds I usually have a chance. Seems they are very smart and wary around here compared to the dumb ones in the west especially Texas. Here the second they see a truck or even the edge of a halo when we used lights at night they would turn inside out. I see a handful out during the day time in a year and have never called one across an open field during the day. Took a few years to figure that one out way back in the 90's.
 
Getting them to cross even a gravel road at night is tough. If the graders haven't been out to clean off snow and expose the road, I have had them cross otherwise they stop where they can see the road(checked for tracks afterwards).
 
Most all of the coyotes we have show up don't make any coyote vocal sounds and many of them are a 1/2 mile to over a mile away. Most of them are charging in to distress sounds.

Most of the times that we have had coyotes come in to coyote vocal sounds is when we are between two groups of coyotes that are yacking back and forth at each other or a male coyote challenges at our distress sounds and we challenge him back. I have "Male Coyote Challenge 4" on full volume as my #4 preset sound so I can instantly challenge back at the coyote that just challenged my distress sounds.

Most of the coyotes that I have challenged back at and had them come in went silent as soon as I challenged back at them. If you can challenge back at them within 5 seconds or less I think it works better at pissing them off than if it takes 10 to 15 seconds or longer to challenge them back.

We hear coyotes quite often and never see 90 percent of them. I have had way more success calling in silent coyotes than I am at calling in vocal coyotes.

We have had some success moving in closer to vocal coyotes and then calling them in but most of the places I hunt coyotes it is not possible to move in closer on them.
 
Spurchaser said:
If I can get a response within 300yds they’re coming in. Anything further and it’s generally a no go.
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Depending on the farm I'm on, sometimes 300yds is too far. 200 to 300 I usually get a sighting, sometimes, many a short glimpse and no shot. frustrates the he!! out of me. It's sad when you see a sighting as success. Had one Tuesday night peek over a hill never to be seen again, it answered be from about 250 yds out. I know they're there at least, got a plan for the next attack!!
 
Boy, way up here, we seldom get a response; they just show up. That said, I mostly hunt shortgrass prairies that are public lands. If we are paying attention, we can see them a mile away sometimes. We watch for any sign they make as if they're going to come in. They can SEE US the same as we see them, so moving management is paramount. If they see our truck, they're not coming in, so we have to hide it, too. Reading the wind at that distance is also necessary. Fences don't seem to be that bad, and coulees are their highways. BUT when they come to a different coyote's border, they slam on the brakes, and you seldom get them to cross. Barring all that, if we get them in to around 300 yards, they seem to keep coming, till they see movement or smell our track coming into the set. We don't do much night calling.
 
derbyacresbob said:
Most all of the coyotes we have show up don't make any coyote vocal sounds and many of them are a 1/2 mile to over a mile away.
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+1 Can only remember two that were vocal in all those years. One was challenging something other than me about a mile away, I moved closer and answered. We exchanged trash talk back and forth, all the while he was getting closer. When he was no more than 30 yards across a thick brush band from me, a fighter jet flew directly over the brush strip at very low altitude. Scared the dickens out of me and the coyote too, apparently. I was still sitting behind my rifle on sticks, engaged in some mental name calling and bad mouthing the navy fighter jocks when the coyote burst from the brush about 15 yards in front of me. The coyote almost made it across the sendero into the brush, but not quite. Guess I owe the navy an apology. Blackest coyote I ever shot.
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The other one used to sit in the brush strip around our camp and bark at me every evening when I drove the jeep into the tractor barn. He'd carry on for 15 minutes or more. I tried mimicking his bark a number of times and he'd respond as long as I'd answer but never expose himself.
 
If a coyote howls or barks at my coyote vocals, they are not coming in, ever.

I have gotten coyotes to come from such a long distance, I could not see them without bino's, and this was on a snow background! I took a guy out that I met on this board, a loooong time ago, and he killed one of those coyotes, his first called coyote.

I hunt Colorado, and most areas I hunt are very wide open. Even then, many times a coyote just appears at 30yds as if out of thin air.
 
Like others rarely have coyote vocal before coming in. I used to get a lot of vocal responses to a call called the Tweety Syco a split open reed call. Never had them come in but the liked to let me know they heard it.
 
To be clear, I have heard plenty howling in response to my rabbit in distress calls. They just never come in.

I have tried changing to coyote vocals when this happens. Still nothing.
 
I don't have a concept of dead zone as in how far will they come from. They'll come from however far away they come from. I'm in the west, but most of the time you can't see them coming until maybe 400 yards, often much less. Often don't see them until they are already too close. I rarely have much of an idea how far away they started from. No way of knowing. Except the ones that show up in the first two minutes, I know they couldn't have been too far away.

My dead zone is if they stop within about 300 yards.

I don't really get the concept of "responses" either. Coyotes howl. Whoopy do. Doesn't mean much of anything to me on a stand to hear coyotes howl. It's what they do. Only rarely have I been able to say coyotes that came in were, or were not the same one or ones I heard howling. Again, no way of knowing. I can say, that I don't really take getting a "response" as a good sign. It doesn't mean the stand is completely blown, often as not one will come in anyway. But having them howl, to me, means they heard my sound and instead of running towards it they are howling at it. I don't take that as a positive.

- DAA
 
I’ve only hunted coyotes out West and rarely have coyotes howl and then come in. I can think of a few instances of this happening.

One time it was a pack of 5 that a couple of them howled at about a mile away after I started calling and I spotted them running in at 800 yards 3 or 5 minutes after I started calling. Another time it was a pack of 8 that were yipping and howling about a mile in front of me while another pack yipping and howling about a mile behind me. I didn’t see them them until they were about 300 yards out about 25 minutes into the stand. Another coyote I heard howling a mile away. I was able to spot him coming in from 1000+ yards about 5 or 8 minutes into the stand. I had a good elevated spot as watched him come in all the way to 50 yards. These are all rare instances.

Another coyote started howling at me about 5 minutes into the stand. I gave up on that stand after about 25 minutes. Walked back to my truck and drove by my stand about 40 minutes after I had initially started calling and there was a coyote that came in late. Based on the direction it ran off, I think it was the one howling at me but I don’t know for sure.

Most of the time when I hear a coyote it means I’m busted. Sometimes they come into 200-300 yards and realize something is wrong and start howling to warn other coyotes. Shooting one of those coyotes is especially satisfying. Most of the time I never see the coyotes that bust me and start howling to warn other coyotes.

I think most coyotes will come about a mile to a call in places I hunt. Sometimes I think I need to be 800 yards or less and I wouldn’t doubt I’ve had coyotes travel a 2+ miles to my calls.

Even though I can often see great distances in places I hunt, coyotes find ways to approach to keep themselves hidden. Most coyotes I don’t see until they are already in rifle range. I had one last week come in about 5 yards behind me and didn’t realize he was there until my dog who was resting at my feet suddenly spotted him.
 
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