Calling all Coyotes

I used to be a predator call snob. I bad-mouthed all the electronic callers and took to the fields with only a few of my favorite manual calls attached to a lanyard around my neck. I could get the attention of coyotes and fox by blowing through the reeds of a quality call then bring them in close with the sound I made by squeaking through my lips. I whacked a lot of varmints doing this.

It took some time but I fell under the spell of the electronic callers of today just because they are so efficient and sound so good. You can mix different calls and I love that. Add a decoy to the program and you can now kill a lot of animals compared to those good-old-days.

I recently acquired a FoxPro Shockwave and the ability to put the dog into the perfect shooting situation is what I find so advantageous. Here’s how.

When I was manually calling I was bringing the varmints to me. There were many times I had animals sneak up on me from behind and did not know they were there until I heard something and twisted around to check out the sound. 

Now I bring the animal to the call and the decoy. This will be positioned in a spot where I have the best chance at a perfect shot. With remote control allowing modification of the sounds, as well as the volume, call options seem endless.

If there is one negative aspect to an electronic call setup it might have you making fewer sets. You’ll feel compelled to vary calls and volume and use up time where there may not be any hungry or curious animals nearby. The electronic calls are efficient and will bring in nearby coyote and fox quickly, so decide how long you are going to make a set and stick to that.

May through June are great months to be predator hunting in the north where I live. The landscape is changing and the animals are on the move. The young males will be curious when they hear the sound of an intruder in their zone and all of the coyotes and fox will be feeding after the long winter and cold-wet spring.

Even with all the call options at your disposal the game plan should be minimal. The calling should be limited to high percentage sounds. Limit your howling to nighttime hunts. Use your squeak only when you have spotted a predator coming to the call. If you get a howl back put some time between the calls to pressure the animal into a closer inspection.

I still use manual calls. With them I can add to the electronic call by barking back at it or adding another crazy squeal or two. It all adds to the fascination factor and gets coyotes and fox to commit to the spot where you have made a set. 

I’ll be honest; I’ve gotten to the point where I might believe those electronic predator calls actually sound better than I do. Well, almost.

Does Anyone Go Outdoors Anymore?

In 1988 I had a red-shouldered hawk make a nest in a tree on my property. I watched this bird for many hours through binoculars as I sat in the woods barely concealed by the trunk of an oak tree. I monitored the majestic bird as it reared it’s young, hunted and kept a constant lookout over it’s territory.

That same year in the fall I spent a dozen days scouting in the woods where I was going to hunt deer. I set up mock scrapes, searched for rubs and well-worn trails and used binoculars to focus tightly on the whitetails that were potential targets.

Since the advent of trail cams, nest cams, den cams and other portable cameras their use has grown exponentially to the point where we don’t really have to go into the wild to see animals and birds anymore. We can quickly snatch a data card from a camera we hung on a tree or load a live feed from a web site on our computer, iPad or even a cell phone.

I use trail cameras, a lot, today. I do a tremendous amount of “scouting” now without even leaving my office. But lately I’m beginning to think that trail cameras and all these web sites that promote eagle, hawk and falcon nesting video or bear den video streams are ruining my outdoor experience. Really; why would I want to watch hours of a bear sleeping? But truly; watching mama feed her chicks a perch she just caught is, well, engrossing and it can keep me glued to the computer screen for many minutes.

Not too long ago I had to set some guidelines on how much I use my electronic equipment. I am a news hound so I would wake up in the morning, slide my iPad onto my lap and spend a couple hours reading the latest headlines from all the news sources. Then I would eat breakfast in front of the computer while checking out BLOGS and opinion sites. It got to the point where I felt something was lacking in the day if I didn’t get my screen time. I was becoming a personal-computer junkie. 

As I began to regulate my time each day on news and social media sites I realized I had the same disease when it came to outdoor cameras. These tools are handy but they did put me in a position where I spent less time actually outside. So now I must vow to turn that program around. I won’t kill the urge altogether because I like seeing eagle chicks fighting over a rodent carcass, but I do plan on actively scouting more this fall for deer and I’ll need to clean the lenses on the binoculars to get out and physically find some birds on my own. We should be looking for more excuses to get outside rather than finding ways to be surrounded by walls.