Ok guys, I am certainly no expert, but I can give some very basic tips that may help. I dont know where everyone is on things, so I will start with what may seem mundane. I guide lots of hunters that have never been, so I will go with what I tell them. I am not very good at putting my thoughts in print, and will wonder all over the place, so bear with me.
Scent control is of no importance. Camo is good, but any dark clothes work. If they get downwind it is over, end of story. They can hear you, and they can even see you, but if they even think they may have smelt you they will run out of your life forever.
When you make it to your stand, get out of the truck and be quiet. Dont slam the truck door as if to tell them, here I am! Try not to bang and clang getting your stuff out of the back. If you are hunting with someone it is fine to talk quietly, but keep the hooping and hollering to a minimum. You can park fairly close to were you are going to sit if you keep things to a dull roar. You dont have to tip toe walking in, but be as quiet as you can without making it a job. Its suppose to be fun.
When you get to were you are going to sit, make sure you can see as much as possible. This can be tricky in the timber and I use one of those fold up dove type chairs to get me up off the ground. I can see better and I will make more stands when my back dont hurt from getting up and down off the ground all day. I will also sit still because I am more comfortable.
A good set of shooting sticks are a must. I use bipods because they are better for faster target acquisition. Ive tried everything, and bipods are by far the best. I know lots of hardcore coyote killers and almost all use bipods, unless they are night hunters. Use whatever you want, but that is my advise.
Take a few minutes to get all the fidgeting out of your system. Play with your scope, turn all the adjustments and do all your fake aiming at this point. Once you get it all where you want it just leave it alone and sit still. Put your scope on a low setting. Nothing worse than calling in a barn burner coyote and your scope is set on 12 power. I always set mine on 4 or 5. You have more time to turn it up than to turn it down when one comes busting in close. If you must use adjustable objective scopes, set it on 100 yards and leave it be. If you have exposed turrets, check to see if its set where it needs to be. You wont have time to fool with these things when a coyote is coming in. If you are buying a scope for coyote hunting, get a 2x10 or 3x9 or the likes. No need to go over 12 power where you have an AO. Absolutely no need for that in coyote hunting. If you hunt very much you will thank me later.
Always try to sit in cover and in the shade when possible. Sometimes you cant help but sit in the sun, but avoid it at all costs. The wind direction does not always allow a shady spot though. Its not a perfect science but you will get to were you know where the coyotes are most likely to come from. Start will your gun set up in that direction. You will get to where you dont have to move the gun much, which is advantageous. They aint real bright, but they do have eyes. Cats especially will catch your movement.
If you are hunting with a buddy and see a coyote coming, for the love of gawd, dont point at it. This is just dumb, just dont do it.
When setting you caller out, the distance depends on the wind for me. If I am cheating a cross wind I will set it further out. I like to keep it far enough out to give me a little cushion on them seeing me and especially smelling me. Typically I will set it 40 or 50 yards out, but sometimes as far as 70 yards if I dont have much cover. This is not super important, so Im not going to spend any time on it. Just keep it away from you. Keep the wind in mind, use common sense. You dont want the wind blowing into where they are going to come from. Pretty basic.
When calling coyotes or cats, I use rabbit sounds. You can kill both the birds sounds too. Rabbits are more pleasing to my ears so that is what I use. I call a lot of cats every year and they are all to rabbit.
I start out with a rabbit and play it for 5 minutes. I will pause for 30 seconds and go right into my second rabbit and so on, for 3 rabbits. Most coyotes are going to come under 5 minutes and most cats under 8. That is not to say I dont kill stuff out past 10 minutes but it is not real common. If you are limited on the amount of spots you have to call, then you might as well sit longer. I have an almost unlimited amount of stands so I go for averages. I will rarely sit for over 15 minutes. After you play rabbit and give the cats and whimpy coyotes a chance then you might as well try a few minutes of aggressive vocals. Fights, pup distress etc. Sometimes I kill more doing this than rabbit. Not going to go into much detail on that.
Howling can be good, but its too much to type and explain. Just start with rabbit and work you way up to that later. Never a bad idea to make a few howls to start your stand in the early morning and late afternoon. I dont mess with it much in the mid day.
Decoys are optional. I personally do not use them. I have had coyotes run up and bite them, but more often than not the flare off when they see them. They are coming to the sound. They dont see a decoy until they are already in range, so why chance it. Again, its averages. Im not against them, just not for me. I can see a slight use for them in cats, but what I have seen is they go into sneak mode when they see one. The slower they come, the more chances for them to see you! I went through the decoy stage, so I wont begrudge anyone for trying them. You will quit if you hunt very long.
I use Foxpro. So the sounds I use are by them. I use Caggie Cottontail, then Mrs Cottontail and finish with Eastern or Adult cottontail. There are lots of good sounds, but that is what I like. Baybee is also very good. Sometimes a change in pitch or cadence is enough to break loose a wary coyote or a distracted cat. Change things up. Nutty Nuthatch is a good bird sound as well as Lucky Bird. Try em all and see what works for you.
The main thing is to stay after them. There are days that you absolutely cant buy a coyote. Those are the days that make you want to quit. Then there are days you cant do nothing wrong. Keep in mind the further east you go the harder the calling is. If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times. If I had to hunt east of the Mississippi I would quit hunting coyotes. I know you see pics on Facebook of "big killers" out east. Those guys are killing them at night. Apples and Oranges from old school day callers. They couldnt call their way out a wet paper sack in the daytime.
Thanks!
