Originally Posted By: ANF Hunter I have a foxpro wildfire II, and all of the ones i saw last year came into it. typically some kind of distress.... rabbit, kitten, fawn, kid goat. i beat the vocals to death this winter and had very little success. my buddy shot one last month that we called in at night, but it took some serious effort. what really gets me is that a lot of people say that late winter (jan/feb) is the best time to call coyotes, particularly with vocals, but i have not found that to be the case. i'm honestly looking forward to late summer, because from what i've experienced, howling with a diaphragm call in late summer when the pups are starting to get out on their own has proven to be the most entertaining for me. there's a bit more agricultural land in butler county area, which i would call a good thing..... in my opinion, fields and large openings in this area are really only good for one thing, and that is telling you immediately where the coyotes are not located. on a 200 acre piece of land covered by 90% field and 10% brush, those fields let you focus your efforts on the 10% remaining cover. i don't hunt any private land here, and fortunately have the half million acres of public forest at my disposal, but in that forest it is much more difficult to identify areas where the coyotes are not located. i see my biggest weak spot as being unable to effectively hunt the forest at night. i've been considering an attempt to make some kind of half hoola-hoop with red lights duct taped onto it to make 180 degrees of stationary red light in the woods at night. by pointing the lights to either illuminate as much of my field of view as possible, or focus the lights on the available shooting lanes, it would eliminate the moving shadows and possiblly allow me to see one coming into the setup. there's just nothing easy about it in this terrain, and forming expectations about coyote hunting from watching the western videos is a great way to become sorely disappointed. the ball game is the same as out west, and the players are the same, but here in the east you're lucky to be able to see past first base and a great batting average starts with .1
I have to admit, I've found this month quite productive with howls. However, I think I've made the mistake of being to aggressive with my howls. I've noticed the lone howl can almost always get a response. However, once I switch it up and start adding barks to my howls, I no longer hear and definitely do not see anything. This article just came across my screen and is a very good read:
http://azpredatorcallers.com/education/p...tion-to-calling
I'd be interested in hearing how your late summer hunting turns out. Personally, I hate the heat, the bugs, and especially ticks (we have an abundance of them), so summer is not my hunting list. Ha-ha!
What I've found difficult at night, in the thick woods, is picking out anything except overly illuminated branches, brush, rocks, etcetera that are close to me. During the day I can see roughly 85 yards into my woods in the winter. When I put the red light on my head, I struggle to make out anything past the closest row of trees! Obviously eyes shine right through the glare of branches, but it doesn't make identifying bodies any easier. Perhaps a green light would produce a better effect?
When I see the camera pan on a coyote video and notice it's out west, I immediately turn it off. It frustrates me to know end that they can see for what seems miles, while we're lucky to see 30 yards. The [beeep] videos (I know those guys have a reputation), are some of my favorites, because they get right in the thick stuff. How they're successful is beyond me. Perhaps they just have more coyotes than we do. I don't know...but I've never heard a howl when the sun is still up!