Chile Verde
New member
I've been calling in coyotes with my JS and Foxpro for a couple of years now, but until Saturday I had never gotten one in with a mouth call. Maybe I'd been trying too hard, because Saturday, I wasn't even calling coyotes, I was trying to call crows.
I found an area close to my house that hasn't been hunted in over fifty years. It's government land and "no weapons or hunting allowed." My 8 year old and I went hiking to look at some cliff dwellings. It is not a real popular area because there is only one really interesting dwelling in the area but it overlooks a very pretty valley.
We had hiked in about 30 minutes and it was about 4:00 in the afternoon. There wasn't another soul around so I thought I'd try out the crow call I just got from "Cheaper than Dirt." When using other crow calls it has seemed to help if I throw in a few distress calls as well (see the other guy's thread about crows yanking his chain).
I sat down in plain sight of the valley, wearing a purple shirt. My son was still crawling around over the cliff dwellings, not holding still at all. My "always-with-me general-purpose-predator-call" is nothing but a two inch piece of plastic "sippy straw" the kind with the flexible elbow in one end, with a metal reed dropped down inside it.
My elk guide two years back had made up a bunch and had given me one. It fits inside my glasses case, which I always have with me since I'm in the advanced bi-focal stage of life, but the straw has gotten a bit beaten up over time. I've discovered I can make a hawk screech if I squish the straw just right, or a crow call, or a rabbit squall.
Anyway, I started out trying to make a screech or two but all I could get out was sort of a short bark. I then blew a couple of excited crow series, and son-of-a-gun, I got a challenge bark out of the valley below me, and then another.
OK, that has happened to me a lot. I was busted and they were laughing at me. I didn't expect any further response so I started blowing on the "predator straw" as loud and as nasty as I could screech, alternating series as quick as I could with the crow sounds. They coyotes were going nuts down below, but the sounded like they were about 500 yards away.
I'd blow and listen, they'd bark and listen. Then my son said "I see them, down by that fence." Sure enough, here comes a pair, and now they are about 300 yards away. I told him to lip squeek and I went to softer distress and fewer caw-caws and they hung up and stood there.
Then we went back to frantic calling and cawing and they moved 75 yards to the left. At this point, the coyotes were giving every sign that they knew we were there, but weren't going away and they were giving us heck. They sat down, they stood up, they moved over a bit, and they barked.
This lasted for over an hour, and when I called it off they had come in to about 150 yards, and had presented us with numerous opportunities for a shot, had we been where that was possible. My son had been practicing stopping them with voice barks and had done pretty well. Had I set out to call coyotes I would have sat down with better cover, but I still think they had come in as close as they could because we were on top of a 40 foot cliff and the coyotes were down below.
Finally we had to get up and leave due to time constraints, and they coyotes were still there. One of them started to trot off, but the bigger one just sat down and watched us. I stood up in plain view and yelled at it, waving my arms and jumping up and down, and it eventually got off its rear and sauntered off.
I know it's not quite the same calling completely uneducated and unhunted coyotes, but it was still a bunch of fun. And it sure proved to me that you don't always need studio quality sound to get their attention, even though that may help. From the looks of it, if the coyotes decide to come in, they will come in, no matter what.
As we left the valley, hiking out in plain sight, the coyotes continued to harrass us, even after we had gone over the top of the ridge. Oh, well, at least they will always be there for seed.
I found an area close to my house that hasn't been hunted in over fifty years. It's government land and "no weapons or hunting allowed." My 8 year old and I went hiking to look at some cliff dwellings. It is not a real popular area because there is only one really interesting dwelling in the area but it overlooks a very pretty valley.
We had hiked in about 30 minutes and it was about 4:00 in the afternoon. There wasn't another soul around so I thought I'd try out the crow call I just got from "Cheaper than Dirt." When using other crow calls it has seemed to help if I throw in a few distress calls as well (see the other guy's thread about crows yanking his chain).
I sat down in plain sight of the valley, wearing a purple shirt. My son was still crawling around over the cliff dwellings, not holding still at all. My "always-with-me general-purpose-predator-call" is nothing but a two inch piece of plastic "sippy straw" the kind with the flexible elbow in one end, with a metal reed dropped down inside it.
My elk guide two years back had made up a bunch and had given me one. It fits inside my glasses case, which I always have with me since I'm in the advanced bi-focal stage of life, but the straw has gotten a bit beaten up over time. I've discovered I can make a hawk screech if I squish the straw just right, or a crow call, or a rabbit squall.
Anyway, I started out trying to make a screech or two but all I could get out was sort of a short bark. I then blew a couple of excited crow series, and son-of-a-gun, I got a challenge bark out of the valley below me, and then another.
OK, that has happened to me a lot. I was busted and they were laughing at me. I didn't expect any further response so I started blowing on the "predator straw" as loud and as nasty as I could screech, alternating series as quick as I could with the crow sounds. They coyotes were going nuts down below, but the sounded like they were about 500 yards away.
I'd blow and listen, they'd bark and listen. Then my son said "I see them, down by that fence." Sure enough, here comes a pair, and now they are about 300 yards away. I told him to lip squeek and I went to softer distress and fewer caw-caws and they hung up and stood there.
Then we went back to frantic calling and cawing and they moved 75 yards to the left. At this point, the coyotes were giving every sign that they knew we were there, but weren't going away and they were giving us heck. They sat down, they stood up, they moved over a bit, and they barked.
This lasted for over an hour, and when I called it off they had come in to about 150 yards, and had presented us with numerous opportunities for a shot, had we been where that was possible. My son had been practicing stopping them with voice barks and had done pretty well. Had I set out to call coyotes I would have sat down with better cover, but I still think they had come in as close as they could because we were on top of a 40 foot cliff and the coyotes were down below.
Finally we had to get up and leave due to time constraints, and they coyotes were still there. One of them started to trot off, but the bigger one just sat down and watched us. I stood up in plain view and yelled at it, waving my arms and jumping up and down, and it eventually got off its rear and sauntered off.
I know it's not quite the same calling completely uneducated and unhunted coyotes, but it was still a bunch of fun. And it sure proved to me that you don't always need studio quality sound to get their attention, even though that may help. From the looks of it, if the coyotes decide to come in, they will come in, no matter what.
As we left the valley, hiking out in plain sight, the coyotes continued to harrass us, even after we had gone over the top of the ridge. Oh, well, at least they will always be there for seed.
