Why are PA coyotes so hard to call?

stenger

New member
We have some luck calling in Washington Co., but it seems that most of the time we are wasting are time. If we go out west there are coyotes running everywhere. A guy i know hunted hard for three years to kill one.
 
Imo its not hard to call them. Pa doesn't have a pile of yotes. On average we have 1 coyote per square mile I think the game commission says. You really have to scout them and put a bunch of time in. Finding packs and then get to them unnoticed, if you know for a fact your in their core area your hopes and attitude goes way up!
 

Originally Posted By: Kenawell1Imo its not hard to call them. Pa doesn't have a pile of yotes. On average we have 1 coyote per square mile I think the game commission says. You really have to scout them and put a bunch of time in. Finding packs and then get to them unnoticed, if you know for a fact your in their core area your hopes and attitude goes way up!
+1
I think distress calls have a lot to do with it, for the most part I think when the weather is nice they have lots to pick from. I have had way better luck with howling. A few weeks ago I called two in at night with just distress because I was bobcat hunting. Took both over 40 min. to come in. They couldn't have been that far away as my spitfire isn't all that loud (I think a few drops hurt my volume)
 
where i hunt, i can go out and ride the back roads and locate a lot of differant coyotes, but it seem that very few come to a call. We locate a lot of coyotes almost any time we want, but the calling only produces a hand full per year. I also have to disagree with the PAGC. In my area there are coyotes everywhere.
 
Originally Posted By: stengerWe have some luck calling in Washington Co., but it seems that most of the time we are wasting are time. If we go out west there are coyotes running everywhere. A guy i know hunted hard for three years to kill one.

Consol property by the Boy Scout camp,
 
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In eastern PA I find the coyote extreemly hard to call into an open area for a shot. I have located good areas and called in a fair number this year. Have yet to kill one. Shot two with my .17 Fireball and lost both. Now switching to the .243 so this never happens again. Called in maybe twenty to thirty more that would not come out of the woodline for a clear shot, or would pop their heads above swales briefly but not long enough for a shot. They are just so scared from all the hunting that goes on in this state IMHO that they are ultra cautious.
 
If calling is not working...i would get high up and just watch the fields with thermal and you will see them at night.. no calling. just leave some small amounts of bait or scents all over in order to get them to stop or come back on a good basis.

Locate the fresh tracks. I do well in fields they cross to get to the rabbits feeding or hiding in brush.
 
I think part of the reason guys have a small success rate in PA as opposed to other states is low animal density.
In addition to that coyotes can and will cover 14 miles in a night. They have a large home range.

We found tracks a few weeks ago on a lease road that we drove on about an hour before. We followed the tracks for about 5 miles. That's 5 miles in an hour.

Bottom line, low numbers and big ranges equal low odds.
 
Jason,

If you could get permission to get back on the Schiappa Trust there was always a ton of coyote sign on that property.

Scouting Egypt Valley, I also saw TONS of coyote sign with all the re-claimed mined property holding tons of food for coyotes.
 
We all want to call and kill more coyotes, but on the other hand do we really want as many coyotes as they have out west. If we did we would not have any deer.
 
Originally Posted By: Shoebuck We all want to call and kill more coyotes, but on the other hand do we really want as many coyotes as they have out west. If we did we would not have any deer.


Yeah because they have no deer out west right?
 
I am convinced that the coyote population has tripled in my county in the last 10 years. Our deer herd is indicative to that.

We have a problem and unless something is done to get it out of control, our county will remain at the bottom of the deer harvest list each year.
 
Originally Posted By: Shoebuck We all want to call and kill more coyotes, but on the other hand do we really want as many coyotes as they have out west. If we did we would not have any deer.

I don't see any problem with having no deer.
 
If ya wanna kill some doe come to my area. counted around 30 sets of eyes in the fields last night. We have a severe deer overpopulation problem.
 
I look at calling coyotes like fishing. If there is fish in the immediate area of you bait or lure, your gonna catch a fish. If there is a coyote in your immediate area you can call him in, he's curious. Just because there's tracks, scat, and coyote sign doesn't mean he's in the immediate area. If you have good sign of coyotes and go calling at 8am and get nothing, change up your time to Mayb noon or late evening. He's coming through the area, the trick is being there when he's there. That's why it's called hunting not killing. It's gets frustrating, I get frustrated when calling and nothing comes in. Just stay after'em.
 
Agreed on most of what was said. Im new to the predator hunting and Ive been at them hard now for 3 solid months, usually 3 nights a week, with no kills. I am getting more and more vocalizations back in the last week but just haven't had any show their face (or eyes haha)

The other night I called for 35 minutes and didn't hear or see anything so I was packing up my stuff. I started walking back out to the truck, and just then, there were 4 or 5 different howling and yipping yotes coming in from 3 different directions. I sat down, waited for about 10 minutes, and started some calling again. This went on for another 30 minutes with no action.

Im surmising that I was winded while they were skirting my set location in cover.

Frustrating, yes...but just keeps driving me to succeed out there. PA seems very tough, but when I finally do get one down it will be all that much more rewarding!
 
Here's what I've been dealing with. I have about 3-4 mile stretch of land in south central Ohio all big bottom farm land with easy highway acess I have permission to call. Me and a bud always leave a truck at 1 end drive to the other end and start at the far east side and start calling. We get howls out in front of us about 3/4 a mile or so away up wind, after a while nothing shows we walk up wind and set up again where we think the yotes howled from. Start calling again. Yotes howl again about the same distance away up wind, move again , same thing. Talk about puzzling. I've had that happen several times this winter. It's like when we move, they move, and about the same distance too...? I carry a ps32, so anything 400 yards and under is game at night
 
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