Ive got Misery in Missouri

F

Flat Land Coaxer

New member
Well I never thought Id say this but hunting coyotes is definetley easier for me in Illinois than it is in Missouri. Here I am, not used to having any public ground at all at my disposal in Illinois and now Im overwhelmed with massive parsels of public land almost completely covered in timber.
Coyotes were easy to track down in small tracts of timber in Illinois. Just find a decent creek bed or intersection in a ditch or valley and start my "who's you're daddy," woos and here they come. Obviously its not that easy every time, but my percentage of success tripled in the last 12 years.
Today, I'm 11 sets in, in my Missouri residence and no sign of any critters at all. I haven't found scat, tracks, carcasses, dens, nothin. This country is bigger and better than me by far. I found some deer early season I started to pattern, but with so many people running dogs for any varmint with fur in this area, it seems nothing sticks around too long.
I need some advice folks. The timber is sooooo thick and clear cuts are few and far between. I'm having trouble just finding sign and picking sets. My strategy so far has been, find deer, find yotes. I've got water, I've got funnels, I've got very little deer sign. I figured I would have at least been busted and had a barker by now, but that is not the case. Like I mentioned before, running coyotes with dogs is very popular in the area and I am hunting public land even though it is massive. I've tried to use the hunt stand lite app and google earth to my advantage but reading huge timber is not a skill on my resume.
It all sounds good til I get boots on the ground, then its just like, Holy crap, this is like finding a needle in a hay stack! Anyone hunting the giant that is Mark Twain National Forest or something similar, I'm all ears!
 
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I moved out to Missouri from Indiana last August and did a little calling after deer season last winter. Whole different ballgame from back home. If you find out the secret, feel free to share. Good luck regardless.
 
I hunt mark twain all the time.I'm a couple hours south of you.You better be prepared to be patient because your success rate will be low.The game is there but pattering them is tough.I like getting out early and locating a few packs and then going after them.
 
Up until a couple of years ago, I lived in Central MO and found that hunting along the MO River tree lines and the adjacent levee protected bottom land was much easier than hoping to call one in from the hills...

If I had the expanse of land of the Mark Twain, I'd be seeking and working the areas near waterways if you can find some that are not overly populated with houses...Like food, all animals need water and I'm sure that Coyotes follow pretty much the same line by instinct...

Up along hiway 19, NE of Salem there are quite a few lakes of size, I'm just not sure if they are public or private...I know that GC (member) used to hunt a lot in Mark Twain..You might PM him and ask his advice or possible tips...
 
Old Turtle, You must mean Huzzah Ponds. I'm South of Salem, but I've hunted Indian Trail preserve right where you are talkin with the same lack luster results. Ive been hunting a good spring fed creek and some wildlife ponds. This isn't even fun any more. Good exercise I guess. Thanks for the help fellas.
 
I moved to MO in June of '15. I thought calling here would be a piece of cake compared to IL. I was wrong. There are a lot of coyotes, but obviously different tactics as of yet unknown are needed to take them. The land I have has creeks, woods, pasture, and WRP. I am still trying to learn the "cycle" here. In the spring, coyote hunting is closed during turkey season, then quickly, the hay is 3' tall, the farmer does not want you driving on his hay and you cannot see to shoot. The farmer will cut the hay sometime from the 4th of July to September. Then, the bow hunters show up. There is some type of deer hunting from Sept 15th to March 15th (due to CWD). There are plenty of gut piles for them to eat and the winters are much milder here, so there is little incentive for them to come to a call. Repeat.
Trying to find a spot with visibility is difficult. It is quite hilly here. When you sit just below the top of a hill, you can see to the next hill, usually about 75 yds away. Coyotes are difficult to see coming, show up quick, and are out of shooting range just as quickly. The coyotes here are small-usually about as big as a fox, and frequently mangy. The trappers actually do better than callers here and there are a lot of them. There is NO night hunting here, you cannot use lights, NV or thermal. Boy, was I wrong.
 
AS said above it is harder in MO especially when coming from a different state and having them on every stand or every few stands that come trotting in.
Ive called in MO for 30yrs on & off from on many small farms/land plots and it was tought all that time. I move west a few states and I kill more in a year than in 30 yrs out of MO.
 
It is tough, but you have to be patient. I don't kill a lot of yotes, but we kill one about every hunt, not every set. Brushy creeks and open fields here in NW Missouri.
 
Welcome to hunting the big woods. I hunt a similarly sized national forest in Pennsylvania, and it's not easy. I haven't seen a coyote since the beginning of october, but not for lack of trying. Everywhere i go there are tracks and turds, and sometimes a ton of them. Brushy valley bottoms, cut-over areas, and anywhere near water or ice seem to be the areas with most sign, and have been productive for me in the past. Try to keep your downwind as visible as possible. If they commit and approach from any area where they can't smell you, they'll probably come in pretty close, so long distance visibility is not as important in those directions. If they fail to completely commit and decide to hang up even at 150-200 yards, there's a good chance you wont even see them unless the woods are particularly thin. I usually hunt alone but have strongly considered posting up a second shooter about 200 yards downwind from the call. I put in a good deal of time this year and made probably 250-300 stands, killed 6, missed 5, but 4 kills were doubles, so i only saw coyotes on 9 stands out of that many..... Heard a whole lot more than that though. Just before dark and daybreak have been most favorable for me. I've found that some areas just have better pockets of populations for reasons i probably will never know.
With that much land at your disposal, try new locations constantly and don't focus too much on finding spots that you think look good. The good spots will stand out when you see coyotes, and the only way you can find them is to put boots on the ground and keep making stands.
You just have to keep after it and try to appreciate the uncommon success a little more than some of the guys that live in areas where you can kill 10 in a single day.
 
So far I have not called the same set, or used the same calling sequence. I use primarily hand calls and rotate 6 or 7 closed and open reed calls. I haven't been using coyote vocals in case of a fox or bobcat, i don't wanna blow them out of the country. There's so much ground, I don't think I'll ever use the same set. I've got a lot of areas I still wanna try, but man it really burns ya out when you come up dry so many times!
What sounds and sequences have y'all had luck with? I have been using a lot of rabbit distress, bird, fawn, cat, and pup distress. I've challenged and done invitation howls off my front porch just messing around to the neighbors packs across the road, but they just shut off like they are intimidated. This place is driving me nuts lol. I don't like being this unsuccessful one bit!
 
I don't like it either. I thought I was getting to be a better coyote hunter, but MO has shown me different. The hardest thing is, I have not been able to develop a pattern of what works. Every time you go hunting, it's like starting over.
 
I've lived in MO all my life and struggled to be successful at calling coyotes. I just thought I was a terrible coyote hunter, but I guess I feel a little better after reading your guy's struggles here as well. I hunt both public and private land. I've killed a handful of coyotes over the years, but not with any regularity. All of my successful stands have been where big timber transitions to crops of some sort of grassland. I guess I never made that connection until just now thinking about it. Might be my focus for the rest of the year, as calling in big timber is tough. I feel like coyotes come in, but stay out of sight, and then slip away again.

I'll be interested to see if anyone else who is regularly successful in mid- to southern MO will chime in. Northern MO with all the cropland seems a big easier, but not much.
 
I have lived in Central Mo, between Lake of Ozarks and Jefferson City my whole life. I have not gotten to call in any other states or areas, but it does seem to be tougher around here than some make it sound west of here. I think we called in on average 1 coyote every 6 sits last year. But we are hunting private land and land I am very familiar with. Its all close quarters hunting (
 
Hey guys thanks for all the comments! I tried a big parcel of public land this afternoon and drug a buddy along this time with a shotgun. It was a bittersweet time. I called in two coyotes but unfortunetley, my buddy could not swing on the one fast enough and the other was in and out so quick, a shot just wasn't possible. But hey I was two for two on the day and I saw some dogs! I still got it! haha! That was sets 13 and 14 for this season.Cant wait to go again asap!
 
I live in Southeast Missouri and Hunt Private and Public Land and can say it can be tough calling in Coyotes at times.The Colder the Weather the more it seems they move and will come in to Calls.

When We Hunt any of the MTNF Areas we have had better luck Hunting where the land reaches out to any Cow Pasture's or Crop Land,seems the Coyotes will be where Cattle are or there's more abundance of wild game.Weve had better luck Hunting early mornings or late evenings and if We don't move around a lot...if the Coyotes aren't there right away they will be moving,howling/Barking and grouping up as the evening progresses.One good thing is there's usually a good chance to call in a Bobcat or Fox while Coyote Hunting.

On Private Land I like Hunting out of a ladder stand,You can see further out and Your scent is higher up and hopefully not as easy to detect by a Coyote!Most Areas I permission to Hunt have plenty of existing ladder stands,box blinds or I set up in Areas I know I have a good visual advantage or if I'm with my Calling Partner I sit further away from him or we sit close and each watch different directions.If He Doe's Distress Sounds I use Coyote Sounds to add realism or if I'm using my Shockwave Electronic Caller we both might throw in different sounds on our mouth calls to help add to it!

I suggest You do a lot of Scouting and see where the Coyotes are at on the Public Land here in Missouri,the MTNF Areas are huge and if You go to the local Conservation Office they will give You maps showing the boundary lines and if You can pull up the Area on Your cell phone it helps to see what kind of Private Land surrounds the Public Land.
 
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