How do you guys Scout. Methods?

S

Sircatsalott

New member
Hi guys.
I'm a Newbie that can't seem to get the stars to align for me. Here are some questions I am milling around. I have a few ideas but wondered what your opinions are.

So my questions are ones that probably get asked all the time but I obviously don,t have em down yet. I read the forums but it must not be soaking in.

-How do you scout?

-Everyone says make sure there are coyotes where you calling. Well Duh, obviously
But what steps do you take to ensure you are calling where the coyotes are?
Last time I went out I saw lots of tracks and turds but I don't think they were there? I
think that that is where they hunt at night and that they are gone by morning? I cant hunt at night here.
-
Do the seasons really make much difference in how you call?

Thanks
 
For starters, you and I share a tough state to call. Right now the conditions can be tough to have a lot of success so do not get discouraged this time of year.

The best way to scout is to do just that, go out and call. As you are out there more you will start to pick up on things like scat and such.
This time of year most of my success comes from coyote vocals, although distress will still work. If you are doing any type of vocals right now you should be getting responses back if there are coyotes in the area.

If you are calling and not seeing sign and not hearing coyotes its a good idea to move to the next valley or drainage. Keep in mind most coyote hunters in the west put on hundred of miles for coyotes.
 
First light always nets more for me.
Cows do equal coyotes and dead cows means even more.
Tough time of year to start and vocals work better for me too.
 
Modern technology can pay dirt... first thing I do is pull satalite imagery of the area I have to hunt, it's easy to step onto a new tract of land and see a tree grove and not know what is behind it or how deep that cover goes. Think about if you were a coyote, where would you feel safe laying low during daylight hours. They are gonna want to kick back in an area with something to block the wind. Cold days they will like to lay in the sun, warm days they are going to look for shade. They like to lay in areas with an open view of their down wind side, where their smell will not detect approaching danger. Elevation on the down wind side of thick cover would always be my best guess. Keep that in mind and hunt your way in to make your stand. I study imagery and topo for specific areas to target, along with hourly weather forecast for the right wind direction, so I don't feel like I am blindly stepping out into a new area. You cannot get a complete ground level perspective of an area just looking at a map, but it can keep you from trying to call a coyote out of a small group of trees surrounding a house.
 
Originally Posted By: Infidel 762Modern technology can pay dirt... first thing I do is pull satalite imagery of the area I have to hunt, it's easy to step onto a new tract of land and see a tree grove and not know what is behind it or how deep that cover goes. Think about if you were a coyote, where would you feel safe laying low during daylight hours. They are gonna want to kick back in an area with something to block the wind. Cold days they will like to lay in the sun, warm days they are going to look for shade. They like to lay in areas with an open view of their down wind side, where their smell will not detect approaching danger. Elevation on the down wind side of thick cover would always be my best guess. Keep that in mind and hunt your way in to make your stand. I study imagery and topo for specific areas to target, along with hourly weather forecast for the right wind direction, so I don't feel like I am blindly stepping out into a new area. You cannot get a complete ground level perspective of an area just looking at a map, but it can keep you from trying to call a coyote out of a small group of trees surrounding a house.

+1

I cold call. I will satellite scout an area and then go and call it. If nothing shows up, it was a scouting trip. If you are seeing sign, they are there. Coyotes are just about everywhere, except Antarctica. There are an endless number of possibilities as to why you didn't see tem. Just because you went out does not guarantee success. If only it were that easy...

Look for food sources, water, travel corridors, transitional areas. Watch your noise. No metallic noises, talking, clumping feet, etc.
Watch the downwind. Set up so that the wind is across your shoulders from side to side but watch the downwind and be able to see your call.
Cold weather, use prey distress calls. Weather warms and they start pairing up, use more vocals.
Spread out. Don't overcall one spot. I usually carpet bomb an area, doing a stand every 12-18 minutes at least a mile apart. More=more.

Good luck.
 
Experience. If I don't call in a coyote 1 out of 7 or 8 sets I go somewhere else. Bow hunters, cattle farmers, and rural mail carriers tell me where and when the coyotes are. Go out and earn your stripes. There's no quick methods. You'll get there eventually and it'll feel awesome when it happens.
 
I also use satellite images, I have the NOAA weather app on my phone. NOAA allows me to overlay wind direction, this helps me plan my approach and gives me a pretty good idea of possible bedding areas.
 
I go out at night with thermals and do a locator call, then watch from a distance.

I also walk dirt roads. It is read exercise. If I find tracks consistently in a given area, especially where two dirt roads intersect I will put up a trail cam and make a scent station with some coyote trapping lure/scent. This has been very helpful.

I would say a good thermal monocular is invaluable though. Especially if you find a road kill deer and can set back 1/2 mile away and watch for them. A DJI drone with a FLIR would be awesome too.
 
I don't take my phone hunting, old school here just stick my finger in my mouth and then hold it over my head, the coldest side is the one the wind is coming from but it gives false readings if you try it while you are driving down the road.
 
I'm rather surprised how many folks use similar methods. I have a 7" tablet that I use with GPS mapping in the field. Like some of the others, I start at home and set waypoints on the PC of the areas I'm interested in, and transfer them to the tablet. I run the tablet off of a USB power pack (24,000 mAH) stuck in an inside pocket of my jacket, so I always have the internal battery of the tablet fully charged. The tablet does not have phone capabilities enabled, and I mute the ringer on my cell phone and leave the buzzy vibrator thing turned on. I have a mobile GPS unit, but the screen is so small that I only use it for backup or when I already know the area well.

When scouting, I carry a rangefinder, a 12x50 monocular, and a fairly high powered, green LED flashlight if I'm out at night. Obviously, during the day the light isn't needed. I note all of the sign, and make notes about the direction of tracks, etc. which gives me a better feel for what they mean. Are these animals going out to hunt at night, or coming back at sunrise? Where do they go? Is it a high traffic area they are using going out and coming back? I usually just add a waypoint with a note in the description field when I find promising sign. I also use a small, digital recorder and just speak the notes, referencing a waypoint name or number. When I get home, I sort this all out and make notes on the PC's mapping software for promising areas.

I also scout areas that the locals swear contain no animals. I recently found a little 80-acre plot that the owner said doesn't have any deer or coyotes or anything else on it. I found tracks and other sign for several species... woodchuck, badger, coon, fox, coyote and some whitetail tracks going one direction only. I've already seen the deer, three small ones, following a tree line across the property just before dawn, and watched both coon and a fox eating a freezer-burned pork roast I left for them. Sometimes, people notice the wildlife.. sometimes they're oblivious to it all.

Also like others, I really like to get out to these areas during the day and get a feel for the layout. The satellite images are not always very recent, so I walk and walk.. or ride my mountain bike if it's not too sloppy wet and muddy. I don't always find what I had hoped to find, but I'm never sorry I got out there and looked. Last time out, at a Wildlife Management Area, I found a spot that had more woodpeckers and nuthatches than I've ever seen at one time. I marked a waypoint. I'm going to get back to that spot, soon, and just sit there and watch. I once saw a fox grab a woodpecker right off the trunk of a tree, when it came down within six feet of the ground hunting for bugs in the bark. I never forgot that. Might be a good spot to set up, who knows?
 
"+1
I cold call. I will satellite scout an area and then go and call it. If nothing shows up, it was a scouting trip. If you are seeing sign, they are there. Coyotes are just about everywhere, except Antarctica. There are an endless number of possibilities as to why you didn't see tem. Just because you went out does not guarantee success. If only it were that easy...

Look for food sources, water, travel corridors, transitional areas. Watch your noise. No metallic noises, talking, clumping feet, etc.
"Watch the downwind. Set up so that the wind is across your shoulders from side to side but watch the downwind and be able to see your call.
Cold weather, use prey distress calls. Weather warms and they start pairing up, use more vocals.
Spread out. Don't overcall one spot. I usually carpet bomb an area, doing a stand every 12-18 minutes at least a mile apart. More=more."

This is pretty much what I do. I have a lot of confidence cold calling. Pick out areas Im interested in via sat photos or maps...then...Im there....Im going to call...peroid. I dont have time to wander around and pick apart a giant area and try to decide if there may be coyotes there or not, or if I should call it or not...if it looks pretty good...they are there. Or they will be...I have new ground to add to the list, and Ill be back.
I also like to wander...when you have called long enough, your instincts will will pick out areas for you..youll just see areas that just look right, and be drawn to automatically. Thats the fun part for me. Have fun, dont stress about it or overthink it.
Mark

 
wow
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. Thanks a ton guys. I am going to read over this several times. And yes I plan on putting in my time and effort, no easy roads to coyotes in my part of Utah. I am enjoying this process of learning. I finally feel like i'm getting the info that will get me started. Before I was at a loss, only hunter in the family, no friends that call but you all have been great helping me get started.
Thanks
 
Pull out to the end of driveway, stop glass in all directions and locate them out in the field and the hunt is on. That’s the way it’s been since the first part of November. Between the 4 of us we have shot over 60 yotes without pulling any of the FoxPros out of the closet all winter. Unbelievable year to say the least. I’d swear they grew on trees over the past year. My son shot a pair of red fox last week together, shot the female first and the male would not leave his girlfriend so they are now together in heaven.
 
I use a combo of most of the methods here. I always like to get out when a fresh snow hits too and look everything over, find tracks. I find them in feeding areas like you said but I can predict where the coyotes feeding there will bed by knowledge of the area, mapping programs, and weather. Sometimes I'm even right....
 
If I'm driving down the road and see a coyote where I can call,I know there's a coyote gonna get shot there. If not....I pretty much just guess.
 
90% of the time it is a "Map" wind/weather and Time Matter.
There ae coyotes about everywhere . Just a matter of how and when your going to hunt them.
 
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