Any daytime hunters?

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Been getting pics during daylight hours, so plan to try some calling during the day.
Any advice other than camo and wind?
Do y’all still use vocals or just more prey sounds?
Do decoys seem to hold their attention better?
Has anyone used their thermals during the day like when hunting bottoms or thicker areas?
I’ll figure it out after a few attempts, just wanted to up my learning curve a little.
 
Camo & wind are both important. Moreso than camo ... avoid as much movement as possible.
Mostly prey sounds for me. Rabbit vocals are the usual.
Decoys? Absolutely. I want something for them to focus on instead of looking around and possibly seeing me.
I don't own a thermal so no.

All of my hunting is in daylight hours. Never hunted at night, but a LOT of the guys here in TX hunt after dark.
 
Ok…day meaning just daylight or dawn/dusk or all through the day.
I know it’s warm right now or maybe even hot to some, but from running cameras 365 it doesn’t seem to matter to animals…mainly just hunters, lol.
 
I can think of no reason to hunt at night when i can sleep, I hunt in the daylight depending on the weather I hunt morning and evening or all day, hunt the wind, camo is not important, you can hunt dressed like the Joker or Mickey Mouse if you sit still. Every Coyote over 6 months old has heard Cottontail distress, try something else. Murl B.
 
I like to see the coyotes work as they come in. Can't do that with a light and im to poor for nv or thermal.

My experience with decoys in the area i hunt , they either flair or run in and out without stopping. If I hunted more open area where visibility was in hundreds of yards or more I'd probably use a decoy. Or if I was targeting cats.
 
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My experience with decoy's Young Coyotes fixate on the decoy mature Coyotes spook from them , Cats love them, they are a damned if you do damned if you don't tool in your tool box, YMMV
 
Murl B said:
My experience with decoy's Young Coyotes fixate on the decoy mature Coyotes spook from them , Cats love them, they are a damned if you do damned if you don't tool in your tool box, YMMV
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+++^^^^Decoys work great on cats, sometimes they work on coyotes, sometimes not, I think, as already stated, that the closer they appear the more apt to flair as stated above. I use them all the time and take my lumps, I think the +'s outnumber the -'s. I hunt mostly senderos, pipelines, etc. in thick brush, so they might appear 600 or more yards and come down the edges of the brush, or they might pop out under my rifle barrel. I normally put them on the ground, but someone mentioned putting up in a tree; that might be less apt to spook a coyote; plan to give it a try next time out.
 
I'm a day hunter, there is so much to see that you can't at night. I like cold calling new areas, exploring new areas, making hikes back in to hard to get areas all things that are hard to do at night.

Decoys, I use them a lot in all types of terrain, rarely have them shy away, a few have made high speed passes, just as many have return3d after a miss or were so mesmerized that I could have a couple of misfires and clear the rifle and kill.them. I did a tutorial on decoys in the tip of the month thing I did for awhile here.

Prey sounds always seem to work for me.

About the only night hunting I came close to liking was calling on the snow with a full moon, no lights but it was usually bright enough to cast a shadow.
 
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I live and hunt in western PA. Pup sounds have been hitting for me lately. Getting ready for turkey season so I've been getting up at 430am and heading out until 10am. Coyotes in my area have been vocal around 5am the last two weeks in my area too.
 
Think I’m gonna have to quit staying out late and hitting on nothing and try before sunrise and see if that works better.
That way I can try during daylight as well.
 
After a full day I have trouble trying to stay up late at night I would rather get out a hour early, be set up to call just before sunrise. Murl B.
 
I have been daylight hunting most all winter, I live Northcentral PA. from daylight to 10:00 am or so and last hour or so before dark, I use a decoy I have seen them focus on it and charge in, only run it when using prey distress, I try to put the call to the side and into the wind 50+ yards or more away, I set on a ground lounge chair with some kind of backdrop to breakup my outline. I have hunted midday in the woods with shotgun, ethere way give it a go, to me at my age it's better than stumbling around in the dark.
 
Sounds like a bunch of you are scared of the dark :eek::devilish: All kidding aside, I scout during the day and call at night. I hike up to 10 miles a night in order to get off the main right a way, roads, etc. No body ever wants to go because I hunt from dusk to dawn.

Anyway, I like all aspects of hunting (day and night) and I figured unless I have physical/medical disables or over 75, I'm going to go when there is the least amount of people and the highest rate of success.

Most of my night hunting started when I coon hunted at night with hounds for 33 years.
 
I much rather hunt during the day because to me it's more exciting, but here in South Carolina it's almost pointless to try to hunt during the day time. Your success rate increases by about 1,000,000% at night. Around here it seems that I see more coyotes messing around in the fields around 10:00am-11:45am. However, I hardly ever hear any kind of howling until about sunset. So much so that the other day I heard some howling around 8:30am and thought that was crazy.
 
TXCOONDOG said:
Sounds like a bunch of you are scared of the dark :eek::devilish: All kidding aside, I scout during the day and call at night. I hike up to 10 miles a night in order to get off the main right a way, roads, etc. No body ever wants to go because I hunt from dusk to dawn.

Anyway, I like all aspects of hunting (day and night) and I figured unless I have physical/medical disables or over 75, I'm going to go when there is the least amount of people and the highest rate of success.

Most of my night hunting started when I coon hunted at night with hounds for 33 years.
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I love the dark. Especially hog hunting with my bow. So far I've only ever been lost in the woods once and it was really because of my gf that I took hunting with me that night, but I won't even go there. Thankfully, a fellow friend and forum member was on the way to the club and was able to call me and her out of the woods. This was during the middle of the summer in SC so poor girl didn't have an oz of blood left in her when we got out the woods. On a good note, my friend when in and found her hog for her.
 
The biggest difference for me, although there are several, is the stand set up I choose. Daytime, I set up where a coyote doesn't have to break cover until it's in gun range and my downwind is a crosswind with that being wide open. Daytime coyotes here are very hesitant to cross a lot of open country.
Nighttime coyotes, with the cover of darkness, will approach across that same open country that they avoid during the day. At night I set up where I have the most visibility in every direction. You can almost bank on them circling to the downwind.
Prey distress should be good.
PUPPY distress or a den raid can be really effective now. They usually draw a hard charger so if you use them, be ready. Good Luck!
 
Not much night hunting here (not legal on public land), so daytime it is for me. I have hunted some at night and found that I prefer the daytime experience, though I'm sure the body count would be higher if I could hunt nights. Exception - hogs. I LOVE hunting hogs in the dark. Anyway, stand set up is critical. You have to select a good stand - the right habitat (the coyote has to be there), right wind, good terrain/visibility, good cover for you (break up your outline), and so on. I hunt fall and winter mostly, so prey sounds are usually sufficient. Later in the year, I do mix in some vocals with good success. Decoys? My results are mixed, especially with coyotes. I've had them come charging right in to the decoy and I've had them hit the afterburner AWAY from it as soon as they see it. I don't have the answer there, other than to say that I don't use one any more. Perhaps AWS is on the right track - he places his up pretty high so the coyote can see it from far off. I think this potentially reduces the "startle" effect that one can have on a coyote when he bursts out of the brush and first sees the decoy gyrating 10 yards away from him. I don't have a thermal, so I can't answer that question.
 
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