Originally Posted By: OrangepeanutIs there a ton of hunting pressure on Coyotes in the Kasson/Byron area of Southern MN? While I am not new to hunting, I am brand spanking new to predator hunting and hunting of any kind IN Southern MN (I am a transplant).
So if calling from the road is not recommended, will getting land permission and just doing some sitting in the woods have the same negative effect on the dogs?
Just looking for some guidance.
The only negative happens when you do something that is likely to teach a coyote something that makes them more successful in evading hunters in the future.
Sitting in the woods and calling certainly COULD educate a coyote if he busts you. But it's FAR less likely to do so than sitting in your truck on the road and calling, which is what a lot of dumb@sses in MN try to do. It's almost certain that as the coyote approaches the road, they will already be on high alert because they know roads are "danger zones" already. So they will sneak in and if they see or smell the danger, they just got a prime education in how/why to avoid anything that sounds like free lunch if it comes from a road.
If you read my other posts, what I strongly believe is that you have to get into a coyote's comfort zone to have any chance at all at success in high-pressure areas. Calling from near roads is NOT a comfort zone because 100% of coyotes already know that roads are known "danger zones". You want the coyotes to feel as safe as possible and to feel like they are on their "home court".
That's why I say you need to do things backwards. Get into the cover, away from the roads, call quietly and sparingly, and use the wind to avoid detection. Don't take marginal shots if they coyote hasn't busted you. Hunt at night and in bad weather. Do everything you can to hunt when/where the coyotes don't expect a hunter.
I've even gone so far as to ask my rancher firends to please stop shooting at coyotes themselves. Yanking out Grandpappy's .30-30 iron sight deer wounder from behind the seat and blazing away at yotes 350 yards out in a field only does one thing: Makes them [beeep] near impossible to kill. So far my randher friends have all agreed to let the coyotes think that the ranch is a coyote sanctuary. Let me do the killing quietly and where they least expect it.
Grouse