This is the best post on the topic thus far...

49,Im going to go a step further friend and say that this is the best thread that calling in the East has seen in a long time!!!If you are a new predator hunter or experianced,everybody can get something from this thread!Alot of good reading here guys...I want to read more so carry on!!!!

You're right, Chad. It's very informative.

Here ya go MCWALK. Pic is facing due South. A stout South wind. Two coyotes, the male is bedded behind a bush in the milkweed, right above the large hay bale. It's mate to the right of the male a little bit. Female is sitting looking my way. Their both around 600yrds out.

This timber strip is roughly 100' wide x 1/4 mile long. It's their core/den area. Male is also looking down-wind, BTW. You just can't see his face as well. If a hunter would've cleared the last high hill to call this strip. This pr of coyotes would've pegged him early on....game over.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/coyotes12708013.jpg?t=1248322853

Pr of coyotes around 700yrds out. Male is laying facing South[wind at his backside]. Female abit restless, milling around. Pic is facing due South. Wind, stout from the South. This is their core/den area....a sparse timber patch. Around 1 1/2 acres in size.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/Jan16093reds029.jpg?t=1248323388


Zoomed up abit more, a few minutes later. Female now sitting off to the males right. They both stared at me for quite awhile. I moved on. BTW, the hill side they were on. There was a creek down below them. Another 100 ft or so. A coyote on the hunt can be most anywhere. Bedded coyotes on the other hand. Most often are in a "comfort" area[with a view]. Generally more than 1/4 mile from the roadway.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/Jan16093reds026-1.jpg?t=1248323647

You got that right!!!Thats a great pic Kirby!!!Did you ever get a chance at those coyotes?

I could've got to the 1st picked corn hilltop in the fore ground as[the snow was pretty quiet] Which was around 280-300yrds give or take from them. Gave them both a free pass for the view.

I plan to kill much more this yr. I've been cutting them alot of slack the last few yrs.

can't wait till Oct 1st!!Kirby




























































good eyes

Great pics kirby.

Keep 'em coming....

Yup Fall good...Summer bad.

BTW, a hunter if he walks towards his calling area from the down-wind area. Pay close attention to any noise you might make. Walk like a cat, slowly & softly.

As the coyotes to your up-wind, even in a stout wind. Can still hear you very well.

More observations; A rough estimate of my hunt terrain is. >90% open rolling cropland, the other small percentage is timber patchs, grassy creeks, a few hay fields & grassy sloughs/waterways/draws...whatever you wish to call them.

Around 90% of the days, I hunt. Which BTW is generally 4 or more days a wk. The coyotes are either in this cover. Or working their way back to this cover, early am. From the previous nights hunt or movement.

If a caller wish's to call these coyotes. You have to get yourself set-up adjacent to this cover. As the coyotes are extremely reluctant to cross the open areas to your call noise.

If I recall, I've only called out 14 coyotes. Out of around 300 stands give or take. Majority of these coyotes were in or traveling from cover to cover across some small open areas.

Yeah, I've called a few out of those 14. That came out of & away from cover. But none ever came very close to where I was, except one. That one came relatively close. As I was set-up in a large span of cover[sparse timber/CRP & timbered/brushy creek bottom] that day. That day, I was perched up high on a knee high hillside of CRP grass. Above the creek bottom. But, below the horizen.

Fortunately for me, in my hunt area. I have so much openess of the terrain. Which allows me most often. To see them from afar[specifically in Winter snow cover]. Even sometimes when they are in the timber patchs/strips, grassy creeks, ect. I can still pick them out. I simply zoom-in & scan the down-wind[wind break] areas, of that cover.

When they are bedded in this "cover". They are in the lower/down-wind portion of this cover. Why? I believe it offers them the most wind break.

My hunt area has large steep rolling crop hills. Also small/low rolling hills. Pic is facing almost due West/slightly SouWest maybe 5-10 degrees. Coyote is near the 1/2 mile fenceline of a 1-square mile land mass/section.

This long range coyote pic also dipicts. How they lay when bedded. Doesn't matter if the terrain is steep with cover. Steep with no cover. Or flattish & open. They lay the same...samo...samo.

BTW, coyote is hunkered down in the snow, between the picked corn rows[Wind is bearing down on his right shoulder & backside]. When they bed on snow. They'll make a few tight spins tamping down the loose snow, then bed down. Facing a down winderly direction.

One main difference between my hunt area vs other's. Is amount of cover. Most canine predators I see, are the ones that bed out in the open.


http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/Jan25094-Reds2-coyotes014.jpg?t=1248355110

Zoomed up.
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/Jan25094-Reds2-coyotes016.jpg?t=1248355817

It's amazing how they bed down out in the open like that.

You never see that in my neck of the woods.

4949shooter, I'm sure if your area lacked vegetation. You would see the same. I've seen/watched probably close to 2000 coyotes & Red Fox over my hunting days. Can't recall a time, when I've seen them do any different.

I'm so accustomed to seeing them bed & where to look & why. It's pretty much second nature in spotting them. I still make a few mistakes on long range I.D'ing But they are few. As once in awhile vegetation, small boulders, tree stumps ect. Look just like a coyote or Red Fox.

My whole purpose in responding to this thread. Is to educate hunters that hunt heavy cover. The way of the coyote & Red Fox. When they are bedded, where & why.

If you understand how they use the wind, terrain & where their comfort area is. When they are bedded. Your chances of not getting busted on the walk in to call, no doubt will decrease. Et offer a better hunt.

Sleddog, when you said "lazy" you nailed me. I have always hunted by walking to my stands. Then my friends got atvs, I was odd man out. Got a machine and rode back in, started seeing less game within the same time frame as when walking in. Sure I parked the atv 200 yards, then 100 yds, then close enough to see. I got lazy!! Sold the atv and now I'll be back to hunting the way I use to. This is the way for me, not saying this is the way for anyone else. I'm now 62 and need the exercise. The places I hunt are thick and I'm not carring a climbing stand for stands that take all I have to get up hill, I can sit still! When you guys talk about seeing coyotes bedded down or coming in from hundreds of yards away, that is cool. My area here in Pa. they are in your face and gone so fast I sometimes beleive it is just illusions.