How far do you think the coyotes come to get to your call?

My opinion on this has changed some. Years ago, I used to think any coyote within a mile that could hear the sound and was interested in the sound would come. Over the years my opinion has changed as Ive hunted various different types of terrain, from very flat wide open, to very steep hills with deep cuts and brush.

As I evaluate my data, response times, distance traveled between stands etc, I have come to think that in my part of the country at least, I dont need to move 1 mile between stands.

For instance, last night before dark, I made a stand and called in a double about an hour before dark.There was a very steep ridge I had to climb, and just after I topped out, sat down and called into a large opening that produced a double out of the surrounding hills.

I left that stand and went 3,400 feet, (per google earth) to my next stand, which is a little over half a mile, sat down over looking a good flat with a pond. 10 mins in to the stand, produced another coyote. This is just an example of travel distance that I talk of. Many times ive went .5 to .75 and at times, MUCH less, and called in coyotes.

Ive also sat on stand, howled and got vocal response from coyotes less than a half mile away that would NOT come to the call. Then I get up, close to gap a considerable amount between us and them, and start calling again and have them come in to the call when I know without a doubt, they could hear it the first time from the first stand.

What Im saying is, a lot of guys will tell you that you need to move a mile away from your stand before calling again but I believe depending on terrain, .5 mile is plenty a lot of the time. I know it can vary depending on the terrain but as a general rule .5-.75 is enough on my opinion, many times. What do you guys think?
 
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Depending on terrain and depending on finding a place to hide my vehicle. On flat ground I move a mile or a little more between stands.

In the mountains calling off of the mountain and ridge tops my stands will be much closer together.

Hearing coyotes that won't come in and then moving closer and having them come in sounds like a territorial thing to me. When you moved in closer they didn't like it.
 
Originally Posted By: derbyacresbobDepending on terrain and depending on finding a place to hide my vehicle. On flat ground I move a mile or a little more between stands.

In the mountains calling off of the mountain and ridge tops my stands will be much closer together.

Hearing coyotes that won't come in and then moving closer and having them come in sounds like a territorial thing to me. When you moved in closer they didn't like it.

Probably right, Bob.....I must be good at splitting their territories, cause its happens more than once.
 
In my part of Kansas, it's mostly "flat" with rolling hills.

Over the years, I have decided (correct or not), that it simply depends on each individual coyote.

I have actually watched (thru binocs) coyotes come to my calling, from over a mile away.
I have also seen coyotes mousing (as I was setting up), less than 500 yards away....hear my call; look my direction; and then ignore me.

Heck, I have even seen things I can't explain, such as this example:
One morning I had my oldest son with me, as my gunner.
I had him set up away from me about 40 yards.
Called a coyote in, trotting all the way.
Coyote stopped about 80 yards away from me (about the same from son, given the angle it came in on).
Son fired one shot, which went right over the coyote's head.
Coyote took off, back the way it had come, at warp 8. Son wasn't comfy with running shots, so he didn't fire again.
I immediately began doing pup distress on my call.
Coyote slowed and stopped at about 200 yards.
Son took another shot, and missed again.
Coyote took off running yet again.
I watched that coyote (thru binocs) go about another 400 yards.....stop...start sniffing the ground...walk about 25 yards...scare up a rabbit & chase it a short ways before giving up....and, AFTER BEING SHOT AT TWICE, and less than half-mile from where we sat...start mousing, which it continued to do for about 30 minutes.
When that coyote finally went out of sight (due to the terrain), it was still mousing, and acting as if nothing had ever bothered it.


By the same token, I have called in doubles (killing only one), and sat and watched the second one, still running flat out, when it went out of view over a mile away. (I was sitting on the highest hill in the area at the time, and could see a LONG ways.)


So, like I say, I think it depends on each coyote.
But, even after hunting the dang things for 40+ years, I still know a LOT less about how they tick, than I want to.
 
Originally Posted By: canislatrans54In my part of Kansas, it's mostly "flat" with rolling hills.

Over the years, I have decided (correct or not), that it simply depends on each individual coyote.

I have actually watched (thru binocs) coyotes come to my calling, from over a mile away.
I have also seen coyotes mousing (as I was setting up), less than 500 yards away....hear my call; look my direction; and then ignore me.

Heck, I have even seen things I can't explain, such as this example:
One morning I had my oldest son with me, as my gunner.
I had him set up away from me about 40 yards.
Called a coyote in, trotting all the way.
Coyote stopped about 80 yards away from me (about the same from son, given the angle it came in on).
Son fired one shot, which went right over the coyote's head.
Coyote took off, back the way it had come, at warp 8. Son wasn't comfy with running shots, so he didn't fire again.
I immediately began doing pup distress on my call.
Coyote slowed and stopped at about 200 yards.
Son took another shot, and missed again.
Coyote took off running yet again.
I watched that coyote (thru binocs) go about another 400 yards.....stop...start sniffing the ground...walk about 25 yards...scare up a rabbit & chase it a short ways before giving up....and, AFTER BEING SHOT AT TWICE, and less than half-mile from where we sat...start mousing, which it continued to do for about 30 minutes.
When that coyote finally went out of sight (due to the terrain), it was still mousing, and acting as if nothing had ever bothered it.


By the same token, I have called in doubles (killing only one), and sat and watched the second one, still running flat out, when it went out of view over a mile away. (I was sitting on the highest hill in the area at the time, and could see a LONG ways.)


So, like I say, I think it depends on each coyote.
But, even after hunting the dang things for 40+ years, I still know a LOT less about how they tick, than I want to.


Agreed. I havent been hunting them near as long as you, but I have hunted a few, and they still make me scratch my head at times.

Once, I had a pair charge in hard directly down wind. Got my wind on the charge at 150 yards, they slammed on the breaks and spun out and ran out just as fast. When they approached 500 yards away, they stopped again, and turned around to look back. At that point, 1 of the 2, charged back in to the call just as hard and just as fast as he did the first time on the same exact path. He got the wind in the same exact spot as he did the first time, turn around and ran out again just the same.....I have no idea what he was doing, I guess double checking the wind to see if his nose was lying to him lol
 
i have watched them come from a mile off in bino's. i have seen them 500 yrds off not come closer.

I believe it depends on hunger, claimed territory, and how afraid they are of that neighbor.

Over time i feel there are two kinds.

There are roamers that wonder around, and those that have territory. Those in territory seem to set up in neighborhoods and howl at each other. (like people that go camping and set up all close to each other vs. those that set out on their own)

Just my opinion.

I use turds in the road to help spot the boundaries and work off that.

Sometimes i can call one side of the road, call in a coyote, then go to the other side of the road and put more fur in the truck without moving the truck.
 
i once watched a pair of coyotes come in from over a mile away.but agree you don't have to move a mile between stands. you are going to get some overlap and don't know if they can always hear that far i know it took that pair a long time to come in.

Ed
 
"I know it can vary depending on the terrain but as a general rule .5-.75 is enough on my opinion, many times."

If you are going to make rules about what works for coyote calling, you will spend your lifetime being what I like to call........."Wrong"
LOL

There is only one rule......1] There ain't no rules.


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This is some of the terrain I call.

"This is a waste of time calling this. If there were coyotes here we'd see them" If I had a dollar for every time I heard this, I'd have way more than two dollars.

I've called coyotes in this terrain from so far away, you couldn't see the power poles they were beside without your binos. Those three coyotes came in to a couple of howls. clients had lots of time to set up but ignored my advice to wait till I get them stopped.They missed all three with every shot they had in their rifles.LOL

I have also seen a coyote mousing at 200 yards completely ignore the call. Unfortunately for him I don't like being ignored and my Swift loves 200 yard shots.

In winter when it gets below 0 F sound carries farther.

How far I move depends on how long I want to sit.
On a warm fall day I may sit for 1/2 hour or more. When it's cold I'm gone in 15 minutes.

I may move to the other side of the road or I may move two miles. In my case I am not restricted by how much territory I can hunt. I will never hunt all the ground I have access to in my lifetime. I seldom call the same area twice in one year, and some areas I will call 3 or 4 times as they continue to produce

Like Will says sometimes their actions tend to confound us.

I have had groups of 6 or 7 come in and my shooter has killed 3 or 4 one at a time. Kill one, have the rest run off, I call them back, kill another etc.

Next time I can't move them past the 400 yard marker. That's when the 220 Swift comes into play.

Oh yeah >This is ranch country so I can usually see cows. When I howl, I watch the cows They tell me they hear me.
 
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Anywhere from 100 yards to over a mile; depending on terrain. One in particular was well over a mile and left a dust rising trail as he closed the distance to me. very interesting that he never slowed down until about 300 yards. Sadly for him, he will never hunt again. Poked him at about 60 yards on a ridge.
 
On a calm winter day here in the desert I watched one come to a my hand calling from three miles out. I was on a nice little hill, a couple hundred feet above the surrounding desert. I made one long series and shut up. I spotted her dust trail at first, way out there. It kept getting closer until I could see it was a coyote. I never made another sound and ended up killing her at under 20 yards. When I got back to the truck I double checked the BLM map, which showed that she had crossed three full sections at a run to get to the call. That's when I learned to never underestimate their hearing and ability to pinpoint a sound's location.

Of course, I also watched them completely ignore my sounds at a couple hundred yards and just wander off.

You just gotta catch 'em in the right mood I guess.
 
The furthest I have ever seen called in was probably a mile or so. I was outside of 29 Palms in
S. Ca. the terrain in that area was scattered rock, few bushes, no grass, looked like the face of the moon, lousy with cats and mice.

I hid the truck best I could in a ditch, then walked up on the side of the hill where I could see over the entire valley with a big rock blocking my silhouette. I turned on the caller, and within two minutes, I could see a coyote that was the size of a pin head off in the distance, running like a grey hound as fast as he could in the hilly, washed out dessert terrain. I turned off the player immediately, and I know he was a mile out, hard charging.

It was impressive watching him in the scope jumping ditches and bushes, zig zagging the very difficult terrain. He ran right to the call, but was putting ever bush, and depression in the landscape between him and me with me catching glimpses of him. So, I could not get a shot. He got to within 25 yards and turned tail, but was very illusive running back the way he had came in, keeping in the ditches.

At around 300 yards, he stopped and looked back, I could see him panting in the scope. I plugged him with a 788 in 222, 50g Sierra lead tip blitz...lucky I got him. I can still see that coyote standing on that rock in my mind's eye.

That coyote pin pointed me to within 1 degree at one mile, never quit hard charging. He had not spotted me or the caller, he just got a snoot full of my scent. My buddy 35 yards to my right, never even saw him.

On another occasion on the Ca. and Nv border, snow was moving in. Barometer in the truck said that the barometric pressure was dropping fast. Air was heavy, no wind, very cold for S. Ca. people, around 28*. 4 of us good friends were hunting together in two separate small trucks. We were traveling across the dessert on very old two track roads that lead to old mines, long closed. We all walked out away from the trucks about 300 yards, and picked our spots. 4 guys in a straight line, about 30 yards apart, covering about 100 yards or so.

I and another guy started howling, and the valley immediately lit up with groups of coyotes howling back at us. Then, they started running in to us, sounded like a bunch of beagles running a rabbit. I turned on the caller for about 30 seconds. It was all too clear that we had 4 different packs hard charging in on us from 4 different directions, I thought my heart was going to explode. I looked over at Steve and he could not stop grinning. I blew about 5 seconds of pup in distress on my tiny howler, barking and howling increased as the coyotes were bearing down on us.

I was hunting with a Model 25 Remington pump, in 25/20. I usually carried a Rem 1100. I heard dirt flying and a coyote sped by me within 15', I spun on the bucket, fired, and shot a foot behind him. I kept trying to pull the trigger, nothing happened. Steve dumped that one hard, he rolled end over end for what looked like 10'. Steve immediately dumped another one with his 870. Shooting started down on the end, with what sounded like a dove shoot. I hit the pup in distress again, 4 was on us at one time, and it sounded like Dessert Storm! We got 7 on that stand, but Terry, down the end ran out of shells, and the Gene, guy next to him, was down to one buckshot shell. I had one heck of a time remembering to pump the pump, cost me at least one coyote. I just get too excited to shoot a pump. Gene could not hit anything, he just gets too excited. Gene was a lot of fun to be with, so on the last stand before heading in, we hung a coyote up in a tree and let him shoot it, so at the club meeting, he could say he shot one, it was our secret.

Those groups of coyotes came in from what we figured was around 1 1/2 miles at a minimum, and probably further out to 2+ miles due to the slight wind. We had out 4 socks of sardines and oil, and sprayed with Rabbit Urine to test the wind direction. We won that cub hunt with 13 coyotes, 4 fox, and one bob cat. Lucky that I had 100 rounds of #4 buckshot in the truck, because that was a shotgun weekend with coyotes coming in hard, with lots of misses.


If you can catch the leading edge of a low pressure front with barometric pressure dropping, they will come from a long ways out, as we have seen many, many times. Terrain makes a huge difference in how far sound will carry, always set up to watch your down wind direction as sound carries MUCH further down wind. Watch your major and minor feeding periods, they proved to be very reliable when hunting in Mexico where the population was fantastic on coyotes. Amazing to know you are surrounded by coyotes, and watch them start feeding like clock work during the major and minor feeding periods. We learned to depend on these feeding periods in conjunction with the barometric pressure rising and falling. If the pressure is rising, then scout, don't educate them!

The only carved in granite rules that I have learned from hunting coyotes since the mid 70's is that:

a. watch the barometric pressure, falling pressure means animals are running, rising pressure means that they are not running(so scout).

B. watch your major and minor feeding periods, this is how the animal kingdom feeds, and hedges your bets if you absolutely have to hunt in a high pressure
system..you may get some pups. Predators hunt with their nose, they can not smell very well at all when the barometric pressure is rising.

Too bad you can not hunt in Mexico anymore, like we used to. With proper paperwork and gun permits for two guns per permit, and you were set, especially with a $20 dollar bill paper clipped to your permit!

The original poster wanted to know how far we thought a coyote would come in from, well, if the barometric pressure is dropping and you are in a Major feeding period, they will come in from a long ways out.

 
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Originally Posted By: ackleymanThe furthest I have ever seen called in was probably a mile or so. I was outside of 29 Palms in
S. Ca. the terrain in that area was scattered rock, few bushes, no grass, looked like the face of the moon, lousy with cats and mice.

I hid the truck best I could in a ditch, then walked up on the side of the hill where I could see over the entire valley with a big rock blocking my silhouette. I turned on the caller, and within two minutes, I could see a coyote that was the size of a pin head off in the distance, running like a grey hound as fast as he could in the hilly, washed out dessert terrain. I turned off the player immediately, and I know he was a mile out, hard charging.

It was impressive watching him in the scope jumping ditches and bushes, zig zagging the very difficult terrain. He ran right to the call, but was putting ever bush, and depression in the landscape between him and me with me catching glimpses of him. So, I could not get a shot. He got to within 25 yards and turned tail, but was very illusive running back the way he had came in, keeping in the ditches.

At around 300 yards, he stopped and looked back, I could see him panting in the scope. I plugged him with a 788 in 222, 50g Sierra lead tip blitz...lucky I got him. I can still see that coyote standing on that rock in my mind's eye.

That coyote pin pointed me to within 1 degree at one mile, never quit hard charging. He had not spotted me or the caller, he just got a snoot full of my scent. My buddy 35 yards to my right, never even saw him.

On another occasion on the Ca. and Nv border, snow was moving in. Barometer in the truck said that the barometric pressure was dropping fast. Air was heavy, no wind, very cold for S. Ca. people, around 28*. 4 of us good friends were hunting together in two separate small trucks. We were traveling across the dessert on very old two track roads that lead to old mines, long closed. We all walked out away from the trucks about 300 yards, and picked our spots. 4 guys in a straight line, about 30 yards apart, covering about 100 yards or so.

I and another guy started howling, and the valley immediately lit up with groups of coyotes howling back at us. Then, they started running in to us, sounded like a bunch of beagles running a rabbit. I turned on the caller for about 30 seconds. It was all too clear that we had 4 different packs hard charging in on us from 4 different directions, I thought my heart was going to explode. I looked over at Steve and he could not stop grinning. I blew about 5 seconds of pup in distress on my tiny howler, barking and howling increased as the coyotes were bearing down on us.

I was hunting with a Model 25 Remington pump, in 25/20. I usually carried a Rem 1100. I heard dirt flying and a coyote sped by me within 15', I spun on the bucket, fired, and shot a foot behind him. I kept trying to pull the trigger, nothing happened. Steve dumped that one hard, he rolled end over end for what looked like 10'. Steve immediately dumped another one with his 870. Shooting started down on the end, with what sounded like a dove shoot. I hit the pup in distress again, 4 was on us at one time, and it sounded like Dessert Storm! We got 7 on that stand, but Terry, down the end ran out of shells, and the Gene, guy next to him, was down to one buckshot shell. I had one heck of a time remembering to pump the pump, cost me at least one coyote. I just get too excited to shoot a pump. Gene could not hit anything, he just gets too excited. Gene was a lot of fun to be with, so on the last stand before heading in, we hung a coyote up in a tree and let him shoot it, so at the club meeting, he could say he shot one, it was our secret.

Those groups of coyotes came in from what we figured was around 1 1/2 miles at a minimum, and probably further out to 2+ miles due to the slight wind. We had out 4 socks of sardines and oil, and sprayed with Rabbit Urine to test the wind direction. We won that cub hunt with 13 coyotes, 4 fox, and one bob cat. Lucky that I had 100 rounds of #4 buckshot in the truck, because that was a shotgun weekend with coyotes coming in hard, with lots of misses.


If you can catch the leading edge of a low pressure front with barometric pressure dropping, they will come from a long ways out, as we have seen many, many times. Terrain makes a huge difference in how far sound will carry, always set up to watch your down wind direction as sound carries MUCH further down wind. Watch your major and minor feeding periods, they proved to be very reliable when hunting in Mexico where the population was fantastic on coyotes. Amazing to know you are surrounded by coyotes, and watch them start feeding like clock work during the major and minor feeding periods. We learned to depend on these feeding periods in conjunction with the barometric pressure rising and falling. If the pressure is rising, then scout, don't educate them!

The only carved in granite rules that I have learned from hunting coyotes since the mid 70's is that:

a. watch the barometric pressure, falling pressure means animals are running, rising pressure means that they are not running(so scout).

B. watch your major and minor feeding periods, this is how the animal kingdom feeds, and hedges your bets if you absolutely have to hunt in a high pressure
system..you may get some pups. Predators hunt with their nose, they can not smell very well at all when the barometric pressure is rising.

Too bad you can not hunt in Mexico anymore, like we used to. With proper paperwork and gun permits for two guns per permit, and you were set, especially with a $20 dollar bill paper clipped to your permit!

The original poster wanted to know how far we thought a coyote would come in from, well, if the barometric pressure is dropping and you are in a Major feeding period, they will come in from a long ways out.



wow, incredible hunt!!! Thanx for sharing. That is one of those hunts you will NEVER forget.

I must admit, I need to watch the barometric pressure better. Honestly, Ive never watched it much at all, but i know I need to and Im sure with proper planning of B. pressure and feeding periods, a man can be more successful. Thanks for sharing a wealth accumulated knowledge from years of experience.
 
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