Sounds

That depends on a lot of variables. Time of year and hunting pressure being the two main ones. Early on in the season you will likely have better luck on prey sounds like rabbit, Burt or rodent sounds. Later in the year your coyote vocals become more useful. If there’s any one thing you will learn it’s that every outing is different. What works one day may not work the next. The only way to find out is to get out and learn.
 
I’ve called coyotes using anything from a pig distress to coon fight. Distress is distress. Don’t get caught up in the whole thought process of thinking a coyotes running in knowing “that’s a jack rabbit” or “that’s a woodpecker”.

A coyotes an opportunistic predator before anything. If you’re in the right spot, (especially close to one), and you hit the right distress that trips his trigger, he’s coming. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing pig distress where there’s no pigs or cottontail in Jack country. Just takes the right cadence and pitch for what they want to hear.

As stated above, that’s some great baseline stuff to go by, with the seasons, early diestress and alter vocals.

Good hunting
 
I think sounds are the most overrated aspect of calling. I could get along fine with just three sounds and one of them, jackrabbit, using it 90% of the time.

Call where there are callable coyotes within earshot. Get in undetected. Pay attention to the wind and it's relationship to shooting lanes. Don't miss. Sounds, whatever.

Sure, there is the occasional occasion when a particular coyote or coyotes will come in to one sound and not another. But that is such an edge case, it's not even worth thinking about until you start to actually experience it. And even then, it's not worth worrying much about.

Get the fundamentals down. Sound is way down the list. It's almost not even on my list.

- DAA
 
Sound selection can be important in areas that see higher hunting pressure. If your coyotes have heard Foxpro's Lightning Jack a hundred times, been shot at, winded or seen hunters, you'll have higher success using a different distress sound. Get a call programmed with a dozen different rabbit distress, some bird distress, coyote lone howls, pair howls, group howls, coyote fights, and pup distress and you'll be ready for anything
 
Originally Posted By: DAAI think sounds are the most overrated aspect of calling. I could get along fine with just three sounds and one of them, jackrabbit, using it 90% of the time.

Call where there are callable coyotes within earshot. Get in undetected. Pay attention to the wind and it's relationship to shooting lanes. Don't miss. Sounds, whatever.

Sure, there is the occasional occasion when a particular coyote or coyotes will come in to one sound and not another. But that is such an edge case, it's not even worth thinking about until you start to actually experience it. And even then, it's not worth worrying much about.

Get the fundamentals down. Sound is way down the list. It's almost not even on my list.

- DAA

I think DAA gave you excellent advice already.

Your success on calling a coyote in has mostly been determined by the choices you have made before you start to call. Stand selection is much more important than the sounds you choose to make. Getting into a stand without putting the coyotes on alert is also a challenge. A guy with good stand selection that only uses a jackrabbit distress call is going to kill many more coyotes than the guy that uses the perfect calling combination every time but only makes mediocre stand selection.

I still enjoy trying different sounds. A rabbit distress sound has resulted in hundreds of coyotes for me. Hand calls, diaphragm calls, electronic calls, coyote howls, bird distress, rodent and pup distress have all been effective in helping me call coyotes. Switching up the sounds probably does more for my sanity than actually help call more coyotes in. It gets really old playing or blowing the same rabbit distress all day.

If I do go back and call the same area or believe other people are calling the same area, I'll try to use a different sound that I don't think the coyotes have heard.
 
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You have gotten some great advice that I would aggree with.

Time of year, stand location, wind, weather, etc...all are important.

Whe deciding what call too add/subtract from my stand sequence I use a "3 strikes" rule. I will call 3 stands in a row with the same sequence...if nothing shows up I change ONE thing. I might replace a call, change volume, change how long my stand is, etc...

Then I'll call 3 more stands with the new sequence. When a coyote shows up I look at which call was just before it showed up, which call was playing when it showed up and how it showed up...was it charging, trotting, slinking, etc...

Then I'll start running that sequence again...for 3 stands...something shows, it's a winning sequence. This way I can lock onto the local coyote patterns and stay locked on. When they change patterns with the season, I'll be able to get onto the new pattern quicker.

I think a lot of new predator hunters place more emphasis on calls=ecallers and don't pay attention to things that are gking to burn a stand...like noise, wind, movement, etc.

Welcome to the insanity that is predator calling...
 
I used to change sounds almost nightly. Now my presets have about 10 sounds that I rarely deviate from. I have found that coyotes are pretty dang territorial year round. If you get in their bubble and start playing fight sounds, things tend to get wild fast unless they have been educated to them
 
I have had good luck with Prairie Dog Distress sound in areas where we have lots of ground squirrels.
The closest Prairie Dogs are probable 700 miles away.

We have lots of Kangaroo Rats and Adult Rat in Distress ios a really good sound around here.

Vole Squeaks works great also. On any coyotes that hold up at 200 yards away and farther Vole Squeaks coaxs them in much closer most of the time.

I almost always play Jack Rabbit Distress and or Coyote Pup Distress 3 on full blast volume after calling for about 10 minutes. Quite often I have coyotes show up 3 to 4 minutes after playing these two loud sounds on full volume.
 
Unless you only use ONE sound and have a visual of the coyote before stating calling, you will not know what sound triggered it to come in.
I've started calling using lightning jack on sleeping coyotes before and watched them head for the next county.
 
I have killed a lot of coyotes using woodpecker
Mixed it up at times when they would hang using fawn
Not moving is the key
 
Originally Posted By: DAAI think sounds are the most overrated aspect of calling. I could get along fine with just three sounds and one of them, jackrabbit, using it 90% of the time.

Call where there are callable coyotes within earshot. Get in undetected. Pay attention to the wind and it's relationship to shooting lanes. Don't miss. Sounds, whatever.

Sure, there is the occasional occasion when a particular coyote or coyotes will come in to one sound and not another. But that is such an edge case, it's not even worth thinking about until you start to actually experience it. And even then, it's not worth worrying much about.

Get the fundamentals down. Sound is way down the list. It's almost not even on my list.

- DAA

Agreed.
 
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