Originally Posted By: Infidel 762Originally Posted By: OKRattlerAnd now that we can night hunt I've found that some stands I've tried and never called in a coyote but knew they traveled through the area produced coyotes at night.
I figured this out a long time ago and I only try to sit with the sun to my back so I plan on where I'm going to start and end the night before based off of what direction the wind is going,what time of day is most productive and where the sun will be when I get there.
Maybe I'm just OCD and that doesn't make sense to anyone else but me. But I wondered how many of you do the same thing?
I have had access to property that you had to work very hard to get a coyote on during the day, morning or evening. Open Agg fields I would hunt only certain times of the year, like when the wheat was knee high or pastures I would hit only when they had not been grazed down by cattle. Now that we can hunt at night some of those same fields are fire. I always felt ineffective when contacted about coyote problems and I would go out and it be one of those places and i could only get one or maybe nothing at all killed.
I used to always feel pressured to time things just right to get to that last cherry picked stand I was going to make before dark. I been hunting all night and into the morning, shooting them in daylight with thermal. I can get OCD planning every approach and setup like a chess game but I very seldom find a setup with ALL the basic fundamentals in place. I see plenty of people taking a tripod and standing in an open field having success at night. I still hunt like I would during the day and shoot from a seated position, on nights with no moon I will stand to scan 360 but sit down to track and shoot as I see them approach.
I still howl a lot to locate them and when I hear them respond, I pull out my phone and look at imagery to plan an area and approach to target that group. Like you said I used to have places I knew produced best right before dark cause I knew coyotes laid up in that area/cover during the day. I still go into every area with a pre-planned path of approach to stands based of distance and wind but most of the times those plans turn into free styling it and changing things up when they give away their location with vocals.
That night huntin definitely opened up a lot of opportunities for sure. Land I'd only look at as good land to kick pheasants or quail up in are now coyote killin ground. I've stood in open fields and killed coyotes as mentioned using thermal in Kansas. I stand while calling at night but if there's a shadow I'll get in it. If there's a tree, windmill or fence post, I will stand in front of it. I don't know if it matters but I feel that if something is standing there and has been a coyote is less likely to pick it out if you're standing in front of it. They see that sticking up in the air all the time and it ain't messed with them yet. So I feel like that's the way to go. It definitely feels less weird than just standing out in the wide open.
That's just a theory. I really can't say if I'm right or not. I've killed coyotes doing it that way so I must be doing something right. I don't know if standing up in front of something makes one bit of difference or not. It sounds like it should make sense. Night huntin is so different I'm kinda just going with what I feel like will work. I'm acting like I know what I'm doing basically. If it works, it works. I won't switch it up until it don't.
Honestly the being able to stand up and call is part of what I like. I feel like I'm missing a lot at times sitting on the ground during the day. Plus I'm only 5'9" tall. So I'm kind of a short guy so when I'm down on the ground it really makes me feel like I'm bound to miss seeing something.