Predator Xtreme - Feb 2012
42 www PredatorXtreme com FEBRUARY 2012 Stay On Stand Longer Like a champion chess player the coyote finally committed and none too soon My Nikon riflescopes light transmission capabilities along with the glimmering patches of snow provided barely enough glow to drop the coyote when it hit the 100 yard mark on its plodding course up the ravine From start to trigger the setup lasted a minimum of 45 minutes Today longer setups are my norm not the exception Although most coyote hunting books manuals and seminars quote the 15 minute rule the question still remains is longer better Speedy Gonzales Speedy Gonzales the celebrity mouse cartoon character with a notable quality to go from point A to point B with blurring speed often typifies how many predator hunters race from setup to setup Bonuses to such a brisk hunting style are many but dont forget in nature with every positive force comes a negative force hoping to bring balance A major positive to the Speedy Gonzales style is simply getting in more setups per hunting day If stands only take 15 minutes instead of 45 minutes youll cover more country and if the math works in your favor kill more coyotes Thats the reason competitive coyote hunters move speedily through country They need to stir the interest of as many uneducated coyotes as possible put them on the ground and move on Winter coyote contests virtually guarantee teams whisking from location to location and covering not hundreds of acres but thousands and using at least a full tank of fuel Waiting for the possibility of a mature coyote to show much less offer a shot lessens the chance for winning the pot with every passing minute The traditional 15 minute rule came from early calling success as call pioneers used dying prey sounds to entice coyotes into shooting range Most coyotes came in rapidly in the new sport thus giving legitimacy to the rule If a coyote didnt show by 15 minutes it likely wasnt going to come It was time to move and the rule stuck Gerald Stewart is the son of a calling pioneer the late Johnny Stewart So hes no stranger to the world of calling With more than Getting More Out of Your Moves Regardless if you have unlimited access to thousands of acres or only two small farms variety can be the spice of coyote success This rings especially true when hunting paranoid coyotes that respond slower than our congressional delegates to the nations debt crisis Rotating between calls provides an easy way to dupe scholarly coyotes My favorite tactic includes moving from stand to stand but instead of using the same calls and cadence I switch to a completely different sound This plays out especially well when hiking between sites leaving open the possibility that a coyote may hear the first and second stand from a midway location If it hears the same tune twice in a morning it may be even more reluctant to approach now or at a later setup Electronic callers like Hunters Specialties economical PM 4 have a variety of sounds providing a realistic roundtable of coyote enticers An easy method to vary calls is to use distress calls on the first stand and then switch to coyote vocalizations on the next As you rotate between the two also rotate within the categories For distress use calf fawn rodent cottontail and even poultry For coyotes use lone howls yipping pup in distress and fighting canines Even if the response is slow coyotes wont catch on to your devious nature by mixing up the sounds
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