by Randy Smith Hang-ups Adjusting your strategies and call selections can bring
those reluctant coyotes into gun range.
Iknew we were in for a challenge when I met Jeff Danker of Buck Ventures Outdoors Productions and Knight & Hale Game Calls
representative Mike Mattly in Englewood, Kan., for
a mid-February Oklahoma coyote hunt. We were to
hunt a nearby ranch just across the Oklahoma border for a couple of days, then shift to another near
Wynoka for two more. Mike had some Knight and
Hale mouth calls and some new Cold Blue coyote
attractants for testing. Most importantly for me was
a chance to adjust my calling strategies and call
selections to bring reluctant predators into
gun range.
I had called coyotes two weeks before in the
same general area near Rosston, Okla., and while
coyotes were sighted on four of six sets, none of
them came closer than 300 yards. My Rosston
hunting partner thought the dogs had our scent,
but I didn’t believe that was the problem. All of
our coyote responses were singles, and it was right
in the middle of the adult coyote’s mating and late
in the calling season. Coyotes become much more
territorial and defensive at this time, and many of
them have already become wary of predator
callers. There is a lot of confrontation between
competing males and most of them get a thorough
whipping. While distress calls will often get these
coyotes’ attention, they are wary and extremely
vigilant. Responding to a distress call, even with
the promise of an easy meal, can also mean anoth-
er confrontation with a big alpha male or a
hunter’s bullet. Thus, a coyote caller needs to be
extremely stealthy and flexible under these circum-
stances. My Rosston companion, who was familiar
with the ground, chose to have us call from
exposed ridge tops with little surrounding cover.
He chose excellent vantage points from where we
could see vast distances. The problem with this
strategy is that even though it was easy for the
callers to see a coyote, it was also easy for the coy-
ote to see the callers. When a late-season coyote
responds to the call he is continuously and relent-
lessly scanning the area of the sound for
movement.
>>>
