PREDATOR HUNTING—HOW TO GET STARTED THE EASY WAY CLASSIC COYOTE SETUPS There are three basic types of coyote hunts: A silent stand in which you post up and hope to shoot coyotes passing by. A calling stand in which you hunker down and call coyotes into gun range; What I call a “run-and-gun hunt” in which you drive rural roads and stop periodically to call, then set up when you get a response. 1. SILENT STANDS Looking at the silent stand, your standard deer-season treestand or ground blind can work beautifully, especially if it is situated between deer feeding and bedding areas. Those are the same habitats that coyotes work, so as long as the wind is favorable—that is, blowing away from where you expect to see coyotes—then you should expect a shot. This silent-stand hunting is not a numbers game. You are relying on a dog to simply show itself, and if you shoot, or do anything to alert animals that you’re in the area, then you might be in for a long, slow day. But you can make good use of your time by observing deer, seeing how their forage patterns have changed since November’s buck seasons, and looking for antler sheds. You can also blow a predator call periodically to lure coyotes and foxes into range. We’ll cover calls below, but know this about coyote behavior, no matter the stand type: They will almost always circle around your calling location, trying to smell you before they come into view. So, keep a close eye on your downwind side, and try to see and kill a coyote before it sniffs you, or you’ll never see the coyotes that were in your area. 2. CALLING STANDS This is the most common way to attract coyotes. You walk into an area with abundant sign, sit down, blow a call, and shoot a dog. Of course, it’s never that simple, but the idea is to remain undetected and sound so realistic that a curious or hungry coyote or fox will shed its inhibitions and come to you. Wind and terrain features are the big factors here. You want to enter the area stealthily, using a ridgeline or a gully or timber to hide your approach. Stay as high in the terrain as you can, to maintain visibility over a wide area, and use both good camouflage—including face masks—and shade to melt into the cover. This is a good game for a partner, one of you running the call and the other set up to shoot. Use either an electronic or a hand call. The advantage to an electronic call, sometimes called an “e-caller,” is that it can mimic the sound of dozens of prey species, ranging from housecats to crows, and because most have remote-control capabilities, you can set the speaker many yards away from your location, misdirecting the laser focus of an incoming coyote. Hand calls can sound more realistic, and you can control the volume and cadence better than you can with an e-caller. The universal coyote call is a rabbit being tortured. It might be a cottontail or a jackrabbit, but the death wail is the same – a high-pitched scream punctuated by growls and squeaks. Other effective coyote calls mimic deer in pain, mice squeaking, birds squawking, and coyotes howling to either challenge or court another coyote. Most calling hunters plan to sit at each stand for no longer than 30 minutes. They typically call softly to start, to lure in nearby coyotes, and then escalate the volume and intensity of the calls for several minutes, pausing for a half-minute between to scan for incoming coyotes that might be coming from farther away. 3. RUN-AND-GUN This type of hunting requires abundant access to good habitat and a road system to get you around. Park in a place where your vehicle isn’t noticeable – in a dip or in cover – and blow your call. If you hear or see a coyote respond, set up to shoot. If you don’t drive on and repeat until you hit a receptive coyote.