Imitation may be flattering, but for coyote hunting you need to blend it with imagination and a sincere dose of intelligence, especially for late-winter coyotes. By imitating a combination of coyote vocalizations, you send a message of confidence, confrontation and even a snapshot of Cupid’s magic.
I began introducing vocalizations into my coyote setups at least three decades ago. The good thing about coyote vocalizations is that they do not have an expiration date. Elk bugles primarily produce results in September. Coyote vocalizations have power all year long. Mull these mutt exchanges as you search for ways to sucker in educated coyotes.
The simplest way to conjure up a conversation is to imagine a likely coyote community scenario. Coyotes vocally express themselves during a variety of life activities. Picture something occurring in their everyday existence and then duplicate it via vocalizations. Need some suggestions? Here you go.
A Howling Good Time
String a series of lone howls across the countryside and wait for a response, silent or vociferous. I could end there, but I get paid to write so here’s more. Coyotes use howls for a variety of messages, although, based on my assumptions and the insight of experts, howls assist coyotes in proclaiming territories, locating others, announcing arrivals and sometimes just letting it all out like you do at your favorite music concert.
Every electronic caller includes a library of howls. No need to get overly creative or lengthy in your message. Watch an old-time “Spaghetti Western” and recreate the howls in the background as the wranglers sip coffee (or whatever) around a campfire. Howls should be drawn out, but not for more than three to four seconds with a curt cutoff. I prefer to use lung power for my howls utilizing the Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls Stealth Yote Howler (buglingbull.com) and a mouth diaphragm. That combination, with practice, gives you a wide range of coyote dialects without the cost of an electronic caller.
Even so, placing an electronic caller upwind from your position and answering it also adds to the realism of a pair of coyotes asserting authority over a territory. Start out with three to five lone howls and wait for a response. After 30 to 45 minutes, repeat and stay watchful for up to an hour. It can be that simple.
UFC Match
Have you ever been to a busy dog park? It can resemble a night of UFC action when inattentive dog owners lack leash oversight. The animal kingdom displays domination practices in the dog and coyote world alike. Fights consist of sharp barks, high-pitched yips, growls and the sounds coyotes make when another sinks canines into a tender rump.
These fights occur over a multitude of reasons. My imagination concocts several scenarios I play out with my predator calls. The first involves coyotes fighting over the carcass of a hard-won deer. Everyone wants a drumstick, and a cordial picnic transitions to a family feud. Add the sounds of crows or ravens to not only add a hint of reality, but also to attract the real thing. Crows flying above your calling sight provide a visual cue that coyotes track to as much as the calling.
The second situation I imagine involves a brief spat either between coyote lovers or more than one coyote attempting to court a female coming into estrus. Females that are not ready to be bred have no aversion to snapping or snarling at a male with ambitious attentions. These fights seldom go for more than a minute but could continue off and on for hours. Fights over a mate, a threesome gone bad—both have potential for more intensity. Fights could be lengthy, vicious and even leave a blood trail from bites.
Review your electronic call and practice with your mouth calls to recreate the worst of a dog fight. Visit a busy dog park if you need a refresher in dog fighting vocabulary.
‘I’m Warning You’
Coyote onboard dashboards include a wide range of warning signs, and your job is to ensure the check engine light comes on when you send a V-Max their way. Their main warning signal embraces the bark. A consistent bark, repeated every few minutes, sends a warning to other coyotes within earshot that something is amiss. Occasionally when a coyote hangs up and begins this irritating exchange, I respond verbatim to (I hope) convince the coyote it misjudged the situation. I hope it thinks what it saw was merely a relative and not an apparition from the afterlife. On a rare occurrence, the barking coyote stops its yapping and slowly slinks into shooting range. Usually this takes an hour or more, but it can happen.
A better use of barking vocalization is to speed up the barking to an excited level that either resembles dogs barking at each other or warning another coyote to keep its distance. Imagine several coyotes in a showdown over territory, sibling rivalry or even the excitement of beginning a hunt. The speed and rhythm of the bark separates this shouting match over the warning bark that has lapses and a questioning tone.
Barking should always be a last resort. Nevertheless, if nothing is working and you have transitioned through several sound scenarios, begin that incessant barking that your neighbor’s dog makes at 2 a.m. Give it a more meaningful inflection and it could be just enough to draw a coyote into your reticle.
Love Story
February is the coyote rut, and like the whitetail rut, it begins to spark early during the pre-breeding mate selection period. Googly eyes extend into March with the establishment of guarded denning territories. Although coyotes stand cautious after months of harassment, like all species focused on procreation, love is blind at times. Use that coyote mental lapse for your benefit.
Short and sweet howls, as described in the previous section, hold merit. Coyotes without a mate travel far and wide to hook up. Sets in this period deserve at least an hour to allow a hookup-hungry coyote ample time to travel to you.
To add some spice to the howls, increase to a higher-pitched howl, wait and then add intervals of female whimpers. These high-pitched yips and whines advertise willingness to males that a female is nearing estrus. A coyote pair may banter back and forth using this vocabulary or a female may simply broadcast the sounds trying to lure in a mate. On several occasions I have watched pairs frolic in a game of “catch me if you can” as they race around in a snowy pasture—just out of rifle range, of course.
The inclusion of a decoy, like Montana Decoy Company’s Sitting Coyote decoy (montanadecoy.com), gives your vocalizations a focus point once a coyote approaches. Coyote urine scent around the decoy (wildlife.com) also aids in realism. I even use my coyote dog, more as a stationary canine silhouette, for similar legitimacy to the theatrics. Keep your coyote imitation simple, straightforward and let your imagination run wild.
