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400 yard called coyote a failed stand

I made this statement on another thread related to fixed power scope. I bit of a discussion ensued so I thought I’d bring it here. If you have to shoot a called coyote at 400 plus yards I contend that it is a failed stand. I contend that you can come back another day and call him into a decent range. 400+ yards is a very long shot on a coyote, considering it is a first cold bore shot from field positions. Some can make the shot but the odds are in the coyotes favor for most shooters when you figuer in drop, wind and shooting position and the odds go up as the closer you get to the coyote, with most good coyote cartridges you can hold on fur to 300 yards.

Comments were that these were educated coyotes and they will not come in so you have to take the shot or they will get away. They aren’t that educated, they responded to the call. You will notice that most of these educated coyotes that respond to the call, stop on a hill over looking the call sight and study the whole area, they are looking for something that isn’t right. Movement from using binoculars, a black barrel sticking out of the brush, the roof of your truck. If you hunt separated from your partner the best way to find him is to look for his barrel sticking out of the brush, there is nothing straight and black in nature, if I can spot a hunter so can mister coyote. Just anything that isn’t right will spook a coyote. But how spooked is he if nothing happens to reinforce his fear.

I hunt a lot of heavily called public land and have seen coyotes stick there head out of a bush and study a whole hillside and I was easily spotted although I was motionless the whole time. But here’s the trick, I came back a couple days later, set the call in the same area and set up so I could see behind the brush and not on the hillside. Result a standing fairly short range shot on an educated coyote. It is fairly common to call in one of these educated coyotes, not spook him and come back and call him again from a different position/stand placement, maybe a different sound and call him into reasonable range. This time the coyote educated you. You can beat them at there own game




In the picture above is a picture of a stand from last month, we killed the coyote but it was a failed stand, the coyote came from the only place he could see the truck on the far left at the top of the hill. Instead of comeing down into the valley to the call he saw the truck and headed up wind at the top of the hill moving to the right. My nephew to the shot and killed the coyote, it was 275 yards, add another 200 yards to that and it would have been extremely dicey shoot. We killed the coyote but it was still a failed stand

On the same trip my nephew blew a shot on a coyote that came up a small valley, he wanted to redeem himself so we went back a couple days later and set the caller in the same place but we set up to see the hilltops around the little valley. This time the coyote came in like an educated coyote to the hilltop and was studying the little valley when my nephew made just a 200 yard shot and ended mister coyotes education

so why was the 200 yd coyote a success and the 275 yarder a 'failure'?

Sounds like success could be bolstered a bunch, by simply not letting your partner stick his 'black thing' outta the bush.....

but then again, you'd have trouble finding him when it's time to go home.....

Dead coyote= success. Live coyote= failure. But I'm simple that way. Sure, I'd prefer a 40 yard charge but I take ALL opportunities when it's obvious they aren't getting any better RIGHT NOW. Shoot a 22-250 or a 220 Swift if you have to but take the shot. Tomorrow will worry about itself. You could get t-boned by a semi on an icy road on the way home then what of Mr. Smart coyote that you let go? I say shoot at anything semi reasonable when it comes to coyote hunting. Hell I killed one at 450 yards with a Fireball. Only time I've ever shot that far with it and it worked. If it was big game it'd be different, but it's coyotes. Take the shot.

I think I get the reasoning behind your post, and you make some good points, but on the other hand, I've never aspired to be like "most shooters", and I hope most here don't either. That bar is way too low. That thinking makes sense I guess if you're guiding hunts for people of unknown skill, but hunting for yourself? Take the shot, that's why us loonies think about such things as flat shooting cartridges, wind drift, drop, etc.

I do see your point that maybe the hide/stand wasn't good enough, even if the hunt is successful. I'm certainly interested in tips on calling coyotes in better.

I love coyote/ predator hunting, I spent a good part of my early life doing a lot of subsistance hunting, if there wasn't venison in the freezer we eat alot of hamberger, Raccoon, muskrats and beaver all went on the table. To me coyotes/preds are a fur check and I rarely hunt them unless they get skinned, far more challenging than big game hunting and you can do it for more of the year. In trapping you are trying to convince a coyote to put his foot down on a specific 2 sq. in. of a very large chunk of real estate, duck hunting you are trying to get the ducks to land/committ to a very small patch of water no more than 40 yards accross. Coyote calling is much the same your trying to put a coyote in a place where you can easily shoot him. If you have to settle for a very long shot on a coyote instead of having him in where you want him, something went wrong, much like getting backdoored or winded only this time you get to see him finding something wrong. You call them educated but to what, not the sound of the caller, they are already coming to that, there has to be something else that they find wrong or youget nervous that they won't come in the rest of the way and take the shot way before you need to..

Shooting one at 400+ yards is on the order of sky busting or extreme pass shooting on waterfowl occasionally you scratch one down where if you having them coming into the decoys with their feet down sometimes you can aproach 100%.

I personally think there should be a season on coyotes from Oct-Mart on PUBLIC land. To me you killing coyotes just to kill them when they have no value is a waste. To me coyotes are far more valuable than the one deer I could shoot, I understand that you feel that the indesciminant killing to better your odds of killing a deer or pheasant is important.

Private land is a whole different ball game, you do what you have to to protect your land, and when I get a call to help with a problem coyote I do it.

There are some very good coyote hunters that take pride in long range coyotes, There is also a legion of guys out there with a $99 Spitfire , 223 with a 4.5x14 with hashmarks that think a coyote a 400 yards is succesful calling stand.

As far as my partner missing he was a newbie only killing one coyote befor the trip. On the trip he called his first coyote with a mouth call, made his longest kill on anything, was able to take a pair out of a quad I called in, in all of 6 half days of calling we called about 30 coyotes we saw and killed 10. The coyotes wern't prime so I let a lot of them go just for him. I am actually quite proud of how he did. And this was all cold calling country I've never been in before.

So all these un-prime coyotes you been calling are on private land?

I'm confused.

Kill where you see them. 20 yards to 800 yards. In the 70s and eary 80's when the pelts were worth good money we use to skin them, don't care to take the time now to mess with them.

This thread makes a lot of sense.

To someone.





Travis

You might want to rethink that. Good prime Coyotes are fetching up $75 in some areas with the big northern prairie pales pushing $100.
Granted they were around $75 back in the 70's which was dam good money for that time period but it's still worth pulling the hide off of one at today's prices. Least for a geezer on a fixed income it is.

Well said,

I hunt mostly for fur and recreation on public land but I do have get called a few times a year to kill “troublesome” coyotes. I think most of us agree that we’d rather call them to our boot laces but that’s not how it works every time. If one stops at 400 and refuses to come in closer the last thing I’m going to do is stand up and walk away. I’m a firm believer that coyotes get educated, meaning when they come into a call and see you, wind you, a miss etc that they will begin to associate a memory with humans.
IMO you get a few chances, distress calls(switching distress sounds might work, but is rare), if you screw this up you can return with coyote vocals and if you screw that up things just got MUCH harder.

This is all based on experience in trying to kill specific coyotes. I want to kill the coyotes I call in. Period. Whether it’s with a shotgun or at 400 yards, I’m doing my best to make it happen.

If I show up to the cafe and one of my landowners ask if I’m killing his coyotes and I tell him I passed because killing coyotes at longer ranges isn’t fair, he will find someone who will.

This is all getting harder now that every a$$hat (who doesn’t have a clue about coyotes) has an e-caller.

It was a stupid [bleep] post in the other thread and it's more stupid here. Congrats?

Fieldgrade, I was told there is a fella in Lewiston that will pay you for yotes without skinning them. Have not looked into it, but something to think about if the price is right.

A couple of points. How do you know that the coyote you killed the second time,s the same one that wouldn't come in the first time? That is hard to tell. It likely was a different one you killed. As a govt trapper I have to key in on certain coyotes, that are killing livestock,and I have to kill em case closed. If I screw it up, then I have to figure out a different method to kill em,because they are just going to keep killing livestock. By Feb and march I am dealing with a lot of coyotes that have been called multiple times, often by people that aren't very good at it. Many of these coyotes will pop up at 300 to 500 yds and just look. No sound, nothing. Then they leave, or circle down wind. I have my rifle,set up for this,a d with a ton of practice,can get a first shot hit on a broad side coyote about 80% of the time at 500yds. Took me 2years of practice to get here(and a very accurate rifle). I still miss one out there once in a while,but I kill a good handful of coyotes every year that are educated,and killing livestock at ranges between 350 and 550. Well worth it. Also,you would be surprised at the number of smart coyotes that sneak in an hour to an hour and a half after you quit calling to look around.

Some good posts here that make sense - the original philosopher not so much.

I don't know of anyone in Lewiston that buys in the round but I enjoy putting up fur so I skin and stretch em.

I sell to Don Judkins (Fort Benton Fur) over in Orifino. He screws me but he's a real nice guy.

I've been thinking about trying my hand at coyote calling and predator hunting. I hear that it's really easy.
Any tips for a newbie?

Easy - maybe, Frustrating - definitely.

Best advice - get out there and do it.
Read a book or 2.
Watch the wind.
Scout, make sure there are coyotes where you are calling.
Pack a mouth call even if you have an e-caller.