Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Setting up for coyote hunting

I’m wanting to get into serious coyote hunting. I’ve only done so as an opportunity during deer season.

So, with that being said, my question to you who are more into this is;

What do you recommend to get into this?

My assumptions are;
Obviously a rifle and optic
What other type of gear do I need?
Calls? What type and which ones are recommended?
I see some tripods that are set up for the rifles, needed?

What else?

I realize this question is clear as mud. But I need to start the conversation somewhere.


Recommendations please for all listed above and anything I have missed.

I started with a rifle and a couple of mouth blown calls. Awesome fun when it works.

Having the right area to hunt is IMO the most important thing. Hanging out on a small (or even large) family farm will only educate the coyotes you missed yesterday. You wanna have multiple planned calling spots organized over a fair sized area.

You wanna be mobile, and quick to set up. Choose a set time to call for, and only hang out longer if coyotes are responding. I try to make a half dozen or so stands before lunch, including drive time. And I have extended my calling time to 30 minutes.

Get in and set up quick and quiet. Leave as quick and quiet as you came, if no action in your allowed time.

I now use a foxpro. Friends use Lucky Duck or others. I can't keep track

Learn to sit still.

You'll get a lot of advice, as everyone is going to have their own opinions on this. Mine are........keep it as simple as possible while learning how to call coyotes. Pay attention to the wind and where you set up. I like electronic calls, FoxPro to be specific, but also carry a mouth call as a backup. I use a Primos Trigger Stick in the bipod configuration, but have also used just a simple set of shooting sticks. You'll learn more by trial and error than what anyone can teach you

I maintain 4 different half day calling routes with preplanned and scouted set-ups. When i was younger, and more active I had considerably more. Everything now is within 20 miles of my home. Used to have planned routes up to 60 miles away.

Now I hunt a half day or so twice a week. 20 years ago I hunted all day long for 2-3 days in a row.
thing is, you need to move around and call to different coyotes. Lots of them

Perhaps the best advice of all. Coyotes quickly adapt to being hunted. You call one up, better kill him, because if you don't, you've just educated him

Your deer hunting gear will cover most of what your need as far being out and doing it, but there are a few items I don't leave without.

Bipod, stix, etc..., to me are absolutely vital. Whatever you choose, if you they are new to you, learn how to use them. A coyote is way smaller than a deer and the use of some sort of shooting aid really helps. If most of your shots are close, like 50-75 yards, maybe you won't find them of any real value?

If hunting on snow, a butt pad is well worth the pack.

As far as calls, a high pitched close range call and something of the cottontail variety for more volume should get you started.

I'd spend a bunch of time locating good calling locations, the more the better. Picking good calling locations where coyotes are prone to be, that you can sneak into without being detected, and most importantly a position where you can kill the incoming coyote.

I just about stopped missing when I got a set of shooting sticks. Can't imagine hunting coyotes without them.
The hunt starts as you get out of your vehicle. Slamming doors, talking loud, radio blaring, etc will ruin your hunt. Don't hit the door lock twice with your key.
Don't fry up a ton of bacon and eggs, smoke cigarettes, put on cologne with your hunting clothes on. I frequently hang my hunting clothes outside overnight before a hunt.
Don't skyline yourself on top of hills.
Get a face mask. Get camo gloves.
Move hands slowly in your set up.
Have your gun resting on shooting sticks and ready to go.
Get comfortable in your set up so you don't have to move to get comfy.
Try to sit in the shade of a tree or bush. Try to use a tree or bush to break up your body outline.
Face into the wind or at least crosswind while calling. If hunting with two people, have the person not calling be more downwind from you if possible.
Try to get a natural barrier behind you like a lake, pond, fence that's not crossable by a coyote.
Coyotes will b-line toward the caller to a point, but will then try to circle downwind of you to get your scent. Try to keep the downwind area an open area. I have had 2 coyotes run right into me while calling. Scared the [bleep] out of me. Be ready at all times.
Get a range finder. When you first sit down and waiting for nature to get back to normal, range around you to know the yardage.
When first sitting down, let the area you have entered get back to normal. In other words listen for the birds to start chirping again and the ground squirrels to stop cheeping. Catch your breath completely before calling.
If hunting around cattle, look for signs of where the cows are looking. I've seen cows notice a coyote coming in before I do. Sometimes the herd will all look at an incoming coyote. Look where they are looking.
Magpies will sometimes accompany coyotes. If you see magpies flying in be on extra alert.
Ground squirrels cheeping suddenly will sometimes let you know a coyote is coming in. They're alerting their fellow squirrels to an incoming threat. Bobcats come in real slow and cheeping squirrels will give them away.
Know your rifle and where it shoots at different distances.
As funny as it sounds, the best caller or calls in the world are no good if you don't follow a lot of what I've written above. Just practice with the call. It may take a few times to be successful, but you'll get one eventually. I called my first one in many years ago. It was a pair of coyotes and I got the male, (I shoot at at the bigger one when they come in pairs).
When I first started getting into predator calling I read everything I could find on the subject.
I find that if I give off 2 or 3 coyote howls with a howler, waiting a minute or two and blowing a rabbit distress call works quite well. Start lightly and increase your volume as time progresses. I usually stay 20-30 minutes on a stand, but have had them come in 45 minutes after starting to call.
Look for coyote sign like scat. If no sign, maybe no coyotes in that area.
Hope that helps. Good luck. If you keep at it, you'll get one eventually.

Thank you for the info, everyone. I appreciate it. Reading every post.

This really a loaded question. Your terrain and hunting style will dictate a lot of things. If your hunting country where you won't be shoooting over 300 yards you can leave a range finder out as with most good predator rifles you can hold on fur that far. If your in tighter cover hunting alone, a caller with a decent remote will leave you ready to shoot as soon as a coyote appears.

Picking stands and what I call stand management is the very most important thing beside having coyotes in hearing distance. Picking stands where you can see and not be seen, smelt or heard are ideal, heard and seen come under stand management. Heard, quietly accessing your stand, sitting still, not stretching your legs shuffling your feet, futzing with gear. Seen accessing your stand so the whole world doesn't see you is a plus, don't futz with your gear, leave your scope alone, I leave my scope on the lowest setting as that is where it will be for most of your shots, if you have one sitting out there a ways there is usually time to adjust the scope, if he pops up at 20 yards there isn't time to turn it down. Smelt, the wind is your friend, I don't think there is anything you can do to eliminate or cover it. Approach your stand so the wind never blows your scent across the area you expect the coyote to come from.

Callers, mouth calls work well as nobody can make the same sounds as you, bad with a mouth call the coyote knows exactly where you are and if your alone in closer cover it can be tough to get a shot off when one is looking right at you. E-caller, I've used them in one form or another since the 1960's, I like simple, I don't want to have to look away from the stand to read a remote, I want a caller that will never leave me guessing what will happen when i press a button. I hate callers that you have to scroll for sounds, and remotes that have a hundred and one functions that can get confused, In my choice of callers I'm a1%er so you can take that for a grain of salt.

Weapons, any rifle will kill coyotes, I use rifles from 22 Win Mag to 6.5x58R Sauer including bolts(my favorite), AR's, drillings and combo guns and have a 12ga pump for those places that have weapons regulations.

Scopes, I have 1-4x20mm on my drillings, combos and pump shotgun. Most of my bolt actions wear 1.5-6x42mm scopes for the huge FOV on the bottom end and enough X's to kill them out to 300 yards. With the advent of newer scopes I'm liking 2-12x42mm scope and they let me add another couple hundred yards.

This is pretty much my goto rig, I'm 75 so getting down on the ground is getting harder and I'm in alot of flatter country so the stool is a really nice addition but as you can see I've had to extend my shooting sticks.. I like a back scabard for the rifle, I call cayotes so there is no need for a rifle until I'm set on my stand plus it leave my hands free for trecking/snowshoe/ski poles and deploying the call and sometimes a decoy.

Lots of great advice above. Been doing it for 40 years and still get a kick out of it.
Hard to beat a 223 for this.
Vast majority of my shots are under 150 yards. Last two were 40 and 100 yards.
I use a tall Harris bipod.
Foxpro is a great call
Butt pad is important
Try to call in light wind days, less than 10 mph
First and last hour of day light are best but they can be called all day
Having many places to call that are a mile plus apart is needed
I have a list of all the places I call, and they are listed by wind direction

Have fun

I'd like to add that I don't hunt the same stands repeatedly week after week. I like to give them up to a month to settle back down.

Got this one a few days before Christmas.

erich, the gent to my left is 88 years old. We try to get out once a week to hunt coyotes. This one fell to my 240 Weatherby at 80 yards. Big male. Quite a large coyote for a California coyote.

I thought you couldn’t own guns in California?????


😁😁😁😁

I hope to be that spry when I'm 88, at 75 I'm already thinking about four wheels for hunting, my wife (80) says she can't lift me into the truck any long and will have to tie a rope around me and skid me to the hospital if I crash the bike.

It sure gets me into some great country.


I love hunting new lands, cold calling areas I've never been to is a rush for me and in eight years hunting here have rarely hit the same stand twice. I have 10,000 square miles of hunting land within 1 hour drive of the house and I try to make trips to other states(one year I killed coyotes in five different states) but the covid and some health issues at the house have kept me closer to home although this year I'm headed to AZ for a couple weeks of hunting.

I thought you couldn’t own guns in California?????


😁😁😁😁[/quote]

We've still got em, but they're doing everything they can to take em away. The idiots running this state are incredible.

[quote=erich]I hope to be that spry when I'm 88, at 75 I'm already thinking about four wheels for hunting, my wife (80) says she can't lift me into the truck any long and will have to tie a rope around me and skid me to the hospital if if I crash the bike.

It sure gets me into some great country.



erich, that's a great rig you've got there. We use my Honda SxS to get from stand to stand. I have to admit that a good portion of the fun in coyote hunting is riding around in my SxS.

My buddy, (same guy), got this one with his shotgun loaded with Bismuth. I was about 30 yards downwind from the caller. This coyote ran right behind me like a bat out of hell on its way to the caller and he blasted it at close range. He has a back pack that holds an extra gun. Carries one, packs one. He brings both a shotgun and a rifle to our setups. He's a good shot, but this one might have gotten away if he had a rifle only.

Now I feel like I'm lazy too. I just want to pack one gun and combine the rifle and shotgun.

!2ga/5.6x52R

erich, in the picture a few posts above with the white speaker, is that a home made caller?

No, it is a Wildlife Technologies caller, my new favorite. it is so simple to run and great sound.


I'm calling with two Minaska M-1 Bandits, an original CS-24 with tx500 remote (10 presets on keys and can access all sounds without having to scroll), Crossfire with Tx 501 remote same as the tx 500 with FoxBang(for sale), JS GrimReaper G-2 with 12 sounds, for under $100. a decent remote caller. The WT and Minaskas are my favorites. I'm not rich but a fur check can pay for gear and some of this gear is a result a long time collecting it.

GrimReaper at work. I bought it to see if a inexpensive caller would work, I have no problem recommending it to someone on a budget or just seeing if they want to get into the game without breaking the bank.
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I like callers where I can direct the sound to a specific direction as I find coyotes coming into the front of the call more often and rarely get back doored. Now I need to figure out if it is because of the speaker direction or if I've been at this long enough that I have a pretty good Idea of where the coyote will be coming from.