Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Book on coyote hunting?

Is there an excellent comprehensive book out there that a (beginner to coyotes) person could get the basics.... plus a little more? Soup to nuts?

I've gotten some good advice on this board and from a couple guys in p.m.'s and phone calls, but as an old school type, I sure do like a page turner where a person could read a chapter a night and let it soak in.

Thanks in advance!

Gerry Blair

Rick Jamison wrote one "Calling Coyotes and other Predators". I thought it was pretty good.

Jerry Blair was a cool dude. I have a couple of autographed
books around here....somewhere.

All the above, Ron Spomer from his younger days, Phil Gostomski and if you can find Tony Tebbis CD's are great.

U-Tube, Coyote hunting, lots of good info there. Rio7

Randy Anderson's THE TRUTH Calling All Coyotes series of videos are entertaining and educational.

While this is not exclusively a book on coyote hunting they often have articles about coyote and predator hunting. It is one of my favorite magazines, I have read it for many decades it is not only generally good reading but it always brings takes me back to a much younger me.

drover

I rate Gerry Blair about tops, Randy Anderson is good & has a bunch of stuff out. I could pick up tips from most any of them.

I'll take a guess... Fur Fish & Game magazine?

A big whoops on me - I forgot to include the link - yes, FF&G https://www.furfishgame.com/

drover

Andrew Lewand has some paperbacks on Eastern Yote hunting, good basics.

If you live in a place, like Illinois, where night hunting with thermal optics is lawful, the rules are changing drastically.

I used to begin calling coyotes after all the other seasons closed. Now the night shooters are starting up in mid November and by thanksgiving or thereabout pretty much every coyote in my region has been called to, and either killed or gotten his diploma...

Doesn't help that Illinois is 99% private land and the bulk of the thermal optics night guys are farmers, or family of, who never before hunted til they found their new toys. They have their phones on OnX huntmap and places marked all over. They hunt each others places by agreement and deny access to daytime hunters.

Farmers who used to laugh about me making a fool of myself with a foxpro, are now thick into it, and still laughing at me.

And the night guys are not just killing coyotes. A friend manages one of his dad's acreages for their personal deer and bird hunting. He has noted an increase in birds that he attributes to him trapping or night shooting more than 600 raccoon over the last 3 years.

He has a private video of himself emptying a 20 round AR mag, killing 18 coon at one setup. He videos right through his scope, and every shot has a date time stamp. 12 minute video covering an hours worth of shooting/calling.

I have an early Jerry Blair "Predator Calling" book...meh.

Better info, online.

Blu C's: I recommend to my new to Coyote Hunting friends and acquaintances the videos (and there are a LOT of them!) by Randy Anderson.
I owned 2 or 3 of them and loaned them out and they never came back!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I will sell my copy of Calling Coyotes and Other Predators by Rick Jamison if you are interested.

Lots of good podcasts too if thats your thing. Oneil Ops just did a 3 hour video with a pretty well known coyote caller

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Hunting with Gerry Blair in preparation for his article in Predator Xtreme Magazine titled "Predator Magnets," Gerry killed that one from short range with his 10 gauge. Halloween 2007 and we had a good time.

Here's a list of brief book reviews that ought to give you some ideas. It's a broad list of topics from biology to mythology, not just hunting. Read the reviews at:

http://deserthunter.com/dhp/content/coyote-hunters-library



Calling Coyotes East and West by Dennis Kirk
Calling Coyotes by Rick Jamison
Calling East & West by Gerry Blair
Coyote Hunting by Phil Simonski
Coyote by Wyman Meinzer
Coyotes, Trappers, Sheepherders, and Urbanites by Frank Turkowski
Coyotes: Biology, Behavior, and Management by Marc Bekoff Ed.
Coyotes: Predators & Survivors by Charles L. Cadieux
God's Dog by Hope Ryden
Hunting Predators - Proven Tactics That Work by Gordy Krahn
Hunting Predators For Hides and Profit by Wilf E. Pyle
Predator Caller's Companion by Gerry Blair
Predator Calling with Gerry Blair 1st ed.
Predator Calling with Gerry Blair 2nd ed.
Predator Hunting by Ron Spomer
The Clever Coyote by Stanley Young and Hartley Jackson
The Coyote Hunter by Don Laubach
The Voice of the Coyote by J. Frank Dobie
The World of the Coyote by Joe Van Wormer
Varmint Hunter's Digest by Jim Dougherty
Wonders of Coyotes by Sigmund A. Lavine


And if you hunt with a shotgun there are a couple of decent articles, one on hunting in heavy cover, and another about closing the deal on the same website. Shotgunning is a whole different animal.

If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Jim Dougherty's Varmint Hunter Digest, long out of print, but usually available from a used book seller for a few bucks and here's why. After reading that whole list of books a few times, it's pretty clear Jim's was the first, probably the best, and what came after were copycats. Jim's was the only book with an archery chapter. Jim hunted in jeans and boots with a cowboy hat. He was a trailblazer.

Coyote Hunting by Phil Simonski

While reading this book, sitting next to a computer with internet, I looked up Mr Simonski and his phone number was included. So I just called him! Very kind man interested in what a novice was doing. He asked if I used the skunk cover scent. When I responded “Hell no! I am not putting skunk scent on me”, he laughed so hard he might have strained a muscle. He told me to put it on something close to and he knew what a beginner I was. He was very interesting and kind.

I am still somewhat of a novice, but after reading some, you just need to go out and hunt. Fix the mistakes you make and do your own learning. Be safe.

Did he tell you how much skunk cover scent to use to cover the scent of a 200 pound man and all his gear?

Cover Scents for coyotes? Rich Higgins is a believer. You're lucky if you can slow down a coyote for an extra second with a cover scent. Skunk scent would never be a first choice for coyotes though.

https://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/predator-hunting/varmint/scent-confusion-and-better-coyote-hunting

I've called a few into shotgun range but I won't carry scents in the truck. They're more trouble than they're worth unless you are a photographer or videographer. One accident makes for a hell of cleanup job. I put this pic together for anyone who wonders what a "few" coyotes looks like. There are no repeats. No scents used.

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Kentucky is a tough state. Coyotes are half red wolf genes. A big one is 58 pounds. A monster here in the west is 38 pounds. Al Prather on the Foxpro field staff is a successful Kentucky rifleman, and if Possum Al is still kicking, he'd be a great source of info on KY coyotes. He'll talk your arm off...

A couple of things to think about to make sure your research works, and then you understand why or why not you have success…

Beyond being responsible with the dead critters, and safety..


1). Region / location / environment
Hunting predators is different depending on what part of the country you are in, and what type of cover you are in, how big the fields are, how close you are to any population, how often the place is frequented by people, and what type of access you have to sneak in.

So try to find a set of video’s/ books that match your environment.

I learned that the hard way with hunting & fishing because I was military and traveled and what works in one area doesn’t in another…


2) Hunting pressure / Other hunters
Have a big impact on how critters react - they get educated fast so if you on private ground, or even public where no one goes your success rate is going to jump up. In the opposite direction - if some yahoo’s educate and or do a half effort then every coyote get educated fast…. And your success rate is going to drop hard.



3). Watch for areas of overpopulation and ask for permission
Predator populations swing up and down over time, and in some areas they will be way over populated and Start really tearing into turkey and deer populations (even hunters will let you on their place to chase them)… so ask you local wild life guys where there are too many coyotes.


I self taught like it sounds you are going after it…

The ability to “sneak in” undetected is HUGE… and this is an understatement, Scent control, and then concealment is next…
Finally calling skills / and how well you see game (some people are just lazy)… followed by marksmen ship…. And of course the amount of drive you have…

Watch yote tracks & listen to them howl at night / morning so you get an idea of where they hang out and there travel corridors are..

Have fun & be safe.

I'm guessing you are the Gary mentioned in the article? Rich Higgens practices something called "misting" and that is different from cover scent. The value of that tactic is debated by experienced coyote hunters and has been for years. It is also very dependent upon topography and cover. In Rich's neck of the woods he finds value in it. In my area I would probably get busted moving around squirting rabbit piss when I should have been sitting still watching for the coyote.

Rich would soak his boots in beer and cover them with cake frosting and coconut sprinkles if he thought it would call more coyotes. He also uses a lot more than rabbit urine is his magic mist, but that's Rich's story to tell.

You the same Gary that got bit on the arm by a coyote?

That coyote tried to bite my face off. I was lucky I killed it anyway, took it to County Health, and didn't have to have rabies shots. Did you see the pictures of my arm? or the coyote?

Your arm I think, it’s been awhile but I think about it when a coyote comes in from a bad side and gets a little too close. Crazy.

Anyone who missed the whole story, a coyote came in hot, behind me, over my left shoulder, while I was standing up in the shade of a Joshua tree. In a blurry split second, it leaped through the air, mouth wide open, headed straight at my face. At the last second I threw up my left arm and the coyote bit down on my tricep. It threw me forward and then lost its grip, grooved my arm, and fell on the ground in front of me. I had the shotgun in my right hand, threw it up, and dumped both barrels of 3 1/2" 0000 buckshot into the dog from hell. I still see it perfectly every time I think about it.

Minaska caller playing Wildlife Tech's distressed lamb. I'll never forget.

Minaska caller playing Wildlife Tech's distressed lamb. I'll never forget.

WOW! I'll bet you never forget that one, lol.