Timing And Changing Coyote Calls

EDITOR'S NOTE: Tad Brown, who lives in Missouri, has hunted coyotes for years--often to sell their furs.

QUESTION: Tad, when you call coyotes, how long do you typically wait?

ANSWER: Most coyotes respond in the first two, three or five minutes. But I've waited 30 minutes or longer and had coyotes come in before. If you want coyote pelts because of high fur prices or prefer to shoot lots of coyotes because you're in a contest, you need to get into an area, call, wait 10 minutes, and then move on away from that region. You're going to miss some coyotes, but most coyotes will respond within that time frame.

QUESTION: How often do you call? For instance, when you start sounding like a rabbit in distress, how long do you do that, and how long do you wait before you give that same call again?

ANSWER: If coyotes are close, because they generally respond so fast, my first series is fairly short, 30 seconds to a minute. I make my call quickly and then drop my call so I'm ready to shoot. Coyotes often respond after the first call. After that, I'll probably call 60 to 90 seconds and then I'll wait two or three minutes and watch. Then I start again. I'll do that 10 or 15 minutes for a coyote.

QUESTION: Do you ever change calls?

ANSWER: Yes. I usually start with a medium-range call at a fairly low volume since I expect a coyote to be fairly close to me because I've studied the sign. If I get no response after a couple of minutes, then I'll blow the same call a little louder. If I still get no response, I'll go to a long-range call and attempt to get the sound out as far as I can to reach a coyote. Then, if I see a coyote responding, I'll often go back to using a medium-range call or to a coaxer call. A coaxer call is more of a mouse call, which I can stick in my mouth, keeping my hands free.

QUESTION: Tad, why can anyone call coyotes now?

ANSWER: Today, with Lohman's Electronic Wildlife Caller and the wide variety of cassettes that come with it if you can push a cassette into a player and turn it on, then you can call game. There are all different kinds of distress cassettes. Bird watchers or anyone else can call critters with our company's electronic caller.

QUESTION: What's the name of your electronic caller?

ANSWER: The Lohman's 2000 Electronic Wildlife Caller.

QUESTION: With which tapes should people start?

ANSWER: A baby cottontail, a regular cottontail or a woodpecker would make the best start-up tapes. We have a tape called "Squealy Rodents" that's good, too, for coyote hunting. Those are the three or four basic sounds to use for calling in coyotes.

To receive a copy of Tad Brown's "10 Secrets to Taking More Coyotes," write Tad Brown, 4500 Doniphan Drive, Neosho, MO 64850, attention Kim Thurman.

TOMORROW: COYOTE-HUNTING EQUIPMENT

Check back each day this week for more about Hunting Coyotes, A Year-Round Sport...

Day 1 - How To Call Coyotes
Day 2 - How To Make A Coyote Setup
Day 3 - Timing And Changing Coyote Calls
Day 4 - Coyote-Hunting Equipment
Day 5 - Coyote Hunting Secrets

John's Journal