Running out of ideas

[nortpete]

I was locating coyotes last night and found one on a farm I'm able to hunt. I found it by playing a coyote locator. I went home, got my stuff and went back and hour later. I set up in a field with the road behind me and the coyote in front of me. The call was 90 yards in front of me and the wind was blowing in my face. I opened with a female invitation howl and paused for two minutes. In this pause it did not respond. I then played a young male answer howl and paused for 2 minutes. The coyote also howled after the young male answer. I then played lightning jack off and on for 5 minutes, paused for 3 minutes, played platinum gray for 5 minutes, paused for 3 minutes, then played coyote pup in distress for 5 minutes. After a no show I played a female interrogation howl, and the coyote responded in the exact same spot. I backed out and moved into another field that got me a little closer and played only distress sounds off and on for about 40 minutes and still nothing. I wondered if I may have bumped it when I moved, so I played another female Invitation howl and it responded in the exact same spot. I left this field, drove down the road to another field that would get me on the same side of a small creek as the coyote. Here I only howled. I started with a female interrogation howl, which the coyote responded to. When it started responding, i cut it off with challenge barks. It howled again and I cut it off again with more female challenge barks. This went on for about 25 minutes and it never moved. At this point it was 11:30 pm and I had to be up at 5 for work so I went home and layed in bed unable to fall asleep from thinking about what had happened. I had about 2 months ago, shot a pair of coyotes off this farm after calling for about 10 minutes. I'm not sure if this coyote is a daughter from a previous litter or a non related one. I am open to any suggestions or ideas on this one. Thanks!   

[Misterjake23]

Nick,   There will always be those dogs that won't respond.  This may be one of them.  It's possible also that after you initially left from first locating it,  the coyote came in ....  But you left to go get your hunting stuff.

It could be a combination of things.  Coyote came in already while you were gone,  coyote simply felt safe in his area and had no desire to come to you.   Too many sounds being thrown at him in a short period of time.   My personal belief is this:  Coyotes will respond based on one of two reason:  # 1  Hunger -  if he's not hungry for the meal you are presenting,  he won't come.....  He has no reason or motivation to.   #2   Curiosity -   Animals will respond out of curiosity.   Blow a distress call sometime and see how fast your dog comes running.  He responds from curiosity, not hunger.   If you can't spark one of those two interests,  they simply won't come.   Even the pup distress sound plays on the animals curiosity instincts.

     Don't beat yourself up over it.  Plain and simple,  we can't call them all.  It could simply be one of those educated coyotes that's smarter than we are !!    JMO

[scott]

you said that the coyote responded,  did howl, bark, or yip howl.   

[nortpete]

It howled back many times a couple of the times it was a lot of yipping with a couple short howls, but for the most part it was a lot of long lone howls. With maybe one bark.

[scott]

if possible, you can leave your caller where you were standing and sneak into where the coyote hung up.   once you sneak in there, use your remote and any call that you have used before..  you want the coyote to think it has busted you again. 

[uncle buck]

The way this coyote was acting I think that Scott strategy would work on it... Try it..Do just what he said to do...

IMO when this happens to me:  I go strickly to the Coyote Pup... One Solid minute of it.. Then I shut up for 8 min and remain silent... Now you have to be ready.. All of a sudden they just show up.. I'm not a person that will take credit for things that I have stumbled on... I learned this from Coyote John... He told me to do it one  time when I had the same problem.. It worked and it has worked most times for me... It can be done with electronic callers with a remote that has a good Coyote Pup distress or use one of the many open reed calls to do it.. Me personally I use all kinds of open reed calls but I often go to the PEEWEE or the Song Dog Jr. CritRCalls. That Dual Primos open reed calls are easy to make talk on to.. Again when they talk to me and won't come in 365 days a year... It's the coyote pup distress that I hit them with.  No other sounds are used. Make sure the wind is not blowing from you to the direction that you hear them howling at you..

[coyotejohn]

Howlers and yappers are pretty much normal around here at this time of year, on most stands as the sun starts to set.
Doesn't seem to mean much, as far as whether anything is going to show or not. Just seems like all the coyotes want to howl at dusk  and some of them want to yap and bark. Most of the time, I don't think I'm busted or anything, just grouchy yappy barking coyotes (much like me).
First stand of evening, I started with a lone howl. Immediately - like, within two seconds, a coyote appeared on the skyline of the ridge top in front of me. No way he could see me or my truck, or smell me. But after standing there for a minute, he turned away. Tried a bunch of stuff, but never saw him or any other coyote on that stand. Heard a bunch howling from three different directions though.

Decided that was about my usual results using vocals, only used pup in distress for the next four stands and killed three coyotes.  Other than pup in distress I don’t like to use howls – of any sort.  The “experts” will tell you what each howl means on their e-callers but until I sit down with a coyote and he tells me what each howl means I don’t believe the guys who are making a living off of selling e-callers.  If you are proficient with a open reed call and want to use a vocal on this particular coyote I would suggest you try to mimic his call.

Misterjake mentioned they will respond because of curiosity and I too have found that to be true.  Once out in the middle of the desert, not paying attention to the remote hit the bull elk bugle button.  I had a pair respond within a minute or two, one died, one did not.

Thanks UB, we must of talked about that at least ten or so years ago.  Time fly's when your having fun.  Can't believe I been at this game for well over fifty-five years, and still learning.     

[nortpete]

Update: I went out to this farm two days ago and howled. There was no response. Last night I wasn't able to go out, so I tried again tonight. I went out, got setup and have a female invitation howl. I instantly got a response from the exact same place they were a few days ago. I setup as close to the woods that I felt comfortable with not getting too close. After the coyote responded to my howl I sat in silence for 10 minutes. Nothing came in so I used pup in distress for one minute then a 1 minute pause and then pup screams for a minute. I sat in silence for another 10 minutes. Still nothing. I went through this cycle of pup sounds two more times and nothing ever showed. Before I left I gave a female interrogation howl, and again it answered me from the same spot. I decided to pack up and head home. 

[Buckwheat]

Nortpete
You might have been out if his home range.

[uncle buck]

Northpete... Do you keep your light on at all times?  Also they will flank you from the sides too... Your looking into a dark field and there they are looking at your from your side.. Of course they see you and you don't even know it.. I think of these coyotes like the Civil War infantry that would  go out and test the enemy position...Watch your side when calling... Many times they will be right at the end of the fence row or tree line looking right at you from your side... Also hope your not out there with multiple hunters either...Two is good but once you start to increase the qty of people your going to fail..

[Kyle5865]

I had this same problem so I know exactly how you feel. Thing I did which some people may think is crazy but I just kept going out night after night at the same time and calling using coyote vocals. I had them howl and go crazy and I kept my light on as soon as I get to where im going and check the fields. Never know what is standing out there watching you before you even start calling. But as I said I kept going out and after 4 nights of them running so far, you can sort of see where they feel comfortable and where they don't. The coyotes I was after only went so far from a thicket and wouldn't go into the corn field in front of me which is where I needed them to go through so I could get a shot. The reason I did this as I said was so you could see where they are coming from, where they will go, and how many your dealing with. Me personally, I was dealing with 9+. But after the 4th night of going out at the same time, I turned my light on to check the field and there stood a coyote at 75 yards. My opinion on it of why it was there was because it wanted to get there before I started calling because it was so curious it just couldn't take it anymore. I will go out many nights to the same sport, same time, same calls and listen and watch and not even expect to fire a shot or see anything, just listening to where they are and where they go. Then you can decide after those nights ok, I know they are in this area and they like to go to this spot or they always go to this area, so you will know how to setup and be ready. Thats how I have been hunting and I don't know if anyone else does this but it worked for me.