Tips for calling coyotes please

I’m a rookie coyote hunter. But now that I have good thermal optics, am trying up to learn. I have an electronic call with remote. Plus I’ve called in some when deer hunting with a mouth call when I know they’re nearby. But with my electronic call, what are any tips? Which call to use? Cottontail distress, other coyote vocalizations, etc? What volume, what frequency, for how long. I’m mainly calling from one of my many elevated deer stands on food plot edges or pasture edges. The other night, after an hour of experimenting with a distressed rabbit call and a few coyote howls, I had coyotes start howling all around me, at various distances. It lasted only 30 seconds. But none ever were visible. What was that all about? Obviously I stirred them up. But I have no clue about the dynamics and strategy. Please fill me in on tactics, tips, or what to expect or avoid.
I’m hunting in SC, mainly upland forest tracts, but with scattered food plots planted for deer. The yotes are here but rarely seen in daylight.

There’s a lot to talk about here. Start with the basics, hunt the wind, coyotes see very well even at night. Everyone I enter an area I will do a quick scan to see if I’ve jumped anything. When calling, start out as if the coyote is within 100 yards, meaning start on a low volume. I don’t use electronic calls ever. So with mouth calls I give a 15-30 second call and then scan for 5-10 minutes, followed by a louder call cycle if nothing is seen. Once a coyote is detected, I start calling short spurts, 2-5 seconds and watch the reaction. Never forget to check your surroundings while working the coyote you’ve spotted, they will sneak in on you.

This is a rather large complicated subject. Learn how to call in the day and then worry about the night. I wrote a book entitled EYES FRONT that will give you more information about calling critters than any other source that I am aware of.
Adios,
gary

Read Gary's book...

And find someone competent who will take you out and show you the ropes.

Then go get after them, and learn from every stand you hunt. Whether it is successful or not.

I’ve been calling coyotes for about a year pretty much exclusively at night with thermal. I use a foxpro electronic call. What I can tell you is that this time of year during breeding and denning season (like February through right now), coyote vocals work by far the best for me. I mix in some pretty distress in the beginning but that’s mainly to see if there are any bobcats around. There is plenty of food for them this time of year, they aren’t struggling to eat. They are protective of their dens and pups however, so I’ve found that a nearby coyote almost cannot resist pup distress or some long non threatening howls this time of year. I saw a group the other day and flipped on a rabbit distress for 5 minutes and they couldn’t have cared less. Switched to pup distress and they came barreling in. I’ve even called them in this time of year, been spotted, spooked the coyote which ran into the woods, and brought the same 2 coyotes right back to the call 10 minutes later with pup distress.

In the fall and winter, obviously things change and you’ll find out what works best for you. I’m certainly not an expert and am still figuring it out. The most important thing though is where you hunt. If you hunt. If the property is called all the time, most likely none of this stuff is going to work and you’ll have to get lucky. I try not to call the same spot too frequently but it helps to write down what sounds you used so you can go back and make sure to not use those same sounds the next time you call it.

Thanks. I have a fox pro also. How long do you run your call? Just brief sequences or do you let it run a while? Of course I guess it varies according to which call.

Man I'm still not sure what the best way is. Some people say keep the call quiet and do short bursts of calling followed by silence. But what I usually do is let prey distress sounds run (at a volume of 16-18 on the foxpro) for about 8 minutes or so. I like to start with a longer continuous call at first because a lot of the stuff I have called in comes in at 8-12 minutes. Then I will sit quiet anywhere from 2-4 minutes and try something else for 5ish minutes at a time followed by a 2ish minute break. Whenever I do howls, I'll usually play those for about 20-45 seconds max followed by quiet for several minutes. Most of the time a howl like this is how I start off a stand, especially in the spring and summer. For pup distress I usually play those sounds for 4-5 minutes at a time.

I usually call like this for at least 20-30 minutes. And one of the first coyotes I ever called in came out right at an hour of calling... Only reason we were still there is because we only had that 1 spot to hunt that night so couldn't move to another set. But I have called out several coyotes recently at around the 25-30 minute mark.

And another thing, make sure your'e using the "Fox bang" feature if your foxpro has it. Or if you dont have that, make sure you immediately turn on a pup distress sound after you shoot a coyote or shoot at one. It's amazing how that will bring them right back out or at least make them stop running a lot of the times.