Desert Hunter

"Weird sounds and odd noises continue to call coyotes.  Recorded electronic tones, squeaky dog toys, recorded sounds from squeaky chairs, stools, and door hinges, and even some music has successfully called coyotes."

The truth is all these STUPID SOUNDS WORK!!  This one came to a squeeze toy that I bought at Michael's, the florist and craft supply store.

On fileNames that don't fit the sound:

Coyote killing a cottontail - These types of sounds are rare.  I live deep into the Angeles National Forest and open the windows on hot summer nights.  In the last 20 years, I've heard the rabbit die twice in the night.  If you've ever had the opportunity to actually hear a coyote killing a cottontail, it's short and brutal. Wahhh wah ah... uh.. crunch.  It's over quickly.  The rabbit's dead and the coyote says nothing; his mouth is full.   Misnamed files like anything.killingcottontail.mp3 were usually found to be just two sounds dubbed together, a cottontail distress and a coyote noise, which sounds nothing like a coyote catching and killing a cottontail, even to my ear.

Coyote - Fox Fight - This is another elusive find. The recordings of  true fights are rare.

Bobcat Special or Fox Special - Once in a while you might find something useful, but these are usually high-pitched bird-like handcalls that probably get a thumbs down from other birds, if birds had thumbs. This sound may be better than the scream you make when putting your hand in a garbage disposal, but only marginally.  Instead, get your own handcall out of your pocket and make your own "Bobcat Special."

Female Coyote in Estrous or Bobcat in Heat - And it's a handcall. I call bullshit. A man with a whistle cannot, repeat c-a-n-n-o-t, accurately speak the words of any female coyote or bobcat in estrous. Sarcastically, for $10 you can buy the tape and prove it to yourself.

Call Shy Special - See Bobcat Special. These are sounds meant to lure in newbies who don't see anything on their first few trips to the field (revise this, there are club members who have been going out for 5 years and haven't called a coyote yet). The "Call Shy Special" won't help. Instead, try watching the wind, the sun, the terrain, the cover, and the noise, those things that come under the overarching heading of woodcraft. That's what's screwing you up, poor woodcraft, not lucky/unlucky bird and rabbit sounds.  Parenthetically, I'm glad no one seems to understand woodcraft well.  Without that ubiquitous handicap, anyone with a Lightning Jack would be cleaning up.

Monotonous sounds - I mean really monotonous, droning, repetitive sounds are my pet peeve. Dennis Kirk sells a CD with a sound called "Cottontail Distress" that is a 19 second loop repeated for 30 minutes. Aaarrrgghhh! Short sounds will get stuck in your mind's ear.  It gets really old listening to the same exact grating noise over and over.  Monotony is a human thing and wrecks the hunting.  Wrong.

Weird but true.  Monotony works on the coyotes.  Cadence, the hunting beat, matters.   It is these kind of sounds that get a predator's passing attention.   The 18 second loop that plays over and over may annoy a hunter, but it will still call a coyote.  Somewhere there is a happy medium.  Original enough to make it tolerable for the hunter, a sound can still have the monotonous cadence that calls critters.