Desert Hunter

Hunt anytime.

Hunting at noon can be as good as sunset, twilight, midnight, or sunrise. Setting any preconditions for hunting based on the position of the sun, moon, or stars and telling you that one is absolutely better than the other would be a big mistake. Hunting coyotes is a catch-as-catch-can proposition. Hunt anytime the opportunity presents itself.

Hunt in thick heavy cover

Well, maybe not too thick to walk in or to see through to the next bush, but set up in brush that is taller than a coyote and walk only until the truck is small or hidden. Pick a spot to set up with less than 40-50 yard visibility in every direction, and here's a few reasons why this tactic is productive. The coyote can't see you. Most coyotes are only 20 inches tall, and they will come closer to the caller in thick cover just because they can't see you or it. A coyote will keep coming in until it thinks it ought to be able to see the source of the sound or something else gets its attention. In open country, a coyote may hang up 150 yards out looking for the sound's source or at anything else that isn't quite right. In heavy cover, where the sound source and/or the hunter are much harder to see, a coyote is more likely to come all the way to the sound. Hunting this way, any coyote you can see is already in shotgun range. If you have good visibility beyond 50 yards in most directions, it's a rifle stand! and not close-cover shotgun country. Start over next time! And pick thicker cover.

Heavy cover holds more coyotes at all times of day or night.

Coyotes prefer cover, like any other wild animal. It's just harder to see them and harder to hunt them in thick stuff, especially at night. Don't drive by those "thick spots" you've been bypassing. Hunt the spots riflemen drive past.

Don't expose yourself.

Hunting from a ridge or other high ground is great for visibility's sake, but unless you approach from the back side, you expose yourself setting up. If you can see a long way out, a coyote can see a long way in. Better is to sneak in quietly and stay low. Set up in the flat. Set up in the wash. Or just at the edge of the wash. Or if you must, set up just a few feet up the side of a hill from the flat so visibility is just good enough for shotgun ranges. You don't need high ground to hunt with a shotgun. If the coyote watches you set up, it is not going to come to the call a few minutes later.

Drive less.

A shotgun is the weapon of choice for hunting near buildings, barns, tanks, pipes, livestock, and city limits. Driving way out of town and looking for wilderness isn't necessary and may even be counterproductive. Coyotes often live a half-mile from town and feed on pets, pet food, garbage, and gardens. But please be cautious around town. You too are much more likely to encounter people, their pets, and other stray domestic dogs in these areas. If you're near people, also remember that a one-shot kill draws less attention than the bang-bang-bang of staccato gunfire. A single noise can easily be mistaken for anything else. A backfire, a piece of plywood being dropped on the driveway, a door slam, can be anything but a gun shot. Once someone's ears have perked up, it's the second shot that gets identified as gunfire. Living in a rural area, I also pay attention to the kind of gunfire. When I hear the sound of a shotgun, it gets less attention from me than the crack of a high-powered rifle, the pop-pop-pop of a handgun, or the stutter of an AW. Law enforcement has told me that they will investigate any gunfire, but privately, I suspect they are much less likely get involved when they are unsure of the exact source or nature of the sound.  Law enforcement in my area encounters bird hunters regularly.

Hunt the unexpected.

Stop and try unusual locations where you're only half sure there could ever be coyotes. You will surprise yourself when you call them in city parks, next to the freeway, and in high school parking lots. Don't waste time looking for the "perfect" spot. Hit the ground and hunt. And you don't have to take a gun every time. Take the camera. Take the family.

Stop often.

Use your odometer between every stand. On a road or 2-track, as terrain allows, stop every mile. A loud hand or e-call will reach out more than a thousand yards on a quiet windless day. If you're seeing nothing, extend it to 2 miles. But if you're seeing coyotes regularly, shorten it up to .8 miles. If the wind is howling, shorten it up more. Sound won't reach as far upwind on a windy day. If you run a straight road and see or shoot a coyote, consider hunting a grid or a spiral search. Coyotes are there for a reason - food, territory, water, cover, a coyote social - where there's one, there are likely to be more. So work the area well before you return to your straight line course.

Look for tracks and scat too.

You won't pick many cherries in a bean field. Likewise, you won't shoot coyotes where there aren't any either. Tracks and scat are a good indicator of coyotes and a data point worth consideration, so always watch for fresh tracks in the road. They make a great place to start. But don't be afraid of hunting when you don't see them either. In heavy cover and on hard pan desert, tracks and scat are hard to spot.  On some terrain you can watch a coyote trot through it, know exactly where it walked, and still not find any tracks.  Seeing a single straight line track or even one or two sets of tracks that meander are just OK. Better spots will have some soft ground that holds new and old tracks headed for all points of the compass.  On balance, scat and tracks help hunter confidence, but the lack of them does not reveal much about the population of resident or transient coyotes.  Best turd I've ever seen: a nine incher filled with one to two inch long chunks of undigested carrots.  Second place goes to a deuce with 10 full sized peach pits in it.

Don't be afraid to hunt from a busy road.

Park on the side of the highway and walk into the wind. Use the road as a backstop. Walk only far enough to obscure the truck or to be legal in your state. Don't ever shoot in the direction of the road and be careful. Use a T-post stepper to cross a fence, or drape a furniture blanket over the fence to go over, or spread the blanket on the ground to go under. Furniture blankets don't pick up dry dirt, clean off easily, keep you from getting muddy, and protect you from all things that poke, tear, sting or bite. Get a light green or tan furniture moving blanket at Lowe's or Home Depot. Blue is easier to find both in the store and in the bush, but it's also easier for others to see too when it's draped over the barbed wire.  I like the green and tan better.  Don't stretch a rancher's fence. And be aware that in some places a fence means "no trespassing" but in others it doesn't.  You can even use a ladder as a stile, but I dislike carrying a ladder very far.

Don't be afraid to hunt near noisy locations.

Coyotes can hang out within earshot of freeways, subdivisions, race tracks, gun ranges, quarries, construction sites, and motorcycle paths.  They really don't seem to care that much about background noises.

This hunting spot is near a couple of busy roads, several businesses at the intersection, and more than a few houses. It's been a steady coyote producer through the years. Calling in this 28# bobcat was a bonus.  Living between the ranchos and businesses, one has to wonder how many pets and barnyard fowl this bobcat must have eaten to put on that much weight.

Play the wind and the sun.

Drive upwind on a road if you have the choice. Park in the shade or so the shady side of the truck is toward your setup. This helps to limit reflections off the truck in the direction of your stand, especially since you're only going to walk 60 yards. A camouflage or tan truck may be better for coyotes, but a white pickup is better camo from nosy people. No one pays any attention to a plain white pickup parked on the side of the road or in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I have one of each, a lifted flat tan one-ton off-road mudder and a plain white F-150. I prefer the white one for all but the worst snow or mud. The one ton drives like a truck and the half ton drives like a car.

Walk less.

Walk only far enough from the road or 2-track to obscure the truck or to be legal. Unless you plan to hunt atop some special perch or some spot with personal significance, walking very far is usually a waste. Save your legs and stay on the flat. A coyote can hear a caller from a thousand yards and cover the distance ten times faster than a walking man. Move out, call, move in, and drive. Make more stands.

Walk upwind and hunt upwind.

Your stinky truck is 60 yards behind you so quit arguing whether you should set up upwind or down. Set your caller 10-15 yards into the wind or crosswind. A coyote coming from your downwind side will either see your truck or you first and bolt, charge the caller, trot by the caller, trot and stop to look for it, or circle back downwind until they smell something else and leave. You can't stop them from that kind of behaivior, so give in, and give up the downwind side.  Rarely, urban coyotes will disregard human scent and come in from your back. If you set up that close to the truck, a coyote coming from downwind will also have to walk right past the truck, so it makes it easier to give up the downwind side. A solo hunter just can't watch 360 without a lot of movement, and even the herd bull doesn't get to eat every blade of grass in the meadow.  Some of them are going to spoof you and get away.  That's hunting.

Set up in the shade.

Set up in the shade of a tree, a Mesquite, Palo Verde, Joshua, or Saguaro when you can. The shade will give you cover and keep reflections to a minimum. In the summer, it will keep you cooler. Set up in front of a bush instead of behind it. A prickly bush behind you will help protect you from a downwind attack, but it isn't perfect. I've been attacked 5 times and bitten once. Peeking through bushes in front of you obscures both your view and your shot so set up in front of a bush when you can.

The perfect stand.

There is no "perfect" stand. Ideally, I'd tell you to hunt any time of day or night. Drive into the wind, walk into the wind, call into the wind, and put the sun and an obstacle at your back. Real hunting is never ideal. Every stand is going to be a compromise of wind, sun, cover, shade, field-of-fire, visibility, and comfort.