Abundant, cunning and highly elusive with acute senses, coyotes, bobcats and foxes offer incredibly challenging sport. They all respond to calls that mimic animals in distress. Other good calls for song dogs include fighting or mating calls and howling. They might also answer a crow or owl call, tipping off hunters to their location.
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A few mornings ago, I met some of my friends for a little breakfast. These guys are accustomed to seeing me in hunting clothes, so it was no big deal when I walked in dressed in hunting attire. One of the guys said, “Hey Clancy, whatcha huntin’ now?” I told him that rabbit season was open until the end of February and that today, because the wind was not blowing and the sun was shining, I was going rabbit hunting.
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Randy W. from West Virginia writes to ask about coyotes. “We’re seeing more and hearing more coyotes all the time. The deer numbers in our area also seems to be dropping. Is this because of the coyotes, and should we be shooting more coyotes to save the deer?”
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The other morning, on the way back home from doing some calling for coyotes,
I stopped at the local gas station to fill up the pickup. When I went in to pay
for my gas, a young man behind the counter named Jason asked if I had been out
hunting coyotes. Maybe it was the snow camo I was wearing that tipped him off.
When I was a boy, yet too young to drive, my father would take me out into the country. We would drive slowly down the snow covered roads looking for fox tracks. When we found what we were looking for, I would take off on the track. Sometimes, when pa would pick me up later that evening, I would have a red fox lying at my feet. But most of the time, it was just me waiting for a ride home. However, that experience was quite an education in the ways of the red fox.
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If you are looking for a change of pace from hunting whitetails, give coyotes a try. The truth about calling coyotes in the Midwest is that most hunters expect too much. And here’s why.
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As the Winkelman family wrapped up a recent hunting season, we shared a pastime that I’m sure you experience, too: gun cleaning. I don’t have to tell you how important it is to put guns away for their off-season nap in tip-top condition. They need to be thoroughly disassembled, cleaned, reassembled, oiled, and cased for corrosion-free preservation. For me, this event isn’t a chore. It’s not like cleaning dishes. It’s a privilege and it’s emotional.
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Back in the winter of 1962 or maybe it was ’63, I was doing some trapping during Christmas vacation. Mostly I trapped muskrats. If you have ever trapped muskrats through the ice, then you know that it can be a lot of work. Too darn much work when “rat’s” are only bringing a half-buck like they were that December. Weasels were bringing a buck-and-a-half then and you don’t have to chop through the ice to get to them, so I decided to be a weasel trapper.
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Here are more calling tips for hunting fox and coyote including where you should set up, tracking, and how to spot and stalk fox and coyote. Where you set-up to call is more important than the call you are using, how you blow the call or the firearm you choose to use.
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