night hunting

[stoner]

Coyote hunting is not like hunting deer. Coyotes are smarter than a deer.

Did you use hand calls or E callers? Did you see any or hear any yotes that night?

You are going to have to get them in close to get them with a shotgun.

One tip I've read about is to keep the coyote in the Light's Halo and used a rheostat to keep the light at low level until you are ready to shoot. They amp up the light to full power and pull the trigger. Just keep the main part of the light pointed up at the sky and only allow the edge (halo) part of the light to show the coyotes eyes at night.

In INDIANA you must have a white light shining that's visible 500 ft away at all times while hunting at night for coyotes.

I have read that coyotes are much braver at night than during the day.

I used both, it's definitely different than going early morning or late afternoon. Had one to challenge us from a distance, but that was the only vocal we heard. There will be a learning curve involved that's for sure. I'm thinking maybe a little less calling the next time out.
Would expect this winter, assuming its as harsh as predicted to make calling anytime a little more productive. Good luck to those that give it a try and report back when you can, we can learn from one another's experiences.

[roughscott]

ha! Scott can you imagine the absolue flood of calls to the poacher hotline ?!! "hey someone is shining a light shooting deer in the field next to my barn!"

it will take a while to straighten out.....i hope the game wardens have a full tank of gas, they are going to be busy.

weLl said . As a coon hunter im use to it .

[Moveon]

weLl said . As a coon hunter im use to it .

I too wonder how the IN game wardens will act if they see me hunting coyotes at night with a white spotlight turned on.

I rode with a IN game warden once and while in his vehicle he spotted a spot lighter and we ended up approaching him with all the lights in the CO's vehicle turned off until we were right on top of the guy's car. It turned out that it was just a guy and his girlfriend out having a good time. They didn't have any fire arms in their vehicle so there was nothing illegal about shining a light out of the vehicle at that time. The game warden has his vehicle set up so that he could turn every light on his vehicle off with a single switch. All he had to do was flip that switch on his dashboard and all the lights would go off or on.

[Bassinsince98]

. There is a special announcement on the kydfwr homepage, it explains the new regs for night coyote hunting, shotgun only, and the use of artificial lights are allowed from feb1 through the end of may.

ive been waiting for this

[Moveon]

I too wonder how the IN game wardens will act if they see me hunting coyotes at night with a white spotlight turned on.

I rode with a IN game warden once and while in his vehicle he spotted a spot lighter and we ended up approaching him with all the lights in the CO's vehicle turned off until we were right on top of the guy's car. It turned out that it was just a guy and his girlfriend out having a good time. They didn't have any fire arms in their vehicle so there was nothing illegal about shining a light out of the vehicle at that time. The game warden has his vehicle set up so that he could turn every light on his vehicle off with a single switch. All he had to do was flip that switch on his dashboard and all the lights would go off or on.

I called Sugar Ridge and talked to Debbie up there. She confirmed that they allow nigh time coyote hunting at Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife area. I should have asked about Sugar Ridge's properties too but forgot to ask about that.

I noticed that there are new White Sign in Sheet and White hunting permission Cards at Bluegrass now. These white sign in sheets are for night hunting of coyotes, foxes, raccoons and I can't remember the others. All are predators or fur bearers of some type.

Before this there was nothing about hunting coyotes out there on the sign in sheets.

I went a couple times and hunting from like late night to early in the morning. I was not able to see anything either night. But the second time I saw a coyote running around an open corn field that has just been harvested recently. He was running across the field out in the wide open but it was on private land. I know where he or she hangs out now. I've seen them in this very same area over the past few years.

One thing I've learned is that it's hard to carry all the gear needed to hunt them at night. So you have to just take the bare necessities. And I found that Bluegrass is frequented by either hunters or fishermen even at night and very early in the morning. I saw water fowl hunters cars in the parking lot at 4 am in the morning well before daylight or legal shooting hours. Does it really take two hours to put out decoys and setup the duck boat blind? I heard gun shots at 5:30 or 6 am and you can't start shooting at ducks until 1/2 hour before sunrise. And Sunrise on this day was after 7 am CDST. This was before the time change and the fall back on the clock last Sunday.

I even used some scent (coyote urine) and a few spray of the predator bomb can spray.

I'm thinking that the light that I wear on my hat is telling every coyote within 1/2 mile that a human is out walking in the fields at night and to stay away. I never saw any eyes the second night. The first night I saw what I though were two sets of eyes.

The second night I went I listened to the weather report on NOAA Weather Radio and it said that the winds were blowing out of the NW. So I figured my sent would drift to the SE. I set up accordingly. But after setting up and settleing down for the 30 minute stand I noticed that I could see my breath. And my breath's water vapor was drifting towards the NW not SE. **** it I thought. I've set up in the wrong spot. Well it was too lake to change then as I had already deployed a caller and was into the stand. I had hoped that they would try to go down wind to the SE into a open area of plowed field. But instead they would come in from the NW where there was higher grass and lots of cover to hide in. No wonder I didn't see them. Not one coyote howled back at me either.

I started out with a couple of locator howls and then after about 10 minutes used a dying rabbit call. I tried that for a few times and waited inbetween each call. I didn't call much when I did call. Maybe about 10 to 15 seconds. I personally don't think that a dying rabbit will be dying for 10 minutes at a time. I've shot rabbits and heard them scream when they were scared and shoot and they don't go on forever. But I guess if a predator has a hold of them they may scream bloody murder until the predator actually bites them in the neck to kill them. But I think that too much calling is not good. Less is more IMHO. As long as the coyote can hear the call and not be afraid of it they will come to check it out from a long ways away. It may take them a while to get to you though.

I like to start out with softer calls so as not to chase away any yote that are close by. Then increase the sound to reach out to the ones that may be a further away.

I noticed that my fox pro is not very loud. I could barely hear it when only 40 yards away from it. Perhaps I need to use both speakers instead of just the Cone Speaker. I can add another speaker to the axulliary port but that's a pain to carry another speaker with me. I have a Radio Shack 50 Watt Outdoor Cone type speaker that works pretty good. I use that with a radio shack amp and a Ipod type player. I can record the sounds on the ipod and play them through the amplifier and the speaker and it's pretty loud.

If I had more money I'd buy a louder FoxPro with more sounds.

FoxPro should sell these units with more coyote calls and not so many other calls on the E units. IMHO. I don't need a deer call nor a bear call. All I want is a coyote call and some coyote prey type calls. I'd like to have more coyote vocals for later this winter.

You can purchase sounds online from www.gofoxpro.com and get what you need. They are not cheap though. You buy them in a set of 4 sounds or 8 sounds or a custom setup. FoxPro has a computer program that you can download for free to help you download their calls and organize them on your computer and your caller. You can even rearrange the calls order. I've download the program and installed it but have not paid to download any new calls yet. My FX3 unit is not a 24 bit player. It only will play the proprietory fox pro files. I think that's how the FX3 works. And it's remote won't reach out very far from what I've found.

Perhaps the newer more expensive models with the newer remotes will reach out farther.

They also have a grip for an AR15 type rifle that can be used to send radio signals to the remote and them make the caller do it's thing. But you have to be careful as they only work with certain FoxPro callers and remotes. Some of the remotes have to be sent into the factor for an upgrade to work with the fox grips. Another fox grip can be mounted on your rifle's for arm and used from there to send signals to the fox pro's remote.

IMHO they have way too many different E caller models these days. Fury and then the Fury II. Spitfire, Wildfire, FX3, FX5, and a few more of the more expensive ones. The range in price from $200 to about $600 depending on the model you get.

The Johnny Stewart PM4 is a good caller with excellent sounds that you can buy on a card. But they put the same sounds on multiple cards so that's not good. The sound quality is excellent IMHO. I've called in cats, Crows and a few owls with the PM4. It's really spooky at night to have a **** Owl land right next to the caller which is right out in front of you.