Pass hunting for coyotes? Anyone else try it?

CanuckR

CanuckR

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Anyone else do it? Where are you located? How successful are you?

I have only gone out a few times, but have seen coyotes 50% of the time. (only been out 4 times) After reading an article about a guy pass hunting in California and always having good success I figured I'd give it a try.
After spending lots of time trying to call with scattered and very inconsistent results, including watching coyotes turn and run from calls, I decided to try another approach. I have a few properties where I know coyotes travel, down rivers and through ravines, or out into certain fields mousing.

I keep playing with my set up because I want to keep it lightweight, packable and warm enough to hang out all day.
Last season I took out an ameristep folding chair blind. It's fairly lightweight, but small.
This year I grabbed an ameristep dog house blind. Only taken it out once so far. But it's light weight enough I can carry it in, set it up quickly and be more comfortable inside with a few things I bring with me.
I have small propane heater to take with me depending on temperature.
 
Are you saying you setup in an area you think a coyote might be traveling through? So you sit and wait for the coyote to come along? No calling?
Unless the coyotes have been pressured, wouldn't it help you if you called in those same locations that you feel have coyotes around? Just asking...
 
I have a few stands where I can expect to see coyotes out mousing... I will occasionally head to those stands with a rifle... I usually go in a couple hours before dark and start with a calling squence for about 30 minutes off and on... then sit until legal light is done... I typically shoot more coyotes randomly mousing in the last 30 minutes of light than I do coming in to the call.
 
I have everything needed for the hunt .....but this thing called supporting the welfare bums and new immigrants gets in the way ...... I mean work
I hit manitoulin island .... there are lots and lots
Only place I know where you can go and kill as many as you want ...no tags needed ..... just land owners permission
In bow season Christ almighty if you hear them Howell it will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up ...you’d swear they are right behind you
 
fratri said:
Are you saying you setup in an area you think a coyote might be traveling through? So you sit and wait for the coyote to come along? No calling?
Unless the coyotes have been pressured, wouldn't it help you if you called in those same locations that you feel have coyotes around? Just asking...
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Fratri.
That is correct. I call for coyotes as well. But I have very inconsistent results. I am looking at other ways to go about it. It's not uncommon for me to go 40+ sets without seeing a coyote over a year. I've learned a bunch of travel routes that they use on the properties I hunt.
I have watched coyotes run in the opposite direction of a call. I've never run into somebody else out calling. But they are pressured pretty hard with dogs. Not sure if or how that affects their willingness to come to a call.
There always seems to be lots of coyote sign. But coyotes rarely show up.
 
fratri said:
Are you saying you setup in an area you think a coyote might be traveling through? So you sit and wait for the coyote to come along? No calling?
Unless the coyotes have been pressured, wouldn't it help you if you called in those same locations that you feel have coyotes around? Just asking...
Click to expand...

I think he is on to something. Come to think of it, I have seen a lot of coyotes passing through areas where I deer hunt. sometimes it maybe 1 or 2. A few times I seen 4-5 trotting through. Never gave that style hunting much thought to be honest. Sounds like it could be something to try.
 
I shot two last fall while deer hunting, I chose my .257 Roberts specifically because coyotes were also a strong possibility... both shot from the same stand, one in the morning and one in the evening... they dropped to a 115 NBT and the second one fell about 20 yards from where the first one went down.
 
Ive gone out and walked and stalked an area that I knew had coyotes in it without calling a bunch of times. I like to do that mid season on because Ive probably called that area before and Ive found that if you dont call and announce your presents you have a good chance of seeing them before they see you. Thats how I see it. :)

Oh btw Ive put fur on the ground doing this way.
 
hoytcanon said:
I shot two last fall while deer hunting, I chose my .257 Roberts specifically because coyotes were also a strong possibility... both shot from the same stand, one in the morning and one in the evening... they dropped to a 115 NBT and the second one fell about 20 yards from where the first one went down.
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I occasionally shoot one during deer hunting season, but I never shoot them when I am actually hunting deer...if that makes sense? As tempting as it is, I don't want to leave a dead coyote stinking up the area I'm hunting in, but I also don't want to disturb or stink it up myself by going out to fetch the carcass. Do you worry about this?
 
I realize it is possible to "know" where coyotes tend to be, but the idea of just going out and waiting for them to show up sounds pretty boring. Unproductive too. I have waited in farmer's yards for animals we knew were VERY likely to pass though, but that's the only "pass hunting" I've done for coyotes.

We expect to call a coyote about one in three set ups the way we do it. Calling one does not mean actually getting one, necessarily, but it does make for fun and excitement, unlike the idea of sitting in the snow until one walks by. My experiences with coyotes when hunting other things makes me think I would not see the vast majority of coyotes I would move if I just walked around, and the chances of a decent shot would be very small.

Calling makes way more sense to me.
 
jjohnwm said:
I occasionally shoot one during deer hunting season, but I never shoot them when I am actually hunting deer...if that makes sense? As tempting as it is, I don't want to leave a dead coyote stinking up the area I'm hunting in, but I also don't want to disturb or stink it up myself by going out to fetch the carcass. Do you worry about this?
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Nope... a little different for me, as normally I have the freezer full of venison before the rifle season starts... I am mostly lounging in the woods during the gun season. I will drop a buck or coyote with equal vigor... if that was my one and only week hunting deer, I would definitely feel as you do.
 
rral22 said:
I realize it is possible to "know" where coyotes tend to be, but the idea of just going out and waiting for them to show up sounds pretty boring. Unproductive too. I have waited in farmer's yards for animals we knew were VERY likely to pass though, but that's the only "pass hunting" I've done for coyotes.

We expect to call a coyote about one in three set ups the way we do it. Calling one does not mean actually getting one, necessarily, but it does make for fun and excitement, unlike the idea of sitting in the snow until one walks by. My experiences with coyotes when hunting other things makes me think I would not see the vast majority of coyotes I would move if I just walked around, and the chances of a decent shot would be very small.

Calling makes way more sense to me.
Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever read about a single coyote hunter out east (ontario ish) that can expect to see 1 coyote in 3 stands, the thought of that makes me jealous.
I seem to occasionally go through a lucky streak where I'll see 1 in -5 but that's like 1 weekend a year. More likely I'll call 20+ sets without seeing anything.
Maybe I just suck at it?????


As far as shooting coyotes during other hunting seasons. If I see a coyote it's a coyote hunt. 100%
 
Post 9's link is to an account of sitting over a bait of a dead cow. Dead cows can easily concentrate the coyote population in a given area, and, if the farmer puts it in a good spot, can create situations where lots of traffic will make for some chances. We have successfully tried it, but even a good bait makes for lots of sitting very still, and seems very "time of day" specific. Lots of full stomachs can make them hard to call, so waiting them out can sometimes work.

We know we are lucky to have the opportunities we have here. Uneducated coyotes, and lots of new spaces to try make for good entertainment. We even get the occasional call from land owners, especially at this time of year and into calving, as most farmers welcome coyote control. Our best hunting days are during long cold snaps that make calories important to them.
 
I'm a fan of pass hunting for coyotes. I like to freeze deer carcasses (leg bones and spines) into the ice on the lake 200 meters or so away from the cabin. Then I just watch and see. A warm fire in the cabin, bait at the ready, and a 22-250 by the door, What could be better!

That's as passive as it gets. Come heavy snow and the wolves, yotes, and feral dogs (read eastern red wolf) are hungry and willing to venture out into the open for easy snacks.

Good luck guys!
 
greenjeepguy100 said:
I'm a fan of pass hunting for coyotes. I like to freeze deer carcasses (leg bones and spines) into the ice on the lake 200 meters or so away from the cabin. Then I just watch and see. A warm fire in the cabin, bait at the ready, and a 22-250 by the door, What could be better!

That's as passive as it gets. Come heavy snow and the wolves, yotes, and feral dogs (read eastern red wolf) are hungry and willing to venture out into the open for easy snacks.

Good luck guys!
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That is baiting, not pass hunting in the sense suggested by the OP... but where legal, baiting can be very effective.
 
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/m_episodes/meet-the-coywolf

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/urban-coywolf-guide

http://theconversation.com/yes-eastern-coyotes-are-hybrids-but-the-coywolf-is-not-a-thing-50368

http://www.canids.org/CBC/20/Northeastern_coyote_not_a_species.pdf

https://owlcation.com/stem/Animals-of-Algonquin-Provincial-Park

http://hashtagmaine.bangordailynews.com/2017/04/16/around-town/theres-a-new-wolf-in-maine/

http://peninsulaclarion.com/stories/011002/wil_011002out0020001.shtml#.WjXFa9-nFqM

http://mainewolfcoalition.org/educa...ports-the-eastern-wolf-as-a-distinct-species/



I don't want to stir the pot. But, the wolves I see on our property, don't seem like wolves at all! I grew up in northern Ontario. Wolves are BEASTS!

A week after the MNR, in all their wisdom (to protect and create their own jobs), created the eastern red wolf (indistinguishable from coyotes) in Algonquin Park and surroundings, a Maine University Prof. concluded (based on DNA testing) that there was no such thing! By his analysis, the inter breeding of wolf and coy was only possible through the intermingling of domestic dog and Coy and only recently. He thought Algonquin Park should be renamed: "feral dog park".

I see and hear on my land uber aggressive "mongrels". I still don't think of them as wolves.

I have a couple on camera.
WTF. What are they?
Wolves? Coyotes? Feral Dogs?....

In any event, they are taking WT fawns at an alarming rate...
Grrrrr!

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Animals are animals; what we call them, and where we draw the lines of distinction between them, is entirely arbitrary. As a birder, I get a laugh out of people who are so obsessed with classification that they will argue endlessly over whether a species should be considered just a subspecies (the "lumper" mentality), or vice versa (the "splitter" mindset).

As a hunter, it pisses me off to hear the "splitter" idea being used to artificially produce new species, each of which is "rare", "endangered", "threatened", blah, blah, blah...

Have you got an animal species that is found over a vast range and is in no danger of extinction? You want to keep people from hunting and shooting the cuddly little guys, but they just aren't endangered...what to do, what to do? Wait...of course! Instead of having one species (like, for example, Timber Wolf) you just subdivide them up into a whole bunch of new species. Each of these occupies just one tiny bit of the overall range, and of course each one exists only in small numbers. Bingo! Can't shoot them, they're endangered, don'tcha know! No hunting!

How long before they start doing the same with Black Bears?
 
jjohnwm said:
I occasionally shoot one during deer hunting season, but I never shoot them when I am actually hunting deer...if that makes sense? As tempting as it is, I don't want to leave a dead coyote stinking up the area I'm hunting in, but I also don't want to disturb or stink it up myself by going out to fetch the carcass. Do you worry about this?
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I did worry about it. Then I shot a coyote this deer season and put the skinned out corpse back out in the bush with a trail cam on it to see what sort of clean up duty would take place and in what order...

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Evidently I've been using the wrong bait for deer :d
 
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