Fun in the NH woods

[browning204]

oh ya, again. Thank you JRB for the replies.

I know you just accidentally forgot me, so I'll just say your welcome now..............

thanks Bop

[Omega47]

Keep after em tho!! I wanna see some pics of these dead coyotes dammit!!

OK, fine if that's how you're going to be  .  I was hoping we could just chase them around all winter, but if you need to see blood, well I guess we'll have to kill one and post a photo.   

Whaddaya say Browning - start early Sunday and don't stop till we get at least one?   

[Bopeye]

Pretend I'm a Ventriloquist and I have my hand in Browning's crack and doing the talking for him.

Browning: Sounds like a plan to me Omega. No sleeping or eating until we draw blood.

[THO Game Calls]

No sleeping or eating until we draw blood

Geez Bop, they already call him SkinnyKid - you want we should have to change his name to the Invisible man?   :roflmao:   :roflmao:     :roflmao:


Al

[Jrbhunter]

I'm glad THO linked that thread... I have thought of that discussion many times in recent months and I'm still AMAZED at some of the responses I saw there.   

Success is in the eye of the beholder, and opportunities are different for all of us.  That being said,

If a stand looks nice and produces regularly I will keep it on my hot list.  If a place holds coyotes that I've burnt... or seems to hold a low number of resident coyotes... I'll put it a little farther back in my itenerary.  If a place offers pathetic stand selection, horribly low success ratios and minute coyote numbers I'll simply mark it off the list and only visit it on days/nights I shouldn't even be hunting because of weather/moon conditions.  Sometimes ya' just can't sit on the couch despite all negative indicators- and that's when I hit those dumpy spots.

At any rate- what you've discussed here in this thread is a spot not unlike 5-10 places in my books.  The difference is, mine are circled in red and I won't be hunting them at all this season because I don't think we're going to get the green properties covered by the end of February.   This is a difference in opportunity, not talent or determination.  If you are limited to an itenerary of stands that leaves this hellhole in the loop.... then by all means give it both barrels.  Your odds are signifigantly lower than they would be elsewhere- but that doesn't mean these coyotes are uncallable.  In fact, it sounds like they're ripe for the picking if you shift gears with the approach- as they're in transition from the average coyote to the ever-elusive UNCALLABLE coyote we've heard so much about.   So long as they're vocal, they're very very killable.  Just my opinion.


It's my belief that if you pound those coyotes 10 more times and finally figure out the factors it takes to get them killed- you'll gain knowledge that no 10 hard charging bangflops would give you.

[Jrbhunter]

PS: I'm not sure how you interperated the coyotes vocalizations back at you... but I don't believe it was a warning to others nor an invitation to the party.    They're nervous and threatened by a scenario they don't understand or trust.  If they believe they feel they can trust, or understand the situation they'll "sometimes" commit.  If they can't, they never will.   Just my take.

[Omega47]

PS: I'm not sure how you interperated the coyotes vocalizations back at you... but I don't believe it was a warning to others nor an invitation to the party.    They're nervous and threatened by a scenario they don't understand or trust.  If they believe they feel they can trust, or understand the situation they'll "sometimes" commit.  If they can't, they never will.   Just my take.

You're probably right.  My take is we get them to come to the edge of their territory but they won't come closer.  That's why we have to go in deeper before we make our stand. 

[browning204]

PS: I'm not sure how you interperated the coyotes vocalizations back at you... but I don't believe it was a warning to others nor an invitation to the party.    They're nervous and threatened by a scenario they don't understand or trust.  If they believe they feel they can trust, or understand the situation they'll "sometimes" commit.  If they can't, they never will.   Just my take.

I couldn't fit my Coyote to english dictionary in my back pack so I really don't know.

Your probably correct.

[HaMeR]

 

Just hunt em hard & shoot straight when the opportunity arises!! 

Good Luck!!

[Greenside]

 They think you're a coyote. Walk in and howl them up, and kill'em, on that old logging road.

[Bopeye]

edited due to poor taste............... :roflmao:

[Omega47]

edited due to poor taste............... :roflmao:

Aww... put it back.  We're not that sensitive.  Besides, I like a good joke

[Omega47]

They think you're a coyote. Walk in and howl them up, and kill'em, on that old logging road.

Problem is - they won't come out on the road.  At least not in the day time, but they do track it up real good at night.  We've called them right up to the edge of the road a couple times, but they won't come out to where we can see them.   These buggers are smart - they know how to get close without coming out of cover.   One time earlier in the fall, I actually sat right in the middle of their trail just after a sharp bend around a boulder hoping one would run right into me.  I sat there for an hour with my .357 at the ready for a close shot.  The wind direction was favorable and they called back like crazy to my mouth calls.  They were so close to where the hair stood up on my neck - but they never showed themselves and with all the rocks around, I wasn't about to shoot blindly into the woods.   

[THO Game Calls]

The coyotes will teach you everything you need to know to kill them if you pay attention.

Pay Attention

Set the E caller right off the road maybe 5 feet

walk into the woods 75 to 100 yards

get up in a tree stand

kill coyotes


Al

[HaMeR]

THO beat me to that one by a mere 3 hours!!   Except the tree stand part.   I was gonna say leave the ecaller back about 100yds & use lower volume & slowly increase it until they respond then get ready.

[Bopeye]

edited due to poor taste............... :roflmao:

Aww... put it back.  We're not that sensitive.  Besides, I like a good joke

It was funny, but we do have kids and what not that come here...........sorry dude. 

[Omega47]

The coyotes will teach you everything you need to know to kill them if you pay attention.

Pay Attention

Set the E caller right off the road maybe 5 feet

walk into the woods 75 to 100 yards

get up in a tree stand

kill coyotes


Al

That's the gist of the plan we are going to work Sunday but more inland than near the road.  We cannot shoot anywhere towards the dirt road as the road is leased out to a snowmobile club for the winter and there can be cross country ski traffic on it as well.   We have to be careful of what's beyond what we shoot. 

I Can't do the tree stand since I can't climb a stand due to a chronic joint disease I've had since birth.  If we don't get one tomorrow, we're going to take a break for a few weeks 'cause I have to go home to CA for awhile, but when we come back, we'll set it up so Browning can use a tree stand.   I don't care who gets one first - I just want us to get one.

[THO Game Calls]

The idea is not to shoot back towards the road or E caller, but to make them think that you are where the caller is.  If you can do that, you can ambush them when they come to the caller.  A tree stand is nice because you can see better, but if you can find a piece of high ground, or a spot where you can get 15 to 20 yards off their travel route and still see, that will work too.

If you follow these boards enough, you will find that big woods coyote huntes always talk about getting back into the timber and not sitting on the edges.  Coyotes in timber don't like showing them selves.  They will often work to the edge of the timber and stay there.  When shadows start to get long, they will sometimes come to the edge of the shadows, but they wont step into the light.   If you can get between them and where they hear the sound coming from, you stand a very good chance of killing them.

The more snow on the ground, the more their travel pattens will change also.  You are already seeing that because they are using that swamp as a crossing.   Chances are, in the fall and before freeze up, they have a draw or creek bed they use to get from one part of their teritory to another.  There is probably a narrow trail on the edge of that swamp too. 

The biggest thing to keep in mind during periods of heavy show is that the coyotes will not expend any more energy than they have too.  Every calorie they use has to be replaced or they will die and food is a lot harder to find when there is deep snow on the ground.  They have as much trouble getting around in that stuff as you do unless it is crusted over.  This becomes even more important the later in the season you get with deep snow on the ground.  I really like to use a distress sound that will give them the most bang for the buck, which means a doe in distress or a fawn bleat.  No matter which sound or call I use, in heavy snow, I like to call more frequently than I would at other times.  I want to keep them interested and on a sting to me.  I really think a moving decoy works well in the snow also.

The later in the season we get and still have a lot of snow on the ground the easier they are to call until about the first of Feb.  For a couple weeks there it gets tough.  Then it picks up again if the snow is still deep.  Try not to hunt on days after a full moon.   They will have been hunting all night and I think it is harder to call them during the day when the moon has lit up the country side all night long.  First light in the dead of winter is a great time to call.  There always seems to be one or two that have had a bad night of hunting and they will come running if their bellies are empty. 

Even though you dont think you have over hunted them, remember that every time you go into the woods you leave your scent behind.   Many times, coyotes will visit your stands long after you are gone.  It doesn't take them long to figure out what's up. 

Good luck with them, I hope you get one, but it may be time to give them a rest for a bit and let them forget about you, though by now, I doubt that will happen in a couple of weeks.   

Al

[Omega47]

I think we're just going to let them be for a month or so.   I'll be in So Cal part of January anyway, but until we go back, need to find another spot in NH to shoot coyotes.   Maybe I'll spoil myself with some easy CA dogs while I'm out there 

[browning204]

ya, seeing on how the neighbor saw that they had moved to private property (probably trying to get away from the snowmobiles) we don't have much of a choice.

We did manage to jump 2 coyotes on a trail that we kinda blazed ourselves, we didn't see much. Although it was fun zipping around on the snowmobile, the crash we had was cool, now I GOTTA get one!