How often do you hunt an area?

[Bob D]

I heard and read all kind of advice about this topic. How do you hunters handle this?
Bob

[Yellerdog]

on average, probably once a month for any givin area.
Some that produce regularly I may hit once a week until they quit producing.
Some never pan out at all and I just faze them out of the rotation.

[keekee]

One or two times a year. Very seldom do I call the same stand over two times in one year. Unless it is just to hot to let the stand go! I try and plan out my year and do enough scouting to were I can call all year with out over calling one area.

Brent

[CCP]

 On average 2 twice a year. I do have some places I can only hunt between deer season and turkey season I hit them hard several times. I don't care if I educate in those areas because, I may or may not be able to ever go back.

[Brad H]

Two, maybe three. Weather and previous experiences dictates a lot of it.

Brad

[stevecriner]

Two, maybe three. Weather and previous experiences dictates a lot of it.

Brad

Yah i agree its all on what i expierianced before hand. Also like Kee said, depends on production. I do tend to hunt deveral of the same spots and be productive. I believe its all in rotation of sounds,types of soundes, and set ups. I try to switch everything. And it has worked for me in the past. Might not tomarrow but has in the past.

[Bob D]

I have a hunting pard who hits the same area numerous times a year. I would say at least once a month. Last year we got 6 kills , several misses and numerous other sightings off that one area.  Property is probably 3-400 acres rolling mostly open pastures with ditches, surrounded by highways. There are cattle on this farm. He says a coyote doesn't have any better memory than his labrador retriever who he constantly has to reinforce as far as obedience is concerned. He usually locates the coyotes in this area before day break to see if they are there. If they answer he gets after them and his record speaks for itself. Hard to argue with success!
Bob

[Jimmie in Ky]

I don't use the same setup more than once a month. I will however hunt the general area a couple of times depending on winds and weather cycles.

I am a firm believer in the fact that coyotes can learn the sounds of the e-caller if your not careful with them. But with the advances in the technology in just the last couple of years a person can keep using it if he's careful. It's all in how you  play them. Jimmie

[THO Game Calls]

I wonder how much this question has to do with the coyotes in your area?

Size of the family groups, the area available to them when dispersal comes, avalable security cover, food, amount of human activity.  I do't think there is a pat answer, and that by trying to box ourselves into one, we might be loosing opportunities to take additional animals.

A lot of success in calling an area multiple times also, I think, depends on how you enter and more importantly, leave that area.  Especially how you leave.  We might educate them with out sounds, but we will educate them much more by having them respond to our sounds and not show themselves.  I think, we always have to assume that there is one there watching.  Checking things out.  If when we endl the stand we make noise, or fool around, they might assoicate that sound with us and not respond again, or if they do, be even more cautious. 

A lot of us talk about letiing things setle down for 5 or 10 minutes when we first pick our stand site and get ready to call.  It might be good to do the same when we call it.  Stop calling, or just turn the caller off and sit for a few.  We might get one to come in late, but hopefully any that were there watching will loose interest and sneak away no less wary for the experiance.

I also think that we sometimes call the same areas without really realizing it. Especially here in the east.   We might call a wood lot one day and then in two weeks call from an area that is in reality only a half mile away but seems farther because of the way the road systems work.  It seems like you drive a long ways, but you may be just on the other side of the wood lot you just called.  Maps are invaluabe for this.  Knowing the area like the back of your hand is good, but maps are better.

I also think that one guy can call an area more times succesfully than two guys can. 

But I think the biggest reason areas get overcalled is because people tell other people where they hunt.  Even in general, like saying something like, "oh I hunt off the old Morse Road."  That's enough to ruin some areas here in the east.

So my asnwer is, you can hunt an area until you ruin it for one or more reason.

Al
THO Game Calls

[FinsnFur]

Some very aromatic food for thought there Al.
You make a real good point while talking about exiting a stand. Keep your lip zipped and save the party for the vehicle if you plan to hunt here again, is a good rule of thumb.

There are a ton of trappers in my area, so who I find on public ground dictates how often I'll call an area. But assuming all is peachy, I try to limit areas to twice a month.

[Jimmie in Ky]

Al also mentions another important part of the question, the size of the group living in that territory. I think the group as a whole beds down in a general area in a very loose group. The size of that area varies with the cover available and the number of animals.I believe the size of this area to be about two square miles. That is a lot of acreage to gain access to and may involve up to 20 landowners. In my part of the country that area will have a lot of small woodlots and thickets in that 2 square miles. There will also be many diferent access points to it.

When you get the oportunity to go you have to deal with what conditions you have that day. You may only have a few hours a week to hunt. By scouting and finding a few larger groups to work with and concentrating your efforts on those territories, you can speed up the learning process.Use the topo's and airial photos to help sort out the better set up locations. Choose them for a lot of diferent conditions and set up types. Look for crosswind setups in the timber. Down wind setups along the woods edges. That fencerow conntecting two large wood lots. Find those south facing slopes in the timber where they will bed under extreme winter conditions.

Don't look at an area for just a couple of setup locations. Think about all the possibilities that might be there. Odds are you couldn't call to every animal in the group on any one day. Jimmie

[keekee]

It also depends on what you call a area?

The deep hardwoods will cut down on how far the sound will travel. I may call several stands in one area and not call to a coyote. But I may move 400 yards and be with in hearing of a coyote. If I am calling open ground, crop fields wood lots, river bottoms and will spread my stands out allot more. Or if I am targeting clear cuts or wood lots I may just make one stand in that area and move on.


It will also depend on weather I call a coyote or not. I may make several trips to one farm and not call a coyote, then on the third trip "Bang" I hit pay dirt!

Coyotes here in my area seem to keep very big ranges. With all the small farms  may just be able to call one farm in there area. If thats the case I may return more often and call that spot.

Coyotes here move allot as well, food, weather, pressure all play a part in were they will be as well as what time of year it is.

Early Sean when there are allot of YOY coyotes, I may hammer a area good if the coyotes are there and I am Calling to fresh ears, and young coyotes!

Brent

[centerfire_223]

A lot of the places I have to hunt are very small. Some of them may only be 20 acres. So when I hunt these type of places I go in, set up and make my stand. If I don't call one in today but happen to be close the next day, I may hit it again. There has been times I have made the same stand only a day later and call one up. In those instances I just think they weren't at home when I was there.

That is why I have no problem calling a spot numerous times during the year.

[Rick223]

I will call the some spots about every two weeks others not so often but it depends on what month it is. If we have snow clear night a big moon Ill call the same spots less than two weeks apart but only at night, seems like they throw caution to the wind at night around here.
Rick

[Rich Higgins]

There are some areas that I will call  almost every weekend for months at a time. As long as they produce, I call.

[sleddogg]

In the East the average territory of 50 collared coyotes worked out to 11 miles.

Thats alot of spce between coyotes.

If I have a week off to hunt coyotes, and there is an abundance of sign, I will hunt a spot every day. More than once I've killed a coyote after many days of calling. He was finally in earshot is all.

To take it one step farther, I have killed a coyote in the AM, and shot one last light in the exact same spot on the same day.

Whatever works for you Keep in mind, as we shoot coyotes in an area, it opens up some nice ground for another.

[FinsnFur]

Whatever works for you Keep in mind, as we shoot coyotes in an area, it opens up some nice ground for another.

They'll never be thinned out  ...they'll learn to breed as fast as we shoot.

[Jrbhunter]

I'm very suprised as some of the responses here!  Guess I've never seen the topic discussed this way before...

If an area has coyotes that respond to my liking I will call it until it doesn't.  I can only hunt so many farms a day so if it reaches the "Hit List" I will leave it there until the success rates drop it out.

Callups may be 5 days apart, maybe 2 days apart.  The timeframe between matters very little as I don't expect the ""Getaway Coyote" from one day to lope in mindlessly within 48 hours or 48 days.  It takes coyotes to kill coyotes, without heavy scent impact on an area- a couple gunshots and some blood pools rarely mess up a stand.  I'll call it hard a while then set steel to clean up the others.  Thus the impact of "Education" vs. "Logic" that us humans hold over K-9's. 

Folks who called with me last season have heard the story a dozen times but... I killed 21 coyotes in *a* 180 acre cornfield between November 15th and February 15th.  On the closer of our season (March 15th) I went back and called up 5 in this field and passed on a shot.  This place is over an hour from my house, it takes sacrifice but "when given lemons."

Range of a resident pack isn't what I concern myself with... there is more to manipulating a coyote population than determining the home range of a pair and their litter.

Sleddogg, I've never seen that research that used 50 dogs but the work I'm familiar with used around 188-186 and the resultant range was much-much smaller.  In PA, WV and Eastern KY some coyote ranges were under 1.5 miles- big country travelers in the Midwest raised the average considerably but nothing like 11 miles. 

On a side note- The average home range of a Mature Midwestern Whitetail Buck is 380 acres...  (Less than a sq mile) and 60+% of his time is spent in a 30 acre parcel.  This is lifespan research... not 6 months, but 7-9 years until natural death.   Cool info with many implications in the hunting world.

[sleddogg]

Hey Jr, how you been

Heres the collar study, and I was wrong, its 11.5 mile average range with many less and a few much more.

http://www.nescb.org/epublications/spring2001/coyotes.html

Like I said, lots of space between dogs in the East

Thats why I really just run and gun many spots, many of the same spots all through the season.

Good hunting, Sleddogg

[Jerry Hunsley]

I usually hit some areas early in the Spring and then later on in the season. If I don't hit them in the Spring I go early in Fall and then later on in the Winter. Just yesterday I went to an area I had called and killed two coyotes this Spring. Called in a triple and never got a one. I did hit one , I just must have dropped a leg. I saw him go down and out of sight but when I went over there he was gone. Tough animals. The area I called yesterday was only about 200 yds. from where I had shot two earlier. So I guess as long as the area is producing , hunt it until things drop off. As  the coyotes disperse and you shoot the young ones , others will move in.