Walking in to your stand

[snafu]

For every decent pic I get, Jim. 20+ are crap.

[snafu]

I was reading what some hunters said a few days ago. One who knew what he was doing. Spoke of pausing awhile, if you make a noise while walking in. That is spot on. If you can hear your own noise. Expect a nearby coyote has also heard it.

A coyote that hears a distant noise. Will either bolt right away the opposite direction. Or stare in that direction for quite awhile in high alert mode. Waiting to see what made that noise.

When I walk in. I watch where I plant each step & walk slow & methodical. If its dry/loud, stepping lightly listening feeling for the snap/crunch under foot.

I've called with some young guys. Who lumbered in to a call area. Like an old blind cow. Snapping & crunching along the way. Never looking down as to where they step. Idjuts 

[FinsnFur]

What all of the above "curled up" canines have in common is. Their all on the down-wind side.

Down-wind side.... of what?

[snafu]

What all of the above "curled up" canines have in common is. Their all on the down-wind side.

Down-wind side.... of what?

The "what" is whatever assists in blocking wind. eg; down-wind side of a fence line, ridgeline, mound of dirt, tree, bush, ect.

[FinsnFur]

ahhhhhh , I'm picking up what your laying down nowwwww

[snafu]

If one square mile of land was table top flat. Fenced in & there was one small bale of hay placed in the middle. A coyote in that fenced area. Would bed down on the down-wind side of that bale 99% of the time. No matter if the wind was a puff or gale force. They seek the wind brake areas.

[FinsnFur]

  That makes sense
Fish do the same thing, by hanging out on down stream sides of dikes and rocks.

[KySongDog]

Some hunter walks in with the wind in their face & gets away with it. Then they are fooled into thinking that is a "great tactic"...really? I mean really? Then they pass on their info to a newbie. As if they should be informing anyone in the 1st place.  Note; key word being fooled. One fool teaches another.

As has been said, it depends on where you hunt.  At LBL, which is where I hunt coyotes mostly, I have to have the wind in my face or at least a cross wind of where I think the coyote might be.   If you hunt with the wind at your back in LBL, I think you will not be very successful.  My 2 cents.

[snafu]

Some hunter walks in with the wind in their face & gets away with it. Then they are fooled into thinking that is a "great tactic"...really? I mean really? Then they pass on their info to a newbie. As if they should be informing anyone in the 1st place.  Note; key word being fooled. One fool teaches another.

As has been said, it depends on where you hunt.  At LBL, which is where I hunt coyotes mostly, I have to have the wind in my face or at least a cross wind of where I think the coyote might be.   If you hunt with the wind at your back in LBL, I think you will not be very successful.  My 2 cents.

2 worthy points to my observations are. Coyotes use the "up-wind" mainly areas as transition areas. Rarely do they spend much time there. Unless...they get involved in an activity. Such as feeding on a kill. Even then, they will use that kill to assist in blocking the wind. Otherwise when out in the open on a kill. They will angle or put their backside against the wind. They do not linger long on the up-wind. They spend the vast majority of their time on the down-wind areas. Most any given time of day, that is where they will be. I've hunted flat open areas, hilly open areas. Et hilly areas with stands of timber. Like clock work, this behavior is what I always see.

When on the "down-wind" they spend a good amount of their time. Panning to "their" down-wind & cross-wind areas. Unless they hear or scent something to their up-wind. They rarely look that way. Unless they are a "tresspasser" on a local's territory. Or... a local, in transit to the next down-wind area. As they slice/meander through a head wind getting there.

[KySongDog]

I don't dispute the down wind theory.  What I'm saying is that where you hunt has a lot to do with your set up.   If your shot vision is at most 50 yards (and half that a lot of the times) and your scent cone can go for 100 yards or more.  Hunting directly down wind will not be as advantageous as when hunting open hay fields or even open timber. 

[snafu]

I don't dispute the down wind theory.  What I'm saying is that where you hunt has a lot to do with your set up.   If your shot vision is at most 50 yards (and half that a lot of the times) and your scent cone can go for 100 yards or more.  Hunting directly down wind will not be as advantageous as when hunting open hay fields or even open timber.

I think I get what your saying now.
------------------------------------
Even the slighest puff of air the coyotes feel it. Et will utilize ground cover or any other structure, no matter how slight to "cut' that wind. From the front side of their face. Even when using those wind break areas. There is typically resiudual air/wind that is not blocked. So they will angle to that wind. When up-right or bedded down. 

Out of all the bedded down coyotes I have observed. Only 3 or 4? were facing angled into a wind. Those Winter days were pretty warm with a slight breeze.

[JohnP]

We make it sound like hunting and killing coyotes is the hardest thing in the world to do.  It's not, don't over think it, just go out and do it. 

[Okanagan]

^^this^^

Also, I get confused with some of the upwind downwind described in words alone.  What is downwind of what?  I get it scrambled enough that sometimes when I go back and read what I wrote off the cuff a year or two ago,  either don't understand it or or don't agree with what I wrote!   

[snafu]

^^this^^

Also, I get confused with some of the upwind downwind described in words alone.  What is downwind of what?  I get it scrambled enough that sometimes when I go back and read what I wrote off the cuff a year or two ago,  either don't understand it or or don't agree with what I wrote!   

Pr of coyotes on the down-wind. Wind is blowing from right to left in this pic. They are useing the fenceline as a wind break.

[FinsnFur]

Clyde...upwind or downwind of yourself ...or the subject at hand.
For example if the wind is hitting you in your face, your facing upwind. If the wind is hitting you in the back, then your facing downwind.
Think of it as a river. Upstream and downstream.

[snafu]

Clyde...upwind or downwind of yourself ...or the subject at hand.
For example if the wind is hitting you in your face, your facing upwind. If the wind is hitting you in the back, then your facing downwind.
Think of it as a river. Upstream and downstream.

Bingo!

------------------------------------------


I've seen quite a few coyotes bed down on flat open areas. Even in stout bitter cold Winter winds. They will bed down with the wind at their back side. As they face down-wind or an angled down-wind direction. The coyotes 99% of the time. Will do the same whether they happen to be using a wind break or NOT. Samo...samo, behavior.

Some don't have a problem hunting a critter. Et not knowing any or much of that animals behaviors. However, I prefer to know. To give me an edge over that critter. To each their own I reckon.

[Okanagan]

Thanks.  Good explanations.  It helps me when we say what the critter is upwind or downwind of rather than hanging upwind/downwind out there on their own.   

 

[KySongDog]

Some don't have a problem hunting a critter. Et not knowing any or much of that animals behaviors.

Many men hunt game all their lives without ever realizing that it is not the animal they are after.


(paraphrased by Michael Baughman from Henry David Thoreau's Walden)

[JohnP]

I have hunted them for well over fifty, pushing sixty years and have killed at least one maybe two.   I think I know them pretty darn well and although I do pay attention to the wind it is not the only factor that comes into play.  If you call out west and got overly concerned about wind direction you would never finish a stand as the wind changes often.  If I start a stand and the wind is in my favor (whatever that means) and two minutes later it changes I don't concern myself about it I just continue to call.  I may have killed one of them two coyotes when the wind wasn't favorable. 

Next time you all kill a coyote, crack open it's skull - check out the size of its brain.  We are playing checkers, not chess. 

[riverboss]

Ive killed alot of them with the wind not in my favor. I like playing the wind but sometimes a mans got to do what a man has to do.