Bass Pro Shops Denver, CO

Rutting Time for Coyotes

From January to early March coyotes start their rut or mating season. This time frame can vary from region to region. In early January male and female coyotes will start pairing up for mating. Usually it is the alpha male and alpha female of the pack that do the mating. It is at this time that they become very territorial and aggressive toward other intruders who invade their territory, plus they become very vocal compared to other times of the year. This is where we now have an advantage while hunting them.

When we hunt and call any predator (coyote, bear, mountain lion, ect.) we are playing on three different instincts. First is food, we’ll use some type of animal in distress call. Second is sexual, we use vocalization calls during the mating season. Third is territorial, these calls are a lot like the same calls we use during the mating season but are more aggressive and challenging, basically we are invading their territory and antagonizing a fight.

Coyote vocalizations are really just yelps, barks, whines, and howls with different emotions in their tones. To make these types of calls there are three different calls you can use. One is a mouth diaphragm, which is the most difficult to learn. When I use a mouth reed I use Hunter’s Specialties Carlton’s Premium Flex 2.5 Elk Reed and the Carlton Premium Flex Triple Elk Reed. With both these reeds I can make all the sounds a coyote does. Plus if I get into a barking challenge I can mimic that coyote’s bark for bark or howl for howl. Second is a hand held internal or external reed call. My favorite is the Johnny Stewart Mac Daddy Howler with Megaphone. Anyone can learn all the vocalizations fairly quickly with it because it is so easy to use and it sounds great. The cool thing with the Mac Daddy Howler is I can take the mouth piece out and use just the megaphone with my mouth reeds to get a loader volume when needed, just like an elk bugle tube. The third call is by far the easiest and most expensive and that is electronic digital calls. There are two types of electronic digital calls, remote and non-remote. A non-remote has a wire attached to the speaker and it is plugged into the hand held pad. This limits how far you can place the speaker away from you; average length is about 50-60 feet. Then when you’re done you have to roll up that wire and when it’s cold the wire is very stiff so it is not a fun task. With a remote caller you have no wires attached so I have the freedom to place my speaker up to 100 yards away in any direction or in a bush or tree and depending on the terrain up to 250 yards and still operate any of the calls with just a push of a button. Then when I’m done I grab my speaker and off I go, no tangled wire in any brush and no trying to roll up 50 feet of frozen wire. The draw back though is the cost. Wireless calls can range from $50.00 dollars up to $600.00. The wireless digital call that I use is the Wireless Preymaster from Johnny Stewart. It has 3 different memory card slots and each memory card has 4 different sounds on it so in all I have 12 different sounds right at my finger tips. Another advantage is the Johnny Stewart has every type of memory card you could want and all the sounds are authentic and not computer or man made; they are real sounds of real animals. The Johnny Stewart Wireless Preymaster run’s about $200.00. It was the exclusive call that won the World Coyote Calling Championship two years in a row.

There is so much to talk about hunting coyotes during the rut and then when the pups are born. That I’m going to cover all that over the next couple months. I will also be out there hunting in between so I can bring in some new stories, successful or not, and pictures to go along with my blogs.  

Mark Campagnola

Hunt Hard & Shoot Straight