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School me on predator calling

Plan on calling some coyotes this winter but have never done it. First off, would a 22 loaded with hollow point stingers be ok? At some point I will get a 223 but it's what I have at the moment. Second, will a spotlight spook them in the dark? I'm assuming it would. Any other tips or advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Do you have an ecaller, or do you plan on using mouth calls? A .22 can work, I've killed a ton of yotes with a .22 but they usually require some tracking and the risk of loosing one is pretty high in my opinion. Do you want to find them, or are you just wanting to kill them? Watch videos and play the wind. It's more important than in deer hunting.

I would say no to the .22 it can work, but not well. As for tips. Wind is everything, stand selection and setup to where you can see down wind and do not bother if you can’t. I prefer a cross wind and setting up to where I can see 200-300 yards down wind.

As for calls, electronics are over rated and not necessary. A couple different hand calls will work just fine.

Again stand selection and setup is like 99% of the success.

Buckeye...spent a whole bunch of years concentrating on song dogs. Taught many seminars at gun shops and for hunting clubs, so I'll try to share what I can.

IMO, a .22 stinger is NOT sufficient for taking down coyotes at ranges over 40 yds. (where you stand a better chance for a head shot) and even then I would recommend against it. You're far better off with a 12 ga. and BB shot, and then use your .223 once you acquire it.

Used to build my own lights, but today there's a load of them on the market. What I consider most important is it has a red or amber lamp, and a powerful pencil beam spot for when the shot is taken. I would want the ability to dim down the amber lamp.

I've never been a fan of head mounted lights for shooting, as it's hard to keep the light centered on the coyote after the shot. In truth, I prefer hunting with a partner..one of us on the light, the other on the gun.

There are a number of good quality electronic calling units available today, and it sure saves on the lungs. The hand held calls I used to make/sell (ProCall) are no longer available, but if you want to use a regular predator call I'd suggest a Circe, Burnham Bros. or the like.

Be patient, and don't over call. The stands I made for coyotes/fox were usually about 20 min. max, but if there's bobcat in the area I might add another 10 min. or so.

If you can find a copy of The Varmint Hunters Digest by Jim Dougherty, it'll teach you all you need to know, and you can adapt your own techniques from there.

Please move this to the Nontypical forum.

Thanks

Study your terrain and call from a point that hopefully doesn’t carry your scent into where yotes may be laying up. You can’t always tell where they will be but usually the thicker the better. As D said, scent is more important than when deer hunting. Coyotes don’t have much curiosity when it comes to human scent.

When you call, expect them to come in downwind, because most all of them will, dumb coyots don’t last long ! I always liked to call from the dg of an opening with the wind from my left or right so in order from them to get downwind they had to expose themselves. Calling in the woods was never very successful for me, they have too many opportunities to get downwind without you seeing them. If you have a yote that hasn’t eaten in two days he may run directly to your call, those are few and far between though.

If you use an E-caller, start with the volume very low, so low you can barely hear it. They have much better hearing than we do, so don’t drive too close to where you are calling, don’t slam any doors, and do talk in whispers if you aren’t alone. I always liked to call with a particular hunting partner of mine, two sets of eyes are better than one, and we were always on the same page. We once killed five yotes on the same set while we were sitting a hundred yards apart on a hillside. Gunshots don’t scare them really bad unless the bullet is screaming over their heads.

Good camo is mandatory, as well as something behind you to break up your outline. Movement must be slow and very little of that. I always used a face mask, but I’m not sure that’s necessary. I figure it can’t hurt. We killed lots of yotes using these methods and missed a few too ! ;-)) I started out using a Ruger No. 1 in 25-06, then bought a super accurate Savage 22-250 bolt gun before graduating to an AR 15 in .223/5.56. I eventually rebarreled two ARs to the 6.8 SPC cartridge because it kills coyotes and hogs with more authority than the .223/5.56 does. A .22 LR will work, I even killed two with a 4” barreled revolver one day because it was the only gun I had on me. They were dumb and close, you don’t get many of those ! If I were using a .22 LR, I would sight it in with some of the better hyper velocity cartridges such as Stingers. Most of my coyotes are just opportunities while hunting other animals now, but if I’m deer or hog hunting and a coyote trots by, it becomes a coyote hunt ! Good luck !