C. Clevenger's Shotgun Hunting in Heavy Cover & Red Zone Hunting

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Background- Gary Clevenger resides in California and has been involved in the predator calling scene for more than 2 decades. He has traveled the Southwest presenting his seminars on electronic callers and coyote hunting for several years. Gary has on multiple occasions, shot 100+ coyotes in 1 season using just a shotgun. Gary's approach to calling coyotes has been refined down to a science. If you live in the type of area he hunts in and you follow his 2 article outline- you will have success.

 

I post these two articles here because at any time Gary might take them down and this is the most concise informative information out to date by far on shotgunning coyotes in thick cover. I don't want it lost so I am disseminating it in a few different locations for the future. I obviously take no credit for the articles.

 

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Shotgun Tactics for the Desert Southwest or anywhere else you can't see 40 past yards

A long time ago, I read an extremely interesting piece of information published in a coyote hunting club's newsletter. The author claimed to have killed almost a hundred coyotes in a single season with a shotgun. That astounded me. For more than a decade, I had been hunting coyotes with moderate success exclusively with a rifle, not always but usually part of a team of two or three, both during daylight and at night with a spotlight. Trying to visualize this hunts with a shotgun was almost impossible for me. No one I knew made it a habit to wait until a coyote was 20-40 yards away, respectable shotgun range, and furthermore, there was no one I knew who hunted those kind of tactics to ask for advice. I didn't know it at the time, but the article that appeared on the front of that newsletter was total bullshit. I didn't find out until a couple of years later that the guy had lied. He didn't kill squat with his shotgun. When the truth came out, he'd been trading tails for ammo with a local farmer and throwing them down at the check-in while telling everyone he was using only his shotgun. But by then it was too late. I'd already taken his braggadocio at face value and set out to prove I could do it with a shotgun too a couple of years before his lies were revealed. Ironically, thanks to his lies, my hunting tactics had permanently altered course.

Hunting coyotes with a shotgun still gets very little text in books and very little play in hunting videos. Back then it was worse. There was no one to ask. I realize now that it isn't uncommon to see a magazine writer retread an old topic, shoot two, write and sell an article. That isn't much different from the amateur video producer who shoots 10, edits out the stupid stuff, and starts selling videos. More recently, most of us have seen Les Johnson take the point with his shotgun on a wide open prairie-style rifle stand and hammer one when it came all the way in. The average guy just getting into hunting coyotes cdrtainly can get a lot of good information from reading magazines and watching videos about rifle hunting. But there still isn't much being written or videoed about predator hunting with a shotgun as the primary or only weapon.

Now after a lot of false starts, I think I've come up with something. It isn't revolutionary nor is it totally original. It's just back to basic hunting, this time with a shotgun, with a sprinkle of common sense trying to prove a few original ideas in ways that very few had tried before. It eventually required me to throw out half of what I thought I knew about coyotes and all of what I knew about setting up a rifle stand.

-The Gear

-Where and When

-The Tactics

-The Results

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The Gear

Sun, 11/15/2009 - 1:12pm — GZ

Ambush hunting.

What is "this kind of hunting?" It's uniquely coyote. Pick any area with semi-thick vegetation in suitable habitat, where walking is possible but visibility is limited. The bait is any sound, usually a prey distress, sometimes used in combination with a moving decoy or an accessory smell, that evokes some animal curiousity, some noise that inquisitive animals will investigate. The intention is to entice a coyote to make a running pass through a target area. Don't expect a still target. The coyote can run more than 40 mph, and it veers, hops, bounces and reverses course. It may stop to take a better look at whatever noisemaker you're using, but the coyote never sticks around long and is usually gone in a second or two.

Keep it simple.

This kind of hunting takes almost nothing. A call, a shotgun, and few shells. It's going to be hard for most hunters to understand. All that stuff that the magazines, videos, and manufacturers are telling you that you must have to be successful are generally unneeded, unwanted, and unnecessary. Leave it all at home.

Carry less.

Take a call, extra shells, and a shotgun. Leave everything else behind. If you're going to take anything extra, take ammo. If you don't carry enough ammo, after a few hits, a few misses, and a few in the gun, your pockets will be empty. Ten shells is not too many. One or two should be low-cost 2.75" ammo if you come up on a wounded animal so you don't have to use another $4 round of hevi-shot. Choking, stomping, clubbing, or knifing a wounded coyote is not fun. Losing a badly wounded coyote is not an option. Cats and claws are even worse. The last resort is to use a rock thrown at the top of the wounded animal's head. Nothing is as quick and lethal as an extra shot. I carry very little to a stand besides a gun, ammo, and a call. Add a glove for handling animals, a drag made of parachute cord, maybe a wind checker and a cheap squeaker in my shirt pocket, my wallet, licenses, and keys. That's it. KIS. Carry less.

Forget the rest.

Leave the sticks, monopods, bipods, tripods, stools, packs, decoys (though the decoy has some good uses in more open country), chairs, ladders, pads, ghillies, nets, and Bowie knives in the truck. Scent-lok suits, pistols, bandoliers, belly packs, and cameras - leave them all in the truck. I won't carry a cell phone, an extra caller speaker, or even a tail cutter. They do nothing but weigh you down and impede your stance, swing, and aim on the stand. They slow you down loading and unloading in and out of the truck, walking to the stand, and setting up. There is, however, one exception.

Plan S.

Every hunter should also have a stool in his kit - it's called a "dove" stool some of the time, or the taller model, the "duck" stool. Scanning from a stool is not easy and takes practice. It's even harder to shoot. But it's really good for tired, older, or less active hunters. It's handy in more open territory with low cover where the stool lowers your visual profile, and lets you relax comfortably while hunting. If you plan to carry a stool, buy the lightweight aluminum double rectangle frame type, not one with pointed legs that sink in. Be aware that some come with a carry strap and compartment under the seat, ideal storage for a cat tag, some tp, or a bit of foam padding, and that's the one you want to buy.

Camo

Soft-finish non-reflective street clothes, a hat, and a headnet or mask are enough. The fabric needs to be quiet; it should not rustle when you move or rub it. Harder finishes like some military fatigues with polyester or gore-tex can make noise when you move. Wal-Mart 6-pocket cargo pants and a $10 plaid shirt work really well in the desert. Khakis don't draw any attention to the hunter at the McDonald's either, an even bigger plus in the blue states. Try a boonie hat too. It has a different profile from a baseball hat. It also helps keep the sun off the ears and neck, and out of your eyes from the sides as well as the front. Boonie hats aren't swag like logo covered baseball hats, so they're harder to find, and even harder to find for free.

The combination of soft, quiet clothes, a face mask, and standing still in the shade with the shotgun at your side makes it difficult for game to identify a human form. It's not unusual to have a coyote run by, 20 yards out, without seeing you. It's more likely that it will stop and look straight at you from 10 yards away without recognizing the danger. A 20-inch tall coyote coming through this thigh-high brush will surprise the heck out of both of you when it pops out a dozen yards away. It will usually be within gun range as soon as you see it but that won't last. You've got about a half second to identify targets and another half to shoot. Does camo clothing fool a coyote? Probably not. In the desert, there aren't many good reasons to pay extra for special purpose clothes. If you're already hitting coyotes at 25 yards, why is any camo necessary? Soft finish, non-reflective cloth seems to work just as well as the best camo and is available for one-fifth of the price at a Target or Wal-Mart near you.

Pretending to know what a coyote sees takes a great leap of faith, one I'm not willing to make. Many of the expert magazines seem to be filled with tripe. But there are too many bizarre myths and tales in coyote lore to give the coyote less than his due. A couple of things are certain. The coyote sees what it sees and responds, erratically and unpredictably.

That's about it. You'll find more information about guns and calls elsewhere on the site. But if you've got your street clothes, a shotgun, hat, headnet, a call, and some shells in your pocket, you're fully equipped for hunting the thick stuff.

Sun, 11/15/2009 - 12:00pm — GZ

Hunt anytime.

Hunting at noon can be as good as sunset, twilight, midnight, or sunrise. Setting any preconditions for hunting based on the position of the sun, moon, or stars and telling you that one is absolutely better than the other would be a big mistake. Hunting coyotes is a catch-as-catch-can proposition. Hunt anytime the opportunity presents itself.

Hunt in thick heavy cover

Well, maybe not too thick to walk in or to see through to the next bush, but set up in brush that is taller than a coyote and walk only until the truck is small or hidden. Pick a spot to set up with less than 40-50 yard visibility in every direction, and here's a few reasons why this tactic is productive. The coyote can't see you. Most coyotes are only 20 inches tall, and they will come closer to the caller in thick cover just because they can't see you or it. A coyote will keep coming in until it thinks it ought to be able to see the source of the sound or something else gets its attention. In open country, a coyote may hang up 150 yards out looking for the sound's source or at anything else that isn't quite right. In heavy cover, where the sound source and/or the hunter are much harder to see, a coyote is more likely to come all the way to the sound. Hunting this way, any coyote you can see is already in shotgun range. If you have good visibility beyond 50 yards in most directions, it's a rifle stand! and not close-cover shotgun country. Start over next time! And pick thicker cover.

Heavy cover holds more coyotes at all times of day or night.

Coyotes prefer cover, like any other wild animal. It's just harder to see them and harder to hunt them in thick stuff, especially at night. Don't drive by those "thick spots" you've been bypassing. Hunt the spots riflemen drive past.

Don't expose yourself.

Hunting from a ridge or other high ground is great for visibility's sake, but unless you approach from the back side, you expose yourself setting up. If you can see a long way out, a coyote can see a long way in. Better is to sneak in quietly and stay low. Set up in the flat. Set up in the wash. Or just at the edge of the wash. Or if you must, set up just a few feet up the side of a hill from the flat so visibility is just good enough for shotgun ranges. You don't need high ground to hunt with a shotgun. If the coyote watches you set up, it is not going to come to the call a few minutes later.

Drive less.

A shotgun is the weapon of choice for hunting near buildings, barns, tanks, pipes, livestock, and city limits. Driving way out of town and looking for wilderness isn't necessary and may even be counterproductive. Coyotes often live a half-mile from town and feed on pets, pet food, garbage, and gardens. But please be cautious around town. You too are much more likely to encounter people, their pets, and other stray domestic dogs in these areas. If you're near people, also remember that a one-shot kill draws less attention than the bang-bang-bang of staccato gunfire. A single noise can easily be mistaken for anything else. A backfire, a piece of plywood being dropped on the driveway, a door slam, can be anything but a gun shot. Once someone's ears have perked up, it's the second shot that gets identified as gunfire. Living in a rural area, I also pay attention to the kind of gunfire. When I hear the sound of a shotgun, it gets less attention from me than the crack of a high-powered rifle, the pop-pop-pop of a handgun, or the stutter of an AW. Law enforcement has told me that they will investigate any gunfire, but privately, I suspect they are much less likely get involved when they are unsure of the exact source or nature of the sound. Law enforcement in my area encounters bird hunters regularly.

Hunt the unexpected.

Stop and try unusual locations where you're only half sure there could ever be coyotes. You will surprise yourself when you call them in city parks, next to the freeway, and in high school parking lots. Don't waste time looking for the "perfect" spot. Hit the ground and hunt. And you don't have to take a gun every time. Take the camera. Take the family.

Stop often.

Use your odometer between every stand. On a road or 2-track, as terrain allows, stop every mile. A loud hand or e-call will reach out more than a thousand yards on a quiet windless day. If you're seeing nothing, extend it to 2 miles. But if you're seeing coyotes regularly, shorten it up to .8 miles. If the wind is howling, shorten it up more. Sound won't reach as far upwind on a windy day. If you run a straight road and see or shoot a coyote, consider hunting a grid or a spiral search. Coyotes are there for a reason - food, territory, water, cover, a coyote social - where there's one, there are likely to be more. So work the area well before you return to your straight line course.

Look for tracks and scat too.

You won't pick many cherries in a bean field. Likewise, you won't shoot coyotes where there aren't any either. Tracks and scat are a good indicator of coyotes so always watch for fresh tracks in the road. They make a great place to start. But don't be afraid of hunting when you don't see them either. In heavy cover and on hard pan desert, tracks and scat hard to spot. Seeing a single straight line track or even one or two that meander are just OK. Better spots will have new and old tracks headed for all points of the compass. I'm much more inclined to head for an entirely new location and leave a spot where there are no tracks than I am to leave an area covered in sign after a couple of unproductive stands.

Don't be afraid to hunt from a busy road.

Park on the side of the highway and walk into the wind. Use the road as a backstop. Walk only far enough to obscure the truck or to be legal in your state. Don't ever shoot in the direction of the road and be careful. Use a T-post stepper to cross a fence, or drape a furniture blanket over the fence to go over, or spread the blanket on the ground to go under. Furniture blankets don't pick up dry dirt, clean off easily, keep you from getting muddy, and protect you from all things that poke, tear, sting or bite. Get a light green or tan furniture moving blanket at Lowe's or Home Depot. Blue is easier to find both in the store and in the bush, but it's also easier for others to see too when it's draped over the barbed wire. I like the green and tan better. Don't stretch a rancher's fence. And be aware that in some places a fence means "no trespassing" but in others it doesn't. You can even use a ladder as a stile, but I dislike carrying a ladder very far.

Don't be afraid to hunt near noisy locations.

Coyotes can hang out within earshot of freeways, subdivisions, race tracks, gun ranges, quarries, construction sites, and motorcycle paths. They really don't seem to care that much about background noises.

This hunting spot is near a couple of busy roads, several businesses at the intersection, and more than a few houses. It's been a steady coyote producer through the years. Calling in this 28# bobcat wasn't really a surprise. Living between the ranchos and businesses, one has to wonder how many pets and barnyard fowl this bobcat must have eaten to put on that much weight.

Play the wind and the sun.

Drive upwind on a road if you have the choice. Park in the shade or so the shady side of the truck is toward your setup. This helps to limit reflections off the truck in the direction of your stand, especially since you're only going to walk 60 yards. A camouflage or tan truck may be better for coyotes, but a white pickup is better camo from nosy people. No one pays any attention to a plain white pickup parked on the side of the road or in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I have one of each, a lifted flat tan one-ton off-road mudder and a plain white F-150. I prefer the white one for all but the worst snow or mud. The one ton drives like a truck and the half ton drives like a car.

Walk less.

Walk only far enough from the road or 2-track to obscure the truck or to be legal. Unless you plan to hunt atop some special perch or some spot with personal significance, walking very far is usually a waste. Save your legs and stay on the flat. A coyote can hear a caller from a thousand yards and cover the distance ten times faster than a walking man. In a competition, we hustle. Move out, call, move in, and drive. Make more stands.

Walk upwind and hunt upwind.

Your stinky truck is 60 yards behind you so quit arguing whether you should set up upwind or down. Set your caller 10-15 yards into the wind or crosswind. A coyote coming from your downwind side will either see your truck or you first and bolt, charge the caller, trot by the caller, trot and stop to look for it, or circle back downwind until they smell something else and leave. You can't stop them from that kind of behaivior, so give in, and give up the downwind side. Rarely, urban coyotes will disregard human scent and come in from your back. If you set up that close to the truck, a coyote coming from downwind will also have to walk right past the truck, so it makes it easier to give up the downwind side. A solo hunter just can't watch 360 without a lot of movement, and even the herd bull doesn't get to eat every blade of grass in the meadow. Some of them are going to spoof you and get away. That's hunting.

Set up in the shade.

Set up in the shade of a tree, a Mesquite, Palo Verde, Joshua, or Saguaro when you can. The shade will give you cover and keep reflections to a minimum. In the summer, it will keep you cooler. Set up in front of a bush instead of behind it. A prickly bush behind you will help protect you from a downwind attack, but it isn't perfect. I've been attacked 5 times and bitten once. Peeking through bushes in front of you obscures both your view and your shot so set up in front of a bush when you can.

The perfect stand.

There is no "perfect" stand. Ideally, I'd tell you to hunt any time of day or night. Drive into the wind, walk into the wind, call into the wind, and put the sun and an obstacle at your back. Real hunting is never ideal. Every stand is going to be a compromise of wind, sun, cover, shade, field-of-fire, visibility, and comfort.

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The Tactics

Sun, 11/15/2009 - 2:33pm — GZ

The perfect stand.

Almost a repeat from the first section with the addition of one thing. If you hunt solo and use an electronic caller, set the console 10 to 12 paces in front of you, no further, no closer. Anything within a 35 yard circle around the caller is certainly in range of well-patterned properly choked modern shotgun. There is no "perfect" stand. Ideally, I'd tell you to hunt any time. Drive into the wind, walk into the wind, call into the wind, and put the sun and an obstacle at your back. Stand in the shade. Let the shotgun hang at your side and rest your gun's muzzle on a stick or a rock. Relax. Real hunting is never ideal. Every stand is going to be a compromise of wind, sun, cover, shade, field-of-fire, visibility, and comfort.

Be quiet.

Turn off the truck's key alarms, door alarms, and seat belt alarms, if you can. Quit all talking and crack the doors before the truck stops. Grab your gear as quietly as you can and shut up. Don't talk on your way to a stand. Walk as softly and quietly as you can. If you hunt with a partner, work out hand signals. I even had the vibram lug soles removed from my favorite hunting boots and replaced with a softer lightweight line pattern sole that is quiet and leaves no heavy track.

No reflections allowed.

Stay in the shade if you wear glasses or sunglasses. Mind the reflection of the e-caller remote's lcd if you wear it on a lanyard around your neck.

Excuse the focus, but this is a great example of an unwanted reflection from a plastic label on the back of a caller remote control. The screen of the FoxPro TX-500 LCD reflects even more than this label from the back of a Minaska remote.

Stand up.

Standing up on level ground provides the best platform for visibility. Standing also gives you the best, most consistent start, mount, swing, and the ability to absorb recoil. Hopefully everyone can walk 60 yards from the truck, stand up for 12 minutes, and walk back. But if standing is not an option, use plan S, the stool.

Stand Still.

Rotate your head no faster than the second hand on your watch. Many guys spin around at the first glimpse of fur and don't even realize they are doing it. Practice a few times rotating your head with the sweep of the second hand on your watch, and you will discover how painfully slow that is. When hunting, the only thing you can swivel quickly is your eyes. Too many stands are ruined when a novice is surprised by a coyote at close range and he jumps out of his skin. Surprise! There's a coyote standing just at the edge of your vision 5 yards away, and then it's gone the instant it detects movement. It takes patience and practice to move, mount, swing, and score the right way.

Call less.

Pause more. Save your breath or your batteries. Make a coyote look for it, not charge straight in. You'll get better, closer shots when the coyote is coming to silence. You might fool a coyote 500 yards away, but you never fool any but the youngest and dumbest coyote that your sounds are much more than curiosity noises when they're in shotgun range. You do not sound like its mother, brother, or dinner. Really, no matter how good you think your hand call or e-call is, it isn't. A coyote makes his living locating sounds and scents. Those big ears are fine-tuned locators and once the animal has pinpointed the sound, silence is the best call.

Call short stands.

Always use a timer. Every cheap digital watch has one. $7 at Wal-Mart. The golden minutes are 3-5 and longer stands give diminished returns. Stop at minute 12 unless your hunting areas are limited. Your time is better spent packing up, moving, and setting up again. Hunt log data analysis reveals that this is true. Longer stands will occasionally result in another kill, but shorter stands mean a lot more stands. Walk out, call, walk in, and drive. Two twelve minute stands a mile apart will always produce more than a single 30 minute stand.

Shoot first.

A coyote will bolt as often as it stops at close range if you squeak or bark. Close range shotgunning is a different kind of hunt. In close cover, a coyote will look and run. You won't get a "last look" over the shoulder either, like a rifleman often does when the coyote exits over the ridge. It wouldn't matter anyway - it's out of shotgun range. I took a novice hunting and the coyote popped out 15 yards away and was looking straight at him. The hunter froze. The coyote turned back into the brush. When I asked him why he didn't shoot, my novice said,"I was waiting for him to look away." Duh. Dude. Lift the gun and shoot. Shoot first. Wait for nothing.

Don't move, but react.

Huh? Sound confusing. Let's clear this up. Stay hidden or still if you can; you've got a second or two to pick a shot if and only if the coyote isn't looking straight at you, but don't wait. Lift and shoot quickly. Close range coyotes won't stick around. They may charge a caller, but without some extreme scent elimination protocols, they'll charge straight out again. Sound confusing still? If your stand is set up properly, then the coyote is in range as soon as you see it. It takes practice, experience, and skill, to know when to wait that extra second as it's approaching, when to squeak, and when to shoot.

Don't wait for the perfect shot.

Take moving targets. Shoot through the bushes. Swing through the body, fire at the nose, and follow through. The nose is the perfect lead. One pellet in the head, three in the neck, or five in the body are usually lethal.

Most shooters don't think of much hydrostatic shock being transmitted by buckshot the way it is with a bullet. One pellet in the head dropped this coyote immediately. It was bleeding out of both eyes, both ears, and the nose. That's shock! By the way, two rounds of buckshot in the butt as it's running away 60-70 yards out, is a waste of ammunition. Broadside is best. Coming in, let it come. Going away anywhere near 50 yards, let it go.

The e-caller second.

An e-caller is hard to beat, especially if you hunt solo. It works well as a coaxer to get the attention off of your exact location. E-callers can give you an extra second of time. If you set up as I describe here, you're only 12 yards away from the source of the sound. When a coyote pops out of the brush, a guy using a hand call must shoot immediately. With a hand call, chances are good the coyote is headed straight for you and it will see you at the same instant it breaks through cover. If the coyote is looking at the e-caller instead, a shotgunner has an extra second to shoot before the motion of lifting the shotgun is detected and the coyote bolts.

You can't shoot a double until you've shot the single.

That's the rule. It sounds stupid, but on afterthought, profound. It's a simple statement that makes the difference between a good stand and a great stand. When multiple coyotes show up at once, it takes skill and practice to bring down more than one. Make the first shot count. The #1 priority is to kill ONE. Shoot again if you can, but focus on the first one. Multiples that come in together are like Whack-A-Mole. It's a mad scramble after the first shot. However, it's just as likely that a pack will not all come in together at exactly the same time. After a shot, reload at the first opportunity. More likely a successful double or triple will be taken a few seconds or even a few minutes apart from a dispersed hunting pack that arrives one or two at a time. Get ready. It is entirely possible to hammer three with three shots when they all arrive together. Remain vigilant until the stand is really over. Scoring doubles, triples, and more all depends on your choices, skill, experience, preparation, and a healthy dose of luck.

If you shoot and the coyote is DRT, hold your ground, reset the clock, and call 8 more minutes. If you shoot a second coyote, reset the clock again. The correlary to the rule is: You can't shoot a triple until you've shot a double. This tactic has resulted in a quad and 3 5-packs for me or my friends, all while hunting solo. Don't break a stand unless you absolutely must or until it's really over. Keep calling.

If a shot coyote spins or a downed animal lifts its head, shoot again. If a coyote gets up and starts moving, break the stand and run after it immediately. A two-legged coyote can outrun most hunters. Make sure a coyote is dead.

These three coyotes came in one after the next from three different directions about a minute apart, probably all part of a dispersed hunting pack. They ignored the sound of gunfire and concentrated instead on the sound of distress. A triple taken with an O/U shotgun, or by any means, is worth bragging rights at any check-in.

Sounds for your e-caller.

The typical manufacturer's e-caller sounds are not edited very well. They've been selling one kind of sound for so long, that they just don't know any better. Too old, too set in their ways, and too prideful to change, they seem unwilling to listen to the needs of successful hunters. With the trend being toward more and more proprietary products, it's gotten worse. The WT and Foxpro sounds are horrible for this kind of hunting and can only be edited by them. These two manufacturers in particular have falsely assumed that continuous calling is best, without much more than fanboy cheerleading to back up their bogus premise, so none of their sounds are edited for easy pausing nor are users allowed to edit them. I won't use them. Better sounds contain 15-20 second snippets of distress divided by 3 second pauses where the hunter can easily find the mute button and pause the caller without broadcasting an abrupt unnatural stop or without an electronic click from pausing at a non-zero wave crossing. Edited correctly, you can easily find the right spot where the sound is supposed to be paused. Whether or not pausing at a zero-crossing works better or worse for coyotes? Who cares. That's the way I hunt. It works. I'm the one who is outshooting any Dillon or Martz by 10x year in and year out and paying their freight.

There's a sound principle in physics and electronics supporting this proven fact. Pausing a caller at the +/- peak of the sound wave causes the speaker's cone to snap to its center position. It generates a noise that is not a sound you want for calling.

Pause calling works better.

Intermittent distress sounds work much better in thick cover. Play or blow one or two of those 15 second snippets and wait a while. Really, wait one and half or two minutes before playing more sound. That isn't opinion. It's based on a lot of observation and experience. Here are the reasons pause calling works better.

• A coyote coming to silence will also be looking around and starting and stopping, giving the shotgunner a better chance for a shot. A coyote makes a living locating a sound's source. They are experts at pinpointing and locating the sound's source at a distance. They do not need continuous sound to locate it.
• A coyote is also less likely to recognize that these sounds aren't really a meal or another coyote. There is no way a hand call or e-call sounds like the real thing at close range. Don't fool yourself into thinking you're spoofing an educated coyote with the curious sounds we put out from a hand call or e-caller. You and the call are not that good.
• A paused electronic caller uses only a trickle of power and saves batteries. A paused hand caller can save his own breath and energy. I don't mind switching or charging battery packs on the fly, but why would anyone create the need to recharge a battery or wear himself out hand calling when it isn't needed.
• Some guys can hand call all day. I get tired, chapped lips, dehydrated, and I move around more when I hand call. I probably pause more than most with a handcall too.
• Finally, I get noise fatigue. Honestly, the screaming and screeching noises are as pleasant as dragging my nails on a chalk board. I strongly prefer hunting in comfortable relaxed silence. A hand call is even louder on the caller's ears than an electronic call.

The Results

Sun, 11/15/2009 - 3:09pm — GZ

I was using Plan S (a stool) in low brush when I shot this double. The pair came in together and were shot within a few feet of the caller and the decoy located in the brush just on my left. Bang-swing-bang. Decoys work better in more open ground, but aren't necessary in heavy brush. In this case, the decoy helped draw them in and probably was responsible for the second kill.

Some coyote body language.

A coyote that stops and looks left and right, may be getting ready to bolt. A coyote that stops and keeps looking in one direction, is often looking for its hunting partner. You should be looking there too.

Like almost everyone else it seems, I started hunting coyotes with a hand call and a rifle. More recently, I set out looking to add to my rifleman's and spot-lighter's repertoire and found what I think is a great way to add to any hunter's bag of tricks and bag of game. Hunting with a shotgun in heavy cover adds to your territory too. Spots you used to drive right by become honey holes.

Not just puppies.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this kind of action just calls puppies. I get more than my share of smart, educated, old coyotes.

Here are a few coyotes that are well along in years judging by tooth wear. It gets hard to accurately estimate the ages of coyotes over 7 or 8 years old by tooth wear. Biologists can more accurately age predators by sectioning a pre-molar and counting the annual rings of cementum, similar to counting the rings of a tree.

Conclusions

I started off by reading a few lines of text in a club newsletter and then trying to prove or disprove the premise in those words for myself - that shotgunning coyotes in daylight could up my scores. It's been an even bigger plus for me in that I live in a "Shotgun Only" county and prior to this I was either hunting in the national forest where rifles were legal, driving 30 miles to the county line where rifles also were legal, or flirting with the county's prohibition on centerfire rifles. Now hunting is also much more fun. This method is extremely well suited to hunting solo, near town, without camo or any other special gear, and in broad daylight. I regularly hunt a few stands on the way to town for the mail, since so little gear is needed and with no special precautions - just a hand call, shotgun, and a few shells - and then hunt the same way all-day run and gun whether in a contest or just for fun. As you can see by the photos, I've taken quite a few coyotes this way. Instead of staying out all night with a rifle and a spotlight, I go home and sleep in my own bed.

Anyone who hunts much knows that 6-8 coyotes is an excellent day. My best solo day ever, 13 coyotes and 1 bobcat on a single Saturday in February, a notoriously tough month. Try a shotgun for some solid up close and in-your-face action. Show up at the check-in with more tails.

 

[Hyperwrx]

Red Zone Hunting

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 3:00pm — GZ

The concepts of "zone hunting" are presented to help with setting up and especially executing a hasty ambush for coyotes using a shotgun. Rubrics for making better decisions during a rapid-fire hunt, when to shoot, when to follow up, and when to run are also described. This article is for the most part about closing the deal, killing, and picking up animals.

If you are new to hunting, or new to hunting coyotes, and have questions about setups, firearms, camouflage, or calls, read the "Thick Cover" article first. Red Zone Hunting is an article about shooting, killing animals and closing the deal, and doesn't cover other important aspects of setting up an ambush nearly as well as the other article.

These are original concepts by the author. The text, diagrams, and concepts are copyrighted and are not to be copied, reproduced, or reposted without permission.

Thick Cover Ambush Hunting for Southwestern Coyotes

Coyotes are usually classified by departments of game and fish as furbearers or non-game animals. Hunting them is unlike any other hunting in the United States. Typically unregulated to any great degree, hunting coyotes usually requires only a license. In many states, there is no mandatory season, lottery, tag, limit, or recovery. In a few states, even the requirement for a hunt license is dropped for coyote hunters. Take hides only if you desire to do so. Please dispose of carcasses appropriately. Free from all but one constraint, it's hard to find more fun with a gun than luring a live coyote to flash through a target hole in the desert scrub brush. The action is fast. The time between stands is variable, but you can shoot as many as you can find. They're like skeet.

What is the Red Zone? The Red Zone is a term coined by the author to clarify some of the concepts he uses when setting up and executing an hasty close range ambush for coyotes in the desert scrub brush. A shotgun is a close range weapon, and the closer the better. Imagine circles around both the hunt guy and his caller. The size of those circles, areas of with a good enough view of the target to shoot, are determined by the thickness of the brush and the lethal range of his shotgun. That is the Red Zone. Confidence is high. The hunter has to make all his shots in the Red Zone.

Red Zone hunting relies on an unproven concept of animal behavior, to wit: coyotes are more secure in heavy brush during daylight hours. Does heavy brush make a coyote more secure? Who knows? However, coyotes in thick cover do seem willing to approach a sound all the way to its source much of the time. If that weren't true, Red Zone hunting wouldn't work. Coyotes might come in all the way to the caller in an open field too, if rifle hunters waited and didn't shoot them at longer ranges first, but that is a different topic. It doesn't matter here, since this isn't meant to be a comparison of rifle and close-range hunting. Red Zone hunting with a shotgun is its own topic so no one needs to worry much about open ground behaviors for this discussion.

Why use zones? The concept of zones is simple to describe, to explain, and to draw in a diagram. Zones make sense out of an otherwise difficult description. Zones are used here to help the hunter make faster, more logical decisions, so he has a better idea of when to shoot, when to follow up, when to run, and when to hold fire. In some instances, animals will approach and be seen, but never quite make it into a shooting zone. Those animals are meant to escape for another hunt on another day. The hunter should feel good about any coyote that is wiley enough to get away. That makes him a conservationist. An added benefit of zone hunting is that when a hunter successfully applies zone principles, he will close the deal more often and leave fewer wounded animals behind. That is good ecology too.

The topic of ambush hunting in thick cover by enticing predators into a small visible space doesn't appear in much of the hunt literature. Like others, I collect a few books. I also try to read Predator Xtreme, Outdoor Life, and some other magazines, for interesting stuff and shifts in advertising; but there is no way to keep up with it all. In preparation for many of my shotgun topics, I looked through stacks of magazines a couple of times and don't remember a description of a single day of ambush hunting like this ever being published. At best, a rifle hunter described there might take along a shotgun too. In all the articles I"ve read, the shotgun is never the primary weapon. Speculating, maybe this kind of small space ambush isn't very popular with modern hunters because of the lack of visibility? Or maybe a shotgun has too much recoil. Calculations show that good coyote ammo kicks more than 30 times the recoil of a .223 Remington. It's hard to accurately speculate why an efficient and exciting method like this one isn't popular but those both sound like decent reasons to me. Getting back to the Red Zone, the tactic of ambushing prey is as old as dirt.

Pygmies hunting in Cameroon armed with a spear are said to be able to stand perfectly still for 30 hours over the waterhole. They even use hypnotic plant extracts to enhance the experience. I'm not that patient nor am I interested in that kind of zone. That's not my kind of ambush either. Translated from their jungle to flat desert, here, and now, thirty hours standing stock still is a bit much. In the desert southwest, setting up over an e-caller in the middle of a small hole in some scrub thicket for ten or twelve minutes sounds more reasonable. The hunt guy might try to predict the best approach to the waterhole, but in the flat, the truth is that coyotes can come from anywhere. I expect to see one any second now, a coyote coming from any direction.

I was surprised that coyote hunt authors weren't writing about this kind of ambush tactic for the magazines. There must have been something in the Varmint Hunter's Digest. In recent years, a couple of articles from PX eluded to ambush hunting in the title, but never quite delivered. Their thick cover tactics for the most part put the author in a rifle firing position watching the edge of a brush pile where a coyote drawn to the call might be exposed for a shot. That is not the kind of hunting I'm writing about. Theirs was an ambush of sorts, but it wasn't very Pygmy of them.

If success is the goal in this kind of small area ambush, where the hunter set up in the middle of the brush, not in some distant sniper's hide, standing still is extremely important. It takes concentration to scan effectively while moving very little right in the middle of the area of potential action, then snap to a shooting position and fire. Then, if the hunt guy kills one cleanly with the first shot, he must recover his ready position, keep on standing still, and keep on calling. A time-spread multiple is always a possibility in this part of the world. However, while shooting moving targets, around and through scrub brush, even with the hardest hitting ammunition, all kills are not perfectly clean. So as much as I like to stay in one spot and just stand there, some of the time it just isn't the smartest thing to do. The first shot and any shots that follow are a moment of instant decision. After that first shot, the hunter has to be ready to fire again or close the distance and finish the job, before any wounded animal can move off a few dozen yards back into the thick weeds and die without being found. Standing still is only important until it's time to run and then the decision must be made quickly. One of the keys to hunting successfully in the brush is knowing when to break cover and run as fast as you dare.

No one seems to write about running either. In the magazines, everything is a perfect shot and all that's left is the long walk and a Kodak moment. In the video, modern editing is a great cure for lousy woodcraft and poor marksmanship. In reality, predator hunting has generated some of the most spectacular misses to which I have ever been a witness. I can also say with some authority that the best thing anyone can do after the shot is get after it.

Running, hot-trailing a wounded animal by sight, turns out to be much better than tracking it later. If a wounded animal runs, get moving. If a coyote doesn't die right on cue, the best way to close the deal is to shoot, shoot, run, shoot, run, reload, repeat. Finding tracks on desert hard pan is always difficult. Shotgun pellet wounds close quickly back to a pinhole and typically don't leave much of a blood trail either. The best advice is - Never wait. Keep running. Keep shooting. Always be prepared to run around the next clump of weeds, or the next, and fire again. It's nice to pick up a one-shot kill, but it's just as good to chase one down and pick up the four-shot kill. It would be great if every hunter could track as well as the Pygmies, but they can't. It's all good just as long as the animal gets picked up. Running after an animal and finding nothing, or losing a track 40 yards into the brush are the kind of experiences every hunter should do their best to avoid.

It needs to be said that the ambush hunter with his limited view is definitely going to see less, much less into the distance, and many fewer approaching animals. That isn't a bad thing. Predators don't always come all the way to the caller in any kind of cover; they hang up. Thanks to the brush, the hunter won't even see those most of the time. However, if the unproven concept of Red Zone hunting is true, that coyotes are more secure in thick brush and are more willing to approach a sound's source much closer, the hunt guy may actually shoot more than a guy set up over open ground.

The diagram below shows a shotgun ambush set up in medium to thick brush for a western coyote. The purpose of the diagram is to clarify concepts, aid in making some quick logical shooting decisions, and to limit the number of wounded animals that escape to die later. The little hunt guy is standing perfectly still in the shade with his shotgun, its muzzle resting on the ground, his back to the available brush for protection. He's aware of the sun and the wind. He might even have a little decoy or a wheeze of juice on the ground near the caller somewhere.

Diagram Copyright - November 9, 2012

Any stand is going to be a compromise of visibility, concealment, sun location, and wind direction. The biggest difference between this kind of ambush and any other is the brush. In Red Zone hunting, the thickness and location of the brush ultimately determine the specific tactics, visible sight lines, and the exact range to the black and green zones, not some hard number (even though the diagram shows the Red Zone at ~15 yards and the Black Zone at ~50 yards, those are suggestions, not set in concrete). Always remember that moving the hunt guy's location ~50 yards in any direction changes everything. Ranges and sightlines are something to consider at every potential stand location.

The pickup is parked in the green angle, downwind from the hunter, 60-120 yards away, far enough to be small or completely obscured by brush. The green angle at the top of the diagram depicts both the approximate limit of the hunter's vision around the brush behind him without a lot of body movement and the hunter's scent cone downwind. The hunt guy might assume that nothing comes from downwind all the way into the Red zone. That would be wrong. Some coyotes certainly do bolt and run off when their noses pickup man smell, but some don't seem to care. The Red Zone goes all the way around, 360 degrees, in the diagram for a reason. Some of the fastest action comes from the green angle, including some coyotes unafraid of human scent, and the hunt guy in the middle of it needs to be able to shoot 360 degrees too, coming or going. That will take some footwork.

Everything matters. The thickness of the brush determines the ranges for red, black, and green zones and it changes with every location. Change the ranges by choosing a different stand location.

• The primary red zone, ~15 yard circle around the hunter with 70-99% visibility.
• The second red zone, a similar circle around the caller. Visibility will be less.
• The black zone. The optional shot somewhere in the weeds. From the edge of certainty to the area of zero visibility.
• The green zone. No shot. Begins at the far edge of visibility and the end of lethal shotgun range. Gun range depends a lot on the gun, ammo, choke, and the shooter.

If visibility in every direction is good, choose a different stand. The hunter should be relying on thick brush to give the coyote the security to approach into the red zone for a high percentage shot. Good visibility in every direction is something to avoid. Good visibility is bad.

If you are using less lethal shotgun ammunition to mitigate recoil, prefer a looser choke than full, or are unsure of the lethal range of your shotgun, choose thicker brush. Thicker brush doesn't change the tactics; it just shrinks the ranges of the Red and Green Zones.

The ideal shot is a coyote running straight through the brush in the red zone at trot speed. That is just one possible ambush, but is probably as good as it gets. The opportunity for a shot can be over in two blinks of the eye. Coyotes have been clocked at more than 40 MPH.

A coyote always seems to come into view in one of four ways.

• Comes in from the front and appears as motion in the field of vision.
• Appears from one side or the other at the edge of the field of view in the corner of the eye.
• It blows by the hunter's position from behind as a complete surprise. You might hear it running before you see it.
• It pops out without warning anywhere, standing still or running at full speed.

Hunting in thick brush, the encounter is likely to be brief. It is always best when the hunter sees the coyote first instead of the other way around. The gun can be raised as the coyote travels behind brush. If the hunt guy is exposed and the coyote is coming directly in the line of sight with the caller, sometimes it's wise to use stealth, take a knee if it can be done without being seen, and keep calling. If the coyote enters from the side, at the edge of vision, turn your head slowly. It will be hard not to jump or swivel your head in surprise. Assess the range and cover and shoot. If it blows through the hunt guy's red zone past his leg and into the the circle around the caller, it's probably already aware of danger. Llft and fire immediately. Any shot may require a follow up. Never lower the gun to see what you've done. Always be ready to shoot again or chase a wounded animal.

If at anytime, one pops up in the black or red zones without warning, especially if it sees the hunt guy first or it's staring straight at him, go for it. Don't wait. The shot will just get worse. It's the rare coyote that stands still and stares while the hunt guy does his quick draw. It will most often bolt when he moves, so be ready for a fast and erratic target.

Coming or going, a coyote might jump, veer, turn hard, turn around and go out the opposite way it came in, or stop and stare. A young coyote may even bow down and bark at the caller or a decoy. After the first shot, a coyote's behavior in response to gunfire is often erratic and impossible to predict. One thing is for certain, it will speed up if it detects trouble by any means, scent, sight, or sound. It will move even faster at the sound of gunfire. Passing through the scent cone or recognizing a human form, any coyote that is aware will be moving fast to get away. I've noticed the same behavior when some coyotes see a white pickup.

Remain vigilant from the beginning to the end of every stand. A hunter should be ready to react at any second of every stand to a coyote's surprise appearance at any location inside gun range. So the hunt guy is set up, he calls, and a coyote runs through. What should he do next?

Red Zone (close range) - Lift and shoot any coyote in the red zone. Fire and follow up. What does it mean to follow up? Shoot, shoot, run, shoot, run, reload, repeat until that critter is undeniably dead. Try for a clear line of sight on the first shot, follow up shots in the clear if possible, through the brush if necessary. Plan on chasing every coyote. Hold your position only if a coyote goes completely limp. After the first shot, be ready to follow up using the rubric below.

Was the first shot lethal?

• If a coyote spins and bites the wound, shoot again, prepare to run.
• If the coyote drops, but the tail flaps, wait, prepare to shoot again. If the tail keeps on flapping, shoot and run. If it quits flapping, reload quietly and continue to call.
• If the coyote drops, but then raises its head at a later time, shoot again, prepare to run.
• If the coyote drops and stays completely still, reload quietly, start calling again and add 8 minutes to the stand timer.

A coyote dead on the ground is worth much, much more than a several other animals 60 yards out and running away. Always make the first coyote count.

Black Zone (intermediate range) - Most targets in the black zone will be intermittently covered by thick brush

• Coming in from the front; let it come; fire at will. Closer is always better. However, full frontal shots offer a small target cross-section.
• Walking or running side to side offers the largest target. Fire at the nose of a moving coyote or at the center of mass of a still target. Follow up.
• Comes from behind and runs past your position - fire and follow up immediately.
• Turning around or running away - fire at the nose. Follow up. If you're not quick enough and it gets out of range before you can shoot, hold fire.

Green Zone (out of solid gun range) Hung up or going away near the black/green transition - the Green Zone is the "no fire" zone. 50 yards is about right. 60 is about the absolute maximum. Much shorter if you're using light ammo, an open choke, or shooting through obstacles. The gun is only as lethal as the sum of the pellets' energy and the pattern. Do not shoot at the root of the tail of a distant animal and expect a clean kill. Let these go.

Seeing a coyote at the edge of the green zone (50-60 yards) is always tempting, but it's a low percentage shot.

• Target going away - pass on the tail shot; hold fire and leave this one for another time.
• Broadside crossing - Shooting at a still target, head and body profiled, is the best percentage long distance shot, especially when using a full choke and the heaviest ammo. Follow up immediately.
• Standing head on - The full frontal shot is a much lower percentage. Catches 2/3 less pellets than a profile shot? Wait. Call more. The body language, coyote positioned to move forward, is in the hunter's favor. Allow the coyote to move forward into the red zone or fire at a broadside target if the coyote turns to leave.
• Walking back and forth staring at the call from 90-100 yards. Barking. The hunter is owned. Use a better decoy. Try another noise. Bark back. Release the hounds. Break the stand and move.

A rifle hunter might consider barking or yelling to get a coyote to stop for a look. At shotgun ranges, a coyote is most likely to bolt and run full tilt for safety at the first sound of trouble. It may never stop to look back. Barking doesn't work very often and is not a good idea. That rifleman's old axiom that they always look back doesn't apply either. Even if it did work and the hunt guy were fortunate enough to see one stop and look back on a distant ridge line, the coyote would be completely out of shotgun range.

Note on ammo

Author's section:

It's interesting to note that a coyote that runs right past your position is a "rising" shot, made more difficult because the target is obscured by the gun barrel. [not sure this fits in this topic, along the stuff about e-sights being better on rising shots than a rib and bead. It probably is worth the mention.]

Shooting in the opposite direction, 180 degrees to rear, behind the hunter - still editing -

Be very careful approaching "dead" animals. Keep a loaded gun on the ready. Look for blinking eyes or any movement. Cornered, a wounded coyote will make every effort to bite or get away. Choking, stomping, knifing, or head bonking are never as good as another shot from the gun.

Still editing

Venn diagram |ven|

noun

a diagram representing mathematical or logical sets pictorially as circles or closed curves within an enclosing rectangle (the universal set), common elements of the sets being represented by the areas of overlap among the circles.

ORIGIN early 20th cent.: named after John Venn (1834–1923), English logician.

The term "rubric" is used as a disambiguation, not for scoring.

Looking backwards and Shooting backwards.

Footwork. 4 shotgun turns

Practice - Any comparisons of coyote flight to clay bird flight.

Hunting - When not to shoot; when not to bark

The bead vs. the electronic sight

Rising shots with the target partially obscured by the barrel. Aim small.

Visualization for practice. Clays for practice. When clays can and can't help a lot of hunting shots

Copyrighted original work by Gary Clevenger Dec. 10, 2012.

[thegunsmith2506]

I have read this a couple of times in the past and follow a lot of this advice while calling. Thanks for posting!

[Edge]

Looks like the hunter in the top photo hasn't begun calling yet. Stand with your legs together, not apart. When was the last time you saw the shape of an inverted Y occurring in nature?

[Hyperwrx]

I shot 70 coyotes one season off the top of a wooden ladder. Seems like those coyotes didn't care much about unnatural shapes in nature. Just saying.

[Edge]

I was speaking of blending in while hunting in general, although it is a coyote thread. I believe the most important aspect though, is stillness.

Desperation over caution is a big factor. How hungry is the critter verses their wisdom?

Once at night, called in a young coyote to within 5' of my idling pickup. That pup's behavior defies description.

 

Shooting from a ladder sounds like fun though, tell me more. Did you get them in close? Other species? Would like to have seen the settings your ladder was in.

[Hyperwrx]

Trapper and Predator Caller asked me to write an article on it. It gives a general overview. I'll scan the article and post it here if I remember. Does a predator caller have to use a ladder to call? Certainly not, but anyone who shotgun hunts coyotes in the desert ought to try it. It's a lot of fun and certainly gives you an advantage over someone on a stool.

 

I have shot dozens of coyotes that were standing within 6 feet of the bottom of my ladder.

 

Photo from the article-