If you want a hunting challenge, try pursuing plentiful coyotes

Now that all major hunting seasons are over, there’s still coyotes to pursue and they can be a challenge for even experienced hunters. 

Coyotes are notoriously wary and difficult to call in as that’s the popular way to hunt them. The folks at Convergent Hunting, a Texas-based game call manufacturer that makes everything from mouth and hand calls to smartphone-controlled calls and decoys, say that successfully calling-in one of these critters provides an adrenaline rush that can fetch a few dollars for their pelts.  

Convergent says that calling in a coyote presents a real challenge to a hunter of any skill level, especially those new to the sport. Convergent offers some tips to help get the most out of your next hunt for these “yotes” as they’re called, and who kill fawns, birds, rabbits and pets among other prey. 

My son once related a story to me where his buddy shot a spring gobbler in Berks County and before he could retrieve it, a coyote ran up, grabbed it and ran off with his bird. Seems they’re also opportunists. 

Convergent Hunting offers these tips that could help coyote hunters be successful.

First tip, don’t give away a free education. They claim that with many new and inexperienced hunters heading afield, it’s common to see older, cheaper calls getting airtime in the coyote fields. The result is a highly call-literate population making these wary critters even more challenging to call into shooting range. A call with poor sound quality, is a way to give coyotes a free education. 

Second tip, stick to the basics. Instead of getting fancy with exotic call patterns and advanced hunting strategies, the best way to improve your coyote hunting game is to drill on the fundamentals. This includes setting up appropriately for wind direction, maintaining concealment and mastering the use of a good electronic call with a few high-quality sounds, A premium electronic call helps newbies, in particular, and hunters of all experience levels to produce the most consistent calls. 

Third tip, use better calls to produce better, more realistic sounds. Many older electronic calls typically feature a horn-style speaker sound and run off AA batteries, neither of which is ideal for creating quality sound claim Convergent.

Now may be a good time to try this sport if you haven’t already as litters of from 5-7 coyote pups are born from mid-April to early May and they need to be fed. As such, their parents are out looking for food in daytime hours even though coyotes are mainly nocturnal feeders. 

While coyotes have adapted to a wide variety of habitats, including in the city of Allentown where one resident posted a photo of one on a community website walking down the street in the West End. They’ve also been seen in the Stiles, Egypt, Ruchsville, Orefield and Salisbury Township areas. And a buddy used to trap them at the rear of Cedarbrook Nursing Home. But they’re typically found in heavily forested, dairy and cropland areas. Coyotes prefer heavy brushy cover such as clear-cuts (a good place to hunt) and along edges between forest and agricultural areas where prey is abundant. 
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Most importantly, pay attention to wind direction as yotes have a ultra-keen sense of smell.