Frustrated and Seeking a Mentor

[cbluemel]

OK, I know most guys on forums flame anyone seeking help, but before let me give you my history.

I am 42 and moved to Boise about 5 years ago. Previously I had hunted in the deserts of Salt lake and up North in Malad area with a friend. He was in charge of the calls and we had some success, particularly in the Malad area. That was enough taste to get me hooked on hunting varmints.

When i moved to Idaho, I set my sights on Bears and Coyote. In the years that have followed I have developed an amazing success with bears and fallen completely on my face with coyotes. The biggest frustration is I do not even get small enough success to begin to figure out what I am doing that is wrong, or right.

Let me give an overview of what I have attempted, so that all will know I am not trying to get out of this the easy way:

I started with hand calls, and focused on the Blacks creek area, and the BLM land on the west side of Highway 16 between Emmett and Star. I got no response to distress calls, and would get howls initially to any howling I did, and then it falls dead silent.

I then moved to efforts of building my own call, using the plans that are readily available on the Internet, and using MP3 files. Once again I was met with no response to distress and howls are initially very strong then disappear. So we decided our areas must be suspect, and we added areas outside mountain home on both the East side of town and the west side towards the air force base. No improvement on response.

I then invested in some books and online coyote resources to really study habitat and life cycle of coyotes. Obviously there are numerous ones, and since I have several i will forgo mentioning the ones I have, but it was literally thousands of pages from supposedly successful hunters. From these I decided I needed to address two things. Scent and Camouflage.

First I had always worn camo, and even taped my gun, but I felt a better effort to conceal myself was in order. I built a Gillie cover for my gun and got face masks and various camo patterns for myself and my son. We also purchased contractor knee pads so that we could literally crawl to our stands and disrupt the environment much less. All of these get washed in scent free detergent and are stored in bags with sage brush branches. I also have scent killer which I apply the day before the hunts so it dries, and on the morning of the hunts.

Out to our areas again with new found knowledge and skills. Same responses. So we decided the howling must be scaring them, and dropped that from the calling sequence we developed. Still nothing but long 40 minute waits wondering if anything was there. This represents literally two years of effort. In the same time my Son and I had successfully bagged 3 bears between us. So yet again an effort to find no locations was undertaken. After all the number one thing the books had taught me was scout scout scout. ;D

So I have taken my son and hunting partner The last two years and purchased a Primos Turbo dog caller (not the best but reasonable commercial caller) and cover scents of skunk coyote urine and began exploring South Western Idaho. We have been from Jordan Valley Oregon down along the Nevada Border over to highway 93 back up all the way to Indian Valley and back. We use locator calls to define areas where dogs howl, mark them on the map and go back at later times to use distress calls to try and get dogs to come in. In that time we have exactly 0 dogs come in. We have called Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, even almost run over a dog out by Silver City.

:'(My frustration is not so much that I have spent over 4 years with no kill, but rather that I do not see anyway I can methodically improve. I don't want this to drop in my lap, but I do not see how to define what to change so I improve.

::)This has led me to a new resolution. I need a mentor. No not someone that I can have tell me their hot area, but someone that can allow me to watch and learn from them. I do not even care if I am but the hired help to carry in supplies, I need to learn from someone the process they go through from step one of deciding to hunt. I hope my lengthy history shows that i am not trying to get a free meal, but that I really want to become skilled at this, I am willing to earn my stripes and struggle through the learning. However I also know that without direction I seem to be spinning around in circles with no improvement despite studied efforts to improve.

With that in mind I am here to meet people and develop friendships that can allow that to occur. I will continue on my own until I either break through or find a mentor. I may also break down and pay a guide in Oregon to see if that helps me net anything.

I am clearly past the stage of pride and pretty desperate to learn, both so I can teach my son as we hunt together and so I can have some pride in fulfilling what has become a pretty large endeavor. I am happy to hear feedback and comments, and have very thick skin. I am even foolish enough to try any wild ideas that get suggested. I also look forward to developing some good friends in the process.

CD

[Timber Butte Outdoors]

Hello CD,

Welcome to the IVH Forums. We are glad you have found us, and wish to be a part of the crew. Our hope is that you will find it benefical to join the IVH Club, become an active member, get to know the crew, (there is alot of years of experience here that a person can gleen).

I and my partner, and several of my friends would be glad to be a mentor, that is what we do. We want to help instruct people just like you, to understand the basics of coyote calling.

But! What I just read of what you wrote, it sounds like you have the basics down pretty well. But! There is the old adage - Too much is not a good thing! You need to relax, lossen up a bit, go and have fun, when you loosen up, it will happen.

Here is the thing! It is not easy to call coyotes in SW Idaho!
You don't need all that scent cover stuff, a coyote can smell you right through it. You have to get the wind in your favor, in your face or crosswind to you, better that there is no wind, but that is a perfect day! Put the sun to your back.

You don't have to crawl to your stand, just walk quietly to your stand location and setup quietly, snuggle into a sagebrush, with the sun behind you, and the wind in your face.

Make sure that you have your truck hidden, like behind a hill or ridge or in a creek bottom with lots of brush. And you are not able to see it from anywhere that the coyote would or will approach from.

We are having the registration for the Idaho Coyote Classic State Championshiops tomorrow evening from 5-7pm with the rules reading at 7pm, You are invited to come over to Emmett's Gem County Fair Grounds 4H Building, meet us, and we can talk about this, maybe make plans. There iare alot of questions I would like to ask you about your calling.

Hope to see you tomorrow evening!
Gary
IVH Founder/Sec/Tres/Webmaster

[cbluemel]

Gary,

Thanks for the offer. That sounds like a splendid evening. My son and I will be over. Is it an open format so any time between 5 and 7 or do we need to be there at 5:00?

CD

[Timber Butte Outdoors]

You can come over any time. We will be there until around 9pm

[72camaro]

If you were looking to get flamed you probably came to the wrong spot. These guys on here know the business and have been more than willing to help anyone. Really a great board.

[jevans]

Hmmm great advice so far. I think maybe my son and me might have to join you. We are having some success at calling my son just needs to calm down He's missed a couple and i've been trying to let him get his first kill.He's 15 and never had success hunting at all buck fever every time. can't imagine what he will be like with his compound bow when he gets a chance on a big bull.

[Timber Butte Outdoors]

jevans,

Welcome to the IVH Forums. We would be glad to have you as a members. We are wanting to increase our kids participation in the club, and contests.

Speaking of contests, you and your son are welcome to come to Emmett to check out the ICC (Idaho Coyote Classic) contest that is going on right now. We will be doing the weigh-in on Saturday evening for 4pm to 7pm, and then the Awards and BBQ.

You can see what we do, meet a bunch of the crew, and get to know us. We also have a meeting each month on the second Tuesday of the month.

There is a new membership form here on the forums for you to print out, and fill out, and bring with you to the contest or to the meeting.

As for buck fever??? I still get it everytime a coyote shows up, and I am 51 years old, been doing this for 41 years. I still get excited! Like a kid on Christmas morning! I love it!

Hope to meet you soon!
Gary

[cbluemel]

So I have been travelling this last two weeks. Thank you to Gary and Loren I enjoyed meeting you. We intend to join the club and make a go of this. jevans, please contact me and lets get together. my son nearly peed himself his first bear. i think if he did not believe it was going to eat him he would have missed. I can help you and your son with bear if you want.

[leper]

CD, here are a few tidbits.

Assume a coyote's hearing is like that of an owl. IMO it is 1-notch below that of an owl. Et an owl hears beep near everything. Coyotes miss very little in their surroundings.

A hunter should pay heed to their hearing ability & remain silent, best as possible once they are in the area. They plan to call. As Gary mentioned hide your vehicle.

Coyotes prefer cover over open areas. So expect them to be in cover, near cover, or heading to cover.

Coyotes prefer to be out of the wind vs in the wind. They'll use any & or all terrain features & or ground cover. To block the wind from blowing on their body. Specfically their face area.

Coyotes prefer to be on the down-wind vs on the up-wind. They use the "up-wind" mainly as a transition area. To get from one down-wind area to the next. They tend not to spend much time on the up-wind. When they are on the up-wind. More thant likely they will be on the move. Otherwise they will be seen facing cross-wind or angled down-wind, while on the up-wind. So the wind does NOT blow directly in their face & or ears.

Down-wind areas;
Coyotes prefer to bed, play, mill around & mate, ect... on the down-wind. Why is that? Well it is because the down-wind is often protected from the wind. Least wise it is not as windy there. Because the terrain & or it's ground cover, diminishs the wind. As they act as a wind brake. Coyotes do like their wind brake areas.

Most coyotes tend to bed down for the day. From right around pre-Sunrise up until 9-10am the next day. They'll bed down on/off, moving little. Up until around an hr before Sunset. Then most coyotes will get up & go on the hunt or travel. Hunting through out the night up until the next early am. Then back to bedding down again.

When parking your vehicle. Keep it hidden. Make little noise as possible, no talking. Watch where you step so you do NOT cast any more noise than you have too.

Most coyotes will be found on a down-wind area during the day light hrs. I suggest not exposing yourself to any of those areas. Because any coyote worth it's salt. Will surely be paying attention, if your not.

[goatheadcalls]

cbluemel, I would be more than happy to have you and your son come along and go and call some dogs in. Just let me know and we could hook up and go out

[hairofthebear]

I'm also a newbie to all this. Don't even own a gunyet, but have read and read and read. One of the things that I have latched on to with coyote hunting is to thoroughly research an area before you even get in the truck. I first get a general area in which I might want to go to. Then look at Topo maps and find an area where either creeks (two or more) or ridges come down a hill to funnels yotes to where my set up would be. This increases the chances of getting something. The most imporant thing I got from this one article is to setup where a coyote can come to the sound and yet be hidden as it comes in(example of a ditch or fence line). I know I'm getting some raised eye brows at this point since I don't hunt yet....but I followed this system a few days ago....even going to Google Earth and getting a bird's eye look at a specific area I had researched. I then walked into where a wanted to go to and this was a heavily used area where people walked their dogs all day long. There is major traffic within 1/4 mile so it was a good test for me. After 30 minutes of rabbit calls and a kiyi (on my first ever set-up) I called in a coyote to within 50 feet....could of hit it with a rock. I know I'm no pro and perhaps SW Idaho will be a completely different story (moving there this fall), but I will continue to use this same system. Going out again Wed. I have purchased an electronic call from Foxpro, which haven't used yet....but bringing in a yote on my first set up with a hand call was pretty cool....but I spent a couple hours researching the area first on my computer.

[rabid762x39]

I've got a tiny honey hole that I'll share. On Warm Springs Ave. turn onto Highland Valley Rd. Continue to the end of the road and park.

Hike up the bike path to the top of the hill. There's a small water trough along the path (been a while, beat around and you'll find it). Bring a call and a fuzzy wiggler and let the good times roll.


DO NOT HUNT THE HILL FACE OR ANYWHERE EAST (to the right of the foot trail headed up hill) as it is closed.