Allen Morris of Payson, Utah, one of America’s best predator hunters, almost always places in the top 10 in the World Calling Championships of Predator Hunting. He and his hunting partner, Garvin Young, also have won several World Coyote Calling Contests.

After you’ve called-in a few coyotes, bought an electronic caller and had reasonable success with it, most predator hunters want to know, “How can I get better?” The real secret to becoming a better predator hunter is to spend more time scouting than you do calling and attempting to take the coyotes. The number-one message I try to get across to all predator hunters is that you can’t call or hunt an animal that’s not in the area where you’re attempting to take it. Therefore, the best way to be the most successful in the shortest time is to hunt coyotes in regions where coyotes live. If you’ve seen coyotes when you’ve been deer hunting or turkey hunting, those are good places to start looking. Next, I search for fresh tracks, especially after a snow, and fresh scat (fresh coyote droppings). After you know you’re in a place where coyotes are living, you have to search for the best place to set-up to call. I describe this process as picking fights you know you can win. You have to set-up in a place where you know you can take the coyote. You’re not going to take an animal that you can’t see. Therefore, when you’re calling bobcats, coyotes and/or foxes, you have to try and call them in a place where you can see them, regardless of whether you’re hunting in the East or the West. The real secret to hunting coyotes is not only how well you can call, but if you can call a coyote in to a place where you can shoot him.

Here are the five things that I look for when I’m setting-up to take coyotes:

1) Elevation – I want to set-up in a place that’s a bit higher than the area to where I’m calling, which means getting on one side of a creek bank or on top of a small hill.

2) Trails – Look for openings in those trails. You want to try to call a coyote down a trail that it normally travels into an opening through which it often will pass.

3) The Sun at My Back – When the coyote comes in below me, (elevation), he’ll have to look-up to see where the sounds are coming from, which means he has to look into the sun. When he’s looking into the sun, he can’t see you as well as he can if he isn’t looking into the sun.

4) The Correct Wind – I always use some type of odor-controlling products, such as odor-killing spray and detergent, to kill and mask my human odor, but I still want to hunt with the wind in my face. In a perfect world, you always set-up with the wind in your face. However, since we don’t live or hunt in a perfect world, sometimes we have to set-up to call downwind. I don’t mind calling downwind as long as that coyote has to come out into an opening where I can see him first. When you have to call downwind or across the wind, that’s when using odor-controlling products for your clothes and body and staying as scent-free as you possibly can really pays-off.

5) Camouflage – I always hunt in camouflage from head to toe. The most-important parts of the body that you absolutely have to keep camouflaged when predator hunting are your face and your hands. The most-critical part of keeping a coyote from seeing you is to not move. However, you have to move to call and take the shot. Therefore, when you move, you need camouflage to mask your movements. I’ve hunted and taken coyotes in plaid shirts and blue jeans by sitting extremely still and having my face and my hands camouflaged. You have to camouflage those hands, while you’re calling. When you have a big face like mine, anytime I move my face, I’m flashing a big mirror at the coyotes. Yes, camouflage is important, and I strongly recommend you wear camouflage from head to toe, especially on your hands and face.

Predator hunting is now easier than ever. Using an electronic predator caller and a remote and understanding how and why coyotes come-in to predator calls and decoys can provide plenty of off-season hunting for the muzzleloader enthusiast. You can take predators with your CVA muzzleloader rifles and shotguns or convert your CVA Apex to a centerfire rifle with a .22-250-, a .243- or a .223-caliber Bergara barrel. If you have a Savage 110, a Remington 700 or a Thompson/Center Encore rifle, you also can purchase a Bergara barrel in these three calibers to take predators.

 Editor’s Note: Allen Morris of Payson, Utah, one of America’s best predator hunters, almost always places in the top 10 in the World Calling Championships of Predator Hunting. He and his hunting partner, Garvin Young, have won three World Coyote Calling Contests – back-to-back in 2007 and 2008 and for the first time in 1997. No team had won three World Coyote Calling Contests before, and it was also the first back-to-back win. So, if anyone knows how to call and take coyotes, it’s Morris.

 The question I’m often asked in seminars is, “How do you get started predator hunting?” My standard answer is, “You need to study the animal.” One of the biggest advantages that a first-time predator hunter has today is that you can get instructional videos. You can learn from professional coyote hunters what coyotes are likely to do and how to call them. You really need to know where they live, what they eat, and what they do at different times of the year. Remember that when you’re calling any animal, you’re either using the sound that they want to respond to or trying to reproduce a sound that they make. As a predator caller, you can make the sounds of the animals that the predators like to eat such as rabbits, doe or fawn deer, mice and birds. You also can learn to howl and make sounds like a coyote. The sport of predator hunting is growing, because not only can you sound like a coyote, but you also can make sounds of the animals that the coyote eats, so that you can take a shot at the coyote. Nothing can be more exciting than having an animal come running to you when you call.

 You can blow a rabbit-in-distress call just like you’d blow on a kazoo, but you won’t call-in any coyotes with that type of blowing. However, if you blow from your diaphragm and put emotion in that call, you can get coyotes, foxes and bobcats to come to you. Start-off blowing the call softly, and then get louder and louder. Use your hand as a cup over the end of the call. You want to make that call sound like a baby crying. When a baby cries, it doesn’t give out one loud blast as, “Whaaaaaaaaaaa!” When you blow your predator call, don’t blow one long continuous call. The way a baby cries is, “Wh-y, wh-y, wh-yyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” There’s no better training for a predator hunter than to listen to a baby cry and attempt to produce those same cries with a predator caller. I’ve actually known predator hunters who’ve recorded their babies’ crying, taken that recording out into the field, played it and had coyotes come to the sounds. When the coyote hears that baby cry, I don’t think he’s smart enough to know that it’s a baby crying. What he does know is there is some type of critter in distress. He usually can catch and eat any kind of critter that’s wounded, hurt or in pain. If you can cry like a baby on a predator call, you can call-in a coyote. Once you’ve called-in a bobcat or a coyote with a hand call, you’ll be hooked on predator hunting. Then you may want to start exploring using electronic callers. The natural evolution of a predator hunter is to buy an electronic caller that will produce more and different sounds, and that can be operated remotely.

 Predator hunting is now easier than ever. Using an electronic predator caller and a remote and understanding how and why coyotes come-in to predator calls and decoys can provide plenty of off-season hunting for the blackpowder enthusiast. You can take predators with your CVA muzzleloading rifle and shotgun or convert your CVA Apex to a centerfire rifle with a .22-250, a .243 or a .223 caliber Bergara barrel. If you have a Savage 110, a Remington 700 or a Thompson/Center Encore rifle, you also can purchase a Bergara barrel in these three calibers to take predators.

We’ve explained earlier the need for predator hunters on lands being managed for deer and turkey and have provided the latest research by biologist Cory VanGilder on the effects of coyotes on deer populations. Now, let’s look at some tips for taking coyotes from one of the nation’s top predator hunters, Steve DeMers of Whitehall, Montana, a wildlife specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). DeMers hunts coyotes to decrease coyote populations and reduce the damage they do to crops and wildlife. Here are some tips that will help you take more coyotes this season with your CVA muzzleloader rifle and a .22-250, a .243 or a .223 Bergara barrel.

When you’ve fine-tuned your rifle so that it’s driving tacks, you really don’t want to change anything about the gun, because accuracy depends on consistency. Regardless of how far you can shoot accurately, if you don’t have a target, accuracy won’t count. Although Steve DeMers can shoot at distances out to 300 yards or more, he’s developed coyote-calling tactics that consistently pay off for him. “I use an electronic call,” DeMers explains. “But I won’t tell you the name of the call because I don’t want other people to start using the same caller. I’ve learned from experience that the more a particular brand-name call is used with coyotes, the less-effective it becomes. Hopefully I’m utilizing an electronic caller that many other predator hunters don’t. To be effective, you have to give the coyotes different sounds than what they’ve heard previously.”

DeMers prefers the coyote howl call, the pup squeal and other coyote sounds rather than prey-species calls in his area, except in the dead of winter. “We have plenty of mice, deer and agriculture in the region I hunt,” DeMers advises. “So, the coyotes here rarely search for food. When I use a coyote sound like a howl or a pup squeal, I’m triggering a territorial response from the coyotes. The animals in my section of the country are much-more interested in protecting their territories than finding meals. To stop the coyotes when they run-in to the call, I yell at the coyote with my natural voice or howl to it.  If you let a coyote get too close, he’ll often come running-in and be much harder to stop, so you can take a shot. Many predator hunters make the same mistakes as others because they get the same information from similar sources. I buy many instructional predator-hunting videos to see how other predator hunters teach people who buy videos to hunt. I want to learn which types of callers and sounds the video instructors are recommending. Then I can avoid using the same callers and sounds everyone has seen on the videos. Too, I try to insure that the sounds I buy for my electronic callers are made by animals and not by hunters blowing through mouth calls. The best sounds you can purchase are new sounds from different live animals each year.”

Another secret DeMers has learned is not to alert the coyotes of his presence. He prefers to use electric hunting vehicles when hunting coyotes, because they don’t give-off emissions or noise, other than the sound of the tires rolling over the ground. “I’ve been looking at using an electric motorcycle, because I believe it will be far-more quiet than an electric hunting vehicle,” DeMers says. “You have to remember that coyotes are highly intelligent, they learn quickly, and they’re excellent at dodging hunters without being seen. So, when the coyotes hear a gas-powered ATV, they know that a predator (a hunter) is on the prowl. Even though I try to keep the coyotes from hearing or seeing me, I still may make a long hike into the area where I’ll be hunting and stalk and crawl quietly to reach a position where I can set-up to hunt the coyotes. The more stealthful you are in your approach to the site where you’ll call the coyotes, the greater your odds will be for taking a coyote.”

Predator hunting is now easier than ever. Using an electronic predator caller and a remote and understanding how and why coyotes come-in to predator calls and decoys can provide plenty of off-season hunting for the muzzleloader enthusiast. You can take predators with your muzzleloader rifles and shotguns or convert your CVA Apex to a centerfire rifle with a .22-250-, a .243- or a .223-caliber Bergara barrel. If you have a Savage 110, a Remington 700 or a Thompson/Center Encore rifle, you also can purchase a Bergara barrel in these three calibers to take predators.

Cory VanGilder’s research for his master’s degree in wildlife management at the University of Georgia proved that coyotes can have a devastating impact on deer herds. Year-round coyote hunting is permitted in many states in the South and the Midwest, often in farming and ranching communities. This type of hunting provides an opportunity for CVA muzzleloader and conventional-weapon hunters to hunt all season. If you want more land to hunt deer and turkey next season, hunt these predators on private lands where seasons are open.

How and Why VanGilder Conducted His Research:
VanGilder’s conducted his research on 2,000 acres of deer-rich territory in northeast Alabama. VanGilder collected information from trail cameras and hunter observations to estimate the ratio of fawns produced by the does on the property before implementing an intensive predator-removal program. The predator removal resulted in an increase in the fawn-to-doe ratio by 189%. Before the removal of predators from the property, the fawn-to-doe ratio was low, which might have been caused by the 10-year intensive management of the property based on quality deer-management guidelines. During that time, the landowner had held a major doe harvest to reduce the deer density on the property, which although normally advantageous to growing bigger and better bucks, caused the fawn-to-doe ratio to drastically decrease. “This drastic drop in doe-to-fawn production may have been the result of having both high deer and coyote-predator densities on the property,” VanGilder explains. “When the landowner reduced the number of deer on the property, he still had a high number of predators, primarily coyotes and bobcats, taking the same number of fawns as when the deer numbers were higher, causing the doe-to-fawn ratio (the number of fawns that survived after birth) to drop dramatically. After the predators were removed, the doe-to-fawn ratio increased, with each doe producing at least one fawn per year, and some does producing two fawns per year.” From studying the scat collected from woods roads on the property, VanGilder and his team of scientists named the coyote as the number-one predator of the fawns with some bobcat predation. “We found very-little deer hair at all in the bobcat’s scat,” mentions VanGilder.

How the Predators Were Removed:
To remove the predators from the study area, the landowner hired a professional group of predator trappers, who trapped the property for predators after trapping season on a special-collection permit. In 6 months, 22 coyotes and 10 bobcats were removed from the 2,000-acre study area.
“Coyotes can replenish a region really fast, especially when there are many transient coyotes in an area and not much empty space without coyotes,” VanGilder comments. “Our study was conducted from February to July, and the fawning period in this section of the United States (Alabama) was in August. We wanted to time our trapping to just before the fawns were born to have the greatest positive impact on fawn production.”
The landowner continued the trapping program, asking hunters to take coyotes on sight. VanGilder returned 1-year later, and a camera survey revealed a large new crop of 1-1/2-year-old bucks and does on the property. “Our study had a positive impact on deer production on the property where we removed the predators,” VanGilder reports.

Predator hunting is now easier than ever. Using an electronic predator caller and a remote and understanding how and why coyotes come-in to predator calls and decoys can provide plenty of off-season hunting for the muzzleloader enthusiast. You can take predators with your muzzleloader rifles and shotguns or convert your CVA Apex to a centerfire rifle with a .22-250-, a .243- or a .223-caliber Bergara barrel. If you have a Savage 110, a Remington 700 or a Thompson/Center Encore rifle, you also can purchase a Bergara barrel in these three calibers to take predators.

Gaining access to quality private land where you can hunt deer and turkey can be difficult. You may have to pay a lot of money to lease the land and have exclusive rights to hunt it. Or, you can solve major problems for private landowners who will in return give you access to hunt their properties. Right now, in the world of deer and turkey hunting, you often hear the word management. You may assume it’s referring to managing the habitat through controlled burns, planting green fields and fruit and nut trees and reducing the number of does on the property to provide more food and habitat for the bucks. The factor most-often left out of a quality deer-management program is predator control. With your CVA rifle and Bergara barrel, you can gain access to thousands of acres of private land to hunt by becoming a predator hunter before and after deer season.

Many southern and western states permit coyote hunting year-round. In other states where there’s a coyote season, you can talk with a landowner, who can apply for and receive a crop-depredation permit, which will allow the removal of predators out of season. CVA presents this latest coyote research in hopes that you’ll enjoy more days of hunting. A widely-held notion by both deer hunters and wildlife biologists in the past was that coyotes had little-to-no effect on deer populations. However, after reading Cory VanGilder’s report from his master’s-degree thesis at the University of Georgia and learning of the research he’s conducted on the impact of coyotes on deer herds, we’ve learned that this assumption isn’t true. When you start managing your deer herd by reducing the number of does on the property, you actually may be hurting your deer herd’s ability to reproduce, if you don’t remove the predators. Over the years, wildlife managers have learned that you can’t manage one species of animal without impacting all the other animals in that area. You’ll see that unless you manage the predators on the property you hunt at the same time and with the same intensity that you manage the deer on your property, your deer-management program may decrease the number of deer your herd can produce.

VanGilder of Exeter, Missouri, has a master’s degree in wildlife management from the University of Georgia and specializes in managing land for wildlife. Currently he’s the ranch manager and wildlife biologist for the Big Horn Ranch in southwest Missouri (www.thebighornranch.com). His job is to identify factors that affect the game populations on the ranch and determine the most-effective ways to influence those factors to produce more and bigger deer, turkeys and other game animals for his hunters. VanGilder has learned that predator hunters can be an effective tool in deer management, especially trophy-deer management. Most hunters don’t realize the impact of coyotes on their deer herds, because the coyotes do the most damage during the spring of the year when few, if any, deer hunters are in the woods. At this time of year, young, helpless fawns are born across much of the United States, although many southern deer aren’t born until August. Female coyotes also have tremendous needs for a large quantity of food to recover from birthing their pups in the springtime and to feed those pups as they begin to grow in the spring. VanGilder’s study has revealed a definite need for more predator hunters to take more coyotes, especially in areas where landowners and hunting clubs manage their deer herds for quality or trophy bucks.

Predator hunting is now easier than ever. Using an electronic predator caller and a remote and understanding how and why coyotes come-in to predator calls and decoys can provide plenty of off-season hunting for the blackpowder enthusiast. You can take predators with your muzzleloader rifles and shotguns or convert your CVA Apex to a centerfire rifle with a .22-250-, a .243- or a .223-caliber Bergara barrel. If you have a Savage 110, a Remington 700 or a Thompson/Center Encore rifle, you also can purchase a Bergara barrel in these three calibers to take predators.