Northeastern Coyote Behavior

[Blues Boys]

I want to learn all I can about the behavior of these animals. My son and I are just getting into coyote hunting in New Hampshire/Vermont. During bear season this year we saw multiple coyotes on separate occasions and there signs can be found in the areas where I hunt.

1) Does anyone have experience calling yotes in the northeast? How well do they respond?
2) How do you locate coyotes?
3) Do you notice patterns when tracking yotes?
4) Any advice for finding yotes when there isn't any snow?
5) Do these yotes circle like a rabbit?

Thank you!

[Deff]

I don't know about Northeastern coyotes but we have larger ones here in the mountains of montana, I suspect they are similar. Locating them is not too much of a problem, most anywhere you go, they will be there! You can call them ----once. Most of the time they circle downwind to approach. You can trap them ----once. We had a long range caller/hunter/shooter working the ranch last year and will have another with an infrared scope night hunting them this winter. You have to keep changing up the technique to be successful. Here, in the wintertime they sometimes pack up like wolves to hunt deer. When that happens, they can beat up dogs pretty good! I have heard of folks in eastern Montana and the Dakotas running coyotes with hounds and have used my dogs to chase pairs of coyotes away from my calving pasture at night but I've never caught any that way. The best luck I have had hunting coyotes is with a decoy dog. I had a Bluetick that would go and harass a coyote until it got mad enough to chase her. She would come back to me limping along just out of the coyote's grip until she saw I had a clear shot, then she would dash out of the way. Sometimes I missed and she would chase the coyote(s) back down again and repeat the process. I don't know how that is taught. She just started doing it on her own!

[Blues Boys]

Interesting. Thank you for the reply. I appreciate what your saying about changing up the technique, I could see where that would be important. The breeder we got our last pups from is big into it out in New York state. They use mostly blueticks pursuing yotes in the snow. It grabbed my attention cause the yotes seem to be multiplying where Im at and you can hunt them all year. Interesting that you had a bluetick decoy dog, goes to show that these dogs are versatile.

[Blues Boys]

I've got this spot near home where I've seen (3) coyote cross the road during the night over the past few months. It seems like they have a routine. Is it common for coyotes to follow the same paths over and over? So far that is what I am seeing. That's not to call them careless though, they aren't easy to spot. Once they sense a person or vehicle they go away as quickly as possible no matter the direction.

[Blues Boys]

Figure I'll just keep blabbin' since nobody else has chimed in. We've covered a lot of ground in 3 sections this winter walking tracks with the pups in the snow and here's what we've learned. The coyote tracks we find lead us through thick wooded areas often near swampland. I do not think that they have necessarily been following the same paths however I do see tracks in the same general areas.

[Beebout-it]

So are your pup’s trailing at all? Opening on the tracks? Had any good races?

[Blues Boys]

They look for a trail the second I dump the box and If there isn't a track to put them on they will scan the area as we travel searching for something to pursue. Snow helps me know what they are on so I can keep them focused and off the trash. So far, one dog opens on tracks, the other one doesn't. They have gotten in (2) short races, one was trash and I had to break them off, the other I'm near certain was a genuine yote race

[Beebout-it]

Sounds like you’re moving forward! Is it legal to put out a bait pile where you live? If you could spot a coyote and get them on it quickly that should help.

[Blues Boys]

We're trying! We can bait em, hound em and hunt em at night, and we can do it all year round.