Missouri Outdoor

Even when called in close, coyotes are tough to kill with a shotgun. Stout loads are required.

“They’ve never been called on this ranch,” was the music-to-my-ears answer I got from the foreman of a ranch down in Old Mexico when I asked him about the local coyote population. Our primary mission there was to hunt Gould’s turkey, and since I had already bagged my gobbler, I was looking for something else to keep me busy for the next several days. It just so happened that I had brought along a mouth call that does a realistic job of imitating a terrified cottontail rabbit.

I had also brought along a supply of predator loads for my shotgun. When calling coyotes, I more often have a rifle in my hands, but since a rifle is not always available on shotgun hunts, I make sure my duffel bag contains something more potent than a load best suited for turkey, pheasant or quail. Twist my arm long enough and I’ll confess to the shotgun actually being more fun as a coyote gun because its limited range makes you wait until the incoming target is up close and personal before you can pull the trigger.

I don’t recall how many times we set up to call that day, but I do remember that at least one coyote came in on all except one setup. What really made it fun was that the fellow who was with me had never in his life called in coyotes. To say that he was beside himself with excitement is rather an understatement. One time a dog came in from behind us and was just about in our laps before we knew it was there. Another time I had a trio coming in together, loping along shoulder-to-shoulder across an open field.

“Wait until they are inside twenty yards, and take all three,” I whispered in my friend’s ear. But his first shot failed to drop the first one in its tracks, so while he was busy finishing the job he started, I bumped off the other two with a couple of shots from my pump gun.

The 12-gauge ammunition I used in Mexico was from Environ-Metal and called, appropriately enough, Dead Coyote. Loaded with No. T Hevi-Shot (about .20 caliber), the stuff works quite well for its intended purpose. The longest shot I attempted with it was just shy of fifty yards, and at that range I got complete broadside penetration with the dozen or so pellets that struck the shoulder/lung area of the coyote.

Nominal pellet counts for the three Environ-Metal loads are forty-two for the 23/4-inch shell, fifty for the 3-inch shell and fifty-four for the 31/2-inch shell. Remington’s new Wingmaster HD Predator load also contains T-size shot and is available in 3-inch and 31/2-inch loadings.

Choose the right load and lead shot is just as effective on coyotes as the nontoxic heavyweights and less expensive to boot. In my experience, BB (.18 caliber) is the smallest size to use, but larger shot sizes such as BBB (.19 caliber), T (.20 caliber) and No. 4 Buck (.24 caliber), with their higher energy levels, are better so long as pellet count and therefore pattern density is high enough to deliver multiple strikes to the relatively small vital area of a coyote out to forty yards or so. Getting a coyote in to forty yards, well, that’s a whole other story.

Calling coyotes into shotgun range takes attention to detail, from proper camouflage to stand location.

Choosing A Call:
Like other predators, the coyote can be brought into shooting range by imitating the distress calls of various small animals, and for obvious reasons you will have to coax them a bit closer when using a shotgun than when you’re using a rifle. I’ve used a C-3 Long Range Fox Call from Burnham Brothers for the past forty years, and it pulls coyotes in like a magnet by imitating the scream of a cottontail rabbit as it is being torn to pieces. During the past few months I’ve also been using with great success the new CompuCaller II, a digital call from the same company. I find my old mouth call to be just as effective at bringing in the yodel dogs, but I’ll have to admit the electronic caller does have its advantages. Pushing a button on a battery-powered remote controller is not as tiring as blowing a call for hours on end, and there’s the tactical edge as well. Like a turkey gobbler, a coyote is quite good at pinpointing the precise location of a call, and having the sound originate some distance away from the shooter is a definite advantage. Gary Roberson, owner of Burnham Brothers, recommends setting the caller fifty yards away when hunting with a rifle, and I find half that to be about ideal when using a shotgun. His unit has the best sound of any electronic caller I’ve ever used, and I’m sure the dozens of coyotes that have come to mine would agree if they were still around. You can see first-hand how effective it is by ordering the DVD “Eyes Front III.”

Getting The Shot:
Setting up to shotgun a coyote is a lot like setting up to call in a turkey gobbler, with one exception. Whereas a gobbler depends mostly on its excellent eyesight to keep it out of the roasting pan, the coyote has that plus a very sensitive nose that can sniff you out long before it’s within range. So, Rule No. 1 is to set up with the wind or breeze cooling your face as you look in the direction from which you expect a coyote to approach. Turkeys and coyotes are about even when it comes to detecting movement, but the eyes of a coyote are much more capable of separating the form of a hunter from his surroundings, even when that hunter is sitting absolutely motionless. This is why a camo pattern that makes you appear to be a natural part of the coyote’s home turf is so important.

By Layne Simpson

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