3 must-know tactics for calling in coyotes

#2  WIND MANAGEMENT

Although coyotes trust their ears and eyes to help identify anything of interest, they live by their noses to tell them definitively what’s making a particular sound. That means they’ll usually circle downwind of a caller to pick up an identifying scent. If they catch wind of human scent, they’re gone. With this in mind, you want to set up so that your scent is blown out into an open field or an ice-covered lake—anywhere that requires a curious coyote to expose itself.

While two hunters working together can keep a 360-degree watch around a calling set-up, a single hunter must pay close attention to the downwind side. Tie a six-inch length of string near the end of your rifle barrel to monitor the wind direction.

Tie a length of string toward the end of your rifle barrel to help determine wind direction

Also keep in mind that the wind can betray you while you’re walking to your calling spot. That means you need to have a good idea where the coyotes are hanging out at various times of the day. At the crack of dawn, they’ll be moving from a feeding area to cover, while during the daytime, they’ll typically be in patches of brush, trees or any other thermal cover. And on cold clear days, coyotes will often lie out in the sunshine, soaking up rays.