HELP!! Just Blew My Stand and I Don’t Know What To Do

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Ezana4CE

Ezana4CE

Member
Jan 15, 2021
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7,961
Texas, United States
Got a call about 2 coyotes stalking calves in the herd. Made a stand farther from the herd a couple hours ago and couldn’t lure the yotes away. Made 2nd stand at location rancher told me he spotted them. Found a sound sequence that worked and this pair came in hot!! Problem is I setup in a thicket about 5 yards where they came out of the tree line. That was a helluva rush but I don’t know what to do from here. Im still in the thicket with my Evol. Help would be appreciated. I’ve silenced my caller and I’m standing behind my tripod watching the herd and pasture. They’re using this ridge line atop this hill for cover. I’m set up right on it in the trees on the right. 
My caller is in the middle of the pasture. It’s about 400 250-300 yards across from treeline to treeline. Too many calves here to let them off. Need to kill one. Should I stay or leave and try again tonight?
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I’m back out here contemplating whether I want to make another stand or pack it in. I tried twice and the horses are having NONE OF IT!! The rancher will be happy to hear this. Got to use my thermal scanner in a practical situation. It helped me identify a horse and keep from getting trampled. I set up a stand in the middle of a pasture beside a fallen tree and beneath a tall pine sapling. I used yote calls then animals distress calls. I brought in an owl and horses. The head stallion set his ears back, made loud wheezing warning sounds, and kept pacing trying to locate the call (animals). It didn’t matter if it was a yote or a rabbit, he was on it. I had to keep muting it to keep him from trampling it. Interesting night. I heard some yotes about a half mile away, but the horses wouldn’t allow me to call them in. This is a good thing. 


I went over some footage earlier and saw a yote in one of the areas they’re known to frequent around this time of night. Similar pattern as before. Looks like the same dog. So far I know there are two and suspect a third. These dogs are smart and fast. This is hell trying to make a stand around domestic and wild animals, in the dark, with oilfield noise droning in the background when I can’t set up in the areas I’m familiar with. I am employing new tactics as well so I’m well out of my comfort zone. For now I’m sitting and listening. Call it reconnaissance. 
 
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More photos from earlier. Earlier my caller was hung from a tree limb on the edge of a thicket about 80 yards out from the one I was posted in. I posted between the caller and where the two yotes emerged from the woods. 
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Some bones of “who-knows-what?” in front of the thicket I was posted in. A sign that some sort of predators have been active in the area for some time. I also saw some very faint coyote tracks in the mud in the pasture. It rained yesterday.
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My gear packed up outside of the thicket I was in just before I called it quits earlier today after getting busted by the yotes.

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@Ezana4ce are you using a call at all? In the far past I had success with a call and using a stuffed animal as a decoy, i.e. for a rabbit or something. It might sound corny but it gives the yotes a reference and you a predetermined range to shoot from.
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@Blackpaw Yes. You asked that just as I was updating the post with pics of it. Haven’t tried the stuffed animal. I’d like a moving decoy, but I’m sure if I had one the owl would’ve grabbed it tonight. I caught a glimpse of a large winged raptor swooping down above my caller as I played a small mammal distress sound. I assume it was an owl. I wasn’t looking up, it just hppened to swoop down so I have to figure out how to keep my decoys once I get one. I was looking at replacement decoy prices the other day and they aren’t the cheapest things. 

@qball I’m trying. I really don’t know what I’m doing. I’m trying things that other hunters suggest, but most of those guys work in pairs or groups. 



 
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Sounds like a lot of fun. It’s awesome when the heart gets racing. It’s what it’s all about. Horses are pretty cool.

i’m assuming that you’re using very good scent management for yourself.

is this a baiting situation? I imagine it would be affective.

mike
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@flintsack Fun can’t even describe this feeling. I’m having a great time. No it isn’t a baiting situation as far as using food. The calves are bait enough. I was actually discussing baiting with another member last night. With so many young calves I have to be very careful. I’m honestly doing a lot of observation of animal behavior as well. I find it simply fascinating. In the stand that I blew earlier I observed and learned so much in about an hour or two it’s uncanny! I can only imagine what that’s like on the cannis side. 


As for scent control, earlier I played the wind very well and had the sun to my back. Consequently, I believe that my shadow gave me away when I moved. When they came out it happened so fast that before my brain could even register the possibility that the motion I saw were coyotes so close to me, the first yote had turned around before I could start to lower my posterior to squat down. I mean it did an almost instant 180 degree turnaround back into the woods. By the time I’d squated down all the way and got a look at the second yote, we glanced at each other’s eyes and it followed the first one and all I could see on the first yote were feet and tail. I was shocked and had no idea what to do. I pulled my Evol off the tripod and sat on the ground with it - elbows on knees, adjusted my scope parallax to 10 yards (I think it was 10. 10 or 15 yards) and waited wondering what the hell my holdunder would be at such close range. I was full of adrenaline and no clue what I should be doing to lure them back out. This was one of those moments that let me know that YouTube videos are mostly edited and in real life hunters allow their sets to settle before re-engahing their prey. For me since I don’t know a lot about yote behavior I dropped the ball and ended up abandoning my stand.
 
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I would try the stuffed animal too…again it gives a focus point for the coyotes.
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Where’d you set your stuffed animal in relation to the caller? Did you use it at night, in the daytime, or during both times?
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Another toy that works are those motorized cat toys that have a weighted end with a flexible rod and it flops around. Tie a few chicken feathers or a rodent toy like a chew toy that looks like a small critter and play an electronic call. Be warned when they come for it it will be fast and they will try run with it. I would secure it some how. it will slow them up. Just play the sound that mimics the decoy.

speaker next to decoy and hiding a ways out. If you have the ability to trigger the call with the flopping it works better. But some times other predators come in. My buddies have had red tail hawks and bob cats attack the decoy.
 
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You could get a hang on stand to use, they aren’t too hard to use once you get used to it.

I have a lone wolf hang on stand that I use with hang on climbing sticks for deer hunting and I use a light weight petzl rock climbing harness along with a safety line and a lineman’s strap. 

You could get setup for $300 to $400 if you do some shopping or buy used. The plus is you would be setup for deer hunting too…


 
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