Friendly Coyote Calls for Early Season Coyote Hunting

Early fall is a great time for coyote hunting. There are a lot of young coyotes out on their own for the first time, and they're likely to make mistakes. Take advantage of young coyotes' mistakes by talking them into coming home with you. Below are some tips for using your coyote call to your greatest advantage.

Bob Severe is a predator hunting expert and he relies on coyote calls to pull early fall coyotes into gun range. Here are some common coyote calls Severe uses in early fall.

Just Sayin' Hello
The simple bark is a nonthreatening sound and a good way to start your calling. Severe suggests using the Knight & Hale Lead Dawg. "Place your lips about halfway up the reed and apply pressure, then give a quick huff of air by quickly tightening the abdomen and saying "what."

So, How Ya' Doin'?
Following up the simple contact bark is a friendly howl. This says "maybe we ought to get together." To make a friendly howl, place the lips at least halfway up the reed and start out with a quick puff of air. Keep blowing for a few seconds then let the sound taper off all the way to the end. A friendly howl starts out gradually then gets higher in the middle. "There is nothing sharp or quick about it," Severe said, "just keep it a long, lonely melodic sound with no sharp accents."

By putting some friendly barks and howls together you can make one of the most useful sounds, what Severe calls the invitation coyote call. This is used to get a coyote or a group of coyotes to respond to you and come slipping in to see who is sending out the invite.

The suggested sequence is such: two long friendly howls, a friendly bark, a short pause, then a short friendly howl followed by a longer howl. "In the early fall, mixing this with some prey in distress sounds brings those young coyotes running," Severe said.

Combo Calling
One of the most effective calling sequences for early fall includes the barks and howls of a coyote mixed with a prey-in-distress sound. Here's how Severe likes to do this:

Start with a couple quick barks then go directly into a prey-in-distress sound, then a few more barks.

"This can be done on the Lead Dawg alone, since it's a multi sound call that mimics a coyote when used as an open reed call and a jackrabbit-sized prey in distress call when the endpiece is reversed and inserted into the call," Severe said. "I also like using the Lead Dawg and holding a Double Threat predator call in my free hand, then quickly switching to is after a few barks on the Lead Dawg.

"You're setting up the scenario of a young coyote closing in on a rabbit, then catching it," Severe said. "A lot of times those young dogs just can't stand it and have to bark as they're closing in on the bunny."