Night time Coyote hunting help

[Greg Nolan]

With all the knowlege amoung us someone can, I'm sure, help me get set up for shooting coyotes at night. I have a pack of coyotes that come around only at night because I thinned out the stupid ones that come out during the day and evening time. I have an open field of fire of about 100 yards but since I can't legally buy a night vision scope here in Kalifornia I can only look at them through night vision binoculars. What kind of light or lazer sight or other method will work for me? It's going to be used on either the Win. or Wby. Vanguard. as a designated coyote gun.
Thanks
Greg

 

[Guy Miner]

"I can't legally buy a night vision scope here in Kalifornia"

Good grief. No wonder I moved all those years ago. Sigh. California is a wonderful chunk of real estate and there's some fine folks who live there, but the laws are getting real crazy. Wrong folks are in charge. Sad. I go "home" to visit pretty often, but am very glad I don't live there anymore. Dang.

OK - back on target - so to speak - with night-time coyote shooting. No night scope eh? Hmmm... So that rules out all the IR scopes too I'd guess? Phooey. OK - we're back to two things that I can think of:

Making the most of natural/ambient light. A good quality scope with a large objective lens can work wonders. I've been real impressed with what I can see through my 6x Leupold, with the 42mm objective lens in the dark. I wonder if it does better than most variable power scopes? Does it have fewer lenses? Don't know - but it's pretty effective in very low light situations. There are other scopes that also do well. Add an illuminated reticle. One that can be turned waaaaay down. Last thing you want is a big, bright reticle overwhelming the image of the target. I've found that just a faint dot or crosshairs is often enough for decent shooting.

Or... According to an interesting buddy of mine, even coyotes will often hold still at a sudden application of bright light. I'm SURE he figured that out while coyote hunting, not spotlighting deer. Well, pretty sure... BTW, he's also been known to zing a coyote with tracers from his .223 AR-15... I'm sure that's legal and safe too. Absolutely sure! :grin:

So - consider having a portable BRIGHT source of white light and when you see 'em, zing 'em with the light, followed very quickly by a bullet.

Just thoughts... Guy

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

Get a spotlight and take a friend! Although you may have to shoot at a running target...

That can be lots of fun though I am not sure its legal in Kaliforn I.A.

I feel bad for you fellas there and fear that Oregon is headed the same direction. Hardly a month goes by that I do hear about or read personally from the pen of some tree hugging ignorant talking about all the condors and eagles we are killing by using lead bullets. Drives me crazy.

 

[Greg Nolan]

Thanks
A light source sounds like the answer. Something with a switch on the rifle somewhere . I'll check that out. I've seen some of those advertised.. Oh Yeah, tracers are a no no also. We might start shooting down satelites or UFOs . ET might become endangered :roll:
Thanks
Greg

 

[JD338]

Greg,

I call coyotes at night. By law, I have to use a shotgun at night si I use Dead Coyote hevi shot loads. I also have a tactical light mount that holds a Surefire G2 flashlight. I made a red filter for it and it lights up their eyes like brake lights and it does not spook them. My longest kill is 55 yds.
If you can use a rifle you re all set. Lithe them up with a Surefire light and send it.

One other suggestion would be to pick up a road kill. Leave it in your shooting lane and wait. It shouldn't take too long and you will be smokin' yotes.

JD338

 

[cloverleaf]

From what Ive read....."red" lights are the ticket. One of our occasional forum members "Bobcat" I think, was a big dog on the web site "Texas Predator Posse". I used to hang out there a lot. Those guys are fanatical about there song dogs. Ive kinda crossed them off my "bucket list" so Im not there much any more, but they are a good crowd. Primos makes a red light that will clamp to your scope with a switch on the grip (wherever) of your rifle. Never done that myself. I have found that on a good full moon night my Leupold VXII is bright enough if there is good snow cover....Almost bright enough with out the snow. Might be worth a try. No snow in California I expect. CL

 

[Guy Miner]

Kind of depends on where one is, in California. Big place, lots of snow in the mountains. Used to ski and snowshoe/backpack there every winter. Lots of coyotes too!

 

[Bruce Mc]

Guy, Leupold's website claims the 6x 42mm has the best twilight factor of any american made scope. They claim a good following in Europe for late evening hunts from blinds.

The red lights are good. I 've killed a number of yotes using different lights. One was just a red plastic cover for a spotlight. Just don't use it too much. Wait till ya smell their breath.

 

[6mm Remington]

Greg the roadkill idea is a really good one! I was traveling down to my coyote spot a few years ago and stopped to pick up a road-killed whitetail deer as bait. It was before it even got light out. My friend and I stopped and put this deer where the rancher who's land we were hunting on would be able to see if from his house and when he left he would drive right past it about 100 yards off the road. I figured it would double as an attractant for him so he could keep the numbers down.

We dropped her off in a flat spot and came back two hours later after trying some calling, and there was a ring of hay around her and she was right in the middle. The ring was roughly 50 yards across in diameter. There were cows completely circling the dead deer and in the middle of it all were 3 coyotes feeding at about 9:30 AM on a bright sunny winter day. I was a little surprised they found her so quickly, and that they had no problems coming out right in broad daylight! We pretended we were like a farm truck and the cows parted as we entered the circle and the coyotes did not want leave the deer. We litterally drove within 25 yards of them before they would move off. We just slowly pushed towards them in the pickup and the wave of cows parted as we went through and the coyotes stopped out at about 100 yards and sat down and looked at us. We shot two and lost one before they got away. Tracked the hit one for about a mile in the snow and never saw him.

If you dropped a deer off at dusk, you would have critters on there in an hour or less I would bet!

 

[YoteSmoker]

I got into calling and shooting predators at night this past winter. Red, Amber, and Green works real good. White light is not your friend. Canines see different lightwaves/colors than humans. I use a red 900 Lumin LED 1" scope light with a 250 yard throw. It has a "halo shield" which keeps the light from spilling out and shadowing the gun barrel. The light is very powerful and will identify the animal out to 100 yards easy and shine up their eyes to 250. I also wore a Nite-Lite coon light with red pop cover strapped to my head for scanning. You want to keep the light on the whole time you are on stand to create a barrier between you and the animal. I point the gun above the animal and bring the crosshairs down on them where I can put the crosshairs on the target and shoot keeping them in the halo of the bright light. I used my 22 hornet Encore with a 3-9x40 duplex scope and it worked great. Low noise, low recoil, and plenty good to as far as I will id and shoot an animal in the dark.

Here's a link to a discussion and video you may find interesting. There is a ton of info on night calling and predator hunting in general also. Cree makes the same light for much less money and you can find more info than you ever wanted to know about lights from guys that have tried them. http://www.predatormastersforums.com/fo ... w=1#UNREAD

 

[YoteSmoker]

Here is a picture of my set up. I am going to sell the nite lite and get another LED light of some type that can be worn on my head and a handheld for scanning when not the shooter. My buddies and I took turns as the "shooter" between sets and it worked out pretty good.

 

[SJB358]

Greg,

I call coyotes at night. By law, I have to use a shotgun at night si I use Dead Coyote hevi shot loads. I also have a tactical light mount that holds a Surefire G2 flashlight. I made a red filter for it and it lights up their eyes like brake lights and it does not spook them. My longest kill is 55 yds.
If you can use a rifle you re all set. Lithe them up with a Surefire light and send it.

One other suggestion would be to pick up a road kill. Leave it in your shooting lane and wait. It shouldn't take too long and you will be smokin' yotes.

JD338

NY used to be the same way, no centerfire rifles, so we used a red light, a shotgun loaded with heavy #4's and a 22 magnum with a crosshair illuminator. We never used to hunt yotes during the day, all night time hunting. We still use the same set up for the most part, just with a Surefire now and a 22-250 instead of a 22 Mag. Works better for when they stand out a little. I still love to hunt them at night. It is one of the best cheap thrills of hunting and really helps getting through the Winter! Scotty

 

[usmc 89]

I coyote hunt at night a lot. I have found that coyotes are a lot bolder at night than they are any other time. I like to first use a locator call this let's me know where they are and what direction they are coming from. After a locator I use a challenge howl this call does two things 1 this brings them in close before they challenge you making there location known. 2 usually they will hang up and challenge several times this give you the chance to pinpoint the location so finding them with the light is that much easier. I prefer the vocal calling for the fact when you use a rabbit or any distress call they tend to want to circle on you. I have found a challenge produces a more direct approach. I use a foxpro caller with programmable sounds this makes it easy to handle your rifle and light with both hands. Hope this helps.

 

[SJB358]

Great advice Jeff, could not have said it any better. This is what we had done for years and it works, well. Scotty

 

[Powerstroke]

We have hours upon hours of calling and driving @ night hunting yotes. We have yet to use anything but a standard white light. The majority of our yotes here have been shot at once or 6 times in their life, so the sight of a vehicle, they have hit 6th gear with the turbo's fully spooled!

The light works great to locate that quick flash of their eyes - ( yes, this takes two people )
Once you have one spotted, we always turn the light off immediately. When the shooter is ready, the light can come back on and they will generally be close to the same spot. More times that not if they take off, a quick "LOUD" whistle will cause them to put the brakes on for that split second. We've taken numerous yotes this way for years.

NOTE: Distance is a *%&^%)(& to judge correctly @ night.