Coyote Finesse – Dave Martens and Dan Tone Turn the Volume Down and Nail This Pair
Dave Martens of Wildlife Callers Blog and his buddy Dan Tone of Apache Junction, Arizona teamed up for a day of mixed-bag predator calling just after our last heavy rain and snow storm. Two coyotes and one gray fox later, they’d had a great morning.
Dave and Dan figured they’d find some hungry & willing predators after five-days of hard rain and snow throughout the state. They headed into Arizona’s Unit 23 and in four wet & muddy stands, called in two coyotes and one gray fox. The coyotes pictured below both came right to the speaker in under five minutes. The gray fox came in super-quick too, stayed in tight cover, and ran out just as quick as he’d arrived.
Dan Tone - AKA "The Shotgun Sniper" and Two Excellent AZ Coyotes
The project for the day was to set up in good locations, keep the volume down, and see what some quiet calling would do. Dave kept the volume on his Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom at 1, 2, and 3 all of these stands.
Here is his calling sequence in more detail:
Dave varies quite a bit in the manner he runs his Wildlife Technologies e-caller. Some days he’s loud and aggressive and other times he’s running the mid volume range and lower. Something told him that a hungry coyote wouldn’t need a lot of coaxing this past weekend, so he started all of his stands on volume one for 1-2 minutes, volume two for 1-2 minutes, and then volume three for just about 30 seconds, dropping it back to volume two. He never touched the howls and used all prey distress. The prey distress sounds he used were (in this order):
Dave said both of these coyotes were working their way directly to the call (two separate stands). Dan rolled the first one at 20 yards from the speaker with his shotgun and a 3.5 inch load of #4 buckshot. On the second stand, Dan saw the coyote at about 100 yards, and thought it might be having second thoughts about coming over, so he whacked it with his rifle (he carries both).
Arizona Unit 23 - The Storm Breaks
The Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom & Two AZ Winter Coyotes
We get questioned all the time – “Am I calling too loudly?” “Am I not calling loud enough?” Ask a hundred callers and you’ll get a hundred answers. I prefer to call constantly with mid to high volume. However, Dave demonstrates here that some circumstances call for a finesse approach. Dave’s lengthy experience in the field and understanding of terrain put him in the right place with the right approach to calling. Nothing speaks for good tactics like success and two coyotes on the ground.
Thank you again for reading. If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. Please put your comments below.
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Good hunting to everyone,
Mark Healy
1-877-734-1010
Great catch… How does the buckshot do? Is there a lot of damage?
Ryan,
Good morning –
Not too bad at all. The worst thing is the number of small holes in the hide – but they are so small they usually don’t need any sewing.
If they are closer than 20 yards and the shot pattern is still tight, that can cause a real big hole. If they’re real close, let ‘em run a bit and then hammer them.
Thank you for reading,
Mark Healy
Short stack…scattered, smothered and covered.
Nice