Coyote Howling Techniques – Northern Iowa Callers Jim and Justin Blauwet Turn the Tables on Wary Dogs
You’ve just dropped a bunch of money on a new caller. People around town tell you that the local coyotes just won’t come to a call anymore – “they’ve all heard a call a dozen times”. What do you do? Jim and Justin Blauwet use coyote vocalizations and leave the screaming rabbit sounds alone. Here’s their tactic that’s worked several times.
If a regular dog comes a runnin’ when it hears a can opener in the kitchen (a conditioned response), then it stands to reason that a coyote can also be conditioned by fooling it with a prey distress call, and then allowing it to barely escape with it’s life amid a hail of bullets.
That lucky coyote might still come to investigate a screamin’ rabbit sound, but the chances of it running in full-blast time and again are diminished with every negative encounter or impression – simple conditioning. Because of Mother Nature’s mixed message – sometimes the screamin’ sound is natural and associated with food – sometimes the screamin’ comes with smelly lumps of camouflage shaped like humans and loud bangs from predator rifles – coyotes naturally become conditioned to be cautious.
Justin Blauwet and His January Iowa Coyote
Using their new Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom 15 electronic predator call, the Blauwet’s have called several of the “uncallable” coyotes. If you own Other Brands of Predator Callers
Here’s how they do it:
Jim Blauwet called and told me the vast majority of callers in his area use the same ol’, same ol’ rabbit distress over and over and sometimes get lucky, but most of the time they don’t see a thing. So, on his first stand with his new Mighty Atom 15, he started with just 3 or 4 Adult Female Communicative Howls. He got a response right away from a one or two coyotes. Jim & his son Justin sat quiet for about 5 full minutes.
After five minutes had passed, Jim hit the Adult Male Communicative for 3 or 4 howls. Two coyotes answered right away. One of the coyotes was very close and the other seemed further away. Most guys, me included, would have hammered out another howl right away. Jim, knowing that these coyotes had been called before, chose to sit tight and quiet for another five full minutes.
Jim and Justin had been scanning hard for approaching coyotes and hadn’t seen a thing up to this point. Jim then used the Adult Male Territorial Howl and got another immediate response from a single coyote. Jim told me the coyote was very close at this point, and the only thing separating them was a small ridge. Jim was tempted to hit another howl, but thought better of himself and sat for another five full minutes. Jim told me the day was getting old and the bright orange sunset over the snowy, white-capped landscape was absolutely stunning.
Nothing had come into view yet, and Jim let out a Beta Male Challenge Howl. Again he got a quick response from a coyote that had snuck in very close. Jim figured it was just a matter of time before the coyote trotted in, so he sat still for another five minutes.
At the end of five minutes, Jim decided to try and close the deal with the Adult Coyote Distress sound. As soon as he hit the Coyote Distress, he saw the coyote emerge on the top of the ridge and start downhill toward the Mighty Atom. Jim said the coyote stalled out and at about 175 yards from the caller, began to hesitate. Jim leveled his rifle and took careful aim. Bang! His shot looked good through the scope – so he thought. Jim thinks he either hit a tree branch or just had a good ol’ fashioned miss, because the coyote just trotted off and quickly went out of sight.
Knowing that coyotes can and do still come after hearing a rifle shot, Jim immediately turned the call over to Coyotes Fighting Over Food. He no sooner looked up from the remote and saw a big male coyote charging hard down a snow-covered hill toward the speaker. Jim said the coyote was going to be at the speaker in just a few seconds, so he got ready with his rifle. As the coyote was closing the distance and picking up speed coming down the hill, he (the coyote) hit a patch of ice and lost his footing. The coyote was now sliding on his chest with all four legs trying to get traction. The coyote couldn’t get back to his feet, and eventually slid into a big snow covered tree!
Jim, trying not bust-up laughing, watched the tree for a few seconds, and the coyote eventually walked out covered in snow, seemingly dazed from his ordeal. The coyote seemed a little less interested than he had just a few seconds earlier and the big dog started walking into a low ditch that would eventually take him back toward the area he’d come from.
Jim told me he thought about shooting at the coyote, but knew that his son Justin was seated above the ditch and the coyote was going to walk right below him. Jim said he waited for what seemed like a long time, but probably wasn’t but a few seconds – BANG! and then… nothing but quiet. Jim slowly got up and walked toward the area Justin was sitting. Justin signaled that he’d shot the coyote and Jim headed down the hill to meet him. Jim grabbed his camera and got a few shots of Justin holding up the nice winter coyote.
Since this original phone call, Jim has called us a few times to let us know that the technique is still paying off. He was more than happy to share with all of the readers here at Wildlife Callers, and we thank him for that. Success with coyotes that get a lot of pressure isn’t easy – Jim & Justin make a simple sound switch and completely turn the tables on their coyotes.
NOTE: I asked Jim what volume he was playing. Jim kept the volume in the middle range the whole time – mostly number three. Jim figured since he was getting such good responses why switch and get loud without needing to. We can’t argue with that logic – it certainly works.
As Jim & Justin collect more photos and send ‘em our way, we’ll put them in our photo album for everyone to enjoy!!
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Have a great calling season,
Mark Healy
1-877-734-1010
I have been using a Foxpro 532B for about five years and I was thinking about upgrading to a Fury so I could get their improved sounds and sweet new remote. I am a regular on Predatormasters Forum and I keep hearing about the Mighty Atom so I came on your site to check it out. I like the idea of using actual animal sounds but was a little disappointed that I can’t listen to your sounds on the site. I may go ahead and give your company a call and see if these sounds are as good as everybody says (and I hope). I must say I have been very happy with my Foxpros performance but the sounds could be better in my opinion and I do like the mark 2′s. I am starting to do what I thought was unthinkable and buy something besides a Foxpro. I call in the Southeast (Ga) and the coyotes are slick and you have done a days work when you call one in the daytime.
Steve and I were heading out for an afternoon hunt today. We’ve been skunked so far this year. Most of it has been no dogs in the areas we were. Well tonite that changed…
We were headed out to this long field that we saw tracks crossing on one spot. The field is bordered on all sides by woods and swamp and there are no houses except on the four sides where the roads are. Pretty large, I’d say over 3 square miles.
Put the WT off the ground on the edge of the field. Steve was covering the back door along the creek and I would get the dogs crossing the field.
I started with a male challenge. Well the woods across the field erupted with a group rally howl back. I left the challenge on until after they stopped howling. I switched to a female challenge and let it run. After about what seemed like eternity, the first dog crossed the field. Didn’t see me so I brought up the 7-30 Waters Contender up and cocked the hammer. The dog slowed to see the caller. I now realize I should have put the caller about 20 yards into the woods and not on the field. I pulled the trigger, the hammer drops and “click”, no shot. I pull the hammer back again, but this black and tan dog is not heading out. I thought I had a good shot again and pulled the trigger.
I switched the caller to adult distress and let it fly. At this point I thought I saw a dog cross the field, but can be sure as it didn’t come towards me. Then two more came across, almost in formation, in response to the distress. As they approached, I pulled up the crosshairs and they started to run away, having seen it was a coyote. I took a shot as they were quartering away.
While all this is going on, Steve is covering the back door and after my second shot, I hear him rip off a couple on his semi auto. Turns out he had one on the far end of the field barking up a storm. He says it was around 200 yards and his red dot might not have made the shot. After he fired and the dog disappeared, another dog ran across the field into the woods. That makes the count at five confirmed in sight.
The dogs then went to the other side of the field into the woods and were barking up a storm at us. I responded with a challenge bark and could not get them to come back out. They would stay there for the next hour barking at us in one form or another.
So I caught up with my partner after waiting 10-12 minutes for the barking to stop and we went to see if he made a kill or had a blood trail. We could stay out of the field checking his. Keep in mind, the dogs are still barking. No blood trail or dead dog. We then went across the field to see what I might have dropped. We saw one down and went to see if there was a blood trail from the other. No dice, but there was still one dog just barking and howling.
Turns out the kill was a female and the mate must have been trying to signal her to get back to him. We packed her up and headed out. The male still calling for his mate the whole time. My shot on the female punched a hole in her left rear flank and did not bleed til we got her to the road over a 1/4 mile away.
Just amazing! Yet another experience we’ll never forget. I wish we could have taken more of them down. One of the 5 is nothing to snivel at either. We both think we took down the alpha female. She weighted in at 35 pounds on the scale.
As we’ve found, it’s all about location, location, location.
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