Depending upon your State Laws – you can enjoy shooting at night with a caller (mouth or electronic) night vision/thermal scope and a can (silencer). Not many States allow this and not many people can afford to shoot coyotes in this manner – but if you can, it’s productive if you have coyotes in the area.

Here’s what some might want to consider when attempting to locate coyotes. Purchase a Blade 350 helo with camera and fly the thing around your area. You’ll be surprised at what you can see from the air.

For as often as I’m able to get out anymore, a couple of years ago I just upgraded to a MA-21 caller, purchased a good warm set of winter camo bibs & jacket and mainly go to where no coyotes roam. I find it difficult justifying purchasing the "good, modern day equipment" that others have.

I use the caller placed 50 to 100 yards into the wind from my hide. I find the rabbit, pup in distress, fawn and mouse calls effective when coyotes are in the area. I also use a decoy - it's a fur cap I place next to my caller.

My success rate some days are 1 in 4 or 5 while my normal successful call rate is maybe 1 in 15, meaning once every two or three days in the field. Sometimes they will start to come and hold up 400 to 600 yards out and just sit and look in your direction. If they stay there long enough (20/30 minutes) I'll send one their way but seldom connect on that skinny target (223 Rem) - a 243/308 would be the gun to have when that occurs.

I know of a couple people who harvest 250 to 350 coyotes a year (November thru end of March) but they have a lot of coyotes in their area and they use silenced 223's and call both day & night several times a week. (Must be nice to be well off farm boys) In our State we can own silencer's and full autos but can't shoot coyote using night vision. Clear nights with a good moon and snow on the ground helps but I'm thinking these guys are using something to give them an edge at night - could be wrong.

They just won a coyote contest yesterday – the 2 of them bagged 14 coyotes in 12 hours. Got 5 coyotes off one set – called in 6 in 40 minutes and bagged 5. You need a silenced 223 in order to accomplish anything like that. Very unusual to call in that many off one set in the winter months. Two weeks ago they took a 5th place in another contest, so what that means to me is they are experienced coyote hunters, have good equipment, good physical stamina, they scouted their area very well, lots of coyotes in the area and a little luck always helps.

I’m doing fairly poorly this year, as I don’t seem to make the time to get out very often, I’m getting lazy and soft, as walking over frozen snow covered ground quietly and keeping your nose pointed into a cold breeze all day long just isn’t as much fun as it was 60 years ago, 30 years ago, 5 years ago, hell, just last year seemed easier than this year. Anyway, my youngest grandkids can’t stay still for more than 5 minutes, so I blame it on them for my poor showing this year – plus they sound like a herd of buffalo walking to the hide.

Good Luck to ya, keep at it and you’ll score one of these days and if you get the bug – God help ya, as it can last a lifetime.