Night hunting tactics (Updated Story / No dogs).

[jrebel]

I am going out tonight for my first night time yote hunt....Any do's or don'ts  ??  Any tips would be great.  We are leaving in two hours so any response is greatly appreciated.

jrebel

[McCRIZZLEY]

No knowledge for you, but I am also itching to try some night hunting!

taggin myself in this post, I hope to see an update tommorow! 

good luck!

[jasnt]

Are you spotlighting or night vision hunting

[jrebel]

Hope to spotlight in close quarters.  One of us will have a shotgun and I will have an AR.  I have a 650 lumen light on my AR and my partner will have a 550 lumen on the shotgun. 

My thoughts were to get them in close with calls...hoping we can hear them be lighting them up?  But I really don't konw.

[sebek556]

Doubt you will hear them before being able to light them up. If it's snowing, it will reflect threw your scope making it hard to see. Play it pretty much like you would durning the day has been my set up so far.

[sebek556]

Also us any ambient light you can, if enough you will be able to see movement then flip on the lights to confirm. This way if they are light shy you won't blow them out scanning.

[jrebel]

Shouldn't have any snow...but also won't have much ambient light.  I guess it will be a cool experiment non the less. 

[jasnt]

Also us any ambient light you can, if enough you will be able to see movement then flip on the lights to confirm. This way if they are light shy you won't blow them out scanning.

+1. If the snow is crunchy like it is here tonight then you may hear their approach.  Good luck and dont forget pics.

[coyotecrazy]

Have fun. Good Luck and let us know a report on how you come out. Im in the ml area and will be trying that soon.

[buglebuster]

There is a field across from my house next to an orchard and I hear them every night. I usually kill about 4 a year just sitting on the fenceline calling when it snows. I dont use a light, I just wait for it to get bright enough out to see. I can see about 300yds very clear. My tactic is hear the coyotes howling then sneak in close and call. Usually works very well.

[jrebel]

There is a field across from my house next to an orchard and I hear them every night. I usually kill about 4 a year just sitting on the fenceline calling when it snows. I dont use a light, I just wait for it to get bright enough out to see. I can see about 300yds very clear. My tactic is hear the coyotes howling then sneak in close and call. Usually works very well.

Have you ever tried a locator howl to get them talking...then sneak in. 

[buglebuster]

There is a field across from my house next to an orchard and I hear them every night. I usually kill about 4 a year just sitting on the fenceline calling when it snows. I dont use a light, I just wait for it to get bright enough out to see. I can see about 300yds very clear. My tactic is hear the coyotes howling then sneak in close and call. Usually works very well.

Have you ever tried a locator howl to get them talking...then sneak in. 

Yes. Sometimes I walk out on my porch and howl at them. Sometimes they answer sometimes not. I have never called them in with a food sound like rabbit distress at night, just canine distress. Idk why.

[jrebel]

There is a field across from my house next to an orchard and I hear them every night. I usually kill about 4 a year just sitting on the fenceline calling when it snows. I dont use a light, I just wait for it to get bright enough out to see. I can see about 300yds very clear. My tactic is hear the coyotes howling then sneak in close and call. Usually works very well.

Have you ever tried a locator howl to get them talking...then sneak in. 

Yes. Sometimes I walk out on my porch and howl at them. Sometimes they answer sometimes not. I have never called them in with a food sound like rabbit distress at night, just canine distress. Idk why.

Good to know.  I know there are a lot of dogs on the ridge we will be on.  The plan is to walk slowly down an old skidder road and hopefully hear some howls.  If not we will try to initiate with a locator howl then sneak in on them. 

If nothing else it will be fun and cold.  the snow is sill quiet here and there is not that much, maybe 1/2 inch.

[buglebuster]

Good luck!

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

[jrebel]

Update:

Well we didn't kill any dogs but we had a blast.  Got to our hunting spot around 2300 hours and started our hike.  There was a fresh inch of snow and the ambient light was pretty good.  About 1/4 mile from our rig we decide to let a locator howl go just to see what happen.  So out came the Bearmanric cow horn and elk antler howlers (see exihibit one below).  First locator howl produced nothing....wait about a minute and let of a series of barks and howls from the male howler....and then one long clean howl from the female.  The hillside erupts with dogs; what an awesome sound.  We let out another howl and all of of a sudden we have two groups howling at us from both sides......OH IT IS ON!!  We pick a saddle and set up.  We continue to call and the dogs go silent.  We change strategy and start predator calling with the fox pro....still nothing.  We are hopeful they have committed and are coming in silent.   Well 30-40 minutes pass and we decide to call this stand a bust.  We get up and start scanning the hills with out lights....nothing.  We walk back to the ridge and guess what.  Fresh yote tracks 100 yards from our set  .  Bummer....if it were daylight we would have killed a yote. 

Well we hike a while longer and decide to use the locator howls again.  Much to my surprise we find another group of dogs.  Never saw any of these dogs either but it was still awesome to hear them howling.  by now we had been out for about 3 hours.  We were getting tired and it was really late.  We headed back to the rig and drove home.  Finally at home 0345. 

All in all it was a great night.   I am kind of under the impression one needs NVG's to effectively hunt yotes at night.  At least I know where the yotes are hanging out...so next day trip could be very productive. 

Thanks everyone who offered up any imput. 

jrebel

[jasnt]

Those are some handsome howlers!  Sounds like ya had fun and learned some things about your hunting area. Sounds like a win win there.  Next time you'll have a better plan with the Intell you got.  it sure is a rush to have them blast off so close.

[McCRIZZLEY]

Sounds like you had a blast! Would you do anything different if you were going to do it all over again?

[Bofire]

 :)sounds like fun  but I think you got busted.
Carl

[fatty]

So you didn't have your lights on while calling? I think that's pretty much a must if you hope to do any good at night. Some people say you need a red lens and some think white is fine but I don't really know. I know of people getting them at night with both, but the only one I've shot at in the night was using a Coyote Light which is red.

[jrebel]

So you didn't have your lights on while calling? I think that's pretty much a must if you hope to do any good at night. Some people say you need a red lens and some think white is fine but I don't really know. I know of people getting them at night with both, but the only one I've shot at in the night was using a Coyote Light which is red.

No we would randomly scan the hills, but we could see pretty well with the ambient light and snow.  We were hoping to see movement then light them up.  I am going to buy a wicked light (green) for the AR so I have a more concentrated beam.  Right now my beam is really bright, but really wide.  Still good to about 150 yards. 

We are still learning for sure.

[bearmanric]

 Going to make a buffalo Howler for my self tomorrow. Love Howling. Glad you had fun. Rick

[deaner]

im thinking about getting one of the 400 yard green lights that mount on top of a scope to do some night hunting for yotes and bobs.... but i think id just use it to scan.  there are just so damned many big cats and bears around here that i dont think id feel comfortable going out into the mountains and actually doing distress calls in the dark.  feel like id have a big cat crawl right up my ass.  i dont mind walking through the woods in the dark, but actively calling.....  i just dont see it happening.  not in my area where i can easily cut 2-6 fresh sets of lion tracks in a couple hours of quad riding the morning after a fresh snow.