cyclone

Man I hit some good looking areas this past weekend. Used the young squealing rabbit, the adult squeal, coyotes, howler, woodpecker in distress, crows in dis...only saw crows...We started at daylight and hit a bunch of different areas. This place has a lot of red fox, supposed to have yotes. We saw didly.

We always set one guy off with the caller and the other willl fan out at least 40 yds to watch for incomming..NADA..

What are we doing wrong?

Probtrapper

It doesn't sound to me that there was anything wrong with the way you set up, but I would suggest that you have to deside before you start calling what type of critter you want to bring in. If your going after fox or cats never use your howler. Coyotes will kill and eat every fox or bobcat they can catch. Not every stand will produce an animal.I try to learn as much about the country that I plan to call in as possible,that way when I do some calling I,ll put myself in the best possible position to have a animal come to the call. Just don't get discouraged,keep trying and pretty soon you'll be laying them in the dirt! Good luck.

coyoteseeker

the only fox that every came to me after howling was a gray,its happend to me about 4 times calling at night.i find it amazing that a gray fox is so bold that he acualy thinks he can steal that rabbit away from a coyote.i once had a red bark back at me after running a coyote killing a rabbit tape.but probtrapper is right,generaly speaking if you want fox don't howl or make any coyote sounds,coyotes love to eat fox.like probtrapper said you my have done nothing wrong,were you in stealth mode going to the stands?did you keep your movment to a minamum?was your camo working for you or against you?were you sky lined?and the list goes on.pay strick attention to details when looking for stands sites and when going into hunt.but regardless of how well you set up and call sometimes nothing comes in.don't let it bother you just move on.i have on more then one occasion spent the morning or afternoon calling to what seemed like nothing.its just the way it is.

Howler

dido to what they said, We all get smoked on occasion, even in areas that usually produce for us, that's what keeps us going back for more. When I get smoked in a good area, it kinda eggs me on to try a little harder next time out, and I will often up my game next time, meaning I will pay extra attention to detail, I will glass more than I already do, I will sit longer at each stand, I will use different calls and put more emotion into them, etc.This time of year seems to be tough for most of us and I think there are obviously several factors that cause this. Keep at it and they will come eventually.

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Probtrapper

Bownc,I read your post and found it really interesting. I haven't hunted all over the country obviously,and I always find it interesting how different animals react to different situations in different areas. Out here in the west,coyotes do actively feed on bobcats and foxes. I watched two coyotes run down a cat and killed it in short order. I assumed they ate it as after it was dead they carried it off. Back when leg hold traps were legal here in Calif. I have come up to a set that I'de made for a cat only to find that a coyote had got there first and my cat would be shreaded to pieces or there would be only be part of the leg and foot that the trap was on left,the rest of the cat was gone. On the other hand,of the many hundreds of coyotes I have trapped over the last 30 some odd years I have never had a bobcat kill or even (to my knowledge)harass a coyote in a trap. Last year my boy and I were out calling at night for gray fox and Bobby made a pore shot on a fox. It went into the brush squalling it's brains out and by the sounds it was making we figured that it was about 50 yards from us and as we listened it sounded like it was getting pretty weak so we were about to pick up our lights and go look for it when this god awful,what sounded like a dog fight broke out. What it was,was a coyote killing OUR fox! It took him about 10 seconds to finish off that fox and leave with it.We were so starteled by the savagery of the sounds we didn't even think about trying to run it off. We couldn't see what was going on because of the heavy brush, but by the racket that was going on down there it left no doubt as to what just took place.I can only comment on my experiences and I really enjoy hearing about someone elses.It just goes to show that nothing in nature is an absolute and I guess thats one reason she keeps us so fasinated with her. Thanks for your responce. Probtrapper

cyclone

Now I don't use all those calls from the same location. We generally start out with something generic like the rabbit squeal, we might change up on that with the woodpecker and last resort howl once or twice before vacating the stand, just to see if we get a response. Then we're off about a mile down the road to the next setup.

Same camo and hunting setup as turkey hunting including head nets, usually back to a tree with brush or a log in front. I'll keep plugin.....<img src=icon_smile_blackeye.gif border=0 align=middle>

coyoteseeker

by howling just before you leave,you could be educating the coyotes if there on there way.if they didn't want to responed to the distress calls(for what ever reason)then you howl and now they decide to come in and check out the possible intruder.there watching you leave.this time of year it may take them awhile to come into a howl.as probtrapper said,decide up front what you want to do(how you want to call)and stick with it.