Getting equipped for chasing wild canines can be endless. But you don’t need to go overboard on coyote hunting gear to get a few pelts on the wall–especially if you’re a beginner.
Whether you’ve read about calling a toothy predator close, or watched it happen on video, you can already imagine it’s an incredible rush.
I’ve called bobcats, coyotes, bears, and numerous species of fox within spitting distance during my predator hunting tenure. Coyote hunting is by far the most common predator pursuit because these crafty critters have infiltrated just about every corner of the country.
Coyote hunting is challenging. Yes, social media reels and YouTube videos make it look like every time the caller is on, a hungry coyote comes streaking in, but this is far from reality. As with any hunting, weather, moon phase, breeding activity, food availability, and other factors will directly impact how successful your day of coyote calling will be. When the stars align, there’s nothing neater, but you need the right gear before you can get out there and call fur close.
Relax, I’m not going to give you a coyote hunting gear list that requires a second mortgage. You can build your arsenal over time, but there are a handful of critical items to get the predator ball rolling. As I present this coyote hunting gear kit for beginners, I’ll assume you’ve already secured a rifle in a popular predator caliber like .223 Rem., .22-250 Rem., .224 Valkyrie, or .243 Win. topped with a good scope. You can’t pop pelts if you don’t have a good predator gun loaded with good ammo. Aside from that prerequisite, let’s dive in.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Electronic Callers
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I went the hand-call route for years. Damn, I wish I could have those years back. Yes, hand calls work, but they take an enormous amount of air, and it’s difficult to sound like anything other than a dying rabbit. Over the years, calls like woodpecker distress, flicker distress, pronghorn fawn distress, and turkey distress have been my go-to calls. Unless you’re a champion caller, bird and ungulate distress sounds are very difficult to emulate.
Western Rivers Fred Eichler Electronic Game Call is a tremendous electronic caller that won’t break the bank. The call sells for around $200, and you can select it with single or dual speakers. Dual speakers do up the price a tad but give you more volume, and the call comes with 80 pre-loaded sounds with 8GB of internal memory. Sound overlay means you can play two sounds simultaneously, and sound clarity is remarkable.
The more you dive into this electronic caller, the more you’ll love it. The call allows configurable preset volume levels and sequential call playback to select speakers. You’ll be set to go with all the coyote vocalizations and prey sounds available in this player.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Hand Call
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While electronic coyote callers are incredible tools, they’re bound to fail you at some point. Sometimes it’s not checking the battery level; others, it’s forgetting the remote settings and panicking as a coyote comes close. During these times, when you fumble, you’ll want an easy-to-use, no-fail option. Enter Flextone’s Dying Rabbit, an easy-to-blow hand call that comes with a lanyard and gives you the flexibility to produce long-range squalls or close-range coaxing. Just squeeze and release the end for a quiet whine and release the flexible end if you want to increase your volume.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Portable Seat
If there’s a single piece of gear that accompanies me to every stand I make, it’s a lightweight, portable seat. The Folding Seat Cushion from HME makes sitting on stands more enjoyable and creates a stable shooting platform when paired with shooting sticks. From prickly cactus spines to spine-tingling snow, it sure is nice to protect your hind end and keep your head in the game.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Shooting Sticks
Don’t be the predator hunter who plans to shoot off their knee, or worse yet, offhand. Yuck! Not only will this cause you to miss more coyotes, but it’s also lousy shooting practice. Purchase a high-quality set of shooting sticks like those from BOG. I love the Havoc Bipod. It’s light, durable, and easy to adjust, and the USR yoke provides 360 degrees of shooting, which you’ll appreciate calling in cedars or dense cover when coyotes use available cover to approach downwind. Twist-and-lock legs allow for height adjustments between 21 and 50 inches, and the sticks weigh a mere 1.13 pounds.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Carcass Drag
Coyotes are just heavy enough to become burdensome when it’s time to get them back to your truck. Pull a double, or that elusive triple, you have a real chore in front of you. Throwing coyotes over your shoulder and tromping through snow and dense vegetation is zero fun, and your clothing will get quite bloody. Save yourself the hassle and mess with Big Dog Steel’s Predator Drag. It weighs next to nothing and offers extreme durability.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Mapping & More
Get HuntStand Pro and you’ll gain access to a variety of tools that are beneficial for coyote hunting. Tap into choice map layers, including public land maps and property info for private land. Get landowner information to knock on a few doors or make some phone calls and expand your coyote hunting territory. Once you’re ready to put boots on the ground, access HuntStand for weather and wind forecasts to approach every setup with an edge.
My HuntStand app is loaded with labeled indicators that are hotspots I return to every year. It has helped me find some great public-land honey holes and opened the door to loads of private permission. Many landowners don’t mind granting access to pelt poppers.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Lights
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As I’ve gotten older, my interest in chasing coyotes and other predators after the sun dips below the horizon has shrunk. However, there’s no better time to kill coyotes than in the dark of night. Coyotes and other predators are more active after dark, and they get much more courageous. A coyote hanging up at 400 yards during a daylight calling session will often come shotgun-range close at night.
Good night hunting means relying on a full moon, or running thermal optics or night vision. But there’s another option that’s deadly and cost effective: lights. Believe it or not, with the right light you can illuminate your shooting field without spooking coyotes. This means better safety and more success.
Consider one of many versatile options from Coyote Light. The name says it all.
Coyote Hunting Gear: Decoys
Including a decoy in your coyote hunting setup can serve multiple purposes. The attractive nature of a decoy can bring in some coyotes on a string, especially during breeding season when males are defending their territory or females are looking for love. A decoy can also work well as a distraction to keep eyes off your shooting position. And, if you’re really crafty, you can position your decoy with an e-caller to give you a distinct advantage when playing the often downwind approach of lurking ’yotes. Montana decoy has several lightweight, packable predator decoy options in both coyote fakes and pretend prey.
These eight items will get you up and running. Put in your time and stay the course, and it won’t be long until you’re sending in hides to the tannery.
