What are your setups like? Call type? Volume? Length of time calling, etc.?
At night, we put the call right on top of us.
Start out with prey distress (usually cottontail), pretty quiet, then up it a bit. Let that run for about 10 minutes. Most are coming by the 5-10 min mark. After 10 min, a lone howl, then pair howl. Let that marinate for another 3-4 minutes. If still nothing, usually coyote fights. Give it another 3-4 min, then head to next spot. The dog killed night before last didn't come to prey distress, but did come to the pair howls.
We take turns who is the shooter. both use thermal spotters, both of us have spotlights. When a dog is coming in, the shooter drops everything and gets gun up. Spotter calls the direction (9:00, 2:00, etc- with the 12:00 position predetermined and agreed upon. Once the dog is at 50 yards, the spotter lights up the dog and the shooter gets on him and takes the shot. You cannot see your bead sights on the rib, so its just shooting instinctive. And I'm terrible at that. But there aren't many affordable thermals that can be mounted on a shotgun and withstand that much recoil punishment.
But it's a TON of fun, and we are really making a dent in the population I feel. I let one of the local coyote 'celebrities' hunt my main farm during the big tournament in Feb, he called me and asked what was wrong this year. He always calls in 2 or 3 dogs there for the tourney, and this year he drew a total blank on that farm. I told him we aren't saving dogs for the tourney, we are going to kill every one we get a chance at.
