S4 E16: Important Calling Tactics For Improved Success with Paul Sears

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_03 (01:22):
What's up, guys?
Predator Podcast Season Four.
I have a great guest on againthis week, of course.
And uh before I get into that,just want to remind everyone uh
the Wisconsin Open SeasonSportsman's Expo is this
weekend, and uh a littleannouncement.

(01:42):
Anybody who purchases a hat fromthe Predator Podcast booth will
have a chance to win uh a packof different Fox Pro calls,
turkey calls, um, some differenthats, some different swag, uh,
probably uh at least a fewhundred dollars worth of stuff.

(02:04):
So stop by, buy a hat, andyou'll have a chance to win.
So uh we'll see you guys thisweekend in the Dells.
And without further ado, here isPaul Sears out of Oklahoma.
He you guys may have seen hisYouTube videos uh channel called
Varmant Hunting TV, and he's akiller.

(02:27):
So I'm excited to talk with himand let you guys hear a little
bit about Paul and how he doesthings.
So, Paul, thank you for joiningme today.

SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
Awesome.
Thanks for having me, Drew.
I appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_03 (02:40):
Yeah, so Paul, give us a little bit of background
about yourself and how you kindof got into predator hunting.

SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Um, so I'm uh 34 years old.
I live here in northern Oklahomaand uh got a pretty big family,
so that keeps me busy too.
But uh predator hunting-wise,man, I uh when I was a kid, I
really only focused on deerhunting and you know, you'd see
coyotes out running aroundthrough fields and stuff like

(03:09):
that.
My dad, he was a big time, youknow, hey, if you see a coyote,
you shoot a coyote.
So that was about the only timeI got to really shoot coyotes or
anything like anything of thatsort.
So as I got older, you know, Ikind of got tired of shooting
little basket racks and stuff,and I was like, man, I really
want to manage some goodwhitetails.

(03:30):
And uh prayer hunting is a bigkey in managing a whitetail
property also, so that reallypushed me into it.
And uh the bug bit me prettyhard.
So after that, man, I I kind offocus on coyotes and you can get
to do it here year round.
So that you know, it it reallyoccupies a lot of the deer

(03:52):
offseason time too, so it'sreally enjoyable.

SPEAKER_03 (03:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh that's what I think a lot ofpeople get into it like that,
you know, doing it doing italmost out of necessity or
feeling like they need to, uh,and then they, you know, get bit
with the bug like you did, anduh realize how much fun it is.
And um, so in your time, hasthere always been bobcats,

(04:18):
always been lots of coyotes?
Kind of is that always has thatjust kind of been a norm for you
down there?

SPEAKER_00 (04:23):
That we live in a really good area here that holds
all sorts of predators here.
So we we have a pretty goodbobcat population here.
We have the ground that holdsit, we got good cedar thickets,
creek systems, ponds, toll CRP,all the stuff that those cats
and and coyotes they both likeit, you know.
It usually you're in that kindof habitat, you have one, you

(04:46):
have the other.
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (04:48):
So yeah, no, for sure.
And do you do any night huntingor are you strictly a day
hunter?

SPEAKER_00 (04:56):
And we do a little bit here, and that's also kind
of an out-of-necessity thing.
So we have a couple big ranchesthat uh they run really big
cattle operations, and duringthe calvin seasons, they say,
hey, we're getting a littleextra pressure from the coyotes,
and we'll go out there with somethermals and go and shoot some.
And we have a lot of successdoing it.

(05:18):
We just don't uh do it based offof our uh YouTube needs, you
know, our video and andhonestly, I'm I'm more of a
daytime caller myself, anyways.
I I enjoy watching them work andhow they come in, and to me,
it's more pleasurable to youknow see them in the daytime.

SPEAKER_03 (05:36):
Yep, I agree totally.
Uh, I mean, obviously I do a tonof night hunting, uh, just you
know, sort of the name of thegame up here, but I after you
kill a couple in the daylight oryou travel somewhere and get
some day hunting in, itcertainly makes the night
hunting not seem very exciting.

SPEAKER_00 (05:53):
Yeah, for sure.
You see things in the daytimethat you would never get an
opportunity to see at night, youknow, there's different things
that you might pick up on on howthey might work a certain ditch
or how they might, you know,work different keys off the land
that you might not ever knowwere even there at nighttime.
Right.
It'll teach you some things.

SPEAKER_03 (06:13):
Yeah, totally.
Yeah, I think if uh if guys aregetting into predator hunting
and they've never day hunted oryou know haven't at least had
some calling experience ofdaytime, like it certainly is
gonna make that learning curvefor nighttime even harder.
But like you can take a daytimehunter and slap a thermal on his
gun and send him out at nightand he's gonna be killing.

SPEAKER_00 (06:35):
Oh yeah.
Yeah, I I completely agree.
If you can learn how to day callbefore you go night hunting,
it's like it's like riding abike.
I mean, you can just cruiseriding in a night hunting like
it's like it's not a big deal atall.
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (06:49):
Yeah, and for me, day hunting is so much more
exciting because you get to seeeverything uh in the day, you
know, like just the stand, yoursetup, your the scenery, the
country, you know, whatever.
And like at least from myexperience, you know, if I'm
gonna make a stand, there'sprobably a pretty good reason
why I'm making it, you know.

(07:10):
So I'm always excited becauselike, wow, this stand looks
really good, you know.
Whether I call it in or not,it's still that anticipation and
excitement of thinking you'regonna call one in.

SPEAKER_00 (07:19):
Right.
And that's that can that canbury a lot even off of coyotes
or cats, you know.
You just have a spot wheneveryou're focused in on cats,
you're like, man, this justlooks catty in here.

SPEAKER_04 (07:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (07:31):
And people miss that in the nighttime, you know.
They might not be like, man,this is incredible cat
territory.
I should be focusing on them, orvice versa.
You know, hey, this is just abig open hay field, we just need
to focus on coyotes instead.

SPEAKER_03 (07:46):
Yeah, no, I agree.
You do miss a lot of that.
And um, I just some, you know,at sometimes at night I find
myself, you know, kind of likeget into a spot and like sort
of, you know, you kind of writethe spot off before you even
call it.
And seems like in the daytimethat doesn't really happen just

(08:07):
because you you know, you cansee and and also you can't see,
you know, you can't see, you'renot gonna just be able to take a
scan in your thermal and see youknow a thousand yards in every
direction.
So um there's always thatexcitement and added intensity,
and like you're saying, you getinto a spot that looks really

(08:29):
catty, all of a sudden you'reexcited for the opportunity to
potentially call in a cat.
And that's exciting.
You know, to me, if you've neverif you've never cat hunted, it's
just a added, you know, it'slike it's like going deer
hunting and you're going into aspot where you know there's a
big buck.
Like that's just an addedexcitement and anticipation of

(08:52):
hey, you might see this bigbuck, or hey, you might see this
cat or whatever.
So I think it's just an added,you know, another level to the
excitement.
And uh what is what is yourbobcat season like?
Do you have is there a bobcatseason, I assume, and what's it
like?
Can you, you know, is there alimit?
Is there season total?

(09:14):
How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 (09:15):
So yeah, we have a specified cat season.
They call it just our generalfur bear season here in
Oklahoma.
And I think it runs from themiddle of December through the
end of February.
So we really don't have a hugewindow to really get out there
and get after them.
So whenever that does roll in,you know, I'll have key stands
that I'll really try to focus onand target just to pull some

(09:39):
cats out of there.
And uh our bag limit here, Ithink we have a 20-cat bag
limit.
Oh wow.
So I mean you can still shootquite a few bobcats, and uh, you
know, if if you're getting 20, Ithink that's more focused
towards uh guys that aretrapping.
Right.
You know, if you can do that,obviously those guys will reel
in some more than guys that arecalling the majority of the

(10:01):
time.
But on an average season, youknow, I'll shoot anywhere from
six to ten cats a year.
So that's awesome.
Yeah, it's still pretty good, Ifeel like, for just having a
couple months window.

SPEAKER_03 (10:13):
Yeah, for sure.
Can you hunt them at nightthere?

SPEAKER_00 (10:15):
No, you can't here.
Yep.
Uh I know the guys over acrossthe border down in Texas, they
can night hunt them, but yep,you know, unfortunately we
can't.
But most places you can.

SPEAKER_03 (10:26):
I mean Illinois you can, like, but like everywhere
else, pretty much you can't.

unknown (10:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
Illinois has a pretty uh limited bag limit,
though, don't they?
It's a pretty small thing.

SPEAKER_03 (10:36):
Yeah, there's they do a lottery.
Um, it's a complete random draw.
Uh, they say you they say youshould draw like one every five
years, I think is what they kindof say.
But I drew in one year, so Idon't know.

SPEAKER_00 (10:49):
That's just for a single tag, right?

SPEAKER_03 (10:51):
Yeah, for one tag.
In Wisconsin, we can get a tagevery two or three years for
one.

SPEAKER_00 (10:58):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (10:58):
So that's and that's daytime only.
You can't night hunt them, butthere are a lot of cats here,
but we just don't see them.
Like, I don't know.
It's it's uh I mean cats arejust cats, you know, they're
elusive and sneaky and whatever,but we just like even coyote
hunting, you know, we might seemaybe you know a few a year, but

(11:20):
you know, granted we're you knowpretty heavy into vocals, and
it's not like we're playing, youknow, 10 minutes of distress
straight to start a standtypically.
So I feel like we don't we don'tcall in a way that we're gonna
see cats.
I know I know guys that do, andI still see like people posting

(12:23):
that they call cats in andstuff, and I always am thinking,
man, they must have just theymust have really uh started out
their stand with some distressto get a cat to come in, but
yeah, you never know.
Cats if they're close, I feellike you know, if you you hit
into a sound they want to cometo, they're they're probably
gonna come if uh there's a catnearby.

SPEAKER_00 (12:44):
I feel like that's the biggest thing is if you know
like what we were just talkingabout, you know you're walking
into a stand that looks reallycatty, if you're in their
bubble, a cat's gonna come infairly quickly.
In most cases that I've seen.
You used to hear old timerstalking about how they needed to
go, you know, make a 30 or 40minute stand for cats, and I've

(13:04):
never seen that be the case.

SPEAKER_03 (13:08):
Yeah, I killed one this year at night in a
30-minute stand.
It was 33 minutes, I think, whenI shot it.
It was 30 minutes when I saw thecat, and I was ready to leave.

SPEAKER_00 (13:19):
Yeah, I can imagine.
And you know, you almost wonderif that's just from him not even
being in the area to start withat the beginning of your stand
and him kind of working in therefinally.
Yeah.
Most cats I've killed aregenerally under the eight-minute
mark, usually.

SPEAKER_03 (13:35):
So yeah, my other one, the one I killed in
Wisconsin was was quicker.
It was like five minutes when wesaw it, and I killed it at eight
or whatever.
But I think that one I killedthis year was I I can't say for
sure.
It was pretty windy.
I can't say for sure, but Ithink he was there, like nearby,

(13:57):
and I switched sounds and turnedthe volume way down, and all of
a sudden he popped out.
So I don't know if it was justlike that switch up and turning
the volume down that made him,you know, come in and commit,
and he was kind of you knowsitting back in the you know,
just back into the where Icouldn't see him for a bit.

SPEAKER_00 (14:16):
I don't know, but he he was just waiting for it.
Man, I I really noticed that uhon those volume changes or a
pitch change, switching fromsound to sound, cats are really
key in on that.
And if you can allow sometimes alittle break in between your
sounds, they'll it seems likethey really pick up on that.

(14:37):
And one thing I do for cats, Ialso do it for coyotes too, but
whenever I switch my sound,that's whenever I make my volume
change also.
In between that pause, so I'llpause my caller, yeah, I'll bump
my sound up and then go into mynext sound.
So I'll make my volume changethere.
It seems like they really key onthat.

SPEAKER_03 (14:56):
Right.
It's different.
And you know, in the in theworld of a lot more calling
pressure, especially where I'mat, you know, and whatever.
There's more calling pressureeverywhere.
I'm sure there's more by you nowthan there usually used to be.
Oh, yeah.
You know, just being different.
I think a lot of guys nevertouch their volume, you know.

(15:17):
I think a lot of guys have youknow set their volume at 30 and
just play the whole stand, youknow, like that, every sound.

SPEAKER_00 (15:25):
So and sometimes it doesn't always have to be going
up.
Like you said, you you made avolume change going down.
Yep, and I'll do that too.
I'll work my volume up, down,especially through like coyote
fights and stuff like that.
You know, I'll fluctuate thatvolume and I feel like that
helps a lot.

SPEAKER_03 (15:41):
Yeah, I've definitely noticed turning the
sound down will get themsometimes the break or uh you
know, maybe get them to finishthat last stretch.
Like if you're you know, for me,if I can see a coyote coming for
a ways and they kind of slow upout there or check up a little
bit, that's the first thing I'lldo is turn the volume down.
Because it's like, and sometimesI think when your volume's

(16:03):
cranking loud and they you knoware starting to close the
distance, like there comes apoint where you know they're
gonna kind of figure somethingout because the call's so loud
and they're getting so close toit.

SPEAKER_00 (16:17):
But I don't I'm a fan of running it loud myself.
I mean that so I run the Fox ProX24, and you know that's a
that's an extremely loud caller.
And you know, I I find myself alot of the times getting up
there in the 34 to 36, 40 range,even you know, just and some of

(16:37):
that's from whatever terrain I'mhunting into, if it's a bigger
property and stuff like that,it's nice to have that extra
volume available.

SPEAKER_03 (16:45):
I agree.
I'm the same way.
I'm always in that probably,especially for like vocal stuff,
I'm always in that like 28 to34, 36 range.
And if it's windy, I'm crankingit probably because with that
with that being said, I do startmy standout a little bit lower.

SPEAKER_00 (17:04):
I'll start an average standout at 20 to 25 on
my on my sound and take it upfrom there.

SPEAKER_03 (17:10):
Yeah, yep, me too.
I usually run the then I'll goto my fights and I'll start them
at you know 20 and work thevolume up to where I think it
sounds good or you know, loudenough or whatever.
Just like it's what what kind ofmade me start playing louder is
when I would spend a lot of timeout in Kansas, you'd get to see

(17:31):
these Kyotes from a long waysaway and turning the call on,
you know, and then like you'dlet's say you walked into a
stand and there's coyotes out inthe field, you know, 900 yards
away, let's say.
It was it was always crazy to mehow loud you'd have to get the
call for them to hear it.
Yeah, like so that's what mademe start playing louder over my

(17:54):
you know time.
I always used to be a littlequieter.
Um, and my buddy Heath Johnson,I went hunting with him one
time, and he was right away, hewas like, dude, turn your volume
up, like they're not gonna comeif they can't hear you.
And uh so I started playinglouder, and then you know, I
noticed that you know it wascrazy to even see one at 500

(18:16):
yards and even seeing like holycrap, I got all the way to 18 to
20 on my volume before thatthing perked up and heard me and
started coming.
Like, yeah, you know, stuff likethat makes me uh really not be
too shy on the volume, I guess,if if I can help it.

SPEAKER_00 (18:34):
Yeah, yeah, we have stands that we might watch a
coyote run in from 1400 sixteenhundred yards.
So which you know, after you getthat volume up there, you can
almost watch them whenever theyfirst initially hear it.
You know, it's it's pretty cool.
It's like, okay, hey, we gottheir attention now, now let's
work them in.
And right.
Watching a coyote come from 1600yards is is pretty awesome to

(18:57):
see.
And that falls back to thatdaytime, nighttime stuff.
You're never gonna watch themwork 1600 yards worth of land at
night, you know?

SPEAKER_03 (19:06):
So yeah, no, I I agree.
It's uh I I've seen them comefrom that far at night, but you
don't see them the whole time.
Like they they gotta go, youknow, down in the into
something, and all of a suddenhere here they pop out at you
know 300 or whatever.
But yeah, um, yeah, it'sinteresting.
Uh how do you have like acertain approach to your stands

(19:32):
as far as the wind goes?
Do you prefer, you know, do youI guess what conditions are you
looking for to weather wise togo, you know, and hit your best
spots that you think are, youknow, sure killing spots?

SPEAKER_00 (19:48):
So it's gonna kind of depend on which area I'm
hunting in out here.
So we have a weird deal here.
We have a big lake here next tous and the Arkansas River.
Over on my side of the river,it's broken up into sections
really well.
There's good timber blocks,there's good agriculture, CRP
fields.

(20:08):
If you go on the other side ofthat lake where we have a couple
of our bigger ranches, it's allopen prairie.
And you have to have a prettylow wind over there because a 10
mile an hour wind here at thehouse might feel like a 20 mile
an hour wind over there.

SPEAKER_03 (20:21):
Yeah, no windbreak over there.

SPEAKER_00 (20:24):
For sure.
Yeah, there's I mean, there's notrees or anything to stop it.
It's just open fields and itit's completely different
calling almost.
And uh but it's cool.
I I really like focusing on uhon some kind of a steady wind,
you know, generally between fiveto ten miles an hour.
But here in Oklahoma, yeah, Imean it's yeah, you might run
into some wind all the time.

(20:45):
So if you want to go powerhunting, don't be scared of the
wind either.
You know, uh but I like a windthat's blowing straight at me
most of the time.
But cross winds are fine too,especially if you can pretty

(21:37):
well know the cover that they'regonna come out of, and you can
offset yourself from that andusing your collar position in
those type of situations is ahuge deal where you can direct
bobcats, coyotes, whateveryou're calling, and you can use
that collar in your advantage todirect them where you want them
to go.

SPEAKER_03 (21:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that's the biggestadvantage of the e-caller, um,
just being able to kind of steerthem, direct them, kind of make
things happen the way you wantthem.
And especially for you, uhtrying to film it.
I mean, that's huge.

SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah.
If you can, you know, if you canuse your collar to pull them
into an area that you might, youknow, maybe think is a little
bit more open or definitely moreavailable for you to be able to
get a camera on them, especiallyin a self-filming situation.
Because my my buddy that I huntwith, and we're we're partners
with the varmint hunting TV, uh,Jonathan McDaniels.

(22:36):
He does an awesome job on thecamera, but we take turns.
So if I shoot a coyote, then thenext round I'm on the camera,
and vice versa.
We switch off every other one,and it makes for a really good
relationship because you knowyou're not feeling like, hey
man, that guy's just dog hoggingall the time, you know.

SPEAKER_04 (22:55):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:55):
And then you don't feel like you're getting stuck
behind the camera all the timeeither.
So we're we do a lot ofswitching, and he does a lot of
our editing too, like almost themajority of it, and he does an
excellent job at it.

SPEAKER_03 (23:06):
So yeah, that's cool for sure.
Uh, how long have you beenputting hunts on YouTube?
And when did that whole versionof your predator hunting start?

SPEAKER_00 (23:17):
So we actually uh just hit our year mark uh back
in January.
Oh, nice.
It was uh actually pretty cool.
We had uh Corey Groff come outhere and he hunted with us for a
weekend, and we actually hit ouryear anniversary on the weekend
that he was here.
So that was cool, and uh youknow, we're seeing quite a bit
of growth, and I feel like we'removing in good directions and

(23:39):
stuff with that.
And I've been wanting to filmfor a long time, and at my
previous job, that's where I metJonathan at.
And you know, everybody there istalking, hey man, this guy
really likes cow hunting andstuff.
I'll cool, you know, I'll talkto him.
And you know, very seldomly doyou find somebody that count

(23:59):
hunts that's actually really asate up with it as you are.
You know, it's like yeah, like,yeah, you might go out and shoot
ten cows a year or you know,yeah, make a stand here and
there, you know.
Whatever, but guys that want togo and are obsessed with it all
the time are kind of hard tofind almost.

SPEAKER_04 (24:16):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (24:17):
I agree.
And Jonathan's the same way, youknow, he he's ate up with it and
he loves it.
And so we really uh really kindof clicked right there and got
talking about it.
We're like, hey man, we bothkind of talked about filming and
stuff and we're like, all right,let's do it.
And almost it was almost like aone-day decision almost because
we just jumped on, we startedmaking our emails, YouTube

(24:37):
accounts, and stuff like that.
We actually started out with acouple uh digital cameras and uh
you can kind of tell if you'velooked back through our uh our
videos that we have posted, youcan kind of tell as the video
quality is getting better.
And then finally we uh brokedown bar a uh Canon G70 camera,

(25:01):
and from there on it was like agame changer.

SPEAKER_03 (25:04):
Yeah, so also makes self-filming so much easier with
that.

SPEAKER_00 (25:09):
It is way easier, and we have the toggle remote
and stuff, and being able torecord right there and zoom
right there, man, it makes it aworld of difference not having
to reach up and grab a cameraand yeah, you can run it with
one hand, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (25:22):
It's a huge, huge difference.
Yeah, yeah.
Uh speaking of kind of comingback to what you said there,
it's kind of hard to find peoplethat are eaten up, you know,
with it like we are.
And one thing that I run intois, you know, I get people that
ask me questions like, Oh, howdo you, you know, how do you

(25:42):
kill coyotes or or like, hey,uh, how do you hunt that spot?
And I'm like, yeah.
And they're like, Do you everkill anything there?
And I'm like, yeah.
And then they're like, Well, I Igo there and I never kill
anything.
Which, you know, this this yougotta remember, this is the
first time I've learned thatthey're hunting there.
Otherwise, I you know wouldn'tbe.
But uh I've had this happenbefore, and then they ask me how

(26:03):
I kill them, and then I startexplaining, you know, the wind,
you know, I start going into youknow a long list of things.
And the problem I have is thenpeople look at me like I'm nuts,
and they're like, What you doall that?
Like, yeah, it's you know, thenthey give you the oh, it's just
a coyote.
Why would you do all that?
Like, I'm like, well, uh I don'task me then and don't expect

(26:26):
that you're gonna have a bunchof success.
But right, I think you're right,you know, a lot of people just
aren't you know, aren't crazyabout it, which is fine.
Um, doesn't bother me one bit,but uh it's funny because the
same guys that that uh will saythat are the same guys that are
gonna be upset that they're notkilling them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 (26:45):
Right.
Yeah, I mean, a lot of guysthink I can just walk down this
fence rail and sit here againstthis post and I'll kill a coyote
every time.
That there's a lot moreprocessing and you know,
understanding that there has tobe there before you're gonna be
successful on a biggerpercentage of your stands.
Yeah, no, I agree.
You know, there's always threekey things I look at for walking

(27:06):
in on a stand.
It's my wind is my primarything.
I like to get elevation on astand.
If I can be above what I thinkthat they're gonna come in on,
or if I have a really good, ifI'm sitting down from where I
think they'll come in on, andI'll have plenty of visibility
that way, that works too.
But obviously, I'd rather be ontop of my elevation every time.
And then the sun, if you cankeep the sun in your back, it's

(27:30):
gonna help you out a ton.
But you know, I'll I'm willingto give up a little bit the
elevation in the sun here andthere, but never the wind,
really.

SPEAKER_03 (27:38):
So yep, I agree.
I think that that is number one,and that's what I always say
too.
Every person, every podcast I'veever went on to someone else's,
they always, you know, what'swhat's the three things that uh
you know people need to know?
And I always number one for meis always the wind.
Like if I'm talking to somebodyand they tell me that they don't
worry about the wind or theynever hunt the wind or whatever,

(28:01):
like I automatically know thatthey're not super serious about
it and they don't care that muchabout you know really being
successful.
Like that tells me that's a lee,they're just out there, you
know, just to go, something todo, kill time, whatever.
Yeah, um, that's number that'sthe first thing that uh I've

(28:23):
hunted with guys before thatlike when I was younger, that
we'd go into a stand and thewind would be blowing right, you
know, up into where we're hopingthey're gonna come from.
And I'd be like, Man, the windwas wrong for that spot.
And then they'd say, Well, I'dnever hunt the wind.
And I'm like, Oh, yeah, allright, well, that makes sense.

(28:43):
Then that that's definitely howeducated dogs happen.
Absolutely, yep.

SPEAKER_00 (28:49):
Yeah, if you don't want to make it harder for
yourself the next time out, andespecially if you're going to
the if you have limited spotsand you gotta hunt them smart,
and you know, just do itwhenever you're in all the
conditions are right.

SPEAKER_03 (29:02):
So yeah, I agree.
And uh being selective with yourshots and uh, you know, the
whole host of things, your youraccess, you know, that's one
thing.
Yeah, I'm sure you know, as aday hunter, I think you are a
lot more conscious of access.
You know, it's something that Ihad to when I when I started

(29:27):
hunting in Kansas, that's one ofthe first things that I had to
learn.
Uh, because in Wisconsin, likethey're just not out and about
like they are, you know, out inKansas.

SPEAKER_00 (29:37):
We we catch them all the time, be walking into a
stand, and we can make ithalfway in there, and man,
there's already coyotes standingout there.
Right.
And if you have something thatyou can work with on the way in
there, whenever that doeshappen, you can hey, let's just
get low and slip over to thiscedar tree or something like
that and get set up.
You can still make it work.

(29:57):
But uh, or just shoot you afreebie dog every now and then.
But you know, uh yeah, it makesa big difference, you know,
whether you have two tracks thatyou can walk in on, a fence line
you can walk in on, and andkeeping your trail down to a
minimum is a huge deal too.
You know, don't be zigzaggingaround, switching trees here and

(30:18):
there, doing whatever, walkingyour call out three different
times, trying to pick the rightspot.
You know, know where you'regonna set that stuff up at, know
where you're gonna sit, knowwhat you're doing the first
time, and keep your SAMP conedown to a minimum.

SPEAKER_03 (30:32):
Yeah, for sure.
I've seen that happen before,where uh one time we were on a
stand, I put the call out, and Ithink I came back, sat down or
whatever, and then for somereason we changed, you know, I
don't know if the wind wasdifferent or something, but I
went out and moved the call.
So, of course, what happens?

(30:53):
A coyote comes in, or maybe wemoved our setup altogether, but
I don't know what what it wasexactly.
But of course, what happened isthe coyote comes in, gets to a
certain spot, and just like itsaw a ghost and it's gone, you
know.
And then I realized after thefact that it had crossed that
fence row right where I walkedthe call out that first time,

(31:15):
and it hit my scent where Iwalked and it was gone.
And you know, I totally screwedthat up.
But it's just we learned fromit.
Exactly.
Right.
I mean, just gonna say thingslike that are where you know
what teaches you what you learnfrom.
It's uh, you know, one thing Itell a lot of new guys is you're
gonna screw up and you gottascrew up.

(31:36):
So don't get frustrated, don'tget upset, don't throw your hat
and sell your call, just learnfrom it and understand what you
did wrong.

SPEAKER_00 (31:45):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know, I've beencounting hunting for a decent
chunk of years now, and you'restill gonna learn stuff all the
time about them.
Yeah, and and learning differentthings about stand setups and
you know, approaches like you'retalking and how man, you might
you might have hunted a spot forfour years, and you know, it
might be a twenty percentsuccess rate spot or something

(32:08):
like that, and you switch yourstand setup just a little bit,
or you approach your propertyfrom a different side of it or
on the other side of a creek orsomething like that, and that
might change your whole successrate.
You know, you might double howmany cows you shoot in there
because they didn't want tocross this big 15-foot deep
creek or something like that,you know?

SPEAKER_03 (32:29):
Yeah, no, I agree.
I just had this conversationwith my one of my hunting
buddies.
We were talking about us, youknow, a spot that we like to
hunt that's a historically beena great spot.
We haven't killed one on it yetthis year, and I just mentioned
the wind being a littledifferent for tonight.
We're actually planning on goingthere tonight, and I was like,
hey, maybe we should try that onthat little different wind, like

(32:51):
just something a littledifferent.
Um, because we always, always,always called it on northwest
wind.
I'm like, let's try it on anortheast.
Like it's a little moremarginal.
I wouldn't say marginal, butit's a little more like kind of
giving the coyotes a they canget to our wind faster, if that
makes sense.
Um, but we should have plenty oftime to kill them before it's

(33:11):
just you know one of thosethings where I think, hey, that
might be something that helps.
Uh so just changing it up.
And the other thing I was gonnaadd too is you know, you've been
predator hunting for a longtime.
I've been predator hunting along time.
I've been fortunate enough,we've been fortunate enough to

(33:32):
kill lots of predators.
But one thing is I still makemistakes, and I'm sure you still
make mistakes.
I still miss, you know, way lessthan I used to, but it still
happens occasionally.

SPEAKER_00 (33:45):
Misses are gonna happen, man.
I mean, that's just that's partof it.
So, I mean, that's if you'vebeen coyoting it a long time and
you talk about how you've nevermissed a coyote, you probably uh
probably knows is growing alittle bit from lying, you know.
I mean, there's it just happensto everybody.

SPEAKER_03 (34:01):
Yeah, and uh they have a lot of error around them.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (34:06):
I mean, the best thing to do is just shake those
bad stands off and go shootanother one.
So yep, exactly.
I agree.

SPEAKER_03 (34:13):
Um, okay, you're going into a stand.
What all are you taking withyou?
Let's say let's say you're goingself-filming.

SPEAKER_00 (34:20):
So self-filming, I have my camera that it's it
stays on the tripod all thetime.
It just gets shouldered.

SPEAKER_04 (34:26):
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (34:27):
So I carry a backpack for all my other stuff.
I got my X24, and usually I haveextra batteries in there all the
time just in case I slip up.
And uh with filming, we actuallycarry an extra battery bag too,
with extra batteries forbasically every piece of
equipment we have, whether it bethe camera, uh, my collar

(34:48):
remote.
We actually carry an extrarechargeable battery for our Fox
Pro.
Yep.
And uh basically anything,rangefinder batteries,
everything else there that weneed.
So that usually stays in thetruck, and I can re-battery
change whenever I get back froma stand.
Yeah.
But so my backpack collar, Ialways carry a chest pouch for

(35:09):
my vinos.
And uh attached to that, Ialways carry my rangefinder and
it stays attached to my chestpouch.
And uh so we run a SIG, Jonathanand I both run SIG rangefinders.
And there's a reason for thatthat we can get into here in a
minute.
My rifle, and then uh weactually just switched to uh to

(35:31):
final rest as our new tripodsponsor, and we're super excited
to start pushing that product.
They got an awesome lineup ofstuff, and we're really looking
forward to that.
And then I sat in a chair allthe time too, so packing a
little stool or a little chairor something there with me.

SPEAKER_03 (35:50):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh yeah, that's exciting.
Uh to you'll be rocking thefinal rest tripods.
And uh what what rifles do youdo you shoot the same rifle all
the time?
Do you have a couple?
Uh how do you what kind ofcalibers are you shooting?

SPEAKER_00 (36:08):
So yeah, I kind of bounce back and forth in between
a handful of rifles.
And uh my go-to, my first loveis my 22250.
And uh man, I couldn't even tellyou how many coyots I've killed
with that rifle.
So I I really I'm pretty partialto Savage Rifles.
And uh, you know, some guys kindof dog on me or whatever for it,

(36:29):
but I I shoot a lot of factoryrifles and I shoot factory
ammunition.
Yeah.
And uh so we shoot Hornedyammunition, or at least myself,
Jonathan reloads uh for any gunthat he has.
But I'm just shooting factoryammunition.
I really like that uh Hornedysuperformance.
And uh, you know, I think youmade a poster the 50 grains,

(36:49):
man, and then just gosh, theyfreaking pound them.
Oh yeah.
So I mean it it that's a prettyhard bullet to get away from.
But uh I also shoot 243 quite abit, and uh Jonathan always kind
of haggles on me whenever I pickthe 243 up because that's what
he really likes.
So he's like, oh, you're gettingaway from the 250, and yeah.

(37:10):
But no, both of those rounds arereally good, and I have them
actually in several differentrifles, but I actually have a uh
AR-10 243 that I shoot some, andthat gun's a blast to shoot,
also.
But and then we shotgun sometoo.
Uh depending on which standwe're going into and how thick
it might be.

(37:30):
Uh, we have stands that we'lljust get in there and just
primarily just shotgun them.

SPEAKER_03 (37:34):
So nice.
Yeah, that's pretty sweet.
Uh I actually shoot 250 the22250 and 243 also.
Those are my two favorites,also.
Um, I shoot my 243 for my nightgun, and um, so I use it a lot
more than I use my 2250 now.

(37:56):
Um, but like when I was out inWyoming, I was day hunting
pretty much only, and I forgothow much I missed shooting
coyotes with my 22250.
Yeah, just like like you said,like I know like it's a I shoot
my 2250 is a is a Thomson Centerventure.

(38:16):
Uh they don't even make themanymore.
But I when I was a kid, youknow, when I was in, you know,
12, 13, 14, whatever, uh, thiswas like I shot my first coyote
when I was 12.
When I was young, I was alwaysinto predator hunting.
And what was the what was thebig predator hunting show back

(38:40):
then was uh was predator gosh,what was it called now with Les
Johnson.

SPEAKER_00 (38:49):
Um so I mean there was quite a few of them back in
the day was uh Predator Pursuitor Predator Quest and Predator
Quest, there you go.
Yeah, you know there there was alot of a lot of the old ones,
you know, and they had furtakers back in the day, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (39:04):
But Fox Pro and that was uh I was always infatuated
watching Predator Quest and LesJohnson was shooting that TC
Venture for years there, and uhso of course I went when I was
like when I was like 15 I got mydad to buy me uh you know TC
Venture and I still that's stillmy like old trusty daytime you

(39:30):
know rig and just somethingabout it.
I don't even know.
Like it just feels so good, it'sso natural.
Like I was just locking upcoyotes with that thing in
Wyoming, and I was just like,Man, I love shooting this thing.

SPEAKER_00 (40:52):
Yeah, I mean that's how I feel about mine.
It's like it's almost like yourconfidence level rises whenever
you grab the whenever you pickup the gun, you're like, man,
it's just you know, it feelsright.

SPEAKER_03 (41:02):
Yeah, exactly.
And I can't explain it.
Like people call it a Walmartgun or say whatever, you know,
it's cheap rifle, blah, blah,blah.
But the thing shoots so good,and it's just like you said, you
know, it's just like thatconfidence when you get that
thing in your hand that when youget a shot, it's it's
something's going down.

SPEAKER_00 (41:20):
Yeah, yeah.
And I mean, sometimes, you know,that 22250, I'll I'll push it
out there to 500 yards prettyeasy.
You know, a lot of guys aren'tsuper confident pushing that
caliber that far, but if youhave good shot placement, that
thing will still hammer themthat far.
So and then obviously your 243is good for that too.

(41:40):
You know, I mean you we justshot one the other day at one of
our ranches at 515 with that uhI shot it with a Savage 110
trail hunter.
And you know, it's kind of amore budget-friendly gun.
That's a$640 gun.
And right factory ammo, you canstill shoot them out there
pretty good junk.

SPEAKER_03 (41:56):
So right, yeah, and factory ammo's come so far.
Like it I think when I firststarted, like factory ammo
almost had like this bad rapthat you know you couldn't you
couldn't shoot, you know, goodgroups and you couldn't shoot
accurate accurate for you know,and maintain it with factory
ammo.
And like I feel like factoryammo has just come so far uh

(42:17):
since I first started huntingthat like you know I don't think
it's any like I I used to when Istarted like oh you shoot
factory, like oh, you know, andnow it's like oh you shoot
factory, cool, like no differentto me.

SPEAKER_00 (42:32):
I mean Jonathan, like you know, I said that he
reloads and stuff, but he reallydoesn't give me any crap because
I I really don't miss a wholeheck of a lot of coyotes, just
to be kind of honest, you know,about it.
And I would never, if I did, Iprobably would never blame it on
me shooting a factory around,anyways.

SPEAKER_03 (42:48):
Right, you'd probably blame it on the the guy
behind the rifle or something.

SPEAKER_00 (42:52):
Yeah, I mean it 99% of the time if it's something I
did, it's an operator error, youknow.

SPEAKER_03 (42:59):
So for sure.
Uh one thing that I've done afew times um day hunting that
I've missed is uh lettingcoyotes stop on their own.
And like, and then you know theystop on their own and you start
to squeeze through the shot andthen they take off again, and
right as that shot breaks, theyyou know have moved or are

(43:21):
moving and I missed.
And uh so I just usually, ifit's in the daytime, I pretty
much just stop them.
Even if they stop on their own,I'll still bark at them
sometimes just to make sure thatthey're not gonna move, because
I've had that happen a fewtimes, and you know, as you
know, coyotes just typicallydon't stand still very long,
especially in the daytime.
It seems like they stand stillless, I think, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 (43:44):
Yeah, for sure.
So, like I'm a big fan of usingmy remote for that.
Yeah, whenever I'm calling.
If you get a coyote and he'scoming in wherever you feel
comfortable shooting at, but welike getting them a little bit
closer for camera purposes,obviously.
But you get a coyote that comesin 100-120 yards, and you go
ahead and mute your caller,they're generally gonna kind of

(44:05):
pump the brakes a little bit andgive you a pretty good
opportunity to make a shot.
But in chest pouch, I also keepa uh a diaphragm call too, and
I'll put that in, and you know,if we're needing one to stop at
a certain spot, I'll hit themwith a little putt distress
squill real quick and they theylock up the brakes pretty fast
to check out what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 (44:25):
Yep, agreed.
Yeah, the the muting theremote's a good one too.
Uh usually that's the firstthing, mute the remote, and if
they still don't stop, then allright, we'll bark at them or
whatever.
But yeah, usually the usuallythe muting of the call gets them
to lock up.
And I think that's a general ageneral thing too.
I think people think like, oh,he's coming in hard, he's 400

(44:48):
yards away.
I better turn the call off, andthen they check up at 300.
And yeah, you know, it's like Ialways my point my point is
always make sure they're inshooting range before you turn
the call off.

SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Right.
Like I said, I like to get himin that hundred-125-yard range
or something before I'll shutthat caller off.
You know, and that that's areally easy shot to make for
most guys, you know, 100 yards,and that's you know, you're
gonna see the majority of yourguys, that's where there's zero
in their rifles, that's wherethey feel comfortable.

(45:22):
So use that kind of as a as areference point, you know.
Shut them down there, and youcan feel comfortable with your
shot.

SPEAKER_03 (45:29):
Yeah, I agree.
Um, as we are recording this,it's the end of March.
Uh, we're knocking on the doorof April, turkey season's
coming.
Spring is hopefully here.
We just had 21 inches of snow uphere last week, and it's 62
degrees here today.
So uh as we go into this, youknow, late March, early April

(45:56):
time, I know you're still gonnabe hunting.
Uh, I'm gonna be hunting alittle.
Uh, what's your general strategygonna be as far as calling, you
know, for these next couple ofweeks?

SPEAKER_00 (46:07):
So we're definitely switching over to a pup mindset
now, you know, and uh I'll bedoing the same.
We'll get out and maybe shoot acouple turkeys too.
But we're really we're stillpretty hardcore on the tiles
right now.
So like I said, we're switchingto pup stuff.
Even though they don't have pupson the ground yet, they're still
gonna be keying on it.
And uh, you know, Tori Cook kindof hits on it quite a bit, you

(46:31):
know.
They're already hyper focusedabout the pups, even though
they're not even here.
So, you know, you might startout with a couple howls still, a
couple lone howls, and workingto maybe a couple social sounds,
but I'm not scared right now tostart out with uh some little
pup howls and some things likethat.
You know, they I'm a big fan ofmy MFK sounds right now and any

(46:54):
of those little bitty birthdaypups, broke pups, any of that
kind of stuff.
And I really like uh pup pearhow is a really good one for
anywhere from here on up throughSeptember, even right.
I'll start I'll start mixingthat in there and any of those
little pup fights.
I really like that bam bougiefive week pup and uh bougie
eight week is uh really goodkind of pup distress sound too.

SPEAKER_03 (47:18):
So I've seen uh I've seen the call run over before to
the bougie eight week one.
Uh that's a that's a killer'spound.

SPEAKER_01 (47:26):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (47:31):
We just didn't get the coyotes killed because it
came in so fast and we're gonejust as fast.
Yeah.
But uh yeah, no, I agree.
Uh definitely um I think youknow being I I definitely am
lone howls right now too.
Uh and then I'm going I'm prettymuch doing lone howls, and then

(47:55):
I'm pretty much going right intopup sounds.
Uh you know, pups three, one,four.
Uh that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 (48:03):
That's a that's a killer sound from Fox Pro.

SPEAKER_03 (48:05):
Yep, that's a Fox Pro sound.
That's a good one.
Uh that I've been using lately.

SPEAKER_00 (48:11):
Um A9 Pups 2.
That for this time of year, too,man.
That's a killer sound.

SPEAKER_03 (48:18):
Yeah, and like the one week old pup sounds from
MFK, and like just just I thinkI really think any of the pup
sounds can work right now.
Um, but that's definitely whereI'm at.
Uh, I've noticed, you know, withthe lone howls, it seems like
you they are pretty vocal.
Um, and like you said, they'rekind of hyperfixated on on pups,
and they're also veryterritorial over their whatever

(48:40):
their proclaimed, you know,they're probably at this point
have if they haven't had theirpups or they're gonna be having
pups soon, they probably havetheir den area picked out, and
they're very territorial ofthat.
So that's why, in my opinion,you can get some really hard
chargers, and guys will say alot of times, and like what I'll

(49:03):
do this time of year is if Ihear them howl, you know, 700
yards away, that's almost toofar for them to come right now.
In my opinion, I'll move closerto them until I can get them to
break, but like seems like it'slike that old you know, Tom
Turkey.
Once you get inside that bubble,all of a sudden, snap, here
they're gonna come.

(49:23):
And I I've found this time ofyear to get some really hard
charging pairs, you know, twosand threes piling in because we
finally got inside that bubbleand ticked them off and they're
ready to fight.

SPEAKER_00 (49:37):
Yep.
And I I was about to say thattoo.
Start shrinking your stand sizedown, like the area that you
feel like you're calling into.
You can almost chop it in half,almost, you know, and start
finding those pond dams thatthey're gonna be digging and
ding in the side of, or creekbed, or you know, big brush
piles.
Start thinking about stuff likethat.

(49:59):
That man, these this is wherethese coyotes are gonna be
centralized in.
Or if you have a you know, uh150-acre piece of property and
you know there's a six-acreblock of woods on there, there's
a really good chance that'swhere you're gonna be finding
your coyotes at.

SPEAKER_03 (50:14):
Yep.
I agree.
Uh, it seems like calling in, atleast for me, uh right now, most
of the coyotes I'm calling inare pairs or twos or two or
three.
Uh it seems like, and seems likesingles are less of a thing,
even though I know they're stillout there and you're still
gonna, you know, always stillgonna kill some lone ones or or

(50:36):
transient or whatever you knowyou want to call them.
But uh I'm right now I'm keen inon those pairs of you know
aggressive coyotes and trying totrying to get in that bubble and
and move in on them.
I know guys will say, Oh, ishowling they're howling, you
know, back and forth with me fora half an hour and they'd never

(50:56):
come in.
And I think, you know, in mostcases they're probably too far
away.
Uh just gotta get closer to thembecause they're not gonna travel
overly far right now.
I just don't think you knowyou're gonna get those, you
know.
I'm I don't know.
I'm speaking for where I'm at,but we're not gonna get that
1200-yard, you know, charger.

(51:17):
But uh you know, moving on.

SPEAKER_00 (51:21):
That's a that's an early early winter and breeding
season kind of deal when you'regonna get a pulling that far,
you know.
And yeah, you're gonna we'regonna have to start shrinking
our stand sizes and get that inmind.
So and whenever you do that, ifyou do decide, hey, I need to I
need to pick up and move alittle bit, like we said
earlier, stay conscious aboutwhat trail you've already walked

(51:42):
on and yeah.
Where your wind's blowing.
Yeah, keep all keep all thatstuff in mind too.

SPEAKER_03 (51:48):
So yeah.
No, I agree.
Uh, I think uh I think you knowI've heard from a lot of people
that are like basically they'llhunt till like March 15th and
then they think that it's overand call it good.
Yeah, but I think there's a lotof good hunting to be had uh
yet, and I take a few weeks offfor turkey season, and which

(52:10):
usually coincides with uh pupsin the ground and a pretty tough
time for calling, but uh youknow it there's you can always
call coyotes in, you know, nomatter what.
I mean, they don't all havepups, they don't all, you know,
guard a den.
Uh, you know, there's lots ofthem out there.

SPEAKER_00 (52:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
And you know, I'm still keen.
We were kind of talking about alittle bit of call sequence
stuff, but fights are still ahuge deal too, right now.
You know, I mean they're gonnabe fighting all through this
whole denim season, you know,keeping other coyotes out of
their areas and those transientcoyotes that might be coming in
to try to clear litter out, youknow.
Well, those are there's stillgonna be fights and things like

(52:52):
that that are gonna be going on.

SPEAKER_03 (52:54):
So yeah, believe it or not, pound town still works.

SPEAKER_00 (52:57):
Oh, yeah.
The magic of pound town.
That's an awesome pound.

SPEAKER_03 (53:02):
Yeah, not that it doesn't work all the time.
That's that's what I meant bythat, but uh, it definitely has
been working for me lately.
Uh yeah, so uh all those fightsounds.
I know the other night I had apair come in, I killed the one,
and then I was really working totry to get that second one to
come back out.
I played, I think, three or fourdifferent pup sounds, fights,

(53:25):
you know, all the play.
I think I played five differentsounds because I thought for
sure that thing was gonna comeout.
And then of course I finallysaid, okay, it's not coming.
I muted the call, turned uhstarted to get ready to pack up,
and I looked up in there, it'sthe ends 130 yards, and I got

(53:46):
caught with uh my pants down alittle bit and didn't get that
one killed.

SPEAKER_00 (53:52):
But yeah, that happens sometimes.
We whenever Corey was out here,we actually had a really cool
stand at uh pound town ended upreeling back in for us.
We were hunting on a crosswind,and it was uh the first stand of
our second day, and it was supercold out.
Like Cory was kind of giving megiving me a little bit of crap
over it, you know, coming toOklahoma, and it was probably

(54:13):
three degrees out.
Yeah.
And uh we sat down, did a couplelone howls, had a couple good
responses, and I went into somepre-distress.
And we had snow on the ground atthe time, too, so it was, you
know, they're definitely outcruising around looking for
something to eat.
But we noticed a couple coyotesoff on the neighboring property,
and at first I thought it was acat because it was just kind of

(54:35):
sitting there on its butt andprobably 400 yards away at the
time.
And we had five of them end uprolling in there on this stand,
and we were hunting on acrosswind, and they kind of
caught our wind a little bit,and they weren't running out,
but they were definitely ontheir way out of the stand.
And I flipped on towntown, andall five of them, it's like you

(54:56):
just hit a trigger on them.
Yeah, they all turned right backaround, and all of them came
into the field fully committed,and we ended up killing a double
out of it, but yeah, you can'tbeat that.

SPEAKER_04 (55:08):
Yeah, no, it was it was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 (55:11):
Yeah, yeah, no, I I agree.
Uh that that's tough to beat.
I mean, you get that that's anexciting situation that a lot of
guys will screw up because youknow, thankfully, you guys have
all hunted plenty.
Corey's an absolute killer, anduh I I know from experience and
from hearing stories and stuff,those are some of the easiest

(55:34):
situations to completely screwup because guys get so excited,
and it's just such an uhadrenaline rush to see the five
coyotes bombing in like that.
And uh I think being able tokill two out of there is is even
good.

SPEAKER_00 (55:49):
Yeah, I mean, a lot of guys you know they might see
the coyotes turn and take off,they might try to keep jamming
the rabbit at them or doingsomething like that, but you at
that point you've almost got tocompletely change what your
mindset is, and they've alreadyknown there was food in there,
so bring another coyote into theelement and their demeanor is
likely to change pretty fast.

SPEAKER_03 (56:10):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh one thing that came to mindtoo as we're talking here.
Uh, I was talking with a buddyyesterday, and one thing that we
were talking about was one thingthat I see a lot of newer
hunters that struggle with isthey don't know when it's over.

(56:31):
And they have a hard time likeknowing, okay, now I need to
shoot because it's over.
This coyote's leaving.
He knows, you know, he clearlyfigured this out and he's got
gonna be gone.
I think a lot of newer guysstruggle with that um with that
decision, and a lot of timesthey by the time they've decided

(56:55):
that they should probably shootor try to get them stopped,
they're gone.
It's already or they leave andthen they try to, you know, play
different sounds and do this anddo that, and nothing works to
get them back out.
Um, because they're already, inmy opinion, they already figured
it out, they already, you know,got the gigs up and they're
gone.

(57:15):
Uh so uh just a just anobservation, but I think uh in
my the way I hunt and the way Ihunt with my crew is you know
one one dead's better than fourof them still out there, so
we're always gonna just takeone.
Well, if we can, you know, thenI'll worry about switching

(57:38):
sounds, you know, trying to pullthe other ones back out or
something of that nature.
Do you guys have any, you know,well, I guess if you're always
hunting with a but I'm sure youhunt with people sometimes, but
if you're by yourself all thetime, obviously you're only
killing one.
But do you guys have any methodfor method for multiples, you
know, as you have multiples comein and you have multiple

(58:00):
shooters?

SPEAKER_00 (58:01):
So like you kind of keyed on there, read being able
to read that coyote's firstdemeanor is like that's a huge
advantage for you if you know,hey, this coyote's kind of
starting to slow down, startingto kind of check more stuff out
on his way in here.
There's a good chance here inthe next 10 seconds he's gonna
break and get out of here.
Right.
Like you said, being able tocall whenever it's time to

(58:23):
shoot, that's a huge deal.
Right.
But being able to run yourcaller, your remote can make or
break having multiple coyoteskilled.
And we have several stands wherewe've shot quads or squints or
you know, multiple coyotes inone stand.
And being able to run thatremote efficiently can help you

(58:44):
out a ton.
And like I said, I carry thatdiaphragm call too.
You know, if you get a pair inand you can knock down the first
one, being able to get it eitheron that diaphragm and start some
butt distresses or a quick howlon that diaphragm can it can
really stop a coyote reallyfast.
So yeah, I agree.
Do you use your hot buttons onyour remote?

(59:05):
I do, so I have my presets anduh those things can be a game
changer too.
I mean it's that's fast, youknow.
And just that's one thing fornew guys is just really
orientate yourself with yourremote and get super comfortable
with it because being able torun it fast and not looking down
at it, just knowing right whereyou need to hit a button at,

(59:26):
yeah, that can that can save youbig time.
Yeah, I mean, if you can becomfortable with your remote to
where you don't even have tolook down at that thing and you
know which button you'rehitting, you know where your
mute buttons at, where yourpreset buttons are at, those can
save you, you know, like a tonwhenever you're needing to make
those quick ten second decisionson what you're doing and being

(59:49):
able to read that coyote'sdemeanor and know what you're
needing to do.
And whenever you have thosemultiple coyotes come through
there, if you're especiallyduring breeding season and this
pup season, if you're able todistinguish which one of those
coyotes is your female and shootthat coyote first, yeah, that
male is almost gonna stop everytime to make sure that she's

(01:00:10):
coming with him.
Or come back out, yeah.
And give you another shot, andyou know, that can be a huge
game changer there too.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:17):
Yeah, I agree.
Uh I am super good at guessingwhich one's the female and
shooting the male.
So I always try I've done thisat least three times, like where
I think, oh yep, that one's thefemale, boom, tip it over.
It was the male.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:38):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:38):
Uh and never killed the pair in all of them.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:41):
You know, oftentimes this time of year, too, is
you're gonna see that yourfemale is gonna be your more
aggressive coyote.
Yep.
So if you see one just reallytaking the lead and bombing in
there on you, that there's areally good chance that might be
your female because she's gonnabe more keen to protect her
area.
And uh, you know, if she's theone hackling up out there,

(01:01:02):
howling and barking and doingher thing, that's probably the
coyote you need to drop first.
And yep, your male, your malewill typically either, like you
said, either come back out outof a thicket to check back on
her or go ahead and stop rightthere next to her and give you
another shot.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:17):
Yeah, I've yeah, two out of the three that I've done,
I shot the back one thinking itwas the female and it was the
male.
So I learned that lesson too.
Uh I think, yeah, I think you'reright.
In most cases, I think thataggressive one is the female.
Uh same thing a couple nights,just a couple nights ago.
Uh the back one that wasleaving, I shot it, killed it,

(01:01:38):
it was a male.
And that front one that wasstanding there closer was a
female.
And uh yeah, so it'sinteresting.
Um but sorry.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:49):
She's gonna try to get trying to take charge and
then bring the muscle back therebehind her email.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:54):
So yeah, well, a lot of times those females are more
aggressive in my experience.
Uh, you know, a lot of thosereally aggressive callings you
get are you know at times can beare females, you you know,
especially the mouthy ones,you're thinking, oh, that's a
you know, male.
You I used to think that when Iwas younger, you know, and then

(01:02:14):
you kill them and they're afemale, you know, a lot of
times.
And coming back to your pointabout the remote too, uh I've
had it too, I have my hotbuttons set up.
Literally, my hot buttons areset up to offer me second
chances.
I have I think my first hotbutton, like my preset number

(01:02:36):
one, I think is uh like a maybea rabbit sound strictly for like
that.
You're walking in, you see one,you need to throw the call down
quick and get something on, andthen the rest of them, it's
pound town.
It's uh I have uh Coyote PearHowl from Fox Pro to sound.

(01:02:57):
I have that in my presets toofor like if uh if you guys saw I
posted a video like a coupleweeks ago on my social media
stuff of us me and my buddieskilling a triple.
And if you turn the volume upand listen to that, we killed
the first two, you know, rightout in front of us at the call,
and then that third one'srunning out, you know, it ended

(01:03:21):
up whatever, like 350 yards.
But you'll hear I'll click thathot button and you'll hear that
howl kick on, and boom, that dogchecks up and boom, I kill it.
Like that's I don't have to lookat it just like Paul's saying,
like just kind of knowing you'reremote, like I don't have to
look at it, I can just tap thathot button and it you know rips
a howl off to with some volumeto be able to you know stop them

(01:03:44):
because I could sit here andbark at them all day, but just
seems like you know, having thatFox Pro crank to 36 and you know
ripping that howl gets them tolock it up, and I think that's
uh that's a good tip for youknow, and I think everybody
might have different presets andwhatever, but just having

(01:04:05):
something of that nature.
The only reason I have that howlin there is no like particular
reason other than it is a kindof aggressive bark howl, like
and it's quick, quick into abark howl.
It's not you know a long drawnout lone howl, it's bark bark
howl.
And it seems like to me thatjust gets them to you know stop

(01:04:25):
quicker.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:26):
So I do the same thing.
I have two uh pre-distresssounds as in my presets, and I
also have two.
So I have uh pound town as oneof them, then I have uh the OG
PUT 3 as my other one, and thenlike I've said before, you know,
I keep that diaphragm call itright there close to, and I can
throw that thing in and make ithowl pretty fast.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:48):
So yeah, for sure.
Yeah, that's a good tip.
Uh the diaphragm, I know a lotof guys that do that carry
those, and that's uh that's agood tip.
Um is there anything that you doin in your predator hunting that
you feel is different than mostpeople or that you think is

(01:05:09):
different?

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:11):
Uh man, I really it's really hard to say, you
know.
I feel like I have a really goodopportunity to spend a lot of
time out there and just gettingmore time on stand.
You know, the more time you'reout there, the more stuff you're
gonna be able to learn and pickup on.
And I've been fortunate enough.
I got a really good wife, yeah,and she lets me go a lot, and I

(01:05:33):
have a really good work scheduletoo.
So I work 14 days a month andI'm off for 14 days.
So I have you know basically ahalf a month every time to get
out and chase them at somepoint.
So time in the field is really,really hard to beat or make up
for.
So that and just these podcastsare amazing, you know.

(01:05:58):
Yeah.
For guys that don't get a go allthe time, or somebody that's new
trying to get into the sport andtrying to figure out how other
people do different things, thisis a huge benefit for guys.
But whenever I was new trying toget into it, you know, I I don't
even think podcasts were even athing yet.
No.
But I was on YouTube, I wasreading magazines, I was trying

(01:06:19):
to soak up every bit of predatorhunting information I could.
And it's all out there now.
You know, you can find itanywhere.
You can look up forums orYouTube videos, these podcasts,
you know, I mean everything.
So they still got some awesomepredator hunting magazines out,
and they got some good stuff outthere for guys that are willing

(01:06:39):
to learn and wanting to soak itup.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:41):
Yeah, I agree.
I think uh, you know, we thinkback to when we started, uh, we
were like you said, we werereading Predator Masters uh uh
magazine, and we were I wasbuying the the hand calls to get
the Randy Anderson DVD, um, youknow, everything possible that

(01:07:05):
we could possibly learn, and westill were not able to learn a
whole lot, like it was mostlyjust entertainment type stuff,
and uh for me it was everythingthat was out there was in the
West.
So like I had to kind of totallyfigure out this whole Midwest
game uh on the fly and withmaking mistakes and screwing up,

(01:07:31):
and and and when I was younger,I did spend a lot more time out
there.
I don't spend as much time outthere now, but I'm a lot more
successful just because I've youknow kind of learned the things
that I need to do.
But uh I think one thing thatwe've talked about and kind of
mentioned throughout this wholeepisode is like is this part
that you've just mentionedagain.

(01:07:52):
You've had a lot of chances, alot of time to learn, and I
think uh making mistakes andlearning from them is one of the
most important factors to beinga good predator hunter because
you do make a lot of mistakes,there's a lot of things that can
happen.
It's a very fast-paced sport, inmy opinion.

(01:08:12):
I've seen people who have reallyhad a hard time to with the
trigger pulling aspect ofpredator hunting because it
happens so fast and they justdon't process things as fast.
Um you know, and so it's not tobe overlooked that of the
challenge of it.
And if you've really like Paulmentioned, there is so many

(01:08:36):
resources out there now for guysthat are new to cut down their
learning curve, or if you'vebeen doing it a while and maybe
you're struggling, maybe you'rein a rut, whatever, maybe uh you
hit a stretch where you're notable to you're not having
success.
Uh, I think it always helps tohear, you know, opinions, ideas.

(01:08:57):
You know, I like watching yourvideos.
Not that I'm gonna I'm huntinganywhere near Oklahoma, but I
just see thing little things, lsounds, you know, some little
new nuances that each guy does.
So I like asking people whatthey think they do
differently 'cause it's funny tohear it's interesting to hear
what people think they dodifferently, you know, when in

(01:09:19):
reality We all are doing kind ofthe same things.
It's just everybody does thingsa little bit different way.
And, you know, different sounds,different setup, different wind,
different, you know, all thosedifferent things that I think
are factors in success.
And I like to hear fromeveryone.
That's part of the reason why Istarted this podcast, is because

(01:09:42):
selfishly I like to learn fromguys like Paul who are killers
and know what they're doing.
And I want to be able to, youknow, go out tonight and think,
ooh, Paul mentioned this sound,and then I play it and it works.
I I enjoy doing stuff like thatbecause it helps just broaden
your horizons and help you beready for more situations.

(01:10:06):
So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:07):
Yeah, if you go out tonight and kill one to bam
bougie fight, wig fight, I'll bewaiting for a tag on Facebook.
I mean, I I wish I had somesecret out there that I could
tell you that, you know, thismakes me more successful than
somebody else down the road, butit's just hard to flat out beat

(01:10:27):
time in the field, man.
And you know, if you know, ifyou look back maybe ten years
ago, you might have had ten drystands in between one successful
one, and now you have four drystands and you're thinking about
going home.
And you're yeah, and you'relike, man, I'm what am I doing
wrong today?
Exactly.
But you know, you might go outthere the next day and you might

(01:10:49):
have five consecutive standswhere you kill coyotes, and you
know, you it makes you feel alot better about yourself and
you feel like you're progressingin the right direction.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:58):
Yeah, and you feel like you know what you're doing,
and then you go to five moreblank stands, and then you are
right back to where you thinkyou for really don't know what
you're doing.
And that's just the the peaksand valleys of predator hunting,
in my opinion, is managing thatuh failure and being positive

(01:11:19):
into the next stand.

SPEAKER_00 (01:11:20):
That's what nobody likes to talk about is the blank
stands.
But they're there and they aredefinitely gonna happen.
It doesn't matter howexperienced you are, you're
always gonna have some blankstands here and there.
And like we're talking aboutright now, heading into this
March and April time frame, itgets really slow for some guys.
And don't get upset and just setyour gun in the safe and not

(01:11:41):
pick it back up until October,you know.
Keep keep going out, making afew stands, tweaking some
sequences or doing somedifferent stuff, closing your
distance, and those things willhelp out.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:52):
Yeah, I totally agree.
Uh all really good tips.
And uh hopefully guys that arestill hunting.
I know we're again, I know a lotof guys give it up by now.
Uh, but guys like me and Paulthat are not normal, uh, we are
still gonna be hunting, and weare gonna be using these tactics

(01:12:15):
that we have discussed here, uh,and hopefully having some
success.
So uh, Paul, I appreciate theheck out of your time and
joining me.
I learned some things today, andI hope everyone else did too.
Uh, can you tell everybody whereto find your YouTube and

(01:12:37):
wherever you want people to findyou on social media?

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:41):
For sure.
So our YouTube, uh, it'senvironment hunting TV.
And, you know, I always say itin all of our posts, you know,
we would appreciate the heck outof it.
You know, if you guys like whatyou're seeing, hit that
subscribe button.
You know, it helps us everytime.
And uh my Facebook and Instagramare pretty simple, you know,
there's Paul Sears.
And uh, you know, anybody thathas any, you know, uh wanting

(01:13:05):
any information, any stuff likethat, I'm always down to talk
about some coyote hunting andpredator hunting in general.
And you know, don't be scared toreach out and ask questions or
even on the YouTube, you know,uh Jonathan and I both try to
stay on top of it and respondback to comments and anything
that we can do.
And you know, Drew, I I reallyappreciate the heck out of you

(01:13:25):
uh bringing me on here, man.
Uh it was a blast, dude.
I I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:30):
Yeah, it was fun.
I'm glad we got to uh sit downand talk a little bit.
Uh talking to like-minded peoplejust never gets old.
And uh I appreciate your supportand making the time to join me
today.
Uh I'll put all Paul's info inthe description below, and you
guys will have to check it out.

(01:13:51):
He's got some sweet bobcathunts, some coyote hunts, you
name it.
Uh, it's all it's all good stuffin that beautiful country in
Oklahoma.
So uh yeah, I'll see everybodyat the Sportsman's Expo in the
Dells this week.
And Paul, we will talk to youlater.
Awesome.
Thank you, buddy.

(01:14:12):
Yep, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 (01:14:14):
Thank you for listening to this episode.
If you want to support thePredator Podcast, check out our
great partners in thedescription below.
Follow Drew on Instagram atpredator podcast underscore
Drew.
Join the Predator PodcastFacebook community and keep up
with real time tips and tricksto keep putting further in the

(01:14:35):
group.
Until next time.

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S4 E16: Important Calling Tactics For Improved Success with Paul Sears

Stuff You Should Know