How to Hunt Coyotes on Public Land: 3 Tips to Improve Your Hunt

Public land can often be an excellent place to hunt coyotes; you just have to go in with a plan. 

How can coyote hunters improve their success when hunting public land? We've compiled three things not to forget when hunting for public land coyotes. Although there are many things we could elaborate on, with these three crucial tips, you are sure to see success on public land.

1. Rivers and Streams Become Coyote Highways

During the late season on public land, you can often see coyotes using rivers, streams, and creeks to guide where to travel. These areas become like their "highways" and help them navigate where to travel and how to find their way back to places of interest when the forest isn't filled with as much wildlife as it was in the early season. 

Use your HuntWise maps to help you think like a coyote and navigate the way they do during this time of year. Locate areas of interest when you scout before the hunt and mark them in the app. 

Better yet, mark a walking path. Sticking with these areas and travel routes is crucial for your success when hunting coyotes on public land.

2. Hunt In Thick Coverage Near a Deer Run

Find a deer path running through your public land area. If you can locate any signs of a whitetail, you are more likely to have a successful coyote hunt. 

Usually, coyotes will trot along the trail, searching for their prey. Therefore, selecting thick coverage near a deer run can be beneficial to seeing coyotes and crucial to staying hidden so coyotes don't detect your position.

3. Pay Attention to Your Entrance and Exit

This final tip goes truly for hunting any wild game species but especially applies to public land where the animals are not managed as easily. 

It is crucial to get into the area and your hunting position undetected. 

You must be very careful with both your entrance and your exit. That means scouting beforehand to determine what approach best suits your hunt. 

While scouting, pay attention to low areas and peaks, take note of what paths best make sense so you do not scare animals on your walk in, and create a walking path in your HuntWise app to remember your path of entry and exit.

How HuntWise Helps You Hunt Public Land

Sometimes, finding the best public land is the first challenge when planning your coyote hunt. 

With HuntWise, you can access the most updated land boundaries to e-scout the land you plan to hunt. Then, with multiple map layers, you can also learn the land's topography and pinpoint potential areas where coyotes search for food or travel through river beds and creeks. 

As you walk the land and search for visual indications of coyote activity, use markers to document where you see coyote tracks or other evidence that coyotes frequent those spots. 

HuntWise also helps hunters forecast the ideal weather conditions to pinpoint the best day to spend in the field hunting coyotes. Use HuntCast™ and WindCast to avoid windy conditions and other weather events that could keep coyote movement to a minimum and ruin a good hunting day.  

Use These Tips and HuntWise to Hunt Coyotes Successfully

There are plenty of tips we could dig into to help you hunt coyotes during the off-season. However, the three tips we mentioned today should help you maximize your time on available public land and improve your chances of bringing home a thick winter coyote pelt. 

Having a game plan, selecting thick coverage, and using your HuntWise mapping tools will leave you more prepared pre-hunt and happier post-hunt once you harvest a nice coyote. As you learn to use more features in the app, apply it to your whitetail, turkey, or other hunts throughout the year. 

Download HuntWise and try it for free this season! 

Content Updated January 29, 2024. 

Feature image photo courtesy of: Bo Prieskorn of BP Outdoor Photography.