Richard Baxter

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(AKA CCP)

I was born in 1967 and grew up on a beef cattle farm in north Florida. I grew up hunting, fishing and trapping.  I got into coyote hunting around 1982. Up until then we didn’t have any coyotes that we knew of. Once I started coyote hunting everything else started going on the back burner. Coyote hunting just seemed to always be on my mind. I learned what I know of eastern coyotes by trial and error; there were not any other coyote hunters around that I knew of. Not having any coyote hunters in my area made it much easier for me to get access to land to hunt. The problem was there was no one to learn from. There was an explosion in the coyote population around 1990 and I was able to call and kill a lot of coyotes during that time.
I moved to Nashville TN in 2001 and got on line for the first time. Up until then I didn’t know there were any other coyote hunters in the east. I soon realized there were a few of us around and was able to meet a few in person. After living in Nashville for 3 years I ended up moving to my present home in north Alabama. It took me a few years to establish decent hunting grounds here. I now have several places to hunt.
My son came to visit and we got to talking about coyote hunting and he still had lots of questions for me. I had a small video camera and decided to start filming my hunts for him to learn from. I started sending him articles and film clips and in the process realized there was not a lot of info for the eastern coyote hunter. My filming continued to grow and decided to put together a video for the public. I created a production company called Crow Creek Productions, hence the title CCP. It has been a little over a year and a half and I should be done by the fall of 08’. The name of the video will be “Eastern Coyotes.Com Vol 1”.
Since starting the video I also felt there needed to be more info on the net specifically for the eastern coyote hunter. This is how this site came to be; hopefully with the help of fellow eastern coyote hunters we will be able to help the new guys needing eastern coyote hunting information.
I will also add there are many great eastern coyote callers out there. Most of the greatest coyote callers I have meet are not on the internet. Keep Calling

CCP

 

 

 

 

Chet Parsons

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Howdy, from a southeastern "woodland" coyote caller. My name is Chet Parsons aka coyotehunter_1. I was born Dec. 25, 1955 in the small rural community of Crossville, Tennessee.
My dad first started taking me along on his rabbit and quail hunts when I was about five years old. He presented me my first firearm at age ten, a .410 pump shotgun. Since then,I've pursued a variety of game from small to large.
My first experience calling predators started back in the late1960's. Fox and bobcat were our main targets here then, coyotes only started showing up in the early 70's. After reading a few stories on coyote hunting in outdoor magazines I became interested in learning to call them. Since they were fairly scarce,finding a seasoned coyote hunter to learn from was impossible. Those magazine articles were quite interesting and somewhat educational but they were based typically in western states, not here in the southeast. I soon learned what worked there didn't necessarily work well here. Through trial and error, I struggled but did not give up.
In the winter of '73, using a home made hand call, I successfully lured in and killed my first coyote. From that time on the vast majority of my field time has been spent studying the habits and behavior of "woodland" coyotes in my region. By doing so I've taken many coyotes over the years but I'm still far from being an expert. It's a learning experience, even today. The excitement and enthusiasm of having coyotes coming to the call will never diminish for me. Every coyote called in, whether it's harvested or not, I consider to be a success. Good calling, coyotehunter_1

Chet Parsons

 

 

 

 

JD Piatt

My name is JD Piatt, I am 38 years old and live in Ohio. I started hunting and trapping at a very young age, and have never missed a season. I have always been intrigued by predators. I started my trapping out on foxes and coyotes. Why, because of the challenge. I enjoy the challenge of trapping and calling the best in the woods.
I Teamed up with Brent Saxton in 2005 to help film and produce "Hunting in The East" coyote video series. That took me to several states across the country calling coyotes. I have met and hunted with many fine predator callers all over the country.
In 2008, I traveled to Kansas to attend the World Predator Expo. I entered the calling competitions and called against some of the best in the world. There were 3 divisions in the contest, distress calling, coyote vocalizations, and world overall. In the distress division I placed 4th. In the vocalizations, I placed 1st, becoming the World Champion coyote howler, for that I must thank three really good friends that helped me become a better howler. Brent Saxton, Rich Higgins and Tyler Higgins thank you all very much. In the overall round, I went in with an 8 point lead and ended up finishing 3rd in the world.
Calling the Eastern coyote is a very rewarding challenge. Many men have been humbled by this creature. They are here, not as many as the lucky guy's out west get to deal with, but definitely a callable population. You must be determined to be successful, and driven to succeed. The eastern coyote will challenge your every woodsman ship skill, be on top of your game. After every hunt, analyze what you done wrong and done right. On a successful stand, pick it apart, determine "why" it was a success and try to incorporate that "why" into every stand.

Best of Luck to all, who take on the challenge, of calling the eastern coyote.

JD Piatt

 

 

 

James Holbrook

Field Staff (article editor)

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(aka Bopeye)

Hello eastern coyote hunters.

My name is James Holbrook aka Bopeye. I’m 38 years old and I am a very enthusiastic fan of hunting the eastern coyote.

I was born in Nebraska and spent most of my youth living in Nebraska, Wyoming and Kansas. Growing up, we mainly hunted feathered prey such as the Ringneck Pheasant, Bobwhite Quail, doves, and the occasional duck. My entire family, including my dad, mom, brother, grandparents, uncles and cousins were all big fans of hunting pheasants when they were in season and practicing shooting pheasants using clay pigeons during the off season. Thus my love for the shotgun came very naturally.
I moved to Crossville, Tennessee in my late teens and found the terrain and hunting to be quite different. The bird hunting was so different here that I lost interest in it and instead took up hunting rabbits, squirrels, and deer. I enjoyed this kind of hunting and still do occasionally, but in the mid 90’s I started becoming interested in hunting coyotes and found myself devoting more and more time to hunting them.
Having grown up in a region where coyotes were very common, I never really gave them much thought. I knew that almost all of my relatives out west despised the coyote and would use whatever means they could to kill one. It really wasn’t considered a sport amongst my family, but more like their civic duty to kill one if they saw it. My mother worked at the courthouse for awhile when they still had a bounty on coyotes there. Guys would bring in a set of coyote ears to the courthouse and it was mom’s job to pay them for it. Needless to say, it didn’t really sound like a worthwhile hunting sport, unless you wanted to make a few bucks.
What made me change my attitude from them being nothing more than a nuisance animal that needed exterminated to an adversary worthy of my respect and admiration I may never know. Whatever the reason, I know it sunk in deep, because now I won’t hardly hunt anything else.
My early attempts at hunting coyotes here in the southeast were miserable failures to say the least. I kept trying to use western tactics to hunt an animal that was located in the east. Finally, I was fortunate to find someone that knew a little something about the Eastern Coyotes habits and was willing to teach me. Once I had some mentoring and was finally able to break out of the western mindset, my success started to steadily climb.
Now, I know most folks still prefer a rifle when coyote hunting. The rifle is probably the best tool for the job, but I quickly realized that almost all of the coyotes that were being called in were close enough in the thick stuff to use a shotgun. I made the switch back to my shotgun, even though I will still use a rifle at times, and I have been using one ever since.
Hunting the eastern coyote is more about the hunt to me than anything else. I love going to the woods with the anticipation of having a coyote come in so close that I can see the whites of their eyes. When they have come in close enough that I can take them with a shotgun, then I know I have outwitted one of the craftiest animals in North America.

I hope I never lose that thrill I get when a coyote comes in close enough to smell them.
I hope you enjoy your time spent on this site and hopefully it will help you become a better eastern coyote hunter.

Good hunting to all,

James Holbrook

 

 

Troy Sheckles

Hello my name is Troy Sheckels .

I have been hunting since I was 9 years old. My grandfather introduced me to hunting, shooting trap and fishing. The fondest memory was we were out hunting fox and had a coyote come to the call. That is all it took for me to get hooked on coyotes. I started hunting Coyotes around Maryland 10 years ago and everyone I knew thought I was crazy until I brought one home. No one was seeing them so they did not exist to them.

I started calling with mouth calls and the old radio with tape player. I did not have anyone to learn from because no one was hunting coyotes. I took a couple of trips out west and learned the western style of hunting them. It was sure easier than here in the east. I took some of the tactics and modified them. Like don't call the open move back into the woods 50yds and catch them circling the field to see what’s out there. Use funnels and the trail of least resistance like a creek bottom or along a ridge line. All of this I learned by trial and error. And if you don't get out there you can't get them from the couch watching TV.
I have taught my son and a few friends about coyote hunting and they are hooked. These eastern coyotes are the most humbling game animal I have ever hunted. But if you can analyze every hunt and stay confident your success will increase. Never give up because you did not see anything or you had one get your wind because the coyote came from where you were not expecting it to.
Know your hunting area and scout for sign just like you do for deer or turkey. And the most important of all have fun. I hope everyone hunting has an open mind to try coyote hunting and experience the thrill of them coming to the call.

Good luck.

Troy Sheckels

 

 

Ed Lay
(aka weedwalker)

My name is Ed Lay, aka; weedwalker. I'm from London,Ky in the southeast part of the state. I've lived in London for 20 years and grew up mostly in northern Kentucky and also lived in central Indiana for a few years.
I got my first gun, a 20 gauge single shot shotgun when I was 10 years old. My Dad then began taking me out squirrel hunting mostly and teaching me the way of the woods. It wasn't long before I was creeping around the woods on my own and getting my limit of squirrels on a regular basis. As I got older, I began hunting quail, grouse, deer and turkey.
My first experiences with any kind of predator hunting were in the early 90's. I had bought a Haydels rabbit distress hand call and took off to the woods. I didn't have any idea what I was doing, but I eventualy started getting fox to come in for a shot.There was nobody to learn from except for the western style of predator hunting. After a while I figured out that style of hunting didn't work well in my area.

Then I finally discovered the internet. I met some good coyote hunters on there and a few that lived in my area and began to learn from them. Learning about set-ups, the wind, sounds and calls to use, and scouting specificly for coyotes. I've picked up a lot of tips along the way, then tailored them to fit the type of terrain I hunt. And it has helped me to harvest several coyotes. I hunt 95% of the time on public property where the coyotes are subject to drive by shooting and people doing all sorts of outdoor activities. They are very shy and tough to hunt, but can be called if you're persistant enough.
I hunt with a shotgun inside the woods a lot. And I also rifle hunt the reclaimed strip mines in my area. But the thrill of a coyote charging in full bore on me inside the woods while using my shotgun is a thrill that surpasses anything else I've ever hunted. The coyote is a greater adversary than any other game I've gone after. Their keen sense of smell, sight, and hearing will challenge even the best of hunters. If you have called and taken an eastern coyote, you have taken a trophy.

Good luck to you all on your outdoor adventures.

Ed Lay