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Author
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Topic: How far downwind ...... ????
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted April 05, 2019 11:01 AM
Ok;
El Bee says that we don't talk enough about coyotes lately. Fair & true enough.
So
Question; How far away downwind, assuming normal hygiene and avoidance of garlic & onion sandwiches is a coyote likely to pick up one's scent without covers, carbon, Ozonics & such with a slight breeze ?????
Yes, I know that moist air, dry air, rising thermals & mountain air currents will all be factors.
But, how far does a coyote have to be downwind that I could say "He's too far to smell me" ?????
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7577 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
Member # 690
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posted April 05, 2019 06:28 PM
been a couple of times that I've had em pick me off way before I thought they could or would, about 300+ when they turned tail and boogied.
I don't do anything to try to rid my scent. Not convinced that there's anything that would work.
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Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!
Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted April 06, 2019 06:13 AM
Well, it's hard to say? In the first place, for you guys that don't hunt at night, you don't get to see the whole plan. They come in on a string from way out there, (who knows?) based on wind currents etc. But, at a specific point they suddenly decide to circle to the best available wind. I've seen them flair off at 600 and 400 and sometimes very close in, like inside 100 yards. It also has to do with how wide open is the terrain.
This is where they decide to use their nose instead of their ears. So, I could only guess at how far they can detect your scent.
Just as a general rule, places with a lot of brush, like AZ, they start circling very late, has something to do with the visual aspect, and the fact that all that brush acts like an eggbeater, the scent isn't coming in a straight line so they know this and discount the reliability.
Now, "He Who Shall Not Be Named" already sent an email this morning before I got on the board. Quite a lengthly submission in which he speculated something about how the scent falls to the ground after about 47.6 feet and that's when his dogs switch from heads up to nose to the ground and near as I can tell, that's how far a coyote can smell you, too. Or something? He also said he should charge for this info but if you write, I will forward his email and whatever you think it's worth, send it and I will split it with him, 50-50.
So, do you think you are lucky, Punk? (Clint)
Oh, he also said that he's the only one on this Board that hunts anymore. Are you going to let Mr Charm get away with that?
Good hunting. El Bee
[ April 06, 2019, 06:15 AM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31450 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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knockemdown
Our staff photo editing Guru, par excellence
Member # 3588
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posted April 06, 2019 06:33 AM
Dunno, up I've had my dog wind a denned coon from a couple hundred yards away, easily and often. And I bet a coyote's nose is at least that good, likely better, than his...
One thing is for certain. The ability to scent has a most critical component. In that, the critter has to enter/cross the downwind 'stream' of scent in order to detect it. If that stream is somehow manipulated by terrain or environmental factors, they become the limiting factor...
So, if you're asking how far a coyote 'could' scent us from unobstructed downwind, under 'ideal' conditions? I'd say 5-600yds...EASY. And likely a lot further than that...
Posts: 2202 | From: behind fascist lines | Registered: Mar 2010
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted April 06, 2019 08:47 AM
But Anderson says that most of the scent is driven to the ground within 47.6 feet and will not stay suspended for
quote:
5-600yds...EASY. And likely a lot further than that...
Well, I do know that gravity plays a part. Like I said, if I spray scent and watch it drift downwind, it doesn't launch into the stratosphere; it some of it bumps into bushes and trees and it's true that gravity plays a part, just as wind plays a part. So, if a strong enough wind can carry the scent 600 yards, bearing in mind that a strong wind tends to dilute the scent, then who's to say?
I will share something I read a long time ago about trappers in the Arctic many years ago who would fry bacon over an open fire and they seemed to think a polar bear could be back tracked for a mile and a half to the point where he was just traveling along until he caught the scent of bacon and switched directions and came to the source. Apparently, this had been somewhat documented more than once. I can tell you this much, the colder the temperature, the smellier the fart. This has been well documented.
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31450 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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DiYi
Wears wife's pink panties under his camo for good luck. (yeah, right!)
Member # 3785
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posted April 07, 2019 02:48 PM
Couple hundred yards for sure. I can throw cattail fluff from a treestand and see it take its air current track way over 50 yds.
Posts: 623 | From: SoDak | Registered: Feb 2011
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted April 07, 2019 06:39 PM
I've spoken on occasion of "the morgue", one of our favorite honey holes. South of "the morgue" lies a feedlot that seems to lose more than its fair share of cattle. They mulch (bury) the dead right on site. We call from north of it, but if the winds are calm or from the south, I can start detecting the smell of death from there a mile away. We routinely kill just north of 20 coyotes there every season and I can assure you that they're coming from further than 40-some yards away. LOL I can't imagine how that stench hits them up close and I'm guessing they're following that trail like sharks on blood for several miles.
When I ran hounds, I ran English dogs. Great breed, unless you're running them with Walkers owned by a guy who competes his dogs in sanctioned events that only last 2 hours. His dogs are bred with noses that won 't pick up a trail that's much more than fifteen minutes old because the idea is to strike and tree as many coons in that 2 hour period, and you don't want your dog getting locked down on a single rangy coon that came by three hours ago. English red ticks are the source breed for Walker Treeing Hounds and one of the things bred out of them was the ic e cold nose. Anywho, we were coon poor one night and heading back to the truck with the dogs on leads. My fellow houndsman spotted eyes high up in a cottonwood tree over a half-mile away from a "layup", a coon that was out of the den but hadn't come down. We were downwind of it and the breeze was barely 3-5 maybe. We decided to see whose dog would strike first. My Cody dog got about twenty yards closer, stuck his nose in the air and let out a long, squeaky bawl. He had the coon. We continued walking toward the tree and Jerry's Doll, a Walker with top end pedigree and a ton'o trophies didn't strike in until we were maybe 200 yards from the tree. Some canines are just better than others at sorting out stink. Cody could, and did, trail a coon to tree on slick ice one night. Never saw a dog that could do that before, or since.
I've seen coyotes stop on a dime and turn tail well past 400 yards many, many times. The size of scent particles is such that I would surmise that gravity has no effect on them at all if there's any wind at all.
Maybe the stench is so bad from "what's-his-name
" inside of 40-some yards, that by the time they've gotten a snoot full and gotten that far trying to escape, the turbinate bones in their noses have plum burned out for good. Then again, LB might just be trying to stoke the fire.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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R.Shaw
Peanut Butter Man, da da da da DAH!
Member # 73
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posted April 07, 2019 06:43 PM
To add to what Fred said.
It was the mid to late 70's when coons were $30-$35 and a new pickup cost $6000. Everyone owned a hound or ole spot...aka spotlight. You had to run to them when they were treed or more than likely someone would shoot your coon or steal your hounds. Dozer piles and brush piles were the only thing that helped save the population. Guys would saw down a den tree or destroy an old house to get at them.
It was around 10pm and I was headed home to drop Dad back at the house because it was already 2 hours past his bedtime. We had already tried a couple of spots with little luck. I happened to remember an eighty acre patch of timber that was on the way and it was comprised of old growth timber with huge oaks. It was only a mile and half from the house.
We pulled into the gate just in time to see two guys, whom I knew, loading a couple of hi-powered blueticks. We got out and they instructed us not to waste our time. They had covered it all and didn't get a peep. I glanced in their truck as they were leaving and sure enough didn't see a coon or hide. Looked over at Dad and without hesitation he said unload them. That night I had a couple of walkers and my constant companion cur named Luke.
Long story short, in about 2 hours we caught six and not one of those coons had ever been on the ground. They were laying up there on a big horizontal limb enjoying the night breeze. That cur would just stand with his nose in the air and bark treed. I would move into the wind from his position looking for an eye or bulk. Most were within 50 yards, but a couple were across the ditch on the next ridge about 80 yards from him. The two walkers never made a sound. Pretty sure they could smell them, but had no idea what to do.
I remember telling Fred that a man is entitled to one good dog in his lifetime. Mine was Luke and his is Pokey.
[ April 07, 2019, 07:12 PM: Message edited by: R.Shaw ]
Posts: 545 | From: Nebraska | Registered: Jan 2003
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