How to Use Lights for Coons & Coyotes?

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Swifty Morgan

Swifty Morgan

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I asked some questions about night hunting, and people said I should use lights. The thread got canned before I could ask the important question: how do I use lights?

There are three main things I can shoot in this area with lights: coyotes, coons, and pigs.

Do I just wander around with a lamp on my head and look for game? If I put a light on the ground, will animals walk up to check it out? How does it work?

I got myself a portable blind. I was kind of hoping I could sit in it and let the animals do the work, but maybe I'm supposed to get out and chase them.

I have no dogs, and I will generally be hunting alone.
 
I've used lights when calling coyotes. After a calling run of maybe ten or fifteen seconds, I'll sweep an area rather quickly, looking for eyes. Then more calling. I then make a point of trying to pick up eyes in the edge of the light, rather than the center. Shining directly can spook a coyote.

Some guys will first use a high-candlepower light for a first spot and then go to a two-cell light for "up close and personal".
 
Usually, night hunting for coons is done with hounds which tree them. Then you come in with the light to shine them so you can shoot them with a .22 short or a .410 shotgun.

Shining hogs is done with a bait station or feeder to attract them.
 
At night coons can be found along creek and lake shores hunting for crawfish, frogs, etc. That's a good place to start if you want to catch one out. However, it may not yield many sightings.
 
We just use either a mouth or electric caller for coyotes. Coupled with a spotlight and it works very well. How big is your place? You won't be able to do multiple sets on the same night on a small property without burning yourself. My place is only a section so it is really too small to hunt extensively on the same night.
 
White light tends to spook most animals, a red filter works great, they say animals can't see the red spectrum. Hand or electronic callers for coyote if you are in a blind, I like a shotgun with #2 plated lead birdshot or BB's if they are going o be within 60 yards, a rifle with a light mounted for longer shots. Walking and shining up trees for coon looking for eyes if no dogs available. Never have hunted pigs.
 
Whatever the color of the light is, animals will see a light. Maybe they won't know the light is red but they'll still see a light.

I have nothing against raccoons unless they're bothering my stuff so I don't go way out of my way to get them. What I've observed though, is that they become active at dusk and you may also see them about in the early morning. During the day, some will be sleeping in the fork of a tree. For these reasons, I've never had to use a light to get them. A scope and my landscape lighting is all I need when it's dark and usually I get them at dusk. I sit in a comfortable chair looking out over the "back 50" at dusk with a scope and shooting sticks.

If you can, I'd suggest a chair (you probably don't really need a blind) preferably at least partially concealed by a tree or bush, your rifle, shooting sticks and something to read and when the animals become active you can snipe them. That works for raccoons and coyotes. I've also seen skunks and opossums but since they've never bothered me I don't bother them.
 
Unless you can bait coons, good luck!

We walked 7 total miles with an incredible hound the other day to tree 4 coons (shot 3 and left one for next time). I would never in a million years just “walk around the woods” looking for them and expect to be successful.
 
I use a red light for coyotes. I tried green but they seemed much more spooky with it.
Definitely get a scope mounted one and try shooting with it. It's a different ball game than daylight shooting.
 
If you have enough coons around, walking and shining can work well if you know where to look, especially if they have den trees on your property. It's not uncommon to get 2 or 3 walking a mile of creekbank up here in NE, but I don't know how things are in Florida. Either way, be sure to check your state laws related to coon hunting, it's illegal to shine trees without running dogs in some states.
 
If you can shoot from a boat do that. I see lots of coins when I’m fishing at night. They are kinda skittish usually so when you put your spotlight on one he runs away. Keep a rifle handy. They seem to really like coming to bridges, but I’m not sure if it’s because of them eating various littered food or if they like having overhead cover from owls.
 
You can also call coons in using an electronic calller.

I had a friend that had disabilities and couldn’t walk well. This was 30 years ago. He used a Johnny Steward caller with cassette tapes. He had to cover the speakers with hardware cloth screening because the coons would find the speaker and try to tear it apart to get the baby coon that was trapped inside.

Pull up to an area. Shut the truck off. Put out the speakers 25-30 yards from the truck and keep quiet for 15 minutes. Once the calling started they would come in within 10-15 minutes.

Shine the light either downward or upward and not directly at them. He used a .22 Mag for instant kills.

I know another guy that did basically the same thing. He would find an area where a ditch, pond would border a corn field.
 
I’ve taken thousands of coons and hundreds of coyotes over the years, nothing in the world would make me believe someone could become skilled at “walking around and hoping to stumble upon a coon.”

You CAN find them if you hunt hollows and old buildings during the day, but you need a dog to go in after them and bring them out. They are best hunted with dogs, or trapped. I have done a lot of calling of coon in the evenings as well, but it’s not as productive as hounding, and not nearly as much fun - let alone the fact there are far fewer prime hours for it.

Nothing but pure dumb luck will let you walk around the woods and stumble upon a coon.

For hunting over hounds, I usually only use two lights: an LED headlamp, have a couple really nice ones now, but used cheap ones from the front aisle racks at hardware stores for many years. I then typically only carry a high candlepower spotlight on a sling for spotting and shooting. I occasionally carry another handheld 6V “lantern”, as a walking light, but really only use them out of habit, and because they offer a more mellow spread of light vs. equivalently priced LED lights.

I have called hundreds of coyotes over the years as well. Where legal, I like to mount my light on my monopod, so I can use it independently from my rifle, but also have the advantage of “engaging” them together to point together for the shot.

Watch your regulations - Kansas for example only allows the use of lights when hunting over hounds or checking traps, and only with rimfire rifles. It’s somewhat ambiguously written in some appearances, such some people misconstrue the regs to broadly say you can hunt furbearers at night with lights...

Animals may not see in color, but they will absolutely notice the contrast and shadows if you cast a high beam colored light across them. Think about a black and white movie - if you flip on a light, you can notice a difference, no matter the color of the light. So can animals. I’ve taken a lot of new folks hunting coyotes at night, time and time again they turn on their lights pointed RIGHT at the coyote - which then ducks the light like you’d shot at it...
 
Varminterror said:
I’ve taken thousands of coons and hundreds of coyotes over the years, nothing in the world would make me believe someone could become skilled at “walking around and hoping to stumble upon a coon."
Click to expand...

You killed my whole strategy. I thought it was so brilliant, I was going to patent it.
 
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