Decoy Dogs

Cory Lundberg is young, tough and knows how to kill predators. He outfits in several western states including Utah, Wyoming and Oregon, among others, offering predator hunts, varmint shooting and combinations of the two, and his success is about as good as it gets.

On a summer hunt with Cory in eastern Oregon he showed off what has become one of coyote hunting’s hottest trends—the use of decoy dogs. This is not to be confused with using a decoy. Here you use a real dog that has been trained in the discipline and adds some real excitement to any western coyote hunt.

On this trip we did some combination hunting—calling coyotes at dawn and dusk, and shooting ground squirrels during the heat of midday. Talk about fun. This is a very productive use of your time, since the coyotes generally nap away the hot hours during the middle of the day.

How It Works

Lundberg guides in areas where he knows where the coyotes den and live. In June, as pups are being born, alpha male coyotes are extremely territorial, meaning the best way to get some action is by primarily using challenge howls, barks and yips, or mimicking the sound of a family of pups and females with an electronic caller.

“We may also use dying rabbit sounds, but the challenge howls really work well this time of year,” Lundberg said. He uses both an “e” caller and custom mouth calls to sound off, and it works.

Accompanying Cory on our hunt was Duke, a young dog trained to sit close and howl when Cory howled, then when a coyote is spotted coming in, Duke ranges at the coyote, then turns and comes back to Cory, bringing the coyote into shooting range. The dog also acts as a decoy when stationary near the callers.

One morning Brian Pearce, Scott Rupp and I accompanied Cory and Duke out on a morning that ended up having record-setting hot temperatures—not good for coyote calling! Nevertheless Cory and Duke got two coyotes to make an appearance, but unfortunately for us no shots were fired. Later, Scott was fortunate enough to have a big coyote run as fast as it could right at the calls and Duke before his Mossberg MMR in .223 earned it a ride in the truck.

Using decoy dogs is something I have done a bit of in the past, and I can tell you it is really fun and very effective. Cory will take a novice out and show you how you how to hunt predators, including how to set up, work with a partner, how to call, which calls you need and when each type works best, what signs to look for and more. When you add in some red-hot midday varmint shooting, it makes for a fun and exciting trip.

More information is available at CodaHunts.com, or by calling 801-310-5673. I can’t wait to go back.