There couldn't be a better time to go predator hunting with all the snow we have on the ground. The snow covering allows hunters to more easily see a coyote, fox or bobcat approaching from a far distance compared to snowless surroundings where these critters blend in.

If you'd like to try predator hunting Kirk McKendree of FoxPro's pro hunting staff offers these helpful tips and techniques for taking the predators, with coyotes foremost on the menu.

Even if you've tried predator hunting, McKendree's first suggestion to make you a better hunter, is to learn your quarry. Know their habitat, food sources, breeding seasons and ask landowners if they've seen predators and where on their land. Be in-tune with their personalities he advises.

As for Coyotes, they come in brown, black and a rare chocolate coloration, with most having an average weight of about 36 pounds. They are the premier predator, McKendree contends.

Coyotes are in all 67 counties of the state with 19 different species and 16 subspecies. In March or April, Coyote females normally have 4-5 pups per year. And even if hunters take out 70 percent of them, they'll never be wiped out. "You can even put $25 on their head and try poisoning them and you still won't wipe them out," McKendree opines.

A lot of McKendree's coyote opportunities come when family dogs, cats or farmers' chickens and calves are killed. Then he gets calls to take them out.

When hunting coyotes he urges hunters to keep in mind they like to circle downwind. His quickest calling time so far was 3 minutes and the longest was 1 hour, 5 minutes. But most of the time coyotes come in late.

If hunted too hard, coyotes will become overly stressed and will quickly become conditioned to calling. And the five reasons they come into calling are: hunger, curiosity, territorial, breeding and competition from other coyotes or predators.

The alpha male, he points out, is the resident and main howler. Up to 70 percent of the coyote population are the young of the year and as omega's they don't want confrontations

CALLS: Mouth calls come in closed or open reed models and they're versatile. They can sound like a rabbit, bird or a barker. But the pro urges hunters to put emotion into calling but don't sound like a 200 pound rabbit. The only drawback to open reed mouth calls is that they don't produce deep calls. When he has a double coming in, he blows a shrieking whine-like call – similar to the sound when stepping on a dogs' tail.

HAND OPERATED SHAKER CALLS, he says, are great for a beginners as they're simple to operate. But they're not for long distance calling. When using one, it helps being a quick shooter as there's too much motion involved with a shaker. When he uses a shaker he shakes it behind his leg so the coyote can't see motion. The other shaker problem is that all the calls sound alike, there's no deviation.

ELECTRONIC CALLS: When using a FoxPro electronic caller, McKendree places it about 80 yards out from his location. And he'll often use a hand caller at the same time to mimic two coyotes. The advantage to electronic calls is that the sounds are unlimited. On the down side, if you're in an area with other predator hunters, everyone sounds the same. So he'll mix in some hand calls with the electronic generated tones and pitches. With electronic calls, a jackrabbit call, for instance, can be selected even though they're not indigenous to our area. But a coyotes' curiosity will bring him in.

A new call entry from Extreme Dimensions is their iHunt wireless Bluetooth speaker and iHunt by Ruger app that allows you to use your smartphone as the controller for more than 60 sounds from 46 species. The company says that once you sync the iHunt speaker with your phone, you can download the app for free.

The speaker, they claim, will work wirelessly up to 100 yards and doesn't require cell service to work. The speaker runs on four C batteries and produces 115 decibels of sound. In comparison, most Fox Pro units work up to 200 yards and generally produce 126 db's of sound.

SCOUTING: McKendree advises hunters to talk to farmers, landowners, rural mail carriers and WCOs to determine where predators are. Then, scout by checking back roads, trails, fencerows and edges of cover. Predators, he explains, use the same trails and back roads we do.

His last words of wisdom are that hunters should use camo, a quiet approach, stay still and ready, set up in the shadows keeping the sun at your back and during a full moon, and to use the wind and terrain to your advantage.