Firearms, especially ones that are well maintained, tend by their nature to be shiny things. Blued or stainless steel, varnished walnut, glossy scopes, bolts and triggers in the white; the firearm as art is wonderful for looking at and not so good for calling an animal that sees better than you ever dreamed of seeing.

If you are a serious caller, don't fool around. There are two easy ways to camo a rifle. One is to use the camo tape that you can find everywhere. When it heats up and cools down over a season it tends to leave adhesive behind when it is removed, which results in a gummy mess (This absolutely KILLS Vic every time it happens to one of his rifles) but the solution is simple: Leave the stuff right where it is. Wax your gun metal with Turtle Wax or something like it to prevent rust under the tape, put the tape on, and when it starts to wear and peel put on more.

The other camo method is even easier. Mask off the scope lenses, the bolt, and whatever else might suffer and spray paint the entire firearm with green, brown, black, gray, or whatever strikes your fancy. Your Sako Lightweight Hunter in .223 with that nifty Leupold 1.75 x 6 may not look the same when you're done, but you gotta ask yourself: "Do I want to excite the cupidity and envy of my friends, or kill coyotes?"

Once you've set up with your camo and managed to call a coyote, the next item on the agenda is to kill him. This can take some doing, for more then one reason, but it sure helps to have a properly set up rifle in an appropriate caliber. Vic and I are sold on the .17 Remington, and haven't used anything else on coyotes for the past several seasons. The little bullets at hellacious velocities are everything that Roy Weatherby preached, and they usually kill a coyote so quick and so dead that you have to see it to believe it. The other wonderful thing about the .17 Rem is that it almost never exits, and if you are skinning fur that is a major selling point, at least if you sew like I do.

That said, any of the .22 centerfires will kill a coyote with a chest shot, and any of the guns mentioned will allow a coyote to hit the brush if you flank him or pile onto the solid bone of a front or rear ball joint.

A bullet in the chest that damages the lungs makes a dead coyote, either on the spot or inside of 200 yards if he runs. The people that advocate the various 6 mm's and .25's as a minimum for coyotes are idiots, pure and simple; but, like poor people, God must love them, 'cause he damn sure made a bunch of them.

Your rifle should be as compact as you can find, so it moves easily on the stand, and the stock and scope should fit properly so that when the rifle comes to the shoulder the coyote appears in the field of view with the crosshair superimposed.

What firearms manufacturers call "varmint rifles" are actually bench guns that work wonderfully set up on the edge of dog towns, but they aren't worth a lick on a stand with a coyote twisting through the mesquite at 30 mph.

If you don't shoot a scope with both eyes open, learn, and you'll kill more coyotes. Vic closes one eye, but he's been doing it for so long that he doesn't seem to be handicapped, and he's naturally perverse anyhow.

Action type doesn't matter much; unless you are in the habit of calling pairs or multiples, in which case a semi-auto will enable you to miss the second and third coyotes 6 or 8 times as they flare through the mesquite like quail, while the poor devil with a bolt gun must content himself with expending only 2 or 3 futile rounds.

Shotguns work on coyotes without question; but remember that coyotes are dead tough, and they can go a long way with a couple of pellets in them. 10 or 12 gauge guns with magnum loads of #4 Buck and tight chokes are the ticket here, and the closer the better when you pull the trigger.

We'll discuss stands a while later, but if you are going to call with a shotgun you would do well to let the country work for you. A coyote that breaks into the open at 20 yards is so much meat for a scattergun, while one that buzzes you at 40+ is nothing but that ole Debbil in disguise.

Buckshot has a tendency to wad up on the undercoat of a coyote and not penetrate properly, and even if you put a couple of pellets into the lungs that coyote will not bleed externally, and if he runs a half mile before he folds you are probably not going to find him.

Unless you are willing to practice a truckload of self-discipline, get a rifle and a scope with bright optics and a large field of view and call it good.

And speaking of scopes, there are Leupolds, and there are all of the rest.

Vic is a creature of low morals in this regard, and occasionally he'll show up at the range with a sheepish look and some off-brand thing without a gold ring, but he knows what the truth is as well as I.

The little 1.75 x 6 Vari-X III is a gem, and you shouldn't need any more scope on a calling rifle. Duplex crosshairs guide your eye to the center as quickly as any other, and they are visible in low light.

Finally, if you get so good at calling coyotes and killing them with a rifle that you begin to consider staying home and doing chores for your wife instead, you can call with a handgun.

I had better clarify that noun for the brothers of the beloved of God mentioned above, so that there is no confusion: A handgun is a gun that you hold in your hands, stick out in front of you, and fire; and no "taco holds" or other Karma Sutra stuff either. S & W Model 66's, Colt 1911's, Ruger Blackhawks, etc. are handguns. Barrels at 4" or 6" are about right, but the fellas who cut the buttstock and 4" inches of barrel off of a carbine and shoot from bipods or benches need not apply. They may think that they are shooting a handgun, but all they are doing is ruining a good rifle with a saw.

At any rate, calling with a pistol or a revolver with either drive you into the arms of the Lord or convince you that there is no God, depending on your disposition, but it'll keep you plenty entertained, even if you don't kill much.