Always follow up even if you feel you missed !!!!

[35 Whelen]

Having messed with coyotes since they first hit this country around 1972 we have heard some unreal storys of them hit hard and getting away ................ I have laid most of the storys aside knowing that the coyotes were poorly hit and usually shot with a deer weight bullet that most probably passed on thru with out transfering that much shock into the coyote.
This morning we shot at a coyote and got what looked like a clean miss............... he ran off as if unharmed and showed no sign of being wounded from what I could see. He was hit at 250 yds with a Hornady Vmax 87 gr going 3100. I am shooting from the second story so the shots are tilted down hill and I get a front shoulder in and usually the exit is down thru at an angle and exits the back of the belly..............
After thinking about the follow thru of the shot I was positive I had the crosshairs on him when the gun went off. There was no wind to speak of. So I went out and fired up the Ski-doo and went out for a look??? Sure enough there was blood and I mean LOTS of blood spraying out of this guy so I started to follow along after 275yds I hit the green woods and entered an isle of woods were I found our prey laying dead . He had made it 287 yds looking back out to the bait with a range finder!
Take a look at the picture [sorry its so graphic] and see if you think ANY animal could run 300 yds hit this hard???????? They are some tough!!!!

 

[Teknys]

Another example of bullet performance is not an exact science. Some critters just don't know they are dead.

 

[SJB358]

Awesome shooting Earle. They do have some will to live that is for sure!

Looks like a good sized dog though.

 

[DrMike]

I have often said that these yodel dogs are among the toughest animals in all nature. Great account of their determination, Earl.

 

[35 Whelen]

No he is just a young one Scotty weight was 24lbs.................. Mike I think you are dead right they really are very tough customers!!!!

 

[FOTIS]

Nice Earle!

 

[JD338]

Nice job Earle.
What round were you shooting, 25-06?

JD338

 

[Elkman]

That is impressive, who would know that they were that tough?

 

[35 Whelen]

JD,
No its not the great 25/06 although I have always wanted one. That caliber would be a real sweatheart and horrible medicine for the songdog , I asked Scotty for one for Christmas but I guess he forgot? I told him NOT to spend a ton of money on it and that just a Kimber would be fine............................ :mrgreen:
I am shooting a common old Ruger 77 in .243 ...................... and usually have great luck with the right bullets. I have noticed more run offs this season then normal and am wondering if this high angle I am shooting down on them has anything to do with this????
But at any rate I just cant imagine any animal beening able to take a hit like this one did where it entered just above his right shoulder and traveled diagonal down thru until it exited out thru the back of the stomach. As you can plainly see in the picture it literally blew the bowels and some of the belly right out of him. He blew out of there exactly like a clean miss......
The blood trail was six inches wide all the way to the body........... I have always had a great respect for them but this only reinforces my feelings of them! :shock:

 

[SJB358]

JD,
No its not the great 25/06 although I have always wanted one. That caliber would be a real sweatheart and horrible medicine for the songdog , I asked Scotty for one for Christmas but I guess he forgot? I told him NOT to spend a ton of money on it and that just a Kimber would be fine............................ :mrgreen:

Post Office must've lost it enroute to your place Earle... :lol:

 

[DrMike]

JD,
No its not the great 25/06 although I have always wanted one. That caliber would be a real sweatheart and horrible medicine for the songdog , I asked Scotty for one for Christmas but I guess he forgot? I told him NOT to spend a ton of money on it and that just a Kimber would be fine............................ :mrgreen:

Post Office must've lost it enroute to your place Earle... :lol:

I woulda' thought you made personal delivery, riding in a surrey drawn by two Virginia whitetail. :wink: Come to think of it, I don't recall receiving the goodies I requested! :? Musta' had the wrong address.

 

[SJB358]

JD,
No its not the great 25/06 although I have always wanted one. That caliber would be a real sweatheart and horrible medicine for the songdog , I asked Scotty for one for Christmas but I guess he forgot? I told him NOT to spend a ton of money on it and that just a Kimber would be fine............................ :mrgreen:

Post Office must've lost it enroute to your place Earle... :lol:

I woulda' thought you made personal delivery, riding in a surrey drawn by two Virginia whitetail. :wink: Come to think of it, I don't recall receiving the goodies I requested! :? Musta' had the wrong address.

Jeeze, two Virginia WT's.. Not sure if my two boxers wouldn't be able to pull a bigger load!

 

[tddeangelo]

Mike, I never actually let him get his paws on my 300H&H, so he didn't have it to deliver to you as he promised.

 

[DrMike]

Mike, I never actually let him get his paws on my 300H&H, so he didn't have it to deliver to you as he promised.

Just my luck! What a revolting predicament that is!

 

[1Shot]

Some animals just take a licking and keep on ticking. Or is that a watch?? Anyway, I had this problem using a 7mm Rem mag on deer. I used different make bullets and loads etc. trying to find a load that would put a deer down in it's tracks without having to hit the spine. I was doing crop damage control and was killing A LOT of deer at the time. I could shoot a deer perfectly through the front shoulders or perfect heart lung shot and 9 out of 10 would run off 100 to 200 yards. When found they would slosh on the inside and have exit holes most of the time as big as your fist. Got rid of the 7mm Mag and went to the 25-06 and 99% of the time you find them where they were standing when shot. Funny how that happens.

 

[onesonek]

Seen that often on yotes hits a bit far back. They can run a long ways with their guts shot out. Tough they are, and will be here long after we.

 

[35 Whelen]

The way bait is placed, my usually shot is a front on or head on shot. Everything I am shooting from this loacation has been hit in the front chest area with the bullets traveling down thru them at an angle and exiting out thru the bottom of the end of the belly area. I am shooting from an upstairs bedroom out onto the ice at exactly 250yds. So it may appear looking this picture that the animal is just gut shot. That is NOT infact the case, He is hit at the base of the neck and the mess is the exit hole.
I am now at 6 coyotes one Bobcat and one Prime Red Fox since I put the bait out. I am really not that impressed with the 87 Vmax ............. I had good luck with it for a while on more broadside shots last season at 300yds. But I am having toooooo many run offs this season??
All of them hit the same way and all showing major exit holes but most running off until they pump out ................. I have posted asking for actual hands on experences of some of the boys that have tryed the Varmadeddon 70gr bullets on Coyotes and looking forward to any info that is out there as to loads and if the bullets are staying inside the animals..........
They seam to be hard to find in the present climate online but must be some around somewhere?
I like the extra weight to buck the wind but this bullet is really not working as I had hoped and really thought these would stay inside a 35lbs coyote but they are NOT . I had one actually leave the crime scene early in the season that was poorly hit in the rear leg............ a fellow baiter got her two weeks later and I examined the animal after the fact and found I had hit her right in the front of the right rear ham and again had a pass thru and didnt e get the explosive re
sults I had hoped for from this bullet. I am now thinking this bullet is actually more a antelope /sheep bullet than it is a varmiter round??? I have not tryed their 75gr and wonder if it would perform better on coyotes???? The 58gr works perfect on them but I have tooooo much wind here to use them in this set up...... 20-30 kts wind here coming down the lake all the time.

 

[Woodycreek]

I have had impressive results with the 70 BT on red fox, bobcats, and a few groundhogs out of the 243 AI going about 3670 FPS. Big exit holes on all of them, but they never took another step :twisted: Those 70 BTs shoot really good out that rifle with Varget. Have yet to put one in a yote since I have switched to using the 105 Amax.

 

[Oldtrader3]

My favored round for coyotes when I lived in Utah was the 80 gr Ballistic Tip in a .243 Win or 6mm Rem. As long as I did my job and got a center thorax hit, I had a dead coyote. In every case there was massive blood spoor at the shot location. In some cases, I never found the dead coyote but the blood spoor and amount of track distress at the hit location, absolutely convinced me that the object of my shot was dead.

I do not recover skins of coyotes and my only interest is in their death. If half of the animal's blood was behind the point of impact of my Ballistic Tip, the coyote would not possiby survive.

 

[.300winmag]

You make an excellent point, Sir. Following up after a shot even if you think it was a miss is something I feel that every hunter is obligated to do. We owe it to the game animals we hunt to do this, and the last thing any ethical hunter wants is to leave an animal wounded and suffering because they thought they had missed. Thank you for sharing and nice shooting! Some animals will to live amazes me, as this coyote does. With as traumatic as that wound appears I am very surprised it made it nearly 300 yards. Intuitively, I'd think he'd have been luck to make it 30.