Chile,
I too appreciate your photo. But I think you gave some facts in your responce that is slightly contradictory of the intended thought behind your reply.
You make a good point about the size of the area containing vitals in a small coyote. Your exactly right, it takes skill & practice to put a bullet in a 4" circle at long range.
But, you also brought to light how small a coyote is in general. I would like to point out that this sure is a small animal, to soak up 300+ Ft. Lbs. of energy/hydraulic shock (at long range, considerably more energy at moderate range)
Many combat studies show the killing effect of energy from a bullet transferred to living tissue causing death by shock to the immediate area (organ shut down, etc.) and shock overall to the being.
Shoot a combatant in the forearm with a .45, and if the combatant is not treated for shock the combatant is a goner. A certian sniper school taught that even with the limited .308 as a sniper round, that if a combatabt is shot anyhwere from the knees up, He most likely will dye from shock, period, unless immedialty treated by a talented and well equipped medic.
Back to our little pup...
Animals, like us are mostly water.. hit a bag of water with a 300 pound blow, and the hydraulic displacment of the water will over strain the entire bag. Where tissue is involved, the water meets the tissue with such force it dissolves it. Imagine a hunk of Jello at a car wash with a high pressure sprayer. The Hydraulic column from the blow of the bullet, literally does to tissue what the sprayer does to jello. This is the science that causes the extreme seperation of the animals depicted on the video "Prarie Dog Be Gone." Not that I support the sale/purchase of a dvd showing animals dying by dramatic means, especailly when presented as humorous. I find it distasteful and wrong. But that's another subject.
Back to my previous statment:
"I would like to point out that this sure is a small animal, to soak up 300+ Ft. Lbs. of energy/hydraulic shock "
So my standing is, to deliver all or most of that energy to a coyote, almost anywhere on his body, is going to kill him, and pretty quickly.. (this all referring to the use of well engineered explosive Varmint bullets)
As far as hitting the yote at long range, refer to your picture. Vertically the yote is not a big target. But with Modern range finders letting you know the precise range, and modern ballistics programs, it is quite easy to keep your bullet on target vertically(at the ranges we're speaking of.) Now horizontally: well that is were it takes practice reading & doping the wind.
Operator experience comes in to play when trying to stay on target horizontally. BUT, for our sakes, most game animals have a broad area horizontally. This makes a misjudgement of the wind more forgiving, as the target is wider than tall.
Extremist are able to score 80+% first round hits on a 60" target at 3000 yards. (Special Operations Hard target[nuclear weapons] interdiction snipers, with Chey Tac equipment)
A coyote at 500 yards is really no big thing with a little self education, an accurate rifle,tailored ammo, an anemometer(wind meter), Range finder, calculated range card and practice for an AMATUER. A seasoned shooter can do it with only a Mil-dot scoped rifle & range card. After all regular ol' guys score 2000 + yard hits on even smaller rock chucks.
It's 5:30 am, I'm sick and woke up at 4 am unable to sleep.
I took oppertunity to babble about things no one really cares about!
Have a great day!
Anyway, it covers the heart/lung area,and just behind the lung area, the liver.
