energy takedown requirements for coyote

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dozernomore

New member
I,ve just recently started into reloading,,and I am currenntly reloading for 22-250rem and 243win,,,,my load development is on the lower end of powder charge's ,but accurracy is sub moa....my question is,,,what is minimum energy requirements to adequately take a coyote down,,,
 
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More important, is "shot placement". I wouldn't get all hyped up over bullet energy/ft lbs.

As for reloading[which BTW, I don't or haven't ever]. But if I did, I would load & use a bullet that has the best velosity, trajectory & wind bucking capability. Reason....shot placement.

I've shot many coyotes over my yrs. With many different caliber centerfire rifles. All capable of killing a coyote with the 1st round/hit. In the real World. If you don't hit them good[even with a .243 or larger]. They can regain their footing & take off. Only to die somewhere else.

I've been there & done that.
 
In my opinion nobody will really have a solid answer to your question unless they have literally shot thousands of coyotes with numerous bullets and cartridges at wide variety of ranges.

Oh sure, there is the 400 ft. lbs of energy number I've heard thrown around, but in my opinion it is holes in vitals that kills animals not a total reliance on bullet energy. Instantaneous collapses usually come from spine, head, or shoulder shots. A bullet designed a little tougher will give you better results on coyotes over the long run than a pure varmint bullet made for prairie dogs.

With a 22-250 and 243 in your arsenal and a decent bullet you can kill coyotes at a great distances, easily 500 plus yards and the majority of called coyotes are killed much closer than that. Hit'em where they live and it will be game over in short order.
 
Example; 39-lb male. Hit in the chest 2x & 1 in the gut. All hits quartered into his body, no exits. Shot with a .243WSSM, useing 95gr Winchester Silver Ballistic Tips. All hits were in the 300-350 yrd marker. Knocked him down every hit, but he kept getting to his feet & running down the opposing valley hillside.
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/P1010005.jpg?t=1245877895

A comparison about shot placement vs energy ft. lbs.
This is a short stout very heavy female coyote, pushing upper 30's. I shot her as she raised up to stretch & yawn from a nap. I was useing a .233 55gr Soft point. I hit her around the 250yrd marker broadside. Bullet entered front mid chest. Exited through her opposite shoulder[2" exit wound]. She dropped dead like a ship anchor, never twitched.
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/stoutfemale.jpg

Shot placement /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
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thank's Kirby and Lonny,,that,s the answers I was looking for,,,at 500 yard's I should have around 400 ft.lbs of energy,,there for 500 yard's is the max shooting distance for me,,,I was only curious because just the other night I took a 300 yard shot at one,,it jumped up backwards then took right off,,,,I just thought that maybe 300 yards wasn't close enough to shoot,,,I guess I'll never no if I hit it or tickled it's belly,,,I'd like to think I hit it but I couldn't find it the next day after a all night rain and thunderstorms,,and no blood trail to see,,,,But I'll keep trying,,,just got into this hunting hobby about a 2 years ago,,,,,,reloading about 6 months
 
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Example; 39-lb male. Hit in the chest 2x & 1 in the gut. All hits quartered into his body, no exits. Shot with a .243WSSM, useing 95gr Winchester Silver Ballistic Tips. All hits were in the 300-350 yrd marker. Knocked him down every hit, but he kept getting to his feet & running down the opposing valley hillside.
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/P1010005.jpg?t=1245877895

A comparison about shot placement vs energy ft. lbs.
This is a short stout very heavy female coyote, pushing upper 30's. I shot her as she raised up to streach & yawn from a nap. I was useing a .233 55gr Soft point. I hit her around the 250yrd marker broadside. Bullet entered front mid chest. Exited through her opposite shoulder[2" exit wound]. She dropped dead like a ship anchor, never twitched.
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc78/moreammo/stoutfemale.jpg

Shot placement /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif


how far did that 3 holed yote get?????
 
He ran an arcing angle[quartering away], from my prone position from atop the opposing hill. From the 1st hit to the last hit. He ran roughly 100yrds or so. He didn't poke around after he was knocked off his feet every time. He was moving at a pretty good clip downhill. I was on him the whole way...leading. LOL!

You might be surprised how tough these critters are. I keep pumping out the lead, until there dead. Just because they might hit the gound hard after the 1st hit. Don't mean it's over, for the coyote.
 
Broadside shots. I aim for the shoulder mass/[mid shoulder girdle] in a perfect World.

Rear chest[lung] & gut shots = runners. A coyote can go mighty far when hit in the lungs.

Last Winter with my .243WSSM. I hit a sleeping male in the heart around the 300yrd marker[2" exit hole]where his heart was. Rolled him onto his back, then he went limp. A few seconds later, he jumped to his feet & shot off quartering away from me. He quickly worked up a head of steam going down hill.

I flopped back down prone & got on him quickly. Leading...nailed him again around 350yrds or so. The 2nd hit quartered up into his chest, no exit. Game over.
 
wow,,,I guess I maybe should have looked a little harder then,,I had no idea they were that tough,,,it was dusk when I shot,,I just figured he should have gone down with my first shot,,,it was a quartering shot facing me,,he was standing still out in a field when I shot and I was feeling pretty positive about my shot,,and was probably a lung shot also,,,I'll look a little harder next time,,and maybe try to pop a bit more lead in them,,,,thanks again!!
 
Dozernomore,

I shoot a 40-Grain .22-250 Winchester Ballistic Silvertip for coyotes, and it has done the trick everytime for me. Coyotes are tough, real tough. I've had one take a 180-grain .308 and then take off running. However, the reason the .22-250 and .243 work so good is simple... fragmentation. With the small bullets, they hit and fragment, causing tons of damage spread throughout the body. When you shoot a caliber like a .270 or .308, they just punch a hole straight the coyote, without really expanding their impact. Placement is key too. The idea I'm trying to get across to you is that energy isn't the only factor in taking down a coyote. Use a smaller type of grain that doesn't have as much energy as a heavier load, but fragments more, flys faster, and ultimately does more damage inside the coyote.

Steven
 
It's an interesting subject. There are a couple ways to look at it. With to much power you will run right through it. Unless you hit something critical, it may knock it down but it won't bleed out anytime soon.

When you have a softer round it can flatten out quickly and also not carry enough power for a kill. (or penetration)

A smaller lighter "hard" round tends to tumble and can increase the odds of striking a vital organ.

So I tend not to look just at energy, that is one factor of many. A "hard" 17hmr placed right can have just as good a chance as a 7mm rem mag that just hit "somewhere" I've hit a bear with a 175grain elk load and it blew right through him. He died but it took me an hour to find him. I've hit a yote at 100yrds with a .32 with soft lead when he had a winter coat and though it knocked him down like a sack of rocks, he got up and ran off with no blood trail.

So my view is, it depends on what you are shooting, energy is just 1 of the factors.
 
Just as a little guide to 'shot placement', there are some that don't really know the best point to hit a Coyote and I thought this might help a little..

If you mentally draw a line down the neck and up the leg, the intersecting point is the best for immediate DRT...type hits...

Some will aim a little farther back and hit just the lungs, thinking the front shoulder extends back farther than it actually does..

CoyoteVitalSpotc.jpg
 
Shot placement and bullet construction are more important, within reason, than ft.lbs. of energy.

Here's a bad analogy: you're going to get hit in the forehead with the object of your choice. They weigh the same and will hit you with the same amount of ft.lbs., one object is a raw egg and the other is a golfball. Which do you choose?
 
A 4x4 Ford Ranger traveling at 65 MPH has adequate energy to bring one down DRT. Not sure what the ft. lbs. of energy are but to be sure its enough.

egg vs. golfball = duck

My old hunting buddy didn't realize you needed more than a 22 lr to kill coyotes up until he started reading so on the internet.

Between your 22-250 and your .243 its doubtful you will ever get below the threshold of required energy unless you either dangerously down load or you are in excess of 800 yds. away when you shoot.

OT if you place the shot right where the line going down the neck starts, its a guaranteed DRT.
 
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I don't think you really have to worry that much about energy, but more so shot placement. Chances are, if the shot is far enough that the bullet doesn't have enough energy, you probably coudn't hit it anyway.
 
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one object is a raw egg and the other is a golfball. Which do you choose?



I happen to know for a fact that a Titleist ProV1 off of a 7.5 degree Titleist 975D at 50 yards coupled with a swing speed of 125MPH will take a full grown Charolais bull off it's feet momentarily.

No I wasn't aiming for the bull /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. I was in a tournament and was trying to cut a chunk out of a dog leg left, over a pasture that was just left of the fairway.

At first I was terrified that I had just spent 1K on roughly a ton of steaks. But when he got up and ran off, I laughed so hard I'm sure they could hear me clear up to the club house /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Chupa
 
LOL Chupathingy,,,that's hillarious,,anyway's thank's for all this excellent information,,,that's what makes this hobby so fun,,,,and to think the only reason I posted this question from the start,,,I couldn,t really find much information on my coyote takedown question,,,,but I thought this would be the perfect site to ask,,,and was I right,,, I didn't see much tonight to experiment with some lead placement,but will try this weekend again,,,their is definitely lot's of yotes here in southwestern ontario,canada,,
 
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