Hitting Running Yotes

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PaPa 260

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I have missed two running yotes this week, and I have never been any good at hitting them running with a rifle. How do you guys who kill them consistently running with a rifle do it? I am a pretty fair hand with a shotgun, I understand swing through them, getting out in front and following through. I will miss 10 or 12 for every one I kill. I don't mean long running shots, I am talking 100 to 200 yards. What is the secret to doing it with some consistency? It can't be that hard.

PaPa 260
 
I've been told on coyotes put it on their nose and you will be pretty close. I don't know if this is true or not but worth a try.
 
PaPa,

It's difficult, no doubt.

Hitting a running coyote is mostly a matter of the mathematical problem that presents itself at the time of the shot.

If a coyote is IN the stand and leaving at a rapid rate, hold on hair. (close-up 40 yards or less.)

If he's running straightaway it's lots easier. You don't have as much of the complicated "lead" issues. Just aim for his head and touch it off.

If a coyote is running from one side to the other, that's where it gets complicated. You have ballistics, range of the coyote, speed of the coyote, and followthrough of the shooter to deal with. Know your rifle, caliber, and practice....
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Originally Posted By: Irish_80I've been told on coyotes put it on their nose and you will be pretty close. I don't know if this is true or not but worth a try.

Not so. On a running coyote at 100-200 yards, if he's running close to 90 degree angle from you, if you hold on the nose, you will hit feet behind him everytime.
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Barry hit the head on the nail. It takes quite a bit to get use to leading a coyote. I've been lucky to roll some 350 yard running coyotes, but had to lead them 3 or 4 coyote lengths. Kerry and I had a runner get away during the Worlds hunt. We were kicking up dust at it's heals, but it made it to the trees. We both had ARs and when I picked up my brass, there was 13 of them laying there.
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Practice, practice, practice.

Tony
 
Originally Posted By: PaPa 260 It can't be that hard.
PaPa 260

Yes it can.
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The military uses on board computers. You as a person either have to try it enough times you can guess right more times than not or simply be very, very lucky. For me growing up it was rabbits with a 22 and it took a few misses to figure it out. I don't live in an area with enough yotes to get good that that.
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Originally Posted By: rockinbbarOriginally Posted By: Irish_80I've been told on coyotes put it on their nose and you will be pretty close. I don't know if this is true or not but worth a try.

Not so. On a running coyote at 100-200 yards, if he's running close to 90 degree angle from you, if you hold on the nose, you will hit feet behind him everytime.
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I did a quick calculation, and assuming the coyote is at 100 yds and running at 30mph @ a 90 degree angle, he would travel 4.88 feet in the .111 seconds that the bullet would take to get there. The bullet travel time came from the balistic calculator using my 223 hunting load.
 
I tell you what, it was an awesome feeling the first (and only) time I rolled a coyote running flat out at 77 yards.
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The muzzle heavy feel of my 26 inch barreled 22-250 seems to help with a smooth follow through.
 
Use one of the online ballistics calculators for your load (I use Winchester's), and print out the time to impact at various ranges. This will give you an idea where to start. A 55 grain .223 travels about 400 yards in 0.5 seconds. A coyote at full run is going 30-40 mph, about 15mph at a trot.

Most people, myself included, miss because we momentarily stop the swing of the gun when we pull the trigger. It is also much easier if you have a pivoting rest that swings smoothly, but that isn't something most people take afield. You also have to figure elevation and wind drift simultaneously. That's a lot of calculating to do in a couple of seconds, and it's not something that's easy to practice.
 
I have been fortunate enough to have shot a couple of running deer and connected, hit a red fox on the move with a .223 but lucky for me all running shots were inside 100yards. Like stated above it comes with alot of practice. I owe all of my hits to squirrels, rabbits , and crows.
 
hitting a running coyote/fox is nothing but luck!!!. i've shot hundred of fox/jacks/coyotes on full out runs from broadside to strait away. several at over 400 and there is no way i can tell you how i did it other than holding somewhere out front and touching one off. can't even imagine how many i've missed. sometimes the stars just line up right.
 
I don't even bother even shooting at running anything
unless they are 50 yards or less and I'm using iron sights.

I can't track fast moving targets while using a scope.
 
I'm thinking that with a little work, one could come up with the equivalent of a ballistic table for running shots at various distances. You would need to take into account angle, distance, velocity of your round and "average" coyote speed. You could then translate lead distance into units of "coyote length". Doing that sort of thing ahead of time has to be better than doing it on the fly.

Still easier to bark at them.
 
Originally Posted By: KizmoI'm thinking that with a little work, one could come up with the equivalent of a ballistic table for running shots at various distances. You would need to take into account angle, distance, velocity of your round and "average" coyote speed. You could then translate lead distance into units of "coyote length". Doing that sort of thing ahead of time has to be better than doing it on the fly.

Still easier to bark at them.


This stuff is interesting... I'd like to see someone put up some data calculations on how to stop these furry runners...
 
up in my neck of the prairie, the way we deer hunt is drives. So 9 of 10 times its going to be a running shot, at a variety of ranges.

once you get the feel of where youre gun shoots at a variety of ranges its much easier.
Now as far as lead, well sadly that ends up being more of a trial and error kinda thing. just way too many variables to get a difinitive calculation on how much every time.

Once you have shot enough at them running youll know about where you need to be and it comes faster and easier, with that Load/rifle.

Id hate so say it comes down to practice, but thats really what it is, for anyone to tell you where to hold wont do much good as there rifle is different and shoots different.
and no computer model is gonna help you either, happens too fast and i dont think one could make the calculations that fast, gotta go by feel and what experience has told you.
 
I missed a double this morning because i got greedy waiting for them to get into shotgun range. The lead dog started circling me out at about 100 yds, and caught my scent from where i entered the stand. Well they bolted and i got 4 shots off at them running. I rolled one of them at about 200 on the run but it got up and kept running quite healthy like. I dont know. Practice alot i guess. Good timing on the thread.
 
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