How much lead on a running coyote?

T

thechamp

New member
I'm used to bird hunting so I've got a decent grip on those leads but am finding it pretty difficult to hit running coyotes at 200-400 yards. I hit one the other night that was angling away from me at a trot at around 350 but on the ones that are running across in front of me I'm not having much luck. Using the 243 with the 55 grain ballistic tips at 3850 FPS according to Federal.

From what I read online they claim the coyotes can run approximately 30 MPH. I think mine are doing that and more... like a frigging streak!
smile.gif


Any ideas on possible lead distances are appreciate. Cause mine aren't getting the job done.
blushing.gif
 
It helps if you can see where they are hitting, another person watching can sometimes see better than you can. It's pretty hard to adjust if you don't know where you are hitting.

I got one running dead away that was in after burner mode at about 425 with a .243 WSSM and the 55 grain Supreme silvertip, it looked like he was sacked with a pallet of concrete. It was a pretty spectacular hit the way he went down.

Another that was quartering away just needed to be held to the front edge of him, haven't shot at any running across.
 
In NWT I shot 16 arctic wolves, most on the run and after missing many others I quickly learnt that when they were running broadside full out to aim for the tip of the nose, something to pinpoint accurately .

Some of these shots as close as 100 yds. would often even hit the wolf 5' back.

The furthest lead I was successful on was a Wolf full out broadside at 1/3 of a mile!!
I got him with a 25 ft. lead with a 7 foot aim over......and still gut shot him with my .260 rem Ruger 77 ss. @ 2670 fps.

Aim for the tip of the nose...Aim small Miss small...
 
Last edited:
You don't really need to lead all that much. If you shoot at them the way you would at a bird with a shotgun, you'll be too far in front. I more or less get out in front to begin with, wait for them to enter my field of view, and pull the trigger when they enter the scope. That is at ranges of about 100 yards, so you may need a tad more.
 
Originally Posted By: Noveske Crusader
The furthest lead I was successful on was a Wolf full out broadside at 1/3 of a mile!!
I got him with a 25 ft. lead with a 7 foot aim over

I'm not doubting you made one he11 of a long shot on a fast running wolf,

but, how did you manage to come up with the 25' lead and 7' hold over numbers? That's some pretty precise numbers for a running target 1760 600 yards away. Just curious.
 
Last edited:
The furthest lead I was successful on was a Wolf full out broadside at 1/3 of a mile!!
I got him with a 25 ft. lead with a 7 foot aim over......and still gut shot him with my .260 rem Ruger 77 ss. @ 2670 fps.

im calling BS!!! lol.

to the OP, why are you taking so many running shots?? if setup correctly and if you are not being busted, you should not have many running shots.

maybe you should work a little more on your setup and being still and not getting smelled that practicing running shots.
 
1/3 of a mile is about 600, 7' is 84", sounds reasonable.

To figure out lead, set a baseline. Coyote runs 30mph, which is ___ feet.
Your round travels at x fps, meaning it takes it y amount of time to get to the coyote. (dependant upon distance to coyote)

Now figure out how many feet the coyote will travel in that y amount of time.

Create a dope card like you do for wind. Say, 10.8" @ 100 or 3 mil, maybe 28" @ 200 or 4 ish mils... So on

Now gauge the dog, say your 600 yard lead is 5 mils, but the dog isn't perpendicular, but rather quartering away, call it 3mils and shoot.

Or maybe it's not running full out, reduce the value and go for it.

But at least if you figure out that initial dope card, you'll have a reference point.
 
Originally Posted By: doggin coyotesOriginally Posted By: Noveske Crusader
The furthest lead I was successful on was a Wolf full out broadside at 1/3 of a mile!!
I got him with a 25 ft. lead with a 7 foot aim over

I'm not doubting you made one he11 of a long shot on a fast running wolf,

but, how did you manage to come up with the 25' lead and 7' hold over numbers? That's some pretty precise numbers for a running target 1760 yards away. Just curious.

Better find your calculator.
 
Originally Posted By: fair_chase

Better find your calculator.

I just did. I'm embarrassed to say the least.
blushing.gif


My feet math got in the way of my yard math.
blushing.gif


Sowwy.
 
When I was a kid we had a friend that was always taking ridiculous shots at rabbits clear across huge fields, he was the only one of us that had a semi auto .22 and he thought nothing of emptying his tube and still shooting when they were darn near out of sight.

He was bound to get one sooner or later, and there were three of us saw the day he got one so far away he had the rifle at somewhere between a 30 and 45 degree angle. Took us fifteen or twenty minutes to get to it it was so frigging far away.
 
30 MPH is not unreasonable for a Coyote running dead perpendicular to you. I get presented with this shot a few times a season, usually on a double. But occasionally when I dont spot them until I am winded.

30MPH is 44 feet per second. At 100 yards it will take about 1/10th of a second for a bullet at 3000FPS to reach the yote. Your target is going to cover about four feet in the time it takes the round to get there. So you are looking at just about a one dog lead for every hundred yards.

I shoot a 50gr 223 and have hit running yotes out to almost 400 yards with that rule of thumb. You wont be too far off with your 243.
 
Originally Posted By: AZspike30 MPH is not unreasonable for a Coyote running dead perpendicular to you. I get presented with this shot a few times a season, usually on a double. But occasionally when I dont spot them until I am winded.

30MPH is 44 feet per second. At 100 yards it will take about 1/10th of a second for a bullet at 3000FPS to reach the yote. Your target is going to cover about four feet in the time it takes the round to get there. So you are looking at just about a one dog lead for every hundred yards.

I shoot a 50gr 223 and have hit running yotes out to almost 400 yards with that rule of thumb. You wont be too far off with your 243.


Thanks, takes a more logistical mind than I had to figure that out. Makes sense that I read it.

jglynn- It's not a matter of actually being out hunting them. I live on 180 acre place and the coyotes seem to love the field behind my house. I have two KC 800 Rally lights set up on a stand with a deep cycle battery and charger 24/7 on the back patio. Every so often at night I walk out on the patio and flip on the lights. I've killed 14 since last Nov doing this and missed probably 6 or 7. Obviously once missed they don't hesitate when the light comes on. The closest I've killed one to the house was last month at 120+ yards. She was headed straight for the house and obviously had no clue what the lights were for. Big yearling female so that was nice. I have a number of cottontail rabbits living in the yard and I suspect they're after my rabbits. I also have cats which are behind a chain link fence so they're safe but the coyotes still come check things out. None of the neighbors can keep a live cat on their place and most have given up trying to keep a dog. The coyotes will kill them in the yard.

I am working on another project which I posted in another section concerning night lights that I can set up in the pasture itself and bait with dead animals and meat trimmings. I just bought two blinds that I'm going to set up out there as well to be able to hunt them better away from the house. Like I said it's rare that I get a dumb one anymore but I think with the lights in the pasture itself and a fairly stead supply of meat products that I can sit back a couple hundred yards and kill the snot out of them. Also heard a couple days ago that the neighbor killed a monster boar and saw a huge bobcat. I've never seen a hog on our place nor have I seen a cat. But the bait spots will be a couple hundred yards from their fence and I'm sure the cat lives in both places.

The blinds I bought aren't finished so that's going to take a bit to get them up and going but I'm working toward it.

I don't dispute crazy shots anymore since I've made a few in my day. Sometimes it just isn't that critter's lucky day and it is yours. Be hard pressed to ever duplicate those but they do happen. I shot a wild dog many years back that reminds me of the story above. I was shooting a 7 mag and missed him several times starting at about 100 yards. He was partially hidden by running on the other side of a terrace. He came out of that field and headed across a valley and up the other side. I would have estimated the range at over 800 yards, (comparing the field behind my house to the brush line is 800). I held ahead of him and up in the air and let it rip. A moment later he cartwheeled and never moved again. Not his lucky day. A friend of mine has a saying that when there's lead in the air there's a prayer. No kidding.

Thanks for all the post. Some ideas there and I also know that when I do hit one running there will still be a lot of luck involved but without anything to base it on it's just luck.
 
Originally Posted By: calling4lifeTo figure out lead, set a baseline. Coyote runs 30mph, which is ___ feet.
Your round travels at x fps, meaning it takes it y amount of time to get to the coyote. (dependant upon distance to coyote)

Now figure out how many feet the coyote will travel in that y amount of time.

30mph = 20.45fps, ok, part one, CHECK!

Part 2, round travels at "x fps", 600yrds (1800ft) at 2670fps = 0.67sec.

20.45fps running x 0.67sec bullet time of flight = 13.8ft of lead. Yay, problem solved....

But wait, it's a little more complicated than "your round travels at x fps, meaning it takes y amount of time to get to the coyote"...

2670fps at the muzzle out of a .260rem, I'm assuming means a 140grn bullet, somewhere in the upper 0.5's... by 600yrds it'll be down around 1800-1850fps, total time of flight somewhere around 0.82sec, instead of 0.67sec.

0.82sec x 20.45fps = 16.8ft of lead. Pretty big discrepancy.

Moral of the story, garbage in, garbage out.

How much time do you really have to quickly check your dope card, assume a releative speed of the coyote, figure the azimuth of retreat, estimate the range, then accurately estimate your hold over displacements? Have you ever heard of anyone calculating the proper lead for a 12ga on a pheasant? You go shoot bluerock and practice.

Moral of the story, practice is worth a lot more than calculation.
 
Originally Posted By: Hunter GathererHow much air is in a paper bag?

None. I just blew it all to heck with my 17hmr from a 1/2 mile away in a 12 mph crosswind..
 
Originally Posted By: doggin coyotesOriginally Posted By: Hunter GathererHow much air is in a paper bag?

None. I just blew it all to heck with my 17hmr from a 1/2 mile away in a 12 mph crosswind..

All day? Ragged hole?
 
Originally Posted By: doggin coyotesOriginally Posted By: Hunter Gatherer

All day? Ragged hole?


How did you guess?
Covered the hole in the bag with a dime.....
smile.gif
 
Back
Top