how far to track a wounded coyote???

B

boogercounty

New member
..for me, the chase is to the end, or till I run out of sign or time.
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This morning, I howled in a coyote. She stopped at about 200 yards, giving me a frontal shot. I was afraid if she went any further, she would hit my scent stream, so I decided to take the shot. I found out later that I had hit her low in the shoulder, with the bullet angling through the shoulder, and ripping across the bottom of her belly, opening up her body cavity. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I don't know if I bobbled at the instant of the shot, if she moved, or if the scope is a bit off. Whatever happened, I had a runner on my hands. I knew from the sound of the bullet's impact, that it was a hard hit, even though not immediately fatal.

I went to where she was standing when I fired, and started to look for sign. I swept left to right in a widening arc, until I first found blood, about 25 yards from the point of impact. Once I found the blood trail, I was able to work out her trail, and get a general direction of travel. The trail came to a barb-wire fence, and where she had got down to go under it, she lost a lot of blood and a piece or two of gut.

On the other side of the fence was a brushy strip about 10 yards wide, before it opened back up into the field. I went to the far side of the strip, looking for sign, but I couldn't find any. I had to go back to where she had slid under the fence, to again get on her trail.

This time I found her trail out of the strip, and it continued across the field, heading toward a small pond, coming up on the lower side of the dam.

As I got closer to the dam, I began to wonder if she had headed for the water. I have known of mortally wounded coyotes to go into water, I guess for relief.

I had to look hard, at the base of the dam, because she was in a briar patch. I almost overlooked her, thinking she had gone out the other side. When I started around the patch, she moved just enough for me to locate her.

I gave her another round through the ribs to end it, then dragged her out of the briars. After all this, her chest was still moving, and she was breathing!!! Her head was down, so I figured it was just reflexes, and her last few breaths. Imagine my surprise, when I reached to take her by the tail, and she turned her head to snarl at me!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I jumped back out of her reach, although (NOW) I don't think she could have moved enough to bite at me. At the time, I just reacted, didn't take time to analyze her motives. This time I gave her one more round through the neck, to finish it, for sure.

All in all, I tracked her about 250 to 300 yards from where she caught the bullet, with her dragging about 3-4 feet of gut, through the brush and briars.

A time or two, I have lost a coyote that was wounded, but I tried till I ran out of sign or time, before I gave up. Some people say to shoot them and walk away. I can't and won't do that. I have to know if I killed outright, or if I wounded. If I wounded, I have to try to follow up and finish the job. An animal this sharp and tough deserves to not suffer.
 
Out here in the west, we can track a wounded coyote a long ways, especially in snow. I've followed one for over a mile and never got it. My theory is if they make it a mile, they can go 20 with someone pushing them. Coyotes are tough.
 
a buddy of mine shot one with a crossbow once he thought it was dead and continued to deer hunt! about 10-15 minutes later it just got up and walked off! after about 400 yards of trailing we found where it stopped and burried about 3 feet of it's intestines! we trailed about anoter 2 hundred yards and never found another drop of blood! ,but to answer the question I trail till I find a critter or run out of blood.
I've only had to trail a few ! most only travel about 18 inches straight down!
 
I shot one with a 204 last year and tracked it for over 4hrs with blood the whole way. It went about 2 miles, and turned around heading right were I first shot it. I gave up about 250yds away from where i shot it in the first place.
 
I aplaud your efforst sir.
Depends on how much adrenalin is pumping in an animal before they role over and kick the can...
I once had a solid hit and had it run about 150 yards up the hill before he kicked... When I saw the damage I thoght no way he could have ran even 5 feet. But there tuff and want to live... Again Great Post!
 
I tracked one, with a buddy that had shot it as it was running off with a 30-06, nearly 4 miles. Without snow, we would've never found it. When we finally found it, it had made a big circle and ended up only about 1/4 mile from where he had shot it. His shot was low between the hind legs, all kinds of damage, but obviously never hit any vitals. We had to shoot it again once we found it!
Had one this last weekend that took us a mile to catch up and finish it. It was a flank hit with .223! Again, thankful we had snow because the lack of blood was surprising! This was not one of the kiyi coyotes that I described in my other post!
 
A perfect example of just how tuff a coyote can be. Glad you were so determined to recover her and did find her. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

They are an amazing animal with one of the strongest wills to survive that I have ever seen. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
Simple answer...as far as possible.

A few years ago my brother shot a coyote with a 30-06 while deer hunting. We tracked it for 2 miles until we lost it in an open pasture with no snow. We found pieces of muscle, bone and blood most of the way. No coyote. It was a shoulder hit. We owe it to the coyotes to follow up every shot.
Doc
 
I don't track many w/ a rifle, but my bow kills have had me go pretty far, one I tracked on a blood trail 1/2 mile. They are tough.
 
I believe in tracking until finding and never giving up on any wounded animal. If you start the job and have enough guts to pull the trigger, then finish the job. Nothing half way. Just my two cents.
 
Took my wife's cousin coyote hunting once and he gutted a yote in a open terrace field with snow on.As I knew the yote was hit hard,I told him we would wait a bit as I was sure it had only traveled uphill a couple of terraces and layed down.About 15 minutes later we drove up the lane that crossed the field and there layed his yote about 200 yards away behind a terrace.I told him to slip out of the trunk,go downhill about two terraces, and slip up on the yote.Well he got out and started walking right at the dog on the same terrace it was on.Needless to say,Mr. coyote got up and continued up the hill and over.This guy walks back to the truck and I ask him"what's the deal?"It was too much troble was his answer.I got out and grabbed my rifle and started out.He wanted to know what I was doingand I told him I was going to fix his mistake.I tracked the yote a mile to a brushpile and finished him off.When I got back to the truck,he wanted to try for another one but I told him no way and took him back to the house.To this day I still wont take him hunting with me as I know of other times his done this with deer,but not with me.I too think you should make every effort to insure the animal dose't suffer.
 
we went to the world coyote calling tourney on the 2nd &3rd. our first dog was a gut shot and she ran for probably 150-200 yrds. before we found her about 10 feet from her den. lucky us. I did not know they were so durrable. We have only been hunting yotes for 6 mo. or so and she was our first.
 
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