How tough are coyotes?

S

Scalloper

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Last night at 9:46 a coyote came into my bait, after a few minutes of cat and mouse the coyote offered me a quartering head on shot. I put the cross hairs between the neck and shoulder and sent the Hornaday 55 gr .223 Superformance on its way. It dropped then scurried off. Me and my son tracked the coyote last night until 11pm then I went back with snow shoes this morning.I found 12 bloody beds where the coyote bedded down and who knows how much blood while tracking it. After jumping the coyote 4 times this morning and chasing it for 2 1/2 miles(on GPS) across four brooks and falling threw the last one ,with snowshoes on to boot. I gave up. Man,even with the snow shoes on I would still go over my knees in snow at times. This makes three shots this week at my bait pile but only one confirmed kill two wounded badly. It amazes me as to how tough these animals are.
I have hunted for years but man,coyotes seem to be as tough as it gets.I have shot 5 while deer hunting,in the last 20 years, with my .270 and 0 recovered. What do some of you think? Thanks
 
They are chew there own leg off TOUGH!! In MY experiences when I have shot coyotes with my bigger rifles if you don't hit bone or hit the vitals they aren't going to be DRT. Now this isn't always the case, but I think some of the bigger bullets are heavy enought that they don't expand on a critter like a coyote. I would say you might have hit him a little low with the .223. Just my 2cents.
 
coyotes are tough bastards. last year i shot one in the same position as you describe, he dropped like a bag of excrement. i was shooting a 223 wssm. i went down stairs got some clothes on and went out to collect my prize. what i found was a left front leg from the knee down, and only a minimal blood trail. it was late in the season and i didnt even need snowshoes, the snow was 3 feet deep or more but tracking was easy on the 1/4 thick frost. i tracked him for about a mile and a half hoping to catch him crossing the open. never saw him again.

i also had one facing straight at me, i shot he went down, but while i was still watching he got up and started off so i shot again. turns out the first shot hit the tip of his lower jaw and came apart. the bullet fragment barely entered the skin on his front end. no fragment was fatal and none penetrated more than 1/2 inch! that is a 75 yds with a 55gr soft point at 3600 fps.

i started looking for a new bullet a year ago december when i had called in a dog and shot him. 10 seconds later i saw what i thought was another dog sneaking away in the sage. so i shot him too. turns out it was the same dog. the first shot had hit him perfectly in the chest and he had left a frozen bloodtrail right up to where i shot him again.

they are very tough animals, i also once had one that i put a 223 wssm shot into the front shoulder. i could see a softball sized hole in the front end. he ran off and i didnt find him.
this year i shot one at about 200yds with a 60gr sierra hollow point broadside. i heard the whump and put my attention to another dog. when i came back 20 minutes later that dog was gone, followed the blood trail for a long way but never found him.
 
What yotezapper said! Shot placement is critical for 1 shot kills. You might want to work on that. Check out the predator biology page here on PM, there are some very good anotomy pics that might help you pick your shots more carefully.
 
there super tough !
buddy shot one in the chest yesterday and tracked it a mile+ and after a couple bloody beds finally finished it !
and managed to call in a second while on the trail !

and the first only had 3 legs to start !!!
 
Originally Posted By: singlecoilWhat yotezapper said! Shot placement is critical for 1 shot kills. You might want to work on that. Check out the predator biology page here on PM, there are some very good anotomy pics that might help you pick your shots more carefully.
I was just on that page but the pictures did not come up. I shot one last thursday morning at 2am right behind the frount shoulder and it was dead before it hit the ground at that point I was happy with the V-Max but when I saw it did not exit I knew that bullet did not get great penatration but I figured it would penatrate deep enough to break the neck or shoulder. I have the gun in a nice rest and its only 71-73 yds.
 
they pretty tough, I notice I get allot less spinners and runners with my windy day gun (243) vs my primary gun (223 AR).
 
They are tough as [beeep] and tougher when wounded. "head on quarting, shot between the neck and shoulder" not a quote but purty close, I am trying to "see" that shot thru a scope, makes me wonder if you shot a bit high, meat and muscle, big hole on the neck surface, not down in the boiler.??
Carl
 
Quote:I was happy with the V-Max but when I saw it did not exit I knew that bullet did not get great penatration

Nope, the v-max isn't supposed to exit. The bullet ideally fragments into a bunch of tiny pieces inside the chest cavity, destroying heart/lungs/liver/etc.

For it to work properly however, it can't hit anything hard first (shoulder, jaw). Doing so will cause it to fragment before it is inside the chest cavity, often leaving what is commonly referred to as a "splash", a horrendous softball sized surface wound that doesn't penetrate the chest cavity and may not kill them at all.
 
me and a buddy was out deer hunting 2 years ago during muzzle loader season, he stops and shoots to the next gob pile (30 yards) i thought he was shooting the doe standing over there, turns out there was a coyote standing there too. the .50 cal sent him spinning, so i take aim, shot and it does a flip backwards, jumps up standing there growling at us with 2 big holes in its side. my buddy is done reloading his shoots it again, flips it off the backside of the hill. we go to retrieve it and it had run almost 200 yards where we lost blood and couldn't find it. we looked for about 10 min for it and as i was crawling under a log at the bottom of the hill (valley about 3 ft wide there) i happened to look to my right and there was a dugout under a rock next to the tree about 2 feet from me with him showing his teeth looking back at me.. took 2 more shots and a fresh pair of underwear to finally kill it... yep they are tough as nails
 
In my opinion...The Coyote has more Brass, than a Kansas city Fire Engine! That's why we seek them out. Tough,agile,tenacious...You could fill a long paragraph of words to describe them peapickers!
As we know, there are pages and pages of episodes here on Predator Masters. Describeing all the emotions, humans generate, when trying to get the hide off of these animals. Happiness\joy to complete bewilderment and discust....

I personally ,"plot", or think about how to beat them, 4 hours a day. December thru Febuary, every year. I spend maybe $300 pesos in that time. Trying new stuff and upgradeing my equipment...every year I do that! [beeep], I pass on sexual relations with my lady to do this!!!(I have mental health Insurance, available at work. Maybe it's time...)Lol...

I do know one thing...This is FUN as [beeep]!!
 
I shot one that I literally trailed by entrails. It ran about 200 yds. I personally sold my 223 because I got too many wounded running off. I now shoot them with a 308 using light bullets and rarely have them move out of their tracks.
 
I dunno... I've been shooting coyotes since the late 70's and out of a hundred or so, I've never lost one. Everything from .22 LR (one! just one!) to .280. There were a few that I had to go after, but I got every one of 'em. The ones that I had to go after were bad shots on my part- gut shot, shot a jaw off trying for a head shot, shot the front legs off shooting a little too far, that sort of thing. That may be all of them, right there... I'm trying to think...that may be all. The rest were DRT or short runs, usually in a circle. The heart shots can run a bit, as can any other heart shot animal.

I don't think they're any tougher than, say, elk.

EDIT: Now, there were many that I passed on because I didn't like the shot. I basically don't pull the trigger until I'm 95% sure the critter's going down. Maybe that's the difference?
 
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Weaponx
Please never post how much you spend again,It took me years to convince my wife that 10 x your amount was cheep.
As far as your mental health is concerned their is not a cure but it could be worse you could take up knitting-LOL

As far as yotes being tough (wow) I am sure we could sit by the camp fire and tell stories all night.Most of my war stories on yotes have been my fault.
I will never under rate a north east coyote again on how tough they can be.
 
A coyote hit poorly is as tough as any other animal their size hit poorly. If we do our part(putting a bullet in his boiler room) he will do his part, and die quickly.
 
Originally Posted By: NastyDaddy101A coyote hit poorly is as tough as any other animal their size hit poorly. If we do our part(putting a bullet in his boiler room) he will do his part, and die quickly.

X2
 
I shot one earlier this year sitting in my deer stand 3 times with a 300 win mag the first two behind the shoulder and he never budged and the third was low on the shoulder and cut off both legs and tore a softball sized hole in the bottom of his brisket and he still tried to get up for a good two minutes
 
They must be tougher down your way. Ours will drop like a hammer with a .221 Fireball & 40 grain V-Max.Originally Posted By: rustydog32I shot one earlier this year sitting in my deer stand 3 times with a 300 win mag the first two behind the shoulder and he never budged and the third was low on the shoulder and cut off both legs and tore a softball sized hole in the bottom of his brisket and he still tried to get up for a good two minutes
 
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