Kirby, out of a 100 coyotes, how many do you think ran off after a solid hit?
I had a theory...only a WAG, that when a bullet blows the guts out of a coyote (with coyote running off), that the bullet was too tough, and was blowing up just prior to exit, kinda sucking the guts out with the tempory wound cavity that it was creating. I would switch bullets, and did not see any more of that.
We hunted Mexico for 12 years, killed a lot of yotes. Our gun permits allowed two guns, with 50 rounds for each gun, usually two gun permits in the truck. When we would want to try a different bullet, we would shoot at least 25 straight with the same bullet before we went to a different bullet, because of the different distances and angles involved.
No doubt about it that we had more spinners with a light loaded 22/250 (55g @3500) than the 243 and 6 Rem. We jacked up the 22/250 to a max load of Win 760 with the 55g Sierra spt and BTHP, spinners seemed to stop. We believed that the tempory wound cavity created by more horsepower, disrupted more tissue, nerves, etc.
The Mack Daddy of all loads that we found was with custom 243's and 6 Rem's shooting the sierra 60's at 3900+ fps, the Sierra 75g HP at 3600 fps, and the Sierra 80g at 3500 fps. The 22/250 AI loaded with the Berger 60g HP will cut a bobcat in half at times and puts tremedous holes in yotes.
Speed kills.
Tracking yotes, yotes running off, them getting up after being hit...usually meant a bad hit. We simply did not see it often at all. When yotes don't die immediately, I start examining the distance, wind, angle of the shot, and of course shot placement. Bullet construction is often the blame. On marginal bullets performance, a certain percentage will have all kinds of wierd things happen, usually due to premature bullet expansion or the bullet being too tough. If you unzip a yote or just hit him low, he is going to run...you just call it a bad shot.
When you hit a coyote solid, he lays down then gets up...you have got a problem with your bullet and/or load. Horsepower usually cures this issue, and if you are shooting a match bullet with a small meplat, go to a different bullet.
I said in my earlier post that I saw very poor bullet performance on a 22/250 loaded with 52g Speers@ 3550fps, 6mm Rem loaded with 75g Speers @3500fps, 243 loaded with 85g Sierra sp loaded at 3300 fps had several failures to expand, and 243 loaded with the old Hornady 75g HP at 3600 fps. Also, the 80g Berger at 3500 was not impressive as the 80g Sierra. My 65g MEF's blew up on the surface at 3700 fps shot out of a 243. It was always fun to try different bullets, till the bullet ended up being a POS.
On a week long trip to Mexico, we would kill in the neighborhood of a hundred animals depending on how much we quail, dove hunted, or fished. There are guys that visit this board from time to time that killed 50+ animals in a weekend in Mexico. We would see a lot of yotes, bobcats, and foxes go down over a short period of time. Bullet and gun performance could be quickly evaluated. We only made one two week trip to Mexico and it was unbelievable at the animals we killed.
Guys that hunt for fur have a pretty tough job in trying to balance horsepower and minimal hide damage.
If I lived in an area were hides were good, I'd build a Hot 17, shoot 30g bullets and call'er done.
All this got a little side tracked from the origional subject of, "How far does the coyote run after a heart/lung"? My answer to that question is that if you are having runners, use a bigger gun or change bullets.
