Quartering away shots

A

ACE-MAN

New member
This morning I was presented with a 200 yard quartering away shot and took it. I was shooting a 22-250 with a 55gr. ballistic tips. I obviously would have prefered the broadside shot,but that was only offered when the coyote was moving. The large dog was about to move into a hedge row and out of sight,so I squeezed the trigger. Thru the scope I witnessed an explosion of fur. The dog began flopping all over the ground. All is well, I thought! I leaned the rifle on the side of the house and began walking to the dog.(First mistake) Before I left the house I grabbed a 22LR for the coupe de gra.(second mistake) Never take your eyes off the target. When I got accross the field the coyote had made it's way into the hedge row of thick brush. A blind man could have followed the blood trail into the brush. Once into the brush the blood rapidly dwendled to nothing. At this point I called accross the field and loosed the Visala who has scars on her hind end from coyotes and has ruined more then one pelt by beating me to the coyote. It's a payback thing with her. She turned-up nothing. I lost the coyote. I searched for a full hour.
I have to conclude the shot was a grazeing shot? The bullet exploded along the ribcage and did not penetrate. Has this happened to anyone else useing ballistic tips? I'm switching to jacketed lead.
 
ACE-MAN - Sorry you could not find your coyote, that sucks.

It was probably shot placement more than bullet failure. Most aim way too far foward on the quartering shot. On a quartering away shot you must aim much farther back to punch out the vitals. You probably just blew a shoulder off, and maybe one lung. A good rule of thumb is to aim at the offside shoulder, and place the bullet as far back as need to hit the offside shoulder. Many times a good shot at a severe quartering angle will enter way back by the hip.

A good soft point bullet like the Sierra Gameking will hold together well enough to give you good penetration at tough angles.

Good luck, Sleddogg
 
i hit one at about 90 yrds quartering away with .17 hmr and it did leave an oblong wound that two quarters would barely cover but three pieces of bullet still went on through and perforated a lung, dog did a runner but laid down after about 50 yrds

i'm gonna go with shot placement as the only guess on this one too, coyotes are tough but a vital hit is a vital hit and they go down easy with a vital hit...what gives them their tough reputation is what happens when they are not hit in the vitals...imo

ld
 
Ace-Man,
I had the very same thing happen to me. The coyote was 156 yards, but he was standing quartering away. I shot, crack, hair flying, down like a ton and doing the funky chicken. I looked down at my rifle to grab the spent, whren I looked up he was making tracks. I tracked him for a Half mile, finding lot's of blood first, but wasn't much after 200 yards. Thank god for fresh snow. I kicked him out of some buck brush and finish him off. My first shot creesed the top of him, splitting him a 7 inch hole. Maybe you could have done what I did.
 
I layed in bed last night and kicked myself in the *** all night long. Again, when I sqeezed the trigger the was an audible WHOP! and mass fur in the air. The dog went down and began to thrash and showed considerable damage to it's hind end. The coyote had trouble moving anywhere at this point. As I grabbed the 22 LR and started running across the field. I saw the coyote just make it into the brush as I got there. At this point the dog is six feet in front of me in very thick brush. I could see the brush moving again not six feet in front of me. I should have lowered the semi-auto 22 below the top of the moving brush and sqeezed off five or six. But I did not. Something in the back of my head told me it was uncool to shoot at anything I could not plainly see. What really stumps me is the brush stopped moving and then there was just silence. Thats when the flea bag Visala comes into the picture. That dog has a nose like a blood hound. The dog all but pissed all over it's self when it hit the blood in the field and the brush. No joy though. The dog never found the coyote. How can a coyote dragging it's hind legs hardly able to move, get away. What a tuff HOMBRE!
 
ACE-MAN: rumors say the yotes on your island are sort of bullet-proof, since the A-6 pilots have used them as bombing targets for a few decades.

here's a simple and easy-to-visualize aiming point suggestion: imagine a grapefruit suspended directly between the coyote's front legs, about 1/3 to 1/2 way up in the chest. place your bullet in the grapefruit.
 


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