Reactions at the shot

P

PredatorNC

New member
Of course coyotes may react in any number of ways when hit. Any of us who have shot at least few have seen spinners, runners, droppers, kickers, etc.

I've shot well lately, and had a good bead on one last night as it visited my bait. At the shot the coyote did the hi-ho silver and reared back standing on its back legs, turned 180, & ran behind a knoll in the field. I fully expected to find it expired just behind the knoll where it ran out of my sight picture from my shooting position, but much to my surprise, no dice. I inspected the area where the bullet made impact and couldn't find blood, although I admit time was short and I probably didn't do my due diligence. I intend to go back today to inspect again.

Spinners are indicative of hitting one a little too far back, but what have you observed of coyotes that rear back on their back legs after impact? Any other interesting reactions you've observed, and what were the results?
 
I had one do the exact same thing shot with a .22 mag. Standing straight up on his back legs, (long enough for me to cycle the bolt and find out the clip was empty) then Hi ho silver and away 180 from the way he was facing . He was heart shot but did not start leaving blood on the ground for about 50 yds. He made it 200 yds before expiring. They can be tough.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: PredatorNC but what have you observed of coyotes that rear back on their back legs after impact? Any other interesting reactions you've observed, and what were the results?

that is a coyote with to much traction doing a wheelie off the line.
 
"A good bead" is a relative term. It's hard to say where you hit, because the animal's orientation to you might not have been exactly what you thought. The eyes can play tricks. I once had a bobcat standing right in front of my caller with it's face head on at the call. It's body was behind a bush, but face on would seem to indicate that it's body would follow the head. So I leveled my reticle where I calculated the shoulder to be and let the shot fly. I see the cat fly back away from me, which from a broadside view, should not have happened. When I went to look at the cat the belly was completely blown out because, apparently, the cat was not standing broadside, but was actually facing me with it's head turned. Lesson learned.

Most commonly they seem to react to the site of most pain. I have nailed them dead on in the chest facing me and had them nip at their flanks.

So it is really hard to say where you hit. It could have been a very well placed shot but as the bullet moved through it could have been deflected to one side or another and resulted in a less than ideal shot.

Really tough to say.
 
Appreciate all the insight here. Going out to see if I can track this one down after work. They sure enough can surprise you. Tough animals!
 
Smaller or lighter bullets/lower velocity creates smaller temporary wound channels. Temp wound channels force bone fragments, ligaments, internal organs into being secondary projectiles.

All of this becomes very apparent on marginal hits, especially as distances get beyond 200 yards.

17 Ackley hornet- 20g Berger MEF, 17 Mach 4 - 25g Berger match, 17 Remington 25g Berger match, 222 with 50g sierra spt, 223, 22/250, 22/250 AI, 243, 6 Rem, 25/06 will all demonstrate the different effects of marginal shots.

A coyote takes more killing than most animals, as they have a will to fight and live like no other.

We have heart shot more than a few, yardage between 250-300, shot was low and took out the lower part of the heart, they all ran like a scaled cat. On that same hunt, I shot one on a long shot(for us) to what I thought was 250-275, he ended up being 350 or so on a broadside shot. I broke both of his front legs. He flipped and flopped with me emptying the magazine trying to kill him. The coyote would get up on two legs and hop like a kangroo, then fall down. Get back up, hopping like crazy. He hopped what looked like 50 yards over a ridge out of sight. I finally sprinted the 300 yards and killed him, but he also had two other marginal bullet holes in him. Time and time again, we have seen how coyotes can take a lot of lead.
 
Last edited:
I've heart shot some big game that reacted like that. I read a theory that if the heart is full of blood when hit, it causes a massive rise in blood pressure and almost instant death from the ruptured arteries and capillaries in the brain. If the heart is empty, then they rear up and run quite a ways.

I have noticed that when I use a 55gr softpoint out of my 222RemMag, or the 223 I had prior, on a head-on shot, the front end would go down, followed by the hips, then the tail might flag a bit.

Using 50 and 55gr Btips or Vmax, the same frontal shot resulted in the coyote getting stiff, like an ironing board, and then tipping over.
 
K-22, try some Sierra 55g lead tip blitz in your 222 Mag. It is insane how much damage this bullet does around 3300-3550 fps.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: SnowmanMo"A good bead" is a relative term. It's hard to say where you hit, because the animal's orientation to you might not have been exactly what you thought. The eyes can play tricks. I once had a bobcat standing right in front of my caller with it's face head on at the call. It's body was behind a bush, but face on would seem to indicate that it's body would follow the head. So I leveled my reticle where I calculated the shoulder to be and let the shot fly. I see the cat fly back away from me, which from a broadside view, should not have happened. When I went to look at the cat the belly was completely blown out because, apparently, the cat was not standing broadside, but was actually facing me with it's head turned. Lesson learned.

Most commonly they seem to react to the site of most pain. I have nailed them dead on in the chest facing me and had them nip at their flanks.

So it is really hard to say where you hit. It could have been a very well placed shot but as the bullet moved through it could have been deflected to one side or another and resulted in a less than ideal shot.

Really tough to say.

I pulled that same shot off on a coyote that you did on your bobcat. I thought he was quartered to me so I shot it in the shoulder except I hit it straight on. Just broke its shoulder. It yelped and actually ran to me. Well....half way. Then it saw me stand up so I could shoot again and went the other way. It was really thick with yucca plants there so I didn't have a clear shot other than the one I had to start with. Which obviously wasn't the clearest shot ever.
 
Last edited:
The heart is never empty.

There is no massive spike in blood pressure that ruptures blood vessels in the brain or anywhere else, except in the immediate vicinity of the bullet path.

I shoot a lot of my coyotes facing straight at me, coming in. If the bullet hits anywhere under the chin to just above the bottom of the chest, they go down without a twitch. If it hits a shoulder you better be ready with a follow up shot, at least with a 17. But, I have had a few that dropped their head right as I shot and I clipped the lower jaw or nose. It shreds the nose or jaw and the bullet disintegrates, what hits the chest of the animal is not enough to kill it. Those are hard to hit again as they take off in random directions as fast as they can.

I used to use a 223 with 55gr vmax, I only once can recall a coyote shot front on that made it farther than a couple of yards, with most of them dropping on the spot. Poking a hole in the heart will cause it to bleed out fast, but the animal can continue quite some distance with the oxygen it currently has.
 
Back
Top