Sometimes you just can't tell. Coyotes are tough.

[Newtire]

On a recent hunt for whitetails here in Idaho, a coyote materialized off to my right about 10-15 yards away. Was packing my .444 single shot CVA but really didn't want to shoot the thing and tried to shoo it away. After numerous arm waving attempts to scare it off, it began to edge a little closer. I figured this wasn't a kind of coyote the farmer who owned the place would like having around so I shot it. We had chrono'd the load at 1700 fps (20.5 grains BlueDot over the Lyman 429244 water dropped wheelweights) so I was thinking "one shot kill".

Putting the crosshairs just a little low, I touched off a round. This sent the coyote rolling away and then I saw him rise up and take off! He fell several more times and then laid there. I went to go see him and finish him off if need be and he got up again and did this rolling escape down the hill. There was pink blood all along the trail he took down the ravine and he disappeared into the brush where my sorry tired old butt couldn't go. I felt real bad about that but upon meeting up with Obbssd1958 at coffee this morning, he told me that he found it up on the other side of that ravine. He made it over 300 yards with a hole the size of a coke can coming out the other side-right thru the lungs. I was a little disappointed in the performance of that boolit and later switched over to my 6.5-06 with j-words to shoot my deer. Only coyote I've ever shot-are they usually this tough?

[bowenrd]

A lung shot is seldom instant. The critter either bleeds out or drowns, both take some time.

[ACrowe25]

A lung shot is seldom instant. The critter either bleeds out or drowns, both take some time.

Where is optimal shot then? Never been.

[bhn22]

Ol wiley went into shock when you hit him. Since the shot wasn't immediately fatal, he kicked in the afterburners and got away from the danger. It sounds like it took him a few tries to make it that far.

[shredder]

"He made it over 300 yards with a hole the size of a coke can coming out the other side-right thru the lungs."

It can happen. If the animal is aware of your prescence, and adrenalized when you shoot it, all sorts of things can and do happen afterwards.

I shot a whitetail one time that took off when I shot him like lighting hit behind him. Full bore right now. We had been staring at each other for some time while I decided if he was the buck I was after. When he finally looked away I raised my .50 cal muzzle loader and gave him 450 grains of lead through the boiler room at about 45 yards. I expected him to drop on the spot or very close to it based on my past experience with this load at this range.

Not only did he make it the 30 or so yards to the nearby bush but he lead me on a blood trail in the fresh snow that had to be seen to be believed. He went straight on a deer trail through light willows for about 50 yards then abruptly took off at a 90 degree angle into the puckerbrush where you would think a deer could not get through. The trail told otherwise.

Tree limbs only a couple of feet off the ground that he skirted under like it was nothing weaving through the tight cover. This went on for alomost 200 yards. There were times when I doubted what I was seeing.The blood trail was clear on both sides of his track in the fresh falling snow so there could be no doubt whatsoever that it was his trail that I was following.

When I finally caught up with him he was wedged in between 2 deadfalls and had crawled so far under that he was almost hidden from view. Had I not followed his blood trail directly to him I could have easily walked right past without ever noticing him under there. He was breathing his last as I approached. The wiliest old buck I ever met! Took me a while to get him dragged out of there!

I still find it hard to believe how far he went with no heart or lungs, spraying like a fire hose out both sides of the chest cavity.

[prs]

Like a lung shot deer, if you do not approach, it will likely lay there unti death comes; startle it and you have a tracking job.

Odd behavior that it stayed and approached. Possible rabies.

prs

[Abenaki]

Them coyotes are tough.

When they run off like that, it does get your attention!
kinda like a chicken with it's head chopped off.

Take care
Abenaki

[Travtastik]

Never had a yote do it but have seen deer that would run a few hundred yards. Had a buck one time run about 5 yards and stop and started eating grass again. Acted like nothing had happened and stayed standing for about 2 minutes until I shot it again. Had 2 holes you could cover with quarter and no lungs of heart.

[Wolfer]

Yes, coyotes are tough. I'm an avid coyote hunter and deer hunter. Deer are a lot easer to put down than coyotes. Small fast guns, 223, 22-250 etc usually drop them right there. With slower cast boolit type loads they can go quite a ways if their not broke down. I have a deep HP 30 cal mold and if I don't hit the shoulder or spinal column sometimes I have to get my dog to track them up.

I find coyotes the most difficult to consistently make good shots on. Their not very big when you get the hair off and they don't give up easy. Woody

[Old Caster]

I shot a muley one time in Colorado that was spooked by others and running up hill. It was about 50 yards away and when I shot and it showed no sign of being hit. I bolted my Sako 243 and shot another round and it went down immediately. There was snow on the ground and the spot where I shot the first time looked like a gallon of blood and there was a wide trail and another massive pile of blood at the second. The two bullets were within an inch of each other in the heart. No way to tell if it was about to drop when I fired the second shot but I would imagine it was. You never know but I think your bullet did fine.

[MT Gianni]

I shot a two point whitetail one time that ran for 300+ yards before bleeding out. His heart was loose in his chest from the ventricles down when I gutted him. Some critters are tough. I have cleaned pheasants with one pellet in them as well, some aren't.

[MaryB]

I have a coyote problem in winter, up to 12 a time last winter. I have an observatory I use for astrophotography that is 25 yards from the house. I had a coyote come within 5 feet last winter so I decided it was time to take one out and try to scare the rest. Lung shot at 10 feet with a 120 grain 9mm hollow point, I found him 200 yards out into the field the next morning. Rest didn't get the hint so I may have a problem again this winter. They come into town through my yard looking for stray cats. No fear of humans or guns.

[Newtire]

I have a coyote problem in winter, up to 12 a time last winter. I have an observatory I use for astrophotography that is 25 yards from the house. I had a coyote come within 5 feet last winter so I decided it was time to take one out and try to scare the rest. Lung shot at 10 feet with a 120 grain 9mm hollow point, I found him 200 yards out into the field the next morning. Rest didn't get the hint so I may have a problem again this winter. They come into town through my yard looking for stray cats. No fear of humans or guns.
The farmer had a sheep in his front yard and the fact that the coyote wasn't the least bit afraid made me think about things like rabies. The same shot on a deer a day later with the 6.5-06 and a Nosler 125 grain partition. Deer made it about 5-feet.

[Love Life]

I've blown ground squirrels in half and their front half continued trying to drag itself away. Things don't always die like you expect them to.

[waksupi]

It all goes back to a small wound bleeds, and large wound contracts the veins, and restricts bleeding.

[Springfield0612]

About 15 years ago while up hunting we helped track a nice mule deer buck. The guy shot it with his brand new .270, brand new scope, the guy kept repeating, "I know I drilled him there's now way I missed, I had the scope dialed in." The shot was made at about 80 yards and we tracked the blod trail for the better part of 2 miles. After the first mile the guy asked if we wanted to keep tracking it. We agreed and he was so pissed he said since I (the young teenager in the group) had a buck tag if we found it we could keep it. He then left claiming he was going to sell his new rifle and pull out his old one for the rest of the season.
The trail was real sporatic and very little drops here and there. Once we found the buck and field dressed it. We found that the bullet had struck a rib which slowed down it's velocity enough that it directly hit the heart and shreded it, bounced around in the lungs and we found the bullet in the bottom of the rib cage cavity with about 1 gallon of blood. We then realized the obvious that the other hunter had not. The reason there was so little blood was not because of a bad shot. But because the only exit hole was .270 caliber in size and the deer was slowly drowning in its own blood as gravity was taking the blood into the bottom of the rib cavity not pumping it out a huge exit hole on the other side.
The year prior we attempted to help track a huge bull elk, similar situation, similar blood trail, but ended up losing it after 4 miles. The last two miles were into a national park up some pretty extreme terrain (normal elk country) and no one had notifed the park that there was a wounded animal being tracked into the park. So we thought for legal reasons it would be best to back out of the tracking, let the animal expire and contact the park rangers. Instead of being found with guns and a dead elk in the park. We were thanked for our help, but never did find out if the other party found the animal or not.
Last story I got was from pheasant hunting. There were three of us, a rooster jumped up at about 5 yards, all there of us unleashed a wall of lead, bird went down at about 10 yards. I was the bird dog, I went and grabbed the bird it appeared DOI, I wrang its neck, handed it to my dads friend, he wrang its neck and put it into is vest pouch and we kept walking. About 20 minutes later I see out of the corner of my eye a rooster shoot out right by my dads friend and here him start cursing as he unloaded all three #4 12 ga. loads. The bird went down. I asked what the fuss was, and he told me to pull the rooster out of his pouch, there wasn't one! That rooster survied (7) #4 12 ga rounds, two neck wringings, and finally lost it after the last 3 #4 shells. WTH!! Super bird!

[dverna]

It goes to show you that hyper velocity jacketed bullet "shock" loads and large slow moving cast bullets can be successful and failures depending on how things happen. And just because a bullet load works once or twice does not mean it will work every time. Stuff happens.

Lung/heart shots are not going to be instantly fatal.

[rintinglen]

Or then they may. Saw a fair sized buck drop dead in his tracks with a .270 130 grainer in the chest. But there is no guarantee that will happen again. Different animals respond differently.

[pmer]

Wow a lone coyote edging closer to you from 10 - 15 yards; I'm glad you did shoot!

[lksmith]

Animals do strange things when "juiced up" which is one of the reasons I only do head shots on the rare occasion that I bow hunt.
I shot a doe last year with my 30-06 that had a softball sized hole where her spine used to be and took off running. A second shot behind the ear did all but decapitate her and she still hung on for a few minutes, although she wasn't going anywhere after that.

[Harter66]

I once shot a coyote at about 40yd w/B steel out of a duck blind 1 pellet made it into the chest. Jump,run,piled up about 125yd out. I too have shot a deer right up close w/an 06' . 30 cal in half dollar out . The deer just locked up every hair standing straight out . It just stood there for probably 30 seconds w/the off side heaving blood. The middle of the lungs were gone the heart blood was jellied . It took 1 hop and stood there another 30 seconds . It took a 357 to disconnect the spine. I shot a honker once at 35yd pass shooting 5x all hits we watched it all the way out till it disappeared .The next 1 dropped like a stone..... Just no telling sometimes

[Newtire]

I once shot a coyote at about 40yd w/B steel out of a duck blind 1 pellet made it into the chest. Jump,run,piled up about 125yd out. I too have shot a deer right up close w/an 06' . 30 cal in half dollar out . The deer just locked up every hair standing straight out . It just stood there for probably 30 seconds w/the off side heaving blood. The middle of the lungs were gone the heart blood was jellied . It took 1 hop and stood there another 30 seconds . It took a 357 to disconnect the spine. I shot a honker once at 35yd pass shooting 5x all hits we watched it all the way out till it disappeared .The next 1 dropped like a stone..... Just no telling sometimes
It's the same load your son was liking so much but out of a different .444 that I bought off of Onceabull.

[ahhbach]

Raccoons are tough as nails too. 3 230 gr LRNHPs front leg, chest, rear hind quarters, all passed through leaving large exit holes and the dang thing got up and hobbled into the sewer before I could hit it again.

[Newtire]

I guess it's like everyone mentioned already. About all you can do is "hedge your bet" with the best you can come up with and hope for the best.

[tommag]

Like several others have said, adrenaline keeps em going if you don't give them time to lay down and die.
Also, the 444 @1700 is moving right along, and starting out with a fair size hole, but water quenched ww is pretty tough. Not much in a coyotes body to slow it down. Sounds like a heck of a load for deer, but not first choice for coyote.
That having been said, I'd shoot a coyote with a pellet rifle if its what I had when the shot presented itself.

[jcameron996]

I stopped shooting coyotes with 69 grain matchkings after I shot one nine times and then had to finish it off when I walked up on it. The thing was literally shot to doll rags but kept getting up. Coyotes are a pain around calving time but I actually felt sorry for this one. Have had better luck since with the .204.

[Three44s]

When I first went to a .22-250 .......... I had problems with run offs ........ I could iron a 'ote out flat @ 100 and count to three and it would run off ...... being a confirmed .243 Win shooter until then ...... I nearly gave up on the .22 centerfires .......... but then, I had been chinsey on my bullet purchases ........ so I began shooting 55 gr. Sierra game kings ......... they did the trick ...

........... later I fell for the Nosler 55 gr. ballistic tip .......... ALL ......... DRT .... first time ... everytime!!

And yes. .... that .204 Ruger does a nice job ..... ALL IN ........ no out!! Dead before they hit the dirt!!

I hit a coyote too far back with a .44 mag and the RCBS 250K ........ it jumped straight in the air and hit the bricks in high gear .... a spot of blood on the road and gone in the pre-dawn morning .........

Three 44s

[TXGunNut]

Yotes are tough to anchor, even breaking lots of major bones isn't a sure thing. CNS shots require a good presentation and an good knowledge of canine anatomy. I shot one big coyote bitch with a 375 Win, passed behind her near shoulder and blew out the far shoulder. She made it almost 100 yards and laid up in cover to die.

[NVScouter]

I shoot lots of coyotes and yes they are that tough. The old timers used to say they can carry a lot of lead.

A perfect coytoe round will create about 3-4" penitration and explode into a fist size ball. My 22Hornet under 150y with Hornaday 50SPSX does that. The shock really does a number on them faster then pure body damage.

I had one I shot with my long range 243 55g Sierra BT at 70y angling down hill. I shot him between the shoulder blades but a bit right. his entire front leg came off and he ran 20y and layed down in the fresh snow. We got up and moved to him and he ran off leaving a pool of blood the size of him, we played that game every 50y for 500y. I swear that he should have bled out about the second time he layed down.

I had another that same weekend a small dog about 21lbs hit a bit low in the front shoulder. The same 55g 243 bullet blew up part of the shoulder and went under slitting its throat (two for two I stopped using that 55g!). It layed there and bit my parter's boot when we aproached. Massive damage and no pelt left but but up in the air and still fiesty. I had to hammer fist him until his head crunched to get him off.

I grew up shooting them with old WW2 30-06 ball and it works like a charm under 200y. I truely feel its the hydrostatic shock that knocks coyotes down in thier tracks since they are so capable of massive injury and still able to flee.