HUNTING Coyote

[AfricaHunting.com]

Coyote Hunting Shot Placement

Post your questions, comments or pictures relating to hunting shot placement.

Hunting Coyote

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Hunting Coyote

Anyone has the right to share, copy, distribute and transmit this image/work (but not to adapt it, or use it for commercial use).

 

[Ridgewalker]

Rarely ever have I shot a coyote from the side while using a mouth call. Almost all were straight on or Texas heart shots as they were running off.
Electronic calls and decoys have seemed to improve the odds of a broad side shot In my experience.
It’s now December and they should be prime pelts At least they are here in Colorado. Time to get the AR ready!

 

[HuntingGold]

Most of mine have also been in the frontal chest as they come to my calls.

 

[Trophyhunter01]

They are a pest for sure. Three so far this deer season same pasture. One with 300 RUM, one with 308, one with bow. As above as long as I hit them does not matter.

 

[flatwater bill]

I am a long time coyote hunter, and a couple of points of interest, here are a few opinions and experiences. I hunted yodel dogs with my deer and elk rifle as a young man. It was what I had. It surprised me how much damage a typical deer rifle will do to a pelt. Devastating. I now use a 40 grain bullet in a 223 with rarely an exit wound to deal with. In YT videos, coyotes trot out on open ground and wait to be shot. My experience differing a bit, they circle to get the wind and often sneak up a shallow ditch or ravine, and appear "in your face'. My friend and I hunt them with one manning the rifle and one man on a shotgun. A remote call can be a benefit, but I like a mouth call. 30 min per stand, if nada, move on to another stand, at least two miles. Nov and Dec good times to hunt, but by late Feb my luck dwindles.........I have taken them with 22 revolver, 22 rifle, 22WMR, many centerfire 22's, crossbow, muzzle loader and shotgun. I think an accurate AR platform is about the best for me. If hunting alone, I often use a Savage 24 with rifle and shotgun barrels.......I believe yotes are survivors and can stand a lot of pressure...also, although they have a place in the food chain, I think there are far too many of them where I live and hunt. Their predation on antelope is fierce. I will be after them this week. As added benefit, most ranchers will let you shoot coyotes....now if anyone knows who's buying hides?..............FWB

 

[Randy F]

Agreed. It seems anything larger than 55gr through my AR in .223 is hard on pelts. IF anyone is actually paying a decent price, they’re getting more and more picky about color and damage.
But even without great prices, numbers still add up. Just in the last couple of years I’ve managed to make enough to buy a few more traps, upgrade my snares, and add a little Ruger .22 for finishing at the traps.

That said, I would hunt/trap/snare coyotes if I never made a dime off pelts.

 

[buck wild]

I found this slightly lucky head shot at 327 yds this past Sat on a Texas dog to be quite effective

 

[Randy F]

I found this slightly lucky head shot at 327 yds this past Sat on a Texas dog to be quite effective

View attachment 378935

Nice shot! That's a good sized critter you clobbered.

 

[35bore]

They are a pest for sure. Three so far this deer season same pasture. One with 300 RUM, one with 308, one with bow. As above as long as I hit them does not matter.

No such thing as a bad shot on these chicken killers.

 

[Randy F]

Probably the most fun I've had related to coyote hunting was one night after downing a very large jackrabbit, I propped and braced it in standing position, head up, ears up, and set it outside the door so it would freeze in that position overnight. It makes a great decoy combined with calling. I should add at this point that it was taken with a 22short so basically no visible damage.

The next morning it was just as expected. VERY realistic looking and primed for business. But then the little red guy sitting on my shoulder suggested I set it outside my shop door and wait for my guys to show up and watch the action.
They ride together in two trucks out from town where they meet. So eight guys get out of the trucks, blabbing away at one another until the lead guy sees this unafraid, rabid looking jack sitting squarely in front of the door. I wish I would have been smart enough to record eight full grown men turn into screaming jumping little kids as they bolted for the trucks and the doors flew open again. I had been watching from the garage door window from inside the dark shop and was nearly pissing myself as I opened the door. As they screamed at me to "LOOK OUT!!" and pointed at the offender, I reached down and picked up the frozen furball. Oh My Gosh! The looks on their faces were perfect! I cried laughing to the point of struggling to catch my breath. After their initial reaction of wanting to rip my spine out, they began to see how it all looked and we all had a great laugh.

Later that day 'jack' brought me my only triple of the winter.

 

[putter97127]

I like shooting them in my back yard... I use a 223, but my wife says I need something a little quieter. I say nonsense! This is the 3rd one so far this year.

 

[flatwater bill]

Grow some big dogs in Texas !...FWB

 

[fourfive8]

I am a long time coyote hunter, and a couple of points of interest, here are a few opinions and experiences. I hunted yodel dogs with my deer and elk rifle as a young man. It was what I had. It surprised me how much damage a typical deer rifle will do to a pelt. Devastating. I now use a 40 grain bullet in a 223 with rarely an exit wound to deal with. In YT videos, coyotes trot out on open ground and wait to be shot. My experience differing a bit, they circle to get the wind and often sneak up a shallow ditch or ravine, and appear "in your face'. My friend and I hunt them with one manning the rifle and one man on a shotgun. A remote call can be a benefit, but I like a mouth call. 30 min per stand, if nada, move on to another stand, at least two miles. Nov and Dec good times to hunt, but by late Feb my luck dwindles.........I have taken them with 22 revolver, 22 rifle, 22WMR, many centerfire 22's, crossbow, muzzle loader and shotgun. I think an accurate AR platform is about the best for me. If hunting alone, I often use a Savage 24 with rifle and shotgun barrels.......I believe yotes are survivors and can stand a lot of pressure...also, although they have a place in the food chain, I think there are far too many of them where I live and hunt. Their predation on antelope is fierce. I will be after them this week. As added benefit, most ranchers will let you shoot coyotes....now if anyone knows who's buying hides?..............FWB

That is pretty much what I have found for hunting them. I settled on an old style 50gr bullet (IIRC a common Win soft point), loaded below max out of my 222 Rem for compromise between range and minimal pelt damage. They do get call shy if hunted much and it's about impossible to damage their population viability by over harvest... so have at it!! If all those years of 10-80 control couldn't get rid of them then nothing will. The most impressive coyote kills were coming straight in and watching my hunting partner shoot them lengthwise with a 17 Fireball. A 17 Rem was even more impressive but is a tad much and would occasionally cause pelt damage. I have hunted with both electronics and various mouth calls- but prefer a mouth call most of the time, specifically the open reed type like the Crit'R Call. I know nothing of the current fur market but back in the 70s-80s we were getting $50-$75 for most early-mid winter high desert and mountain types. Converting the relative value to today, the 50-75 wasn't bad and made the skinning, fleshing, stretching, drying and marketing worth it.

 

[WAB]

3 shots, 3 dogs out of one of our deer stands. I only had 5 bullets with me. I was beginning to get concerned!

 

[Bearbait1]

I was hunting coyotes in NM years ago and was set up in a poor spot where I had no visibility to my left, a dense bush was there. I was sitting with my feet out in front of me and a few minutes into the stand I saw a coyote nose slowly coming towards my boot from behind the bush. His nose got within a few inches of my boot before he smelled it. He took of with sand and gravel flying in my direction. Luckily I stood up and could see above the bush to pop him.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I use to sell them to Jonas Brothers in Denver. They would pay me $55-60 each skinned etc, or $50 unskinned! Guess how I sold them after finding that out! All they skinned out was a strip down the back while if I did it, it had to be feet and face as well! Crazy!

 

[K-man]

I can still remember when there was a bounty on them and all you needed was the ears....I haven't bothered to skin a coyote in many decades. Last time I looked they were only about $5 around here.. I wouldn't carry one out of the field for that. Now $50, I could make a living on that. (well keep me in shells at least)

 

[Ridgewalker]

K-man, certain areas of Utah still have a bounty (at least a couple of years ago). And no hunting license needed!
In Wyoming you don’t need a hunting license for coyote either.
You do need a Hunter’s Safety card for both (unless you’re old...LOL!)

 

[fourfive8]

I found a calculator to convert equivalent USD values over time. Out of curiosity, I plugged in a couple of sold raw fur numbers. In 1977 the best individual raw coyote fur I sold was right at $75- today that translates to $322. The best individual raw bobcat fur I sold in 1977 was $690- today that translates to $2963. At first I was kind of shocked at the numbers, but then remembered how little I was making back then. No wonder I spent all my spare time and worked so hard at trapping and calling!

 

[Bearbait1]

I never had a job as a teenager, I trapped in the winter and chased beer and girls in the summer (beer was alot easier to catch). I was catching mainly coyote, grey fox and coon of mediocre quality and averaged $30 for all of them with a few $400 cats each year. That was pretty good money then. I would be lucky to pay gas money trapping the same amount today.