You win some you loose some!

R

RSG223

Member
Went out yesterday morning and the cons were perfect! Very low wind, ground was frozen, easy to walk on. I set up and started with a rabbit distress call then switched to a female howl and got an immediate response from behind me! Switched up the caller again and they went quite but 5 minutes later were howling again in front of me but in the bush. The distress calls weren't cutting it so I gave them coyote pup distress and out they came.

So I shot the first one in and he goes down and I switch up for another but they got out before I could get on them, next thing I know the one I knocked down slithers over the hill out of sight. I figure he isn't goin nowhere so I gather up my stuff and start off after him. Do you think I could find that bugger? The blood trail got harder to follow as he went over ground that had no snow, probably tucked itself into the tightest cover it could find. I hate not retrieving them but that's all part of the game I guess. I think it's all part of what Hunt0168 mentions in another post about not letting your guard down, I should have paid more attention to the one I had down first.
 

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RSG223 said:
......So I shot the first one in and he goes down and I switch up for another but they got out before I could get on them, next thing I know the one I knocked down slithers over the hill out of sight........
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Been there, experienced that. I've had two run off like their tail was on fire only to find them dead 50 yards away, and two run off that I never found. Any more I do like HCGATW suggested, hit them again.
 
hunt0168 said:
Play this game long enough and you'll no doubt see the tenacity for survival that a coyote possesses!
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I agree, been hunting them for about 35 years and have seen many things that amaze me about them but this was a first, for one laying dead still for more than 3 or four minutes before slipping away. And it's not like he got up fast and hard either, he sort of slithered along which is also why I'm amazed he got away. I've had them do like Don_P mentions and run like mad after being shot making you think you missed, only to find him 20 yards away!
 
I had one I shot clean through both lungs do a full out 40-yard dash and then a Geronimo jump into a 30-foot ravine. I don't know if he thought he was going to clear the ravine, but he didn't. He was extra dead at the bottom of it. I've never seen anything like it. My buddies and I were wide-eyed and speechless with matching "what did I just witness?" looks on our faces.

Here's a picture from where he jumped. My buddies are where he landed. The pic doesn't quite do justice to just how far he flew (and dropped).
20220227_074738.jpg


I checked for some ACME rockets, but I didn't see any attached...
 
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I've seen a few make miraculous recoveries. It's never a bad thing to go out and check to make sure you didn't hit one if you shoot. Especially in taller grass or if the coyote acts weird as it's leaving.

For example, I shot one back in 2020 I think it was. She was heading downwind and I barked, she stopped and I shot. Instead of booking it out of there I saw her hop and turn her head back real fast towards her body. She began to trot down the cattle trail she walked in on after I shot. I lost sight of her when she walked behind a hill so I walked down there to see if I could find blood. She didn't act hurt or even scared for that matter. Confused if anything. I didn't hear the bullet impact or anything either, no yelp from the coyote to indicate a hit either.

I started walking down the cattle trail and sure enough, she was dead not far from the last place I saw her. I've had a few different deals like that where I always go check for blood if I shoot and the coyote gets away. Even if I think I missed.

As for coyotes that are hit I keep an eye on them for a little bit or at least stay aware of movement from that direction if there's others out there with that one that aren't hit yet. Or at least try to if possible.
 
A friend and I were daytime calling in Colorado several years ago. Two came in but circled down wind and got our scent and were leaving at a high rate of speed. I hit one with my AR and saw it spinning in circles in my scope. So I moved to the other, but it got over a ridge. I swung back to the one I hit but couldn’t find it in my scope. We looked for thirty minutes and never found it. This was in very open country in 6” tall grass.
 
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