A Guide To Smashing Coyotes In Your Yard

[Cantona256]

Great info. I have hunted and taken coyotes with my .25 M-Rods tuned at 50+ fpe and preferably at 60 fpe with the JSB Exact Heavy 34 grains pellet. I try to get close, less than 25 yards. Head shots only.

The coyotes in your video are tiny. The ones I have in Kansas are much larger and much more heavily built and can be difficult to put down. The deer here are much bigger than back east and thus the predators are larger too.

Weird whenever it comes up, I mention my ethics for my purpose and that for me a spring gun is simply not ethical for myself, I get all sorts of static. There are no spring guns that I would ever use on the coyotes we have here that I would consider ethical for my purpose and as I am the hunter, I get to decide what I consider ethical, which is a sure, quick and painless kill, DRT. And spring guns and frankly most air guns do not make the grade. I would prefer a .30 caliber at 70+ fpe and next gun I get will be a .30 caliber.

Climate has more to do with size than anything. For example the coyotes here in SW Utah are also very small because of the desert environment and not because of the prey size. The mule deer are bigger than any whitetail y’all got but the dogs are still small. A big dog around here is 30lbs… but the other end of the state at higher elevations and colder weather a big dog is like 40lbs. That’s why Canada has such big old yotes. Same reason a Canada lynx is much bigger than a big cat even though genetically they are almost identical.


Also a lot of the bigger “coyotes” we see around are hybridized with dogs or wolves..

 

[3Crows]

Climate has more to do with size than anything. For example the coyotes here in SW Utah are also very small because of the desert environment and not because of the prey size. The mule deer are bigger than any whitetail y’all got but the dogs are still small. A big dog around here is 30lbs… but the other end of the state at higher elevations and colder weather a big dog is like 40lbs. That’s why Canada has such big old yotes. Same reason a Canada lynx is much bigger than a big cat even though genetically they are almost identical.


Also a lot of the bigger “coyotes” we see around are hybridized with dogs or wolves..

I agree. Just saying, we have mule deer and the occasional elk, especially one of the places I hunt out western Kansas. The white tail deer here are big. The coyotes are big, the raccoons are big. LOL, the puma that wandered through a few years ago, supposedly there are none here until finally had to admit there are, laid under the swing set at the local elementary school and batted the swings around like a giant cat toy and then wandered off, he looked big enough to me.

Anyways, I am onboard with the OP, I would consider a PCP, .25 caliber pellet rifle, maybe a strong .22 with slugs and keep the range short and being selective with taken shots as minimum. Even with a PB (.17 HMR, .22 Magnum, .223, .22 Hornet, .44 Magnum) with body shots they often managed to get off aways. If shooting in what some call their backyards that could result in an animal dead on property not your own and that can be messy depending who and where.

Not sure that coyotes are considered a primary rabies vector, I need to study on that, but they can and do carry rabies.

 

[Cantona256]

I agree. Just saying, we have mule deer and the occasional elk, especially one of the places I hunt out western Kansas. The white tail deer here are big. The coyotes are big, the raccoons are big. LOL, the puma that wandered through a few years ago, supposedly there are none here until finally had to admit there are, laid under the swing set at the local elementary school and batted the swings around like a giant cat toy and then wandered off, he looked big enough to me.

Anyways, I am onboard with the OP, I would consider a PCP, .25 caliber pellet rifle, maybe a strong .22 with slugs and keep the range short and being selective with taken shots as minimum. Even with a PB (.17 HMR, .22 Magnum, .223, .22 Hornet, .44 Magnum) with body shots they often managed to get off aways. If shooting in what some call their backyards that could result in an animalsdead on property not your own and that can be messy depending who and where.

Not sure that coyotes are considered a primary rabies vector, I need to study on that, but they can and do carry rabies.

Yeah you’re not wrong. Not sure about their rabies status but they do carry a crap ton of other parasites!

Regardless of caliber the best option is between penetration and expansion. You don’t want to the dog running so pass throughs won’t do.

From what I’ve seen a soft lead slug with a slammer ogive(hollowpoint) moving really fast is the move here. Soft enough to expand well, moving fast for penetration and expansion. The smaller ogive lets it penetrate deeper before expanding.

I say this because an FX Hybrid in .30 can deliver great fpe but the expansion is so extreme they don’t always make it past the rib cage.

Either way keeping the projectile inside the coyote with transfer the maximum to amount of fpe to the dog. You might need a follow up shot up with the right round you’ll at least sit the thing down long enough to get that follow up… I don’t recommend headshots on coyotes out of superstition. Hunting them with powder burners I’ve see them matrix their way out of a headshot.

As frustrating as they are I love hunting them so much. Every dead coyote feels like a job well done.

 

[Cantona256]

Plus Utah will pay me a $100 for every one I kill