Shot Placement or Bullet Choice - something seems wrong here

[HuntingBronco]

I was excited to get the new to me 62 ELD-VT shooting well out of my new 22-250. Killed three so far with it, first was facing and it was DRT. Second was bad shot placement and a slight runner requiring follow up. This one seems to speak volumes to me, but want some guidance as I was listening to a podcast yesterday and I think they were saying this behind the shoulder shot will always result in runners.

This was about 75 yards. Bullet going 3440fps per LabRadar. Scanned and searched after the shot for an hour and nothing found then went back in the morning and followed good blood trail for about 125 yards past last visual in video and then blood disappeared. Looked for 2 hours, nothing found.

Is it time to load up a different bullet? I was going to turn to 53 Vmax next or 55 Nosler Varmegedden. Wanting to stay with high velocity rather than heavies for now, but I don't want a bullet that only works on absolutely perfect shots.

What do you all think? Bullet or Placement? And thanks for looking.

Edit - Youtube sucks for slow motion - couple screen shots from actual video. Really appreciate all your input.

 

[Huntnful]

That definitely looks like a placement issue IMO. Real low in the armpit and possibly a bit forward breaking that front leg from watching the video a few times. Tough to tell 100% but it definitely wasn't center of the lungs when the shot broke.

I wouldn't put much worry to it. Kill a few more before you abandon ship.

 

[TRnCO]

Looks to me like the impact was top of the shoulder. That should've tipped that coyote over on the spot which leaves me to believe that the bullet blew up on impact and didn't get any more penetration beyond the shoulder blade.
In this instance, I'd blame the bullet. It is apparently true, the bullet is designed to disintegrate on impact and from the looks of that video, that bullet did just that.

 

[Horse1]

That definitely looks like a placement issue IMO. Real low in the armpit and possibly a bit forward breaking that front leg from watching the video a few times. Tough to tell 100% but it definitely wasn't center of the lungs when the shot broke.

I wouldn't put much worry to it. Kill a few more before you abandon ship.

Agreed on the placement. Another possibility is it appears there's a big pile of sticks in front of the coyote, it's possible you clipped one and the bullet was tumbling.

I shot one in early Jan quartering hard away w/75gn A-max and got the front leg without getting into the vitals.. I found him a mile away about 90min later still very much alive and was able to get a good kill shot on him. With the amount of blood I found in the trail I couldn't believe I didn't find him sooner.

 

[MagnumManiac]

Biggest mistake….Hornady.

Cheers.

 

[FEENIX]

Q: Shot Placement or Bullet Choice?

A: Both!

The NUT (responsible for bullet choice for intended purpose and ensuring shot placement) behind the trigger remains the most significant factor.

 

[ranch manager]

I was excited to get the new to me 62 ELD-VT shooting well out of my new 22-250. Killed three so far with it, first was facing and it was DRT. Second was bad shot placement and a slight runner requiring follow up. This one seems to speak volumes to me, but want some guidance as I was listening to a podcast yesterday and I think they were saying this behind the shoulder shot will always result in runners.

This was about 75 yards. Bullet going 3440fps per LabRadar. Scanned and searched after the shot for an hour and nothing found then went back in the morning and followed good blood trail for about 125 yards past last visual in video and then blood disappeared. Looked for 2 hours, nothing found.

Is it time to load up a different bullet? I was going to turn to 53 Vmax next or 55 Nosler Varmegedden. Wanting to stay with high velocity rather than heavies for now, but I don't want a bullet that only works on absolutely perfect shots.

What do you all think? Bullet or Placement? And thanks for looking.

Edit - Youtube sucks for slow motion - couple screen shots from actual video. Really appreciate all your input.

If you are currently using 75's I'm guessing you have a fast enough twist barrel. I highly recommend the 53 vmax. I believe the vmax is the best bullet Hornady produces currently. It can shoot tiny also, in the zeros at 100 and sub 1/2 moa at 300, my favorite general purpose varmint bullets as well as neck shooting whitetails and head shooting hogs. 75's and other heavies are great for range work and bucking wind but can be less than desirable for "bang flops", at 22-250 velocities may I add, 75 running 3500 plus may be different but not happening from a 22-250 or 22gt velocitys

 

[ranch manager]

I was excited to get the new to me 62 ELD-VT shooting well out of my new 22-250. Killed three so far with it, first was facing and it was DRT. Second was bad shot placement and a slight runner requiring follow up. This one seems to speak volumes to me, but want some guidance as I was listening to a podcast yesterday and I think they were saying this behind the shoulder shot will always result in runners.

This was about 75 yards. Bullet going 3440fps per LabRadar. Scanned and searched after the shot for an hour and nothing found then went back in the morning and followed good blood trail for about 125 yards past last visual in video and then blood disappeared. Looked for 2 hours, nothing found.

Is it time to load up a different bullet? I was going to turn to 53 Vmax next or 55 Nosler Varmegedden. Wanting to stay with high velocity rather than heavies for now, but I don't want a bullet that only works on absolutely perfect shots.

What do you all think? Bullet or Placement? And thanks for looking.

Edit - Youtube sucks for slow motion - couple screen shots from actual video. Really appreciate all your input.

I would also like to add that they have an amazing instinct to survive and run off if everything is not perfect, even hit with a 270 and intestines hanging out and dragging, killed 3 legged ones as well. I've also seen them make it 5 steps from an m44( cyanide). Bang flops are not 100% and never have been.

 

[can1010]

don't beat yourself up over 1 of 3 coyotes, it's not a big enough sample size to mean anything especially since it was unrecovered, and you don't know what happened.
thermal videos leave a lot to be desired as far as quality goes and trying to make and decisions on what went wrong. YouTube is full of thermal videos showing shot placement and then pictures of actual shot and they are not even close.

 

[med358-boise]

I would not change anything at this point. You have 3 data points and you failed to recover 1 of the animals. You have evidence of a good blood trail but no dead animal so you really don't know what happend. One occurence of anything means nothing.

Animals all react differently and some will exhibit a tremendous will to live. December of 2023 I put three rounds of 9,3x62 Barnes 250grn TSXs into the vitals of a cow elk and it kind of just stood there soaking up the shots. I killed another cow elk that took 3 150grn 270 win rounds thru both lungs before it walked down into a ravine and went another 75 yards before it died.

Consider all the stories of military personnel who continue to fight and ultimately survivor even after very serious wounds that would have caused 99% of the people in the world to curl up and die. How about the criminal Michael Platt in the FBI Miami shooting who was hit with the first shot fired at him that penetrated the right lung completely, stopping an inch from the heart and continued to fight for another 4 minutes while sustaining 4 more bullet wounds. Autopsy showed 1.4 quarts of blood in his lung.

Sorry for the lengthy response but weird things happen in the field. The only wounds that I know of that come close to "guaranteeing" recovery of an animal are severing the CNS, severe damage to the heart (the loss of oxygenated blood is just too fast), or breaking both front shoulders because it is near impossible for them to move because of the mechanical breakdown (both hips would also do the same thing).

Keep hunting and shooting and have fun. (can1010 and I were typing at the same time)

 

[HuntingBronco]

That definitely looks like a placement issue IMO. Real low in the armpit and possibly a bit forward breaking that front leg from watching the video a few times. Tough to tell 100% but it definitely wasn't center of the lungs when the shot broke.

I wouldn't put much worry to it. Kill a few more before you abandon ship.

If you are currently using 75's I'm guessing you have a fast enough twist barrel. I highly recommend the 53 vmax. I believe the vmax is the best bullet Hornady produces currently. It can shoot tiny also, in the zeros at 100 and sub 1/2 moa at 300, my favorite general purpose varmint bullets as well as neck shooting whitetails and head shooting hogs. 75's and other heavies are great for range work and bucking wind but can be less than desirable for "bang flops", at 22-250 velocities may I add, 75 running 3500 plus may be different but not happening from a 22-250 or 22gt velocitys

Thanks! 62gr ELD-VT out of a Tikka with 8TW. 53 Vmax is definitely on my short list.

 

[HuntingBronco]

Q: Shot Placement or Bullet Choice?

A: Both!

The NUT (responsible for bullet choice for intended purpose and ensuring shot placement) behind the trigger remains the most significant fa

Biggest mistake….Hornady.

Cheers.

Any suggestions based on actual experience on this size target?

 

[FEENIX]

Practice, practice, practice …

"I" find gopher shooting as an excellent form of practice. My buddies and I are fortunate to have ranch where we can do such a thing. The rancher has a list of critters for us to help him control, i.e., coyotes, badgers, porcupines, etc.

 

[Zen Archery]

At times where "I believe the bullet should have hit versus when I recover and see where the bullet impacted" don't match.

If it were me and curious about the bullet I'd shoot it into medium to see what's going on.