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It's all about shot placement.

ohlongarm

I get burned out hearing guys complaining about varmints running off , Coyotes, and groundhogs crawling off after being shot.
Not on this forum/site, I generally use the smallest caliber that gets the job done. And put the shot where it needs to be, 22 hornet, 17 WSM ,22 CCI velocitor, and now a 17 hornet added to my go to rifles. Here's two big boys dropped DRT perfect shot placement one at 125 yards, one at 130 , lowly 17 WSM 20 grain Hornady, the boiler room yote ran about 25 yards before doing a back flip , drt, the neck shot drt.Practice putting the round where it needs to go, and success will be yours. I can take a coyote clean out to 200 yards with the aforementioned calibers, 22 being the exception but a head shot out to 150 is not uncommon. if I need more range the 17 hornet and 204 come into play.
 

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Yep, I have seen some crazy stuff happen while taking 1500+ Red Fox hunting. Most of them with a 17 Rem. 99 % of the time bullet performed as desired/expected. I had a 22-250 barrel that a couple handfuls of times( distances from 125-300+ yards) a well known 55 gr tipped bullet ricocheted off, between the eyes shots of sleeping coyote. Coyote would flip over on it's back, 4 legs up. First couple times I had left the rifle on it's bipod to make the retrieve, had to run back and shoot again as the coyote punch staggered away. Changed the barrel, same bullets same velocity,zero issues.
 
Sitting, leaning up against a big tree with a couple dead squirrels in my game vest. Felt something move back there. Squirrel jumped out ran to the nearest tree. Emptied the shotgun on that dang squirrel. Four shots total, nothing to show for it. Thought I had good shot placement. Stuff happens.
 
Sooner or later a shitty shot weather its with a arrow or a bullet happens to us all.
Not an IF but a WHEN situation .
Im sure non of us ar happy or proud of it.

Anyone who does not admit it , either has not shot enough for it to happen yet or is just an in denial liar.

All that said i hate seeing anything suffer from poor shot placement, i have done it with bullets and arrows. Definitely a shitty feeling .
 
There's not always a clear path to the animal. I was muzzle loading feral goats once & missed one broadside on at 75 yards. It wasn't until later walking past that I saw a fallen tree with a puny branch maybe 15 feet long with a fork not much more than an inch and a half at the end firmly clutching my .45 round ball.
 
I usually take my 250 Savage, or 257 Roberts when looking for, or possible chance encounter with any varmints.
One thing to remember is to grab the right ammo....
Went after a family of coyotes last year i had on a game camera every morning at 7:30am.
When i got there, i realized i accidentally grabbed the 100gr Ballistic Tips instead of my usual 90gr BlitzKings.
Put 3 of the 4 coyotes down, but made a real mess!

I made a bad shot on a black bear 2 years ago.
I had shot the rifle out to 800 yards the week before & forgot to reset my scope.
Hit it way high & back.
Tracked that thing like 2 miles in 14" of snow. It made it back to it's den.
I kept track of it.
Game camera shows it survived & is doing well.
Perhaps this year....
 
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DirtySteve said:
lol, A few weeks ago I as shooting my 17 WSM at 215 yards. PD was standing and facing side ways to me. I shot and made a slightly off wind call. I took his right front leg of at the elbow... That was not proper placement..
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The result you got is why I went with lighter bullets but hyper velocities even when technically the load wasn't the most accurate. The reduced time in flight helps with the wind issue.

Example: 223 with 55 grain at 2,925 FPS shoots 1" at 300 yards on a CALM day but quickly spreads to 3"+ as the wind kicks up. Same rifle with 40 grain VMAX at 3,900 FPS shoots 1 1/16" at 300 yards on a calm day but always stays within 2" at 300 yards. It makes a decent 350 yard head shooter.

I do the same thing with my 6MM Remington.
 
hogpatrol said:
Never can tell when a hyper active varmint is going to bob his head, dip down for a bite or other wise move between the time one's brain says pull the trigger and the bullet gets to the target. With animals, perfect shot placement is a goal, not a certainty. Shoot enough varmints and now and then you'll get a crawl-away. BTDT.
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Can happen , here's some that didn't crawl off. Second one bobbed his head up and he paid. First pic he tried to crawl off, Three fat boys at days end.
 

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john 800 said:
Maybe, but one thing that gets me is people not using a rest of some sort. For the love of god, do it the easy way!
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Agree 100%, I consider myself a very good shooter, practice , practice , practice, plus 23 years still going in LE, where you must be able to hit a target. Also get the tools that will help you succeed, some of mine shown here. Seat of atv works great, tripod with shooting chair, range finder an absolute must, binoculars a must, in the last picture I utilized the atv seat, rear pad and tripod on ground all within an hour .
 

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hogpatrol said:
Never can tell when a hyper active varmint is going to bob his head, dip down for a bite or other wise move between the time one's brain says pull the trigger and the bullet gets to the target. With animals, perfect shot placement is a goal, not a certainty. Shoot enough varmints and now and then you'll get a crawl-away. BTDT.
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Unfortunately, that is very true. I try my best to avoid but it has happen to me many times with hunting eastern ground hogs over the past 50 years. They are tough critters and I've seen them drag half their guts hanging out 10 or 20 feet and make into their hole. Nothing seems to be absolute when hunting.
 
K22 said:
Unfortunately, that is very true. I try my best to avoid but it has happen to me many times with hunting eastern ground hogs over the past 50 years. They are tough critters and I've seen them drag half their guts hanging out 10 or 20 feet and make into their hole. Nothing seems to be absolute when hunting.
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I've killed my fair share in Ohio, Pa, West VA, VA, North Carolina, over 60 in Ohio since April, I put the time in when I go usually 8 hours , sometimes more, in all honesty I couldn't count crawl away on one hand, I won't take a shot unless I know it's good. Some good shooting there by you, however in most instances I can't even find a bullet hole in mine. What caliber and scope are you using. I'm hooked on 17's , but can call out the 204 artillery if need be, 17 WSM out to 250 easily with the right shot, I'm thinking 350 with the new CZ 17 hornet, about 10 days out from completion. The scant few crawl offs I had were seen in their stove pipe holes dead but not recoverable. Also have taken several coyotes with the 17 WSM, each and every one recovered .
 
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Missing, bad hits....it is called, "Hunting"....

Coyotes coming into a call often do not stop, you can yell at them, whistle, bark....they just keep hard charging! You leade them, follow though with your swing, and you hit them all over the body... Hits behind the diaphragm on coyotes, usually means a lost coyote with sub calibers.

Hits behind the diaphragm with a 243 and 22/250 AI means a very dead coyote. I do not save hides, so I am a, "cutt'em in half kind of guy" with the caliber I choose. I have killed plenty of coyotes with 22 Mag Win HP, 22 K Hornet, 17 Mach 4, and 17 Rem.

Out West, we slaughtered the chucks in Idaho and Utah. I liked the 222 with a 50g Ballistic tip and 50g Sierra blitz as a minimal cartridge after seeing more than a few crawl off...I hate crawlers. Chucks can be tough to anchor solid on quartering angles, and WIND is always an issue.

We had a ranch we shot that was a feed lot for cattle. The chucks would move in out of the dessert/lava rock and looked like terminates moving in on the cattle's feed bins, which were 2x12' nailed in a V form with legs on the bottom....just the right height for a chuck to crawl into. The trick was to flip the chuck out of the feed bin and not bloody up the feed for the cattle. Unbelievable that the rancher told us to not worry about hitting a cow, just come and get him if we did hit one....we never did.

My favorite Chuck rifle is a 6 Rem AI with 70g Blitz Kings at 4100-4150(26", 14T, .020 FB). I like to see the chucks getting T'd off like a football going for a Field Goal! Flying...not crawling...

Topic is shot placement, so I place my shot to get the most Air Time.
 
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