129 ABLR Not Good for Coyotes?

[brut28481]

Called two coyotes in to +/- 130 yards (you can see them chasing rabbits on the way in if look close enough). Seemed to have a good shot placement on first one and eventually got up and ran off.....had some sloppy follow up shots & had a failure to fire. Can't get them all, it seems..... Thoughts on 129 ABLR for coyotes? Seems most use the 95gr Vmax or TNT's?

[Double Naught Spy]

Your shot on the coyote facing you seemed to be at the base of the neck, off centered to the right, body trailing down below it. If you don't hit the spine, which you apparently did not, there isn't much else there to immediately kill the coyote. The bullet would have entered, hit muscle, maybe the collarbone, rib(s), and exited out of the top of the back, probably no further back than the forward thoracic vertebrae. In the short distance it traveled through the tissue, it may not have had time to fully open up. In other words, shot placement didn't look very good good for the bullet you were using and still may not have been great even for expanding bullets.

[brut28481]

Excellent analysis. What's your opinion on the heavier bullets on coyotes? I know you've been using 90 grain TNT recently. Do you think the lighter bullets are more effective on coyotes versus heavier bullets? Thanks for the insight!

[bj139]

85 gr Sierras seem devastating on small animals in my experience on ground hogs.
Most people report exceptional accuracy with them from what I have experienced and read elsewhere.

[Double Naught Spy]

Excellent analysis. What's your opinion on the heavier bullets on coyotes? I know you've been using 90 grain TNT recently. Do you think the lighter bullets are more effective on coyotes versus heavier bullets? Thanks for the insight!

I don't think it is a bullet weight issue so much as an expansion speed issue. A broadside shot on a coyote still may not allow for much expansion on the ABLR. No doubt it would be expanding when it exit, just not having had enough time to expand very far. Some lighter rounds will likely expand much faster and therefore do more damage on a more consistent basis, would be my belief. If you can find a fast expanding heavier bullet, that would be fine.