FMJ's on coyotes

I've shot many coyotes with a .308 from 15 feet to 950 yards and with anything from a 147 gr FMJ to a 185 gr. VLD. I guess it's kinda cheating using a tractor as bait. In a matter of about 30 seconds I shot 3 coyotes with 147 grain FMJs with varying results, one blew out both shoulders DRT messy, one a double lung ran for a bit and piled up pretty clean wounds, the other took one behind the ear pretty messy. There have been times where a coyote took a 175 gr behind the shoulder and it ran, other times they'll for lack of better terms turn inside out. All I can say is that bullets do funny things depending if they hit bone or just soft tissue. When any bullet hits bone the effects are drastic. It's a coin toss on what an FMJ does and it's a pretty sure deal what a good expanding bullet does. I prefer any expanding bullet over FMJs because the potential for a DRT shot is a bit higher. Just my 2 cents.
 
I have shot coyotes at 300 yards with 55gr Vmax bullets into winter fur, and they have run more than 100 yards to the property line and kept going. I don't doubt that they died a while later, since they never did come back.

What bullet to use on a coyote is mainly dependent on the reason for killing the critter. If you expect to make money off pelts, then you will want high velocity light weight bullets like the Vmax or similar. If you simply want to kill them, pretty much any bullet that is carrying enough energy will do.

As another writer has said, Match bullets or VLD's will extend the killing range of about any rifle, provided it can shoot them right. I currently only use 75gr Hornady HPBT bullets in my 223 and 95gr Berger VLD's in my 243AI. Since coyotes are the only thing I legally get to shoot at with a rifle here in SE Michigan, I figured I would up the game to my 8x57 shooting 196gr FMJ or match bullets. Now it looks like it will be a 308 shooting 175gr SMK's for anything closer and the 243AI shooting 105's for anything farther/more wind.

I do want to spend more time behind a heavier rifle to prepare for wolf hunting out west, and the coyotes are going to end up dead whichever way. I will probably keep my DAG 147gr battle packs sealed up as "iron reserves" and use my reloads with the 175 SMK's for everyday use.
 
. Since coyotes are the only thing I legally get to shoot at with a rifle here in SE Michigan, I figured I would up the game to my 8x57 shooting 196gr FMJ or match bullets.

What, you don't want to go to the trusty 12ga slug for 'yotes?? It is the respobsible thing to do if you live south of an arbitrary line drawn by the guvmint. Bet they wouldn't expand much in a 'yote, and bet you wouldn't get too many run-offs!
 
Yes, your ranging had better be good to the yard, and the coyote had better not be moving too fast at 300 yards.... Might as well use a mortar... Oh, aren't those loads about $2.50 each ? It would almost be cheaper to use a 50bmg and perfectly legal too... Just shows how screwed up our legislators are..
 
Have you tried to hit something at 300 yards with a mortar, one of the hand guided types without a tripod ? It takes quite a bit of skill and practice.

When I was serving on the Namibian/Angolan border in 1987, it was just 9 guys in my Eng corps unit assigned to about 200 infantry right on an infiltration route.

We got ourselves a device called a "Patmore"
100_0639.jpg


We even learned to fire it from out our armored vehicles which were open on top.

When we did target practice we used to set up close to a local village and then have local villagers select a target for us to hit with smoke mortars. It never took more than 2 shots (about 10 seconds after the first hit) to hit it. Having the locals know that we had and could use such a weapon was probably one of the reasons I am still alive today.
 
Have you tried to hit something at 300 yards with a mortar, one of the hand guided types without a tripod ? It takes quite a bit of skill and practice.

When I was serving on the Namibian/Angolan border in 1987, it was just 9 guys in my Eng corps unit assigned to about 200 infantry right on an infiltration route.

We got ourselves a device called a "Patmore"
100_0639.jpg


We even learned to fire it from out our armored vehicles which were open on top.

When we did target practice we used to set up close to a local village and then have local villagers select a target for us to hit with smoke mortars. It never took more than 2 shots (about 10 seconds after the first hit) to hit it. Having the locals know that we had and could use such a weapon was probably one of the reasons I am still alive today.

How close do you have to land to your target to do "some damage"? I would rig my bipod up to that.
 
Good bang for buck with those. What are you shooting them out of?

Good bang for the buck 20 years ago. but even the steel cased tulammo soft point is $.36 per round now. Found some what I think is 8n3, so I am happy about that. It will be out of an SGW bullpup stocked $80 SKS. You can tell me how long ago it was that the SKS was $80. Still needs a trigger job, but Kivaari is 2 months behind. Wanna get the gun built and shot before the trigger ships out.
 
Anyone other than me ever put a lot of thot and money into a custom rifle and then have it not be what you were hoping for.

The longer I have my 6.5 Creed. The more I like it and the more I see how it just right fits the bill I had for it.
 
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