Light 7mm bullets for Coyote?

I think its too much gun, but its what I got right now

284win

100gr or 120gr varmint or FMJ???

Or stay home and get a 243

Never too much gun for coyotes - I think you'd be fine with anything except the FMJ. You'll have runners that will eventually die, but you likely won't find them.

Reason I say FMJ is to not blow a huge hole in the other side

I don't think you would get a runner on a neck shot?

I can look into varmint bullets which must be thin jacket?

I don't know how varmint bullets are intended to work. Are they supposed to open and not exit.
I suspect fragile construction to do so.

I'd lean more towards a deer bullet that DOESN'T blow up, but admittedly I have no experience with a 7mm on a coyote.

I used to load 130 grain hornady sst in my old 7mm stw back in the day. I could scoot them a touch over 3800 fps very comfortably and I killed everything from jack rabbits and prairie dogs to mule deer and elk with that load. Made an awful mess of coyotes

I only have some misses on my record, but my mentor had a lot of trouble with varmint bullets with the 7 mag. Shallow blowup, losing the animal running off. The 284 might temper it enough, but he's not a max loader by habit. My suspicion is that varmint construction just doesn't play nice with the raw KE the 7mm bore can carry. I know some guys hunt very successfully with the eld family, I carry a load, but I've just heard about some weird results with 7mm on coyotes. Do I know what I'm talking about personally? No, I'm amazing at giving them haircuts, but I get my info from someone who has won tournaments with his 7. Are you trying to recover pelt or just delete the animal? I'd go with a 120g mono or a 150 eldx if I were just after the bounty. I chase them with my 140 hammer deer load in a 7SAUM. If I was after a pelt I just wouldn't use the 284.

You're right, varmint bullets are generally supposed to generate a cone of 100% fragmentation and only make one hole. That's the theory.

I ordered some 90 grain hammers for my 7wsm but have not fired them as of yet .

I shot one with a Speer 30-06 165gr BTSP at 308 velocities or maybe a bit lower

Made a mess, compared to the saving a pelt approach

Yes any center fire 7mm-08 or larger is going to have some high velocity and damage with a light for caliber bullet, or any bullet. Lots of energy.

I figure why waste the pelts, I'm not aware of any other uses for a dead coyote besides keeping more game alive that we eat.

98s1lightning said:

I shot one with a Speer 30-06 165gr BTSP at 308 velocities or maybe a bit lower

Made a mess, compared to the saving a pelt approach

Yes any center fire 7mm-08 or larger is going to have some high velocity and damage with a light for caliber bullet, or any bullet. Lots of energy.

I figure why waste the pelts, I'm not aware of any other uses for a dead coyote besides keeping more game alive that we eat.

Click to expand...

Makes sense. Around here they're worth 50 bucks dead, plus they're just a menace. Plus they try to eat dogs. I don't care about the circle of life at that point, lol. I'd like to use the pelts, but I just don't feel like there's a pelt-safe combo in our class having used it a lot now. It's a hot 30-06 with better BC. Maybe a controlled expansion/mono like you were thinking of with the FMJ. Or if you got your hands on some trail boss. I'm building a mild 110 copper load for the 6.5cm I just reassembled so I don't have to use the 7saum on them. Until then I'm kinda hoping to hear someone contradict me on the 7 varmint bullets.

98s1lightning said:

I think its too much gun, but its what I got right now

284win

100gr or 120gr varmint or FMJ???

Or stay home and get a 243

Click to expand...

120 Nosler Ballistic Tip in a 284 Win will rock drop anything from coyote to deer!

JakeC said:

Makes sense. Around here they're worth 50 bucks dead, plus they're just a menace. Plus they try to eat dogs. I don't care about the circle of life at that point, lol. I'd like to use the pelts, but I just don't feel like there's a pelt-safe combo in our class having used it a lot now. It's a hot 30-06 with better BC. Maybe a controlled expansion/mono like you were thinking of with the FMJ. Or if you got your hands on some trail boss. I'm building a mild 110 copper load for the 6.5cm I just reassembled so I don't have to use the 7saum on them. Until then I'm kinda hoping to hear someone contradict me on the 7 varmint bullets.

Click to expand...

FYI
Trail Boss is For LEAD BULLETS ONLY
If you werent aware

H4895 has published "down" loads, low recoil, low velocity. Whatever you want to call them. For jacketed.