Suggestions for calibre and platform

[338 dude]

If you kill the snakes watch the rat population explode. I'm a snake lover. Have had and caught my whole life. I had a 17 ft. Burmese Python I had to give away when moved. 200 lbs. and tame as a dog. Fond of rabbits

When I was younger, my friend Kenny had a cousin that had a 13 foot python. His thing was huge, had his own room set up in the house, and was fond of whole dead chickens

 

[JiggyIi]

I've got a 6.5 PRC and I am loving it more and more... but honestly, it is sure hard to beat the venerable .243 Win with the right round.

Cartridge	243 Winchester
Grain Weight	58 Grains
Quantity	20 Round
Muzzle Velocity	3925 Feet Per Second

The round above is still flying over 2k fps at 500 yards.

I've got a Winchester XPR in .243 with a 10 twist barrel and it sure is nice.


.......

Too bad they don't make Leftys

 

[JiggyIi]

Thank You M1A1ABRAMS I try to help people in their quest of coyotes. the coyote is my obsession and has been all of my life .

I wish we had more coyotes than Timberwolves. I love love shooting coyotes when I've been in Texas I couldn't believe the amount of coyotes

 

[JiggyIi]

Calling this time of the year I mostly use coyote howls that aren't any kind of threat sounds, so not many barks included, a lone howl higher pitched like a younger coyote, or a female would make, give it a minute or two before doing it again as they do that so they can hear a response, two howls then two barks and a howl, is called an interrogation call, wait for up to a minute or more before you do it again, they may just show up or they may answer if they answer go quiet and when they stop talking they are heading your way. When I want to release any animals from a foot hold trap I use a catch pole like the dog catcher uses they are expensive any board that you can put on an animal to hold it down and not get bitten is what a lot of people use, you don't want to try it with a skunk, unless you have a skunk in a live trap they will spray, and if you mess around with skunks in live traps you are going to smell like one. The size of a coyote's area depends on the amount of available food, traps need to be prepared for coyote work, cleaned rusted, dyed, pan leveled dog and pan notch filed to make a gun sear, jaw tips turned up, so the coyote doesn't pull them out of the frame, swivels added to the middle of the chain and the stake end, I like around 16"of chain so they can't pump the trap stakes out of the ground, pan covers made so dirt doesn't get under the pan when you set it and bed it solid. When trapping for a specific coyote I preferer to use red fox gland lure on my backing with my trap bedded 8"or 9" and to the right of my lure that is in the up-wind position from the trap, fine dirt is sifted and packed around the outside edges of the jaws so that if you push on any part of the trap, it doesn't tip or move, except for the pan. Winter trapping is a different matter completely because of the freezing and thawing and wet making your trap pan covering sag showing where it's located.

In the winter I like wax paper over wood ashes & light snow ❄ over the top

 

[WYO300RUM]

The mouse population is what explodes here. Cats don't work because coyotes can get cats easily. I don't know why the cat just doesn't climb something but cats don't last out here. Our snakes are pretty small compared to places like TX or FL. That being said, I can't believe the weird myths concerning snakes that persist. I hear people talking about having to cut the head off of a rattlesnake after killing it and burying the head separate from the body. ?????
I've also heard people truly believe a mosquito could bite the dead rattlesnakes and then have a venomous bite themselves. (NO, cannot happen)
I see a lot of irrational fear too. I've tried to get folks to conquer their fear of many things but with snakes its not easy.
Dogs are another issue. Some dogs will bore in and try to attack a snake. Our English Mastiff got curious and stuck his face near a rattlesnake and got tattoed in the face. He yiped and headed for the house. There was no swelling and no apparent wound. I watched him for awhile and was not worse for wear. The snake gave him a dry bite. I went to where he was looking and the rattlesnake was still there. So I moved it out in the back and tipped my hat to the snake for not costing me a 600$ vet bill. From then on, our dog avoided snakes at all costs.
Here we have the small Western Rattlesnake, the Gopher or Bull snake, the Western Yellow Bellied Racer and the occasional Rubber Boa.

That's a good deal. I had a baby western rattler I caught near Flagstaff Az. while archery elk hunting many years ago. I had him for 14 years. He never struck at me or even rattled at me. He loved to be held. I'd open cage door and he would get into my hands. I'd sit down and he'd just lay in my lap. My son even held him. I'd hold a dead rat and he'd take it from my hand and eat it. I gave him away also when I moved. 2 redtail boas, 2 dumeril boas, 4 ball pythons also. Kept 3 different king snakes though. My Florida king is fearless.

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

The mouse population is what explodes here. Cats don't work because coyotes can get cats easily. I don't know why the cat just doesn't climb something but cats don't last out here. Our snakes are pretty small compared to places like TX or FL. That being said, I can't believe the weird myths concerning snakes that persist. I hear people talking about having to cut the head off of a rattlesnake after killing it and burying the head separate from the body. ?????
I've also heard people truly believe a mosquito could bite the dead rattlesnakes and then have a venomous bite themselves. (NO, cannot happen)
I see a lot of irrational fear too. I've tried to get folks to conquer their fear of many things but with snakes its not easy.
Dogs are another issue. Some dogs will bore in and try to attack a snake. Our English Mastiff got curious and stuck his face near a rattlesnake and got tattoed in the face. He yiped and headed for the house. There was no swelling and no apparent wound. I watched him for awhile and was not worse for wear. The snake gave him a dry bite. I went to where he was looking and the rattlesnake was still there. So I moved it out in the back and tipped my hat to the snake for not costing me a 600$ vet bill. From then on, our dog avoided snakes at all costs.
Here we have the small Western Rattlesnake, the Gopher or Bull snake, the Western Yellow Bellied Racer and the occasional Rubber Boa.

Our little raterier n Chihuahua mix killed 6 ft black snakes, weasels n whatever else it could get a hold of.

 

[Brother Buckwheat]

So a taller mount?

MKP777, No, not necessarily taller, you need the rear of the scope higher either with a 20 or even 30 MOA base or a set of rings like the Burris signature zee rings that have adjustable inserts. Or maybe both if the crosshair was at the bottom of your scope when zeroed.
Or the rings you used were off, or not seated to your base. I have seen that before on picatinny rails and weaver type rings. Or it was the other way around. I have also seen the objective bell tight against the barrel causing the scope tube to flex when the rings were tighened down into the base. Ugh.
Without seeing the setup it's hard to tell what the problem is.
My 4K pro was good for 200 yds or less with a good illuminator, I went with thermal just to mostly find animals in heavy brush.

 

[COBigJohn]

I do have to wonder.... How would this pill work in the 6.5 PRC for varmints?

Would an 8 twist barrel work, or would you want a 10 twist or slightly higher?

I imagine one could easily load this round to 3,800 fps and maybe close to 4k.

 

[WYO300RUM]

When I was younger, my friend Kenny had a cousin that had a 13 foot python. His thing was huge, had his own room set up in the house, and less fond of whole dead chickens

I tried to find photos of mine. Mine ate rabbits I raised and roosters.

 

[DSheetz]

I suspect that the 6.5 264 diameter 90 grain bullets would work good in a 6.5 PRC in an 8-twist barrel depending on the powder, seating depth ect. . Hornady has some factory loads with 95 grain V-MAX for the Creedmoor that run 3300 muzzle velocity out of a 1;8 twist 20 " barrel pretty good. I ran some 120 grain Nosler ballistic tips in my 6.5x284, 1;9 twist 26-inch barrel with good results and from what I gather the PRC is an improved version, using a different case with a different shoulder angle and a few other improvements, so it should like a lighter well-made bullet. MKP77 the only reason you would need taller mounting rings is that the scope was touching your action or barrel, As Brother Buckwheat said you needed to have a tapered base or picatinny rail to mount your scope at an incline thus causing your reticle to be raised higher giving you more adjustment for elevation with it. Do you have an Amazon Kindle? If so, there are some good books that you can read about precision rifles and precision shooting that will help you learn more about your quest to use the equipment that you already have on hand before you put a lot of time and money into new equipment. When I was a kid there were so many things that bothered the chickens not just coyotes, fox, dogs, cats, mink, racoons, pine marten, hawks, owls, and even some snakes. We used some other types of birds as watch birds and had a larger coop for them to roam in during the day and put them in the chicken house to roost at night fed them corn and Oister shell, so that the eggshells were harder.

 

[MKP777]

I suspect that the 6.5 264 diameter 90 grain bullets would work good in a 6.5 PRC in an 8-twist barrel depending on the powder, seating depth ect. . Hornady has some factory loads with 95 grain V-MAX for the Creedmoor that run 3300 muzzle velocity out of a 1;8 twist 20 " barrel pretty good. I ran some 120 grain Nosler ballistic tips in my 6.5x284, 1;9 twist 26-inch barrel with good results and from what I gather the PRC is an improved version, using a different case with a different shoulder angle and a few other improvements, so it should like a lighter well-made bullet. MKP77 the only reason you would need taller mounting rings is that the scope was touching your action or barrel, As Brother Buckwheat said you needed to have a tapered base or picatinny rail to mount your scope at an incline thus causing your reticle to be raised higher giving you more adjustment for elevation with it. Do you have an Amazon Kindle? If so, there are some good books that you can read about precision rifles and precision shooting that will help you learn more about your quest to use the equipment that you already have on hand before you put a lot of time and money into new equipment. When I was a kid there were so many things that bothered the chickens not just coyotes, fox, dogs, cats, mink, racoons, pine marten, hawks, owls, and even some snakes. We used some other types of birds as watch birds and had a larger coop for them to roam in during the day and put them in the chicken house to roost at night fed them corn and Oister shell, so that the eggshells were harder.

We have guinea hens, they definitely sound an alarm to predators but mostly its when the hawks come in. We've had a badger come around but only at night. It was a one time thing and took me awhile to figure out what dug through the fence.
I've never had issues with bears. I've seen tracks from cougars but only saw one once. Saw wolves once but they never have been an issue. Deer are an issue to our garden for sure.
Wasps. When we got here it was like we were cursed from God. Thousands of them. Everywhere. I took 20 nests off the house and every time I took down a nest, more showed up.
I studied all winter about wasps, my goal was to extinct the whole species. I found out I needed to put the wasp traps out, far away from the house. I found this stuff called Drionne dust from 'Bugspray.com'. You puff it all over your roof vents and eves. Its a repellent. They don't like it. Then there is Skillet, you put that in ponds, pools or water features. It breaks up the surface tension of the water so they can't land on it. For days I had millions of dead wasps in the pool. But after about 3 days, its creepy but they seemed to learn that the water was no good and ignored it. The wasps are not an issue anymore. With chickens you have chicken feed, with chicken feed you get mice. I shot 19 mice in one hour with a 22 before I gave up. I found air tight food bins to store the feed in. I use those mouse traps that can get 20 mice. I take them to an open field, with my suppressed 22 pistol and let them go. Its really improved my pistol shooting. I put bull snakes all over in summer and that seems to keep the mice down.
But with coyotes.......I tried security lights, fence and motion detectors. No effect. Diplomacy has failed.

 

[MKP777]

Until I figure out what longer range rifle and scope I should buy (tax return will help there) I was wondering about my Remington 700 PSS.
Its a 26" barrel, 223.
I have Varmaggedon rounds and also Hornady V max, 53 grain.
The scope is a stable but aged Leupold Vari-X 3. It has a mil-dot reticle. If my site in is 100 yards how do I figure out what my hold over is?
Currently, after siting it for 100 with the V max, I gave it 4 more clicks of elevation. That was about 1 inch high at 100. I calculate that to be on at about 175.
If I hold over to the next mil dot down at 100, wouldn't that be 3.6 inches high at 100?

 

[Brother Buckwheat]

Until I figure out what longer range rifle and scope I should buy (tax return will help there) I was wondering about my Remington 700 PSS.
Its a 26" barrel, 223.
I have Varmaggedon rounds and also Hornady V max, 53 grain.
The scope is a stable but aged Leupold Vari-X 3. It has a mil-dot reticle. If my site in is 100 yards how do I figure out what my hold over is?
Currently, after siting it for 100 with the V max, I gave it 4 more clicks of elevation. That was about 1 inch high at 100. I calculate that to be on at about 175.
If I hold over to the next mil dot down at 100, wouldn't that be 3.6 inches high at 100?

I know you are looking for a caliber to reach out to longer yardage, but I considered a .204 Ruger or Practical chambering for 500 yards. But since I'm in Kalifornia I have to use non-lead and trying to find a .20 cal AR barrel in a faster-than-1:10 twist is like finding a unicorn tied to a post.
Nothing wrong with a VX3 and sighting in at 100, and a mil is ~3.6 in. but your question is about ballistics calculations so I suppose you are correct @175. But to confirm, you should actually shoot at 175. Trigger time is a valuable teacher.
Now if the rain would only stop here I would go out and practice what I preach.

 

[DSheetz]

Hornady has a calculator app on their web site if you are using their loads then you can use it to tell what the bullet drops are for different ranges. You can put your data in muzzle velocities barrel length ect. and it will give you how much you need to hold over or the number of clicks to dial for the distance, a range finder is pretty handy, so you know what the actual distance is for better accuracy. then go and verify those at the different ranges, so that you can verify what your actual drops are with what you are using. It sounds like you have a 1/4 moa per click turret on your scope. Having done control work for many years I set my traps down in a bucket of water to drown the mice. Skunks and other animals in live traps are disposed of in a similar manor. Skunks also dig under your fence as do racoons, sealed feed bens and feeding in a feeder help, I made feed bunks out of wood, a flat bottom with a board on each side then ends put in place, and a 2x4 under it to keep it up off of the ground or the floor of the hen house, so the feed isn't just on the ground. feeding in the mornings and not over feeding so that they eat all of the feed helps also, we ran some geese and a gander with the chickens, they kill the mice and eat them as well as being an alarm they will fight some of the predators as well. And a Christmas goose isn't bad either to me they are better than turkey. With coyotes they will adapt to whatever you use lights, propane cannons, noise, calls, reflective flagging, if you shoot them at 200 yards but one lives it will stay farther out or become more cautious. Coyotes have adapted to live in cities around people and eat garbage as well as pets and other things. Over the years I have killed more coyotes with a model 70 Winchester with a 20-inch barrel, chambered in 223 Remington, bedded action and a 3-9 steel tube Weaver scope with a duplex reticle, shooting 55 grain Sierra game king bullets at 2900 feet per second muzzle velocities using IMR4320 powder, then later H335 powder, than any other round. I have killed coyotes at out to 500 yards with that set up by holding over at the ear tips on setting coyote hitting them in the abdomen, the hold over will change with up or down angle shots. I'm pretty sure that you have USDA Wildlife Services in your area look up their phone number and ask them for advice in deterring coyotes in your area while you are getting things figured out to do your own coyote control work, I have yet to see them not be helpful and they know your area and the way your coyotes react better than I do. You will enjoy figuring it out.