Coyote Boolits

[Marlin Junky]

Is there anyone out there who is using cast boolits (or pp'd boolits) for coyote control? If so, I'd like to know about your rig. Can you consistently make clean kills out to 300 yards or more?

MJ

[NickSS]

I do not see coyote at that range but I have killed three this past year with cast in my 30-30 using a Lyman 311041 and 10 gr of Unique. The last one I shot was at about 40 yards and the bullet went in the front shoulder and came out the other side behind the ribs. It also broke the shoulder and the animal dropped at the shot. This load shoots well out to 200 yards which is as far as I have shot it.

[Cactus Farmer]

I shoot a 225415 in a 22 Hornet and out to 200 it's lights out for Wiley.DRT! I'm working on a load for my Carcano as its a real carbine and short means handy. Plus its a Carcano,if I scratch it up ,who cares, it's a Carcano......Of course I have loads for my Browning 92 winchester copy in 44 mag and the Rossi 357 too. Handy out to 100+ on a good day.

[Bret4207]

The problem at 300 yards is drop and windage. I've killed coyotes at 70ish yards with a 32-20 and a 115 gr boolit at 1500 fps. Whats it doing at 70 yards? Maybe 1200 fps at best? they aren;t that hard to kill with a FN boolit in the lights.

For 300 yards shooting you'll need to be able to dope the wind and drop pretty well. With cast at maybe 22-2400 fps you're back to 1920's varminting. I'm looking out my window right now at an apple tree that's 280 yards exactly from the rear corner of my house. I took a shot at a coyote standing in front of that tree as couple years back with a 250 Savage and 100 gr Ballistic Tips at close to 3K. I misjudged the wind and missed him. With cast you'll have even more of a challenge.

[badgeredd]

Bret said

"With cast at maybe 22-2400 fps you're back to 1920's varminting."

Bret I hadn't thought about it in that context...but a VERY true statement. Makes it all the more fun for me. I'm still working on the 200 yard shots!!!!

Edd

[pdawg_shooter]

Lyman 311466 over 58gr of AA2700 in a 30-06 works for me. But then I take the time to size them .3015 ad give them 2 wraps of 16# paper before loading.

[yondering]

With cast at maybe 22-2400 fps you're back to 1920's varminting.

Don't rule out paper patching. It's more work, but velocities of 3K or so are not unreasonable. This will extend your range a little more, and give a little more flexibility on alloy hardness to give the results you want.

[Marlin Junky]

I'm on board with the paper wrapping idea... now I just need to pick a caliber and rifle. Is my 4-groove Pre-64 '06 a candidate? It is pretty clunky and has never shot grooved boolits worth a darn past 2K fps. What about an Encore or even a .2-something barrel for my Handi-Rifle?

MJ

[yondering]

I'm on board with the paper wrapping idea... now I just need to pick a caliber and rifle. Is my 4-groove Pre-64 '06 a candidate? It is pretty clunky and has never shot grooved boolits worth a darn past 2K fps. What about an Encore or even a .2-something barrel for my Handi-Rifle?

MJ

One thing about paper patching; bigger boolits are a lot easier than little ones. I've found the .30 cals to be pretty easy to work with. All depends on your fingers I guess? That '06 might be worth a try.

[Marlin Junky]

One thing about paper patching; bigger boolits are a lot easier than little ones. I've found the .30 cals to be pretty easy to work with. All depends on your fingers I guess? That '06 might be worth a try.

I think I'd like to look into something a bit lighter, faster, handier and more accurate.

MJ

[MT Gianni]

Get a good call and they will come in.

[Marlin Junky]

Get a good call and they will come in.

Yeah, your right. A couple of calls, a decoy and a Marlin 336 is probably all I need.

MJ

[Bullshop Junior]

Lets see......I use my Marlin 357 with cast, my Stevens 7mm/08 with cast, and my 10" T/C Contender 22 Hornet with cast and swaged.

[StarMetal]

Lets see......I use my Marlin 357 with cast, my Stevens 7mm/08 with cast, and my 10" T/C Contender 22 Hornet with cast and swaged.

BSJr,

What velocity you getting out of your 7mm-08 with cast? I shoot the Lee 135 grain to 2700 fps and get 3/4 inch groups out of my Sako. I haven't shot anything with that load as of yet, but mighty curious what it will do to a groundhog.

Joe

[Bullshop]

Hi Joe
We don't have ground hogs like you do. Our ground hogs come in two varieties brown and black. The browns generally are bigger than the blacks but the blacks can get big too.
When ground hog hunting we prefer to use a bigger caliber than 7mm. Acceptable calibers start at 35 preferably 40 cal. Favorite calibers are 45 and 50. Preferred rifles are iron sighted lever action. My most preferred ground hog gun is an 1886 Win 50/2.2" with 26" barrel and full length mag tube.
My GH load has a 510gn custom WFN at 1750 fps. Those numbers are not all that impressive as numbers go but the few recipients of them have been overwhelmingly impressed.
We eat all GH we take and use hide and fat also. I enjoy GH hunting more than any other species because you never know until its over just who is hunting who.
BIC/BS

[Crash_Corrigan]

My favorite critter killer is a 6.5 x 55 MM Sweede. Using a 140 GR Nosler J-word bullet over 4064 powder I am getting 1/2" groups at 100 and it drops about 8 inches at 300 if set for POA at 200 yds.

Ditto on the windage but the long 140 gr. 6.5 pill rides the wind pretty good and keeps a lot of energy even way out there. The nice part is that the recoil is so light that you may be able to get off a second shot if the quarry hangs out a mite.

I would like to try out this rig on an Alaskan GH at 300 yards with Dan Conglosi next to me with his Winchester 50 as my close in backup. I wonder if a little pill could take a GH?

[Bullshop]

I read about a Norwegian ship captain that took his ship over the top.
Said he shot lots of the white ground hogs with his 6.5 Swede and I think his was on a Krag Jorgensen action.
Bet you could get the job done on the brown and black types with yours too.
I would be happy to back you up too. The most invigorating thing I have ever done is to go into the thickets to fetch out someones wounded GH. I won but it was close.
BIC/BS

[geargnasher]

My favorite critter killer is a 6.5 x 55 MM Sweede. Using a 140 GR Nosler J-word bullet over 4064 powder I am getting 1/2" groups at 100 and it drops about 8 inches at 300 if set for POA at 200 yds.

Ditto on the windage but the long 140 gr. 6.5 pill rides the wind pretty good and keeps a lot of energy even way out there. The nice part is that the recoil is so light that you may be able to get off a second shot if the quarry hangs out a mite.

I would like to try out this rig on an Alaskan GH at 300 yards with Dan Conglosi next to me with his Winchester 50 as my close in backup. I wonder if a little pill could take a GH?

My favorite critter gun, too. I use Sierra 142 gr. Matchking HPBT with 4831 loaded to about 2660 fps out of my Sporterized Karlina, I have taken anything coyote-sized and under out to 500 yards (longest range I have confidence in drop rate) very reliably.

Buuuuut, unfortunately it's not using real boolits.

Gear

[Marlin Junky]

If it's at all possible, I'd like to find out more about Pb alloy boolits that can be driven at high speed and taught to expand on relatively light resistance. How hard is it to HP a small bore boolit? Sorry, but I really don't care about those copper clad 'uns.

MJ

[Bullshop]

Buckshot will HP a mold for a very reasonable price. If you have one to spare give that a try. Casting is slowed a bit but I think its easier than trying to HP after the fact.
For really high velocity expanding boolits I think soft pointing is a better way to go.
With HP'ing you will want them pretty hard to get the high velocity and the hardness then interfere with the HP opening.
I have been seeing on another thread here about using brittle alloys that will shatter on impact. Could work OK but I think will not perform as consistently as a soft nose boolit.
Just one way to find out and it will cost you primers, powder and time.
Oh yea almost forgot theres also paper patching as another means to your end. Lots of good stuff going on with that you can read about here.