Extremely quiet 06 load for 100ft kills?

[LAKEMASTER]

I'm heading to a families ranch where he has a lot of issues with several varmint.

Long story short, if I wanted to take out raccoons, possums, coyotes within 75 to 100 ft, what would you recommend?

I've never loaded low stuff like this. I know the biggest issue will be noise.

Can anyone suggest a bullet weight ? I only have 165 gr ranch dog rounds

[LAKEMASTER]

I was told most off the shooting is 50ft

[nagantguy]

unique and bullseye have both worked well for me from 30-30 and several nagants. look.up mouse farther and cat sneeze loads tons of martial on the subject. I'm actually wining out a pinker pest type killer for a sporterized Mauser starting at 10 grains of unique.

[LAKEMASTER]

I shoot 10 gr unique for killing water bottles. I'm expecting there to be some interesting info for this situation

[runfiverun]

bulls-eye or red-dot or 700-x at 8grs and a soft boolit, that will park them where they are.
you'll be right below the crack sound at that point [1100 fps] and your trajectory will be about 22 lr like, only with a whomp at the other end.
if you want more quiet drop the powder a bit more.
titegroup at 6 grs to start will get you there too and it isn't even a little bit position sensitive.

if you were closer I'd loan you my 300 BO.
3.5grs of 700-x and the LEE 230 is minute of raccoon head [okay rock chuck head] at 50 yds and super quiet, I usually shoot it without ear plugs.
I wish I had a muffler for it, it would be better than movie silencer quiet.

[hutch18414]

I have been using 4grs of Bullseye with the Lee 170 gr FN. Reasonably quiet in the longer barreled 06 and a little louder from the Win 94. And both a almost pin point accurate at 25 yds.

[Travelor]

I read your question, but I would think you would be better served with a 22LR with standard velocity ammo.

[richhodg66]

I read your question, but I would think you would be better served with a 22LR with standard velocity ammo.

Or some of the even quieter CB cap loadings for .22s. With a long barreled rifle, the striker dropping is the loudest part of shooting one. If you're only talking 50 feet, these would work great.

[Electric88]

bulls-eye or red-dot or 700-x at 8grs and a soft boolit, that will park them where they are.
you'll be right below the crack sound at that point [1100 fps] and your trajectory will be about 22 lr like, only with a whomp at the other end.
if you want more quiet drop the powder a bit more.
titegroup at 6 grs to start will get you there too and it isn't even a little bit position sensitive.

if you were closer I'd loan you my 300 BO.
3.5grs of 700-x and the LEE 230 is minute of raccoon head [okay rock chuck head] at 50 yds and super quiet, I usually shoot it without ear plugs.
I wish I had a muffler for it, it would be better than movie silencer quiet.

Is your 300 BO an AR or bolt?

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Or some of the even quieter CB cap loadings for .22s. With a long barreled rifle, the striker dropping is the loudest part of shooting one. If you're only talking 50 feet, these would work great.

That is true for very small varmints - so true that the OP would probably be using a .22 if he had one. But he is talking raccoons upwards, and Aguila, at least, warn that their CB equivalent, in a Long Rifle case, is for handguns only, as the bullet may lodge in a rifle. It doesn't take much to produce a ring bulge. Checking that you had a trajectory for every shot would prevent that, but you don't want to mess around with a cleaning rod while the varmints are making rude gestures and calling their friends.

The fast powders people are suggesting are fine. Don't go for light loads of a slow powder, as that can produce a pressure wave. The chances are a bit against its being dangerous with a light load - if "a bit against" is good enough - but it can ring a chamber. I'd go for a lighter bullet, say 100 to 125gr. I found that 247gr. .330in. bullets in the 8x60R Portuguese worked fine at 1700ft/.sec, but tumbled when downloaded to about 1300. You don't necessarily lose much by using them. My .300H&H was throated for 190gr. bullets, but it was contrary enough to give fairly consistently give its best groups, 1⅛in. at 200 yards, with 125gr. spire point Sierras. You would save the sonic crack and a bit of trouble and expense, with no real disadvantage in your application, by keeping velocity low enough for plain base bullets.

[BrentD]

How can someone not have a .22? Subsonic hollowpoints would be ideal for the intended purpose. This sounds like a GREAT reason to go out and buy a .22. Everyone should have one or maybe a dozen!

[richhodg66]

FWIW, a .32 wadcutter revolver bullet and five grains of Bullseye in a .30-30 single shot was one ragged hole accurate at 25 yards and pretty quiet. I'd imagine just about any .30 caliber would be the same and terminal performance would be good on critters you're going after.

[LAKEMASTER]

So, would it be wise to get a lighter bullet. Like, 100gr or the lightest I can find?

I'd love to take a 22 but I don't have one sitting around to use.

I guess they tried the subsonic 22 rounds and killed nothing. They hate the pests enough to try to control them but they've been hunters all their lives, so, they aren't cruel...

They have 30 cal air guns with night vision/red light systems on them. Their guns push 450 to 550 fps, (apparently) I know nothing about the air gun world

[BrentD]

If they couldn't kill stuff with subsonic .22s, they haven't a friggin' clue what they are doing. It is all I use in my .22s and they kill everything that I ask them too. Coons are no problem.

Why folks feel the need to kill everything out there is beyond me. Sounds like they need to move to an apartment complex or something.

[richhodg66]

Since getting a place out in the country, I've kind of adopted that mentality. Coyotes get shot at if I have anything in my hands that shoots. Didn't start that way, but coons are now on that list as well. However, we have rabbits all over the place. Wife enjoys watching them, I don't care for eating them, they don't seem to be causing a problem, so they get left alone. Besides, if they're around, maybe the coyotes will chase them instead of my cat.

I did some reading up on possums, seems they are highly resistant to rabies, oddly. They also eat ticks, which I hate and they're so docile and dumb they leave the pets alone so I generally leave them be now. Some kind of rodents ate up the wiring in her car once, but it hasn't happened since the tomcat adopted us and has been hanging around.

Now, I don't grow things or raise stock for a living either. I might have a different mentality if I did.

[RU shooter]

So, would it be wise to get a lighter bullet. Like, 100gr or the lightest I can find?

I'd love to take a 22 but I don't have one sitting around to use.

I guess they tried the subsonic 22 rounds and killed nothing. They hate the pests enough to try to control them but they've been hunters all their lives, so, they aren't cruel...

They have 30 cal air guns with night vision/red light systems on them. Their guns push 450 to 550 fps, (apparently) I know nothing about the air gun world

you don't really need a super light bullet they won't make it anymore quiet . But if your wanting to kill the vermin/pests use a bullet with a decent flat nose on it in the 150-180 gr range if all you have is round nose styles just file a nice wide flat point on it they will shoot just fine . As for a load for said bullet a real quiet use Bullseye is the 3-4 grain range . I've dropped down to 2.5 gr in a 24 inch barrel and was super quiet but just a .5 gr less it wouldn't exit the barrel . The 3-4 gr will sound like a 22 without having the sonic crack . Even that slow moving bullet has plenty of energy to shoot through and through a large coon or ground hog so be careful what's behind your target

[Thumbcocker]

Do a search for Paco Kelly and silent loads. He used a heavy boolit cast of pure lead with tiny charges of very fast powder (1.5 -2 grains?). He reported almost no report because the powder burned in the barrel and essentially silenced the gun. Never tried it myself but the theory makes sense. He did say you would stick a few boolits before you got the charge worked out.

[runfiverun]

my 300 is a bolt gun [as is the wife's] I run 7 twist barrels, the load I quoted above is marginal in an 8 twist.
I'd bump it up to 4 grs of the 700-x or red-dot for an 8 twist and probably drop back to a 200gr boolit for best results [stability]

the 165 gr ranch dog is a fine hunting boolit.
one thing that could help is to 'wet up' your lube a little or to add some graphite to the alox or tumble lube your using.
the extra bore coverage seems to help the boolit keep moving on the lower end of things.

your looking for a balance between stability and speed, just enough of one to have the other.
removing friction as much as possible will help you get there.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

my 300 is a bolt gun [as is the wife's] I run 7 twist barrels, the load I quoted above is marginal in an 8 twist.
I'd bump it up to 4 grs of the 700-x or red-dot for an 8 twist and probably drop back to a 200gr boolit for best results [stability]

the 165 gr ranch dog is a fine hunting boolit.
one thing that could help is to 'wet up' your lube a little or to add some graphite to the alox or tumble lube your using.
the extra bore coverage seems to help the boolit keep moving on the lower end of things.

your looking for a balance between stability and speed, just enough of one to have the other.
removing friction as much as possible will help you get there.

That sounds fine, and using a softer lube than you would for higher velocities is good advice. But most .30 rifles owned for other purposes will have a 10in. twist at least, and for that you would probably need either higher velocity or a shorter bullet.

[Outpost75]

Refer to the web site: http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

4 grains of Bullseye is the lightest charge in which a 170-grain cast bullet will reliably exit a .30-'06 barrel, about 700 fps.

Accuracy will be better with 5 grains of Bullseye, about 870 fps. Still fairly quiet.

Heavier charges up to 9 grains can be safely used, but will be VERY much louder.

Data is on the site for using other powders. Keep velocity under 900 fps for lowest noise.

30-06 Springfield 170gr RNFPbb PR: WLR CM: Win TempF: 52 OAL: 2.980" PT PW Vel SD GS Bullseye 5.0 878 8.8 1.05 6.0 1004 9.3 2.3 7.0 1119 8.6 2.0 8.0 1217 7.6 2.0 9.0 1327 5.6 1.56