JLH208
WKR
#1
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He had no regard for your safe space lolLast day of deer season was today. This male should have give me more space.
That female without legs is crazy. Toughest critter I've seen.
Got on the board this morning with one I snuck up on. I saw it feeding on a carcass and slipped up on it. It's muzzle is almost black from the dirt and blood on the carcass. I am experimenting with the 69gr Berger out of my Sako 243 after reading some good reviews about it on fur. It did a great job on this one at 114yds, never exited and the entrance was hard to find. Shot it broadside. The bullet has a muzzle velocity of 3377fps from my 22" barrel.
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I actually field tested the 87gr Berger for them before they released it and wasn't as impressed on coyotes. They might have improved it before it hit the market. It did exactly what a Berger hunting bullet is designed to do, it penetrated 2-3" before beginning it's big expansion. That was getting pretty deep into a broadside coyote. I had coyotes at longer ranges, mostly past 175yds, run a bit more than I liked after the shot. It did a perfect job on the 3 deer we shot while testing it though and shot really well from my rifle. I cut and pasted this from the results I sent to Berger I have saved. It was a pretty small sample size I got during their testing time period, only 3 coyotes. It killed them all so it didn't fail, it just didn't drop them quite as fast as I like. I was testing it in a custom 243 win with a 20" bull barrel.
Varmint performance:
I shot a coyote with the 87gr Berger at 230yds. He ran 140yds after the shot before going down. The entrance wound was caliber size and the exit wound only slightly larger. It was a small coyote, probably less than a year old. Pelt damage was minimal, but I was a little disappointed with how far he traveled. I've had similar results from the 95gr berger in the past at ranges over 175yds with the lower velocity from my short barrel. I can't fault the bullet for this, they are designed for big game not varmints and their delayed expansion works great on animals with a deeper chest cavity to expend energy in.
The next coyote was shot at 225 yds and the bullet entered behind the onside shoulder, quartered through the coyote, and exited behind in front of the offside hindquarter. The coyote stayed on his feet for 15-20 seconds spinning and biting at the wound before dropping, and covered 35yds. The exit wound was 1” according to the ruler on my Leatherman.
The last coyote was at 412yds and I hit him to far back, at the very back of the lungs. He ran over a hill. I recovered him but was unable to find the exact location I shot him from, he probably covered 150yds after the shot. The exit wound matched the earlier ones.
As stated earlier, I think this is an excellent deer bullet but I would prefer a little more expansion and shock for coyotes. I’d love to see a 87gr VLD varmint bullet with the same BC and flight characteristics as this one. That would let a shooter fit the bullet to the use he planned for it. That would also probably lead to people using the varmint bullet for larger game it wasn’t designed for and cause problems. I’ll let smarter people than me figure that one out.
I shot 25 rounds over the chronograph with an average velocity of 3013fps. The slowest was 2942fps and the fastest was 3074fps. Most stayed within 25fps of the average, and the fastest loads were fired while waiting for wind to drop with a round in a warm chamber.
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It that the Ruger American Ranch rifle and tall Swagger bipod? I have actually looked at buying both.
I have a Mossberg MVP Predator I'd like to replace with the new American that takes the AR mags. What bullets do you use from your Ruger on coyotes?
I have also thought about getting a Swagger to try on my custom 243. Thanks.
Mcseal2, yes Ruger American Ranch in 5.56 I’m shooting the Hornady 53 grain Superformance .223 factory loads, and I believe the swagger is the shorter model actually. That picture is full extension of legs, I scored on the first gen they had on camofire! It’s been a sweet setup, just waiting on the suppressor now.
Edit: my only complaint is that these Rugers don’t have a bolt lock! But not a huge deal
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3 for today
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