Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Varmageddon performance

I'm considering loading 50 gr tipped Varmageddon's for my 223's.
How will they perform on larger targets (coyote - sized)?

My guess is they will die just fine. Coyotes are thin skinned.

Yeah, they are not armor plated. I saw a guy kill one at 125 yards with a 22mag through the chest. It didn't bang flop but it didn't go far.

mark shubert,

Would a 50 gr tipped Varmageddon from a .223 act like an 55 grain a-max at 4,000 feet per second from a wildcat? It was very destructive to the coyote.

It you want to paint the prairie with them, they would work great.

If you are hunting for hides, go heavier and slower.

This about sums it up as well as it could be said.

I'm new to all of this. Can you explain why. Thanks in advance. I do appreciate it.

Thing about it. These bullets were made to turn prairie dogs inside out, and flip them 3 feet into the air.....which they do very nicely. Hit a Coyote with one of these at full speed and you will get a .224 hole going in, and the back side will completely disappear.

Last Coyote I killed was while P-dog hunting with a 52gr Sierra Match King. He came in to grab one of the dead p-dogs about 50 yards in front of me. It was a quartering shot to the shoulder. He dropped to the shot, spilling guts, blood, intestines, and fur all over the prairie.

Now magnify that for the even thinner skinned V-geddon. All that would be left is the head, feet, a mist of blood and a cloud of fur.

If you want the hides, you should try the "Ingwe Load":

60gr NBT, slowed down to about 2700, powered with IMR 4895. Less stress on the bullet equals less stress on the hide.

Is it called the Ingwe load because it is so slow?

That would be correct!.......








Lemme see, I have a lighter here somewhere....

antelope_sniper,



The one I killed had guts coming out both sides. I was jack rabbit hunting to practice running shots. If you found a foot from a jack rabbit you were lucky.

Mark,

I think you'd be disappointed in the long run.

I tested some ammo with bullets like those for a major ammo company I have been involved with for several years.

It'll kill coyotes, and there will be bullet splashes. Slowing down the bullet helps somewhat, but in the end, you'll have coyotes run off with a chunk blown out of them, that would be DRT with something like a 55 or 60gr V-Max.

Shoulder shots with frangible bullets like Varmageddon are not optimal.

rockinbbar,

Think they'd be okay for Fox and Bobcat out of the Hornet or still too destructive?

Naa,

That's because it's low stress.........and his idea.

40 gr V-Max for the hornet will do the job.

They make a WHOLE jackrabbit disappear? I've never seen destruction like that.

We even found more left from squirrels Carolyn shot with a 378 wtby that time, not a lot more but more.

I may have to load some up just to have in case I need to make something disappear.

Mark,

If you are shooting a bolt action 223... you know someone right here that can fill you with all the load data you wanna digest to accomplish what Scott is saying, but doing it with a bolt 223...

Every bullet has a performance envelope... and that can change for specific quarry and desired results....

the key is to have your bullet leaving the barrel within those parameters to accomplish what you need to or desire to...

I had a 25-06 loaded hot (around 3700fps w/ light, hollow points) that would pretty much make a jack rabbit disappear. They did indeed make turtles sunning on a log disappear.

Just smallish chunks hitting the water as they fell back to earth.

It sure wasn't fur-friendly though.

Words of wisdom from the man who really knows how to get the most out of a 223 with the least. I have shot some of Johns light 223 loads and they are what dreams are made of.

I've shot rock chucks with my 22-250 with 55gr Varmageddon's. It looked like water balloons exploding. There's just not much left.