Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Frangible Coyote Bullet

With a local guy just having been shot and killed in his truck, very possibly by a stray bullet or deflected bullet.....

My buddy is more concerned wiht yotes but with bullets... typically uses his 22 if possible, but 200 plus yards at times rules that out.

Has a 223 AR... what should I load him for reduced chances of issues after the hit or miss....

I"ve heard 60 vmax that they don't make this year.. are good, wondered about lighter ones..

7.7 twist IIRC... FWIW

BTW I have a load of 60 sierra flat base HPs for practice bullets.. has the bigger HP cavity... in case thats applicable to the solution.

Not really looking to pay for the prefragmented powdered dust bullets, but if thats the best option...

Jeff, if factory ammo is an option these guys load the 60VMAX.

I shoot their pistol ammo and have never had a problem. Good people to do business with.

http://www.atlantaarmsandammo.com

50 gr V-MAX is a Coyote killing bullet

Atlanta loads some good stuff. Don't know that we'll go that route but I was not aware they did that bullet.

For both the 60 and 50....once they hit they are basically done?

Jeff

FWIW I have a passle of 69s and 75s bthp and run them anytime I need a deer, pig, yote etc.... but we are worried about deflections after the shot, other houses around, oil well, pipelines etc.... Nothing really within say 300 -400 yards downrange after the shot, but then after that depending....you can always shoot in a "safe" direction, but deflections or richochets after the fact.... wow, will tracers at night ever get your attention.

In order to really minimize ricochet you need to choose a lighter bullet and step on the gas. We went through something similar shooting coyotes around calving cattle. The 40 gr NBT works pretty well but nothing that kills reliably disintegrates reliably in 223 anyway. The 50 gr NBT ain't bad either but neither are like a 17 Rem or 204 Ruger.

Thats what I was wondering.. I've never owned a 40ish grain bullet.

Not much on the smaller rounds, but that may be worth thinking of for his situaiton.

Anyone run the Barnes powdered whatevers? Maybe thats what I have to look at.

As far as killing reliably, its open crop fields on a river bottom, with brushy fencelines and such. Not really a big deal, prefer a quick clean kill right there, but no loss if they run off to die either.

Cuzz ran some varmint grenades in his 17 rem or maybe it was his 223ai, both are identical AR's, anyway he lost a couple of coyotes before deciding there's better bullets out there.

Of course, you could try crimping a 77 SMK, they really do break in half and rarely exit a coyote but when they do, they take a lot of coyote with them.

I've never shot them through an AR but the Speer 52 grain hollow points might be worth a try.

The 50 NBT is a coyote killer as well.

Flying ashtray...pdogs are red mist with those out of a 222

I run 55 grn Nos Bal tips

Thats funny, thats what we call barnes pistol bullets in the 50 beowulf and barnes in the MZ bullets without tips....

I now recall that I had/have part box of said bullets and yes the HP is big...

I shot a boat load of coyotes with the 40 and 50 grain Vmax and really liked them. I dont think I have ever gotten an exit and I would guess 90% are DRT with a solid chest hit. Every once in a while you would see one blow up on contact and leave a big splash for an entrance round and trash the hide. I cant recall ever getting a solid hit and seeing one run off. I do keep it 300 yards and under with the light stuff, they seem to drift real bad in the wind.

Regarding the Barnes Varmint grenade...I hated them. When I had to go lead free in some areas I tried them and they were horribly inconsistent, lots of failures to expand on coyotes and squirrels with a complete punch through and no sign of breaking up. Accuracy was also horribile, 2moa. A conventional HP will be much more consistent.

I think I have done a couple hundred coyotes with the vmax and will reach for them again. The barnes lasted about 15 yotes and I had seen enough to reach for something else.

Now..wonder if they are making the 40/50 vmax... gotta see how many speer I might have though...

I've killed lots of coyotes with the 40g Ballistic Tip and V-MAX bullets and my .22-250. They go "poof" and coyotes die. I've also killed quite a few with 52g Speer Match HP bullets. With them I've heard a couple ricochets, but they are not designed to expand as quickly. When the Speer HP's are gone I have 50g V-MAX ready to go. The 50g V-MAX are also what I will be loading for my .223 and 5.56.

As a result I am very interested in what others have experienced with the 50g V-MAX.

I've used both 50gr. & 55gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips in the .223 for Coyotes.

With the 50gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips I do not remember ever one exiting a Coyote.

With the 55gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips most have exited. However 2 weeks ago I shot one through the shoulder at 343 yards from my 16" AR and there was no exit.

However in my 1 in 9" Twist AR the 55's shoot better than the 50's.

Larry

eh 76, they are simply amazing in a Swift at 3800 fps also. Magnum Man

The Hornady SX really is super explosive. I've had them come apart in flight. Not sure if it was always for the same reason but out of a fast twist .223 they wouldn't make it to the paper. From a slow twist .223 they worked great. The .22-250 I had at the time was slow twist and if I loaded them fast they came apart.

Another one I've had similar results with was a Blitz. I didn't use either of these for long. I switched to the previously mentioned Speer 52gr HP.

Since I've used many, BT,Vmax, Nosler new lead free, and even some Varminator(?). Only the Varminator ones have been richochet free so far. Heavy Nosler BT will go through a deer.

Exactly the reason I want fast fragile bullets in my big .22's.. In this dry dusty country, it is often easy to see what happens to a bullet when you miss.. So far the 50 grain Vmax and Blitzking have been excellent, and great coyote killers.. If you are calling they are outstanding.. As is the old 52 grain Speer hollow point.. Before the advent of the plastic tipped bullets, I used the 52 grain HP a great deal for everything from gophers up.. On a coyote they just wilted.. I shot them in everything from my .222 though the .22-250AI.. They were killers in all calibers.. The 50 grain Vmax and Blitzking are similar.. One experience with the 60 grain Vmax that I remember clearly happened several years ago.. My hunting pal had them loaded in his .22-250.. We spotted a big coyote standing at the edge of an aspen patch, only 125-150 yards away.. My pal had the shot.. It was a perfect hit right behind the shoulder.. In one of those freak things, I saw the hair fluff when the bullet hit the coyote.. It ran, but I told him not to worry it was dead, I saw the hair fluff behind the shoulder.. We hunted for an hour and never did find that coyote.. I can only assume the bullet didn't expand.. The spot where it was standing was easy to locate.. But no dog.. For all of my coyote hunting with .22's the last few years I have used either the Vmax or Blitzking 50 gr. I have used the 40 grain Vmax, but haven't killed many dogs with them.. When I did hit one, they performed fine.. But for me, the 50 grainers are perfect..

If ricochets were what worried me, I'd be running the Nosler BT Lead-free versions. I've heard much better reports of them than the Barnes Grenades.