Originally Posted by moosemike
Pat, have you suffered any failures that you feel were from using too light of a caliber?


I played around with some 40gr AMAX bullets for coyotes in my .220AI for awhile. I was getting 4300fps with a good dose of 4064, in a 26" Hart 1-14".

I'd called in a pair of coyotes and got a facing shot on the old male at about 125 yards. I fired and he dropped instantly. I swung over on the female and killed her with a running shot behind the shoulder.

When I went out to recover them, the male was gone. There was hair, and chunks of meat where he took the hit. I looked up the coulee and saw him sitting in a patch of sagebrush still alive. I dispatched him right there. The first bullet
exploded on the heavy shoulder muscle, leaving a good sized crater, but never got inside the cavity. After that, I went back to 55gr class bullets. I'd taken about 75 coyotes with that load up until then, without any issues.

Luck....is the residue of design...
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