Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Best gun for the task

Coyote don't have 30" vitals. Ten pellets in 30" is way too wide a pattern to be useful. You need 4 - 5 of those pellets in the vitals to consistently anchor coyotes. Let's be generous and allow a little wiggle room and say an 8" - 10" vital area. Each individual pellet must be capable of penetrating fur, hide, muscle and possibly breaking bones to reach heart, lungs, brain and breaking vertebrae. I always hear of these magic shotguns, but I know from long experience it's a rare shotgun, choke and load that can consistently kill coyote at 60+ yards. Especially considering anything other than a directly head on or broadside coyote. Quartering away or straight away is very tough to get a lead pellet into the vitals at long ranges. Tungsten and TSS can do it. IF you can hold a pattern together well enough at extended ranges. And despite internet chit chat that's a bunch tougher to do than most want to admit.

Yep...

Whatever you say chief, I probably only kill 15 or 20 a year on accident, what do I know. Sumbeotch probably won't kill one at 10 yards.

I ain't guessing about killing coyote with shotguns. I'll give you a clue, you can fool the fans, but not the players. Have a good evening.

Turkey loads out of our turkey guns do just fine. I've flipped a couple at 40 yards. However, I was thinking something smaller than a turkey shotgun for this purpose. When we see coyote or feral dog, it is usually when we're out doing something else.

BTW: The dog control officer used a 12 GA 2X6 Duplex Turkey Load for dog control. He got a reputation for using Kentucky Troopers as bait to get the mean ones out from under trailers. For close-in, he had a Kimber 1911 in 45 ACP.

I'm glad that a lot of you concur that it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, so long as it's larger than 22 LR. That means we can pretty well exercise the whole inventory.

Didn't like what I posted.
Won't let me delete.
Won't let me erase it, so I have to put something here

Ive bumped off several stray dogs with 9mm hollowpoints , and I was not impressed..........


so for myself , if looking for canine protection from a handgun , I would prefer something of larger caliber

Yep, minimum for dogs is a 454 Casull, preferably a S&W 500.

What hollow points were you using?

I recall them being 115 gr Silvertip, factory loads

9mm not impressive, but the 22 magnum is the bees knees! The internet.

Go to a dictionary and look up the word sarcasm.

to each their own , but I would not depend on any sort of 22 out of a handgun either

The internet

Look, under normal circumstances, I would not be trying to "hunt" anything with a 9mm. 22LR and 22 Magnum I have respect for, but I'm probably not going to use either. I've shot game with 22 LR, and it does a fine job on groundhogs at 40 yards. If I'm out hunting squirrel, and I see a yote. I'll not hesitate to shoot. However, I've got better on the rack for this purpose. 22 WMR is a round I've never warmed up to. The per-round cost and the fact I can't reload it make it less desirable to me. I've actually got a 22 WRF that would work, but again, the ammo cost is ridiculous. No, If I'm grabbing something off the rack to carry to the back of the property, and I'm in a 22 caliber mood, I'll take the Mini-14. I started this thread for handgun ideas, and I've gotten good ones. My instincts were right: my double-stack 9mm's are about all I need to think about, and nearly anything goes if I have a mind to do so.

The ROE of this situation are not about coming home with a trophy. Job #1 here is keeping the people safe. If that means putting an ill-placed round into a canine, or missing entirely, but making enough noise for a pack to cease and desist, I'm all for it. Any way it turns out, the only winners in this are going to be crows and vultures.

#4 turkey loads are not ideal for taking coyotes, but we've flipped a few with our turkey guns. Half the time, they run off and the vultures let you know that you've done your job. Other things that work are 165 grain 30-06 and 50 caliber R.E.A.L pure lead cast.

Thanks all for the input.

I've killed a couple of coyotes with broadside heart-lung shots using an old Single Six loaded with 40 grain solids. They ran 40 yards or so and fall over like somebody pulled their coil wire. Killed another one, running away at an angle, about 70 yards with a 40 Sigma loaded with UMC flat point FMJ. That bullet took him through the last couple of ribs on one side and exited behind the shoulder on the other. That one spun in a circle 3-4 times and fell over.

Spent a long time in LE handling vicious dog calls and serving warrants; several times during the latter, dopers and other [bleep] would let one or more big bad dogs out on us. If a 100 pound dog is flat coming after you, you are trying to punch through through the heavily muscled head, neck, shoulders & teeth to break them down. They'll come in low and fast. The 40 applied liberally with tough bullets will do it. 00 buck would be my first choice.

I would assume the the 357 Sig would be the cats meow too.

When I lived out in the country I had to get rid of dumped dogs. A few were just mean but most were sick and I didn't have the money to send them all to the vet. S S S. Thanks for your service SargeMO. Shaman good luck with your difficulty. I think if you get as many as you can the rest will find another county to reside in. Always good to give the buzzards a snack. The countryside would be different without them. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Golden marl. or whatever it's called the fly killer stuff mixed with cat or dog food will work too. Also, fry up some sponges in bacon grease. They will go somewhere else and die.

Lead shot turkey loads do pretty well out to about 25-30 yards from a tight shooting shotgun. Shoot them in the head and be ready to shoot them again if necessary. Tungsten, TSS, ect. extends the range and effectiveness of small shot over similar size lead pellets. Always be ready to shoot them again when using a shotgun. For recreational coyote hunting turkey loads aren't optimal because they don't consistently anchor coyote, especially as the range stretches out, making recovery difficult. And yes I get it, the OP isn't sport hunting and doesn't care.