30 caliber coyote rifle

BOW you have not repiled i am replying to MUD- ) MUD- it was a 25-06 SF. it shoots real good it has an 8.5 -25 leup on it because of some scope jockying. i have used in f-class matches plus . i bagged my second futhest coyote and three coues with it. the .257 accumark i consider one of the top contenders for coues along with a .264 sendero which is not made any more . coues live in very rough country , most shot are long to very long so a heavier gun is an advantage shooting just not to carry.

Gotcha....Never hunted anything up north before. Just everyting that lives down here in Alabama. I would like to go hunting Caribou, Elk, Moose, Polar Bears, Grizzly's.....etc...

Yeah, the .257 Wby is great for thin-skinned game even out to 1K, but when I have bigger "hammers" on my workbench, suited for the task at hand...Why not take the more humane route, ya know?

I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a whitetail out to 750 with the 110 Accubonds or 115 Berger VLD's.

I have talked to Ryan @ Berger several times about possibly looking into a 130gr VLD for the .257 calibers. I think it would honestly be a game-changer and a BC monster. Not sure how a 130 VLD would handle out of the 1:10 Krieger (factory Accumark barrel) on my Weatherby, but I would love to find out!

I honestly believe that a 130gr .257 VLD would be the next revolution for 1/4 bore calibers, and you would see alot more people choosing .257 calibers for deer, antelope, & caribou sized game. With the added weight, it would buck the wind better, have higher BC, and I wouldn't hesitate to take it on out to 1,000 yards for shooting deer sized game, once pushed into a large .257 magnum case, such as the .257 Wby, or .257 STW.

I get the .300 magnum coyote rifle. It confuses me adding "lightweight bullets" into the mix. If you want bullets in the 100-120 grain range the .25 caliber is where in my mind you want to be. The .257 Weatherby remains the king of the .25's. We get into conversations about suitable elk cartridges, but I haven't seen any one claim the .257 Weatherby wasn't enough for coyotes at any range. If you want a 300 magnum cool!. If you're looking for something else to use it on great. Look up some of Broz's old threads on extreme coyote shooting with the .300's plenty of good info, and pictures.

"use enough gun" . it will be a combo elk- deer- coyote rifle.

roninflag said:

"use enough gun" . it will be a combo elk- deer- coyote rifle.

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In that case, a 7mm STW, 300 WM, 7mm-300 WM, or something of that nature might be his best bet.

I still think it better to have a designated rifle for each. B/c the twist rate to handle the larger heavy bullets will suck for spinning the lightweight bullets for coyotes, and vice-versa. It's hard to find a good middle-ground with twist rates.

MUD - i have never hunted any of the big stuff up nmorth either. i can tell you coues are dinks . the 6.5-284 is plenty. they are bigger than coyotes though .

westcliffe01 said:

If you want to shoot a 110gr bullet fast, then shoot it out a 6 or 6.5mm barrel.

If you try to shoot the same weight bullet out a 7.62 barrel, you just increased the drag through the cross sectional area and then still more because the bullet is so squat shaped (to keep the weight down) as opposed to a 110VLD.

You can do what you like, but ballistically it will be a poorly performing combo.

As you go up in bore size, the bullet weight and amount of powder needed to try to mimic the same trajectory go up drastically. Basically, you need to be in magnum territory shooting 165gr+ weight bullets to be effective. Cost increases drastically for everything (brass bullets powder).

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westcliffe01,
You have made some very valid points and I appreciate it. In this part of Ohio it's flatter than a road killed squirrel, so getting high speed and good fragmentation is important. I'm seriously leaning toward another Savage in .22-250.

I sold my last Savage 22-250, to a Marine Corps friend of mine, to purchase a Rock River Arms A4. The A4 was very accurate, but lacked the killing power of the Savage.

I appreciate all of the replies, so far.
Thank you, Bowhunter57

Killing coyotes doesn't require fragmentation. Unless you order a custom barrel, you are going to have a hard time shooting 80gr bullets that are made in that caliber and which are needed to stretch out the range if there is any wind blowing.

I spent $285 and bought a used Savage 270 Win, then $350 for a 6.5x284 barrel, another $50 for a precision barrel nut and recoil lug, $160 on a hogue stock, that gets us to $845 for a custom rifle. Add $95 for a steel 20moa scope base and $850 for a Viper 6x24 FFP scope and the whole deal is under $1800. No custom gunsmithing either, thus no delay except for waiting on the barrel.

I have Berger 140's and I'm sure it will kill a coyote just fine even at 1200 yards...

MudRunner2005 said:

Why would you want a .308 caliber to shoot coyotes with when there are much more efficient smaller calibers to do so...

The list goes on. Yotes aren't hard to kill with smaller bullets.

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MudRunner2005,
You make a valid point and your list of smaller calibers is just as impressive. In this part of Ohio, it's flatter than a road killed squirrel, so good bullet fragmentation is important to avoid skips and ricochets.

The last 22-250 that I owned, I shot a 55gr. V-Max at 3855 f.p.s. and it was extremely accurate. That bullet would fragment on a milkweed stem and I never witnessed it skipping after hitting a varmint.

If I decided to get a little more speed out of a 22-250, I could always have it made into an A.I.

Bowhunter57

If I were you, I'd look into a .257 Roberts AI, if you want a short-action. If you want a long-action, that opens up a broad spectrums of options. The #1 on that list should be the .257 Weatherby Mag.

If you were to shoot either one of those, the 115gr Berger VLD would be the absolute meanest bullet around for it.

No coyote would be limping off after getting smacked by a 115 VDL moving 3,300+ out of a .257 Wby...

Just my thoughts.

I wish I had all those calibers, but I don't. I have had a few smaller calibers in bolt guns, like a Howa 1500 .223, Ruger 77 200th Anniversary heavy-barrel .220 Swift, Rem 700 custom in .22-250, etc... I was simply listing a bunch of calibers that would be good long-range coyote guns.

I love my .257 Wby and take it whitetail hunting on a very regular basis. It is very versatile from anything Antelope sized on down to chucks, prairie dogs, etc...