FFP and coyotes

[jaybic]

Howdy fellas,

For those of you that are using FFP scopes for coyote hunting(calling/spot and stalk), how do you like them?

I just got my first FFP Vortex HS 4x16LR and have not hunted with it yet but have taken it to the range and on 4x the main crosshair essentially disappears and is so small it seems next to useless. I can see it being a super useful thing when I need to range a spot and stalk coyote but I can totally see getting stung while sitting on a stand. I always keep my scope on the lowest power so that doesn't happen as I can always turn up when I spot one way out there. I hunt mainly in western ND where you generally can see them coming but not all stands allow this type of thing. As you fellas know, even in big, open country, sometimes they are just RIGHT THERE and then they are moving 40mph to the next county....


I realize I can turn it up to get a more bold crosshair but in doing that, a guy looses FOV and I can see it now, coyote coming in refuses to stop and just keeps coming and all I will see is a flash of fur now and then as I search for him....

Any thoughts or experiences on this issue. I would like to hear from some of you fellas that been using them. Anyone get stung by this yet?

Thanks a bunch,

Jamie

 

[westcliffe01]

If you expect you are always going to shoot on 4x then yes, you bought the wrong scope. I specifically got my 4-16x50 PST FFP for coyote hunting and I usually set the magnification to match my binoculars field of view since that is usually how I spot them. So generally 6x at lowest and I have never taken a shot at 6x usually 12x or 16x.

If you are worried about close range snap shooting, add a 1x red dot to the scope then you have 2 different options. For a coyote to fill the FOV at 4x, you should have no problem hitting it just using the bold outer bars of the reticle anyhow. Have you tried this on some representative paper or steel targets ? A fixed 10x scope is much worse in this regard.

 

[jaybic]

Hey, thats not a bad idea, the red dot thing.....No, I haven't tried it on steel or anything as of yet. I keep having to remind myself that the reason I built this rifle(which I did get the gremlins worked out of as per another post you advised me on) was for coyotes waaay out there and since I carry 2-3 rifles in the truck, I can grab another one for those stands that are a bit close quarters.

It was just my first experience looking thru a FFP out on an actual range and it was a total shock..."Hey, where the hell did my crosshair go????...how am I supposed to read those little tiny numbers and I cant even see the individual hashmarks....all those FFP guys must be nuts!" This was my actual line of thinking at the moment...kinda dumb but having never looked thru one before in the outdoors I had no idea what to expect.

I just wondered what some other fellas thought about the subject.

Thanks for the insight,

Jamie

 

[7magcreedmoor]

I just braced up my HSLR FFP on the tripod and made some measurements for you:from the center of the reticle to the edge of the THICK horizontal bar (way outside the nice detailed center of the reticle) is 44 moa, and that very thin hash on the thick bar is 48 moa. I am not a big yote hunter because I don't see many (exactly one so far) in my part of PA, but I understand that on average a yote is something like 30 inches or so from shoulder to tail root if he is full broadside. His body is less than the 32 moa on one side of your center pattern, and you probably want to turn up the magnification for more crosshair detail. But to lead a moving critter running 20 mph, goes something like this: 20x5280/60/60x.108/1.047=36.3moa of lead (miles converted to feet to inches to moa adjusted for time of flight to 100yards) for my rifle's load. In short, you will want that gap between the fine detail reticle ending and that monster thick post's edge on your intended point of impact. I suspect the biggest challenge is not gonna be how well you can see the reticle, but rather how accurately you can estimate the critter's speed. At least up close, you can pretty much ignore crosswind effect unless the wind is fast enough to be knocking you over.