A-Max for coyotes?

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Originally Posted By: venaticOriginally Posted By: Coltbill45Go find a barrel of water, fire some into it and Google how to take basic measurements.


Also, where on this page does it mention for hunting applications?

http://www.hornady.com/store/A-MAX

Not saying they can't be used on deer sized game in a pinch but, V-Max are varmint bullets and A-Max are precision target bullets not intended to be frangible by design. No way of sugar coating it now matter how hard some of you try. They are just not designed to break apart like you think.

Wow..
I guess first question would be how many animals have you had the A max bullets fail to perform on. I have shot 3 Elk in the past 2 months with 162gr 7mm AMax all shoulder shots from 150 yards to 50 yards and two dropped and the last one shot on New years day made it about 10 steps. Last season shot two Elk one at 80 yards one at 420 yards with 178gr AMax from a .308 both made a step or two and fell.

In recent weeks my 22 Creedmoor has shot hogs, deer(4)and a multiple coyotes with 75gr AMax and it killed all no fuss no muss just plain ole dead. My gunsmith/friend shot a big 150 inch cull buck with the same bullet at 454 yards on video.

I am hesitate to post this as 75gr Amax's are so popular among the fast twist 22 caliber crowd they have almost been impossible to buy for over a year now.
I guess I will chance it since I have enough on hand to shoot my barrel out...twice.
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I had a couple pass through shots last year on some coyotes in the 200 yard range and ended up having to chase them down to finish them off. I never once stated that they won't work, I just stated that they are not particularly made for hunting. Any bullet you shoot will possibly drop any animal depending on a few variables. You can probably take down a bear with a .22 LR if you shoot it in the eye but that brings me back to my original point. It's not recommended or it's intended purpose.
 
I have never seen a pass through from an Amax ever. They usually blow such a large hole you can't believe it's from a 224 bullet.
 
Originally Posted By: FairChase93I have never seen a pass through from an Amax ever. They usually blow such a large hole you can't believe it's from a 224 bullet.

As a hunter who likes to keep the furs from the critters I shoot, that is the last thing I would want to happen to a animal.
 
Originally Posted By: Coltbill45I had a couple pass through shots last year on some coyotes in the 200 yard range and ended up having to chase them down to finish them off. I never once stated that they won't work, I just stated that they are not particularly made for hunting.

gee whiz wild bill, why in the world were you shooting them at coyotes when according to you they are "not particularly made for hunting". you are trying to back peddle and may be doing a little fibbing in the process. you nose growing?
 
Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnotOriginally Posted By: Coltbill45I had a couple pass through shots last year on some coyotes in the 200 yard range and ended up having to chase them down to finish them off. I never once stated that they won't work, I just stated that they are not particularly made for hunting.

gee whiz wild bill, why in the world were you shooting them at coyotes when according to you they are "not particularly made for hunting". you are trying to back peddle and may be doing a little fibbing in the process. you nose growing?

Hey cupcake,

I do shoot long range too and was curious as to how they would perform to the V-Max quite some time ago with some of the leftovers I had from a loading session. If my nose is growing, do you want to play Pinocchio? You can sit on it and I will tell you a bunch of lies.
 
Originally Posted By: Coltbill45Originally Posted By: FairChase93I have never seen a pass through from an Amax ever. They usually blow such a large hole you can't believe it's from a 224 bullet.

As a hunter who likes to keep the furs from the critters I shoot, that is the last thing I would want to happen to a animal.


Keeping fur is nice but dropping coyotes where they stand is more important to me.

There are quite a few experienced coyote hunters that will tell you Vmax bullets are some of the worst coyote bullets out there. Now I don't quite feel that way about them but I can say that I have lost more coyotes to Vmax than any other bullet, but you know that's what they were designed to do so...

To date I have no idea how many coyotes I have personally killed with the Amax, not that many in the big picture, maybe somewhere between 20 and 30 or so. Of those there were 2 that I lost and both were because I made bad shots to far towards the rear of the coyote. Maybe I've been lucky I geuss but when I put that amax bullet near the vitals they fall dead in their tracks, something I cannot say about the Vmax.
 
I don't personally use the V-Max anymore unless I'm out rabbit hunting. I prefer the Berger bullets or good ole Hornady 55 Gr soft points. Cheap and very effective.
 
What Amax bullet passed thru a coyote at 200 yards from what caliber and at what speed?

These are Amax 22 caliber shot coyotes from recent hunts.

No exit

One exit one did not

No exit


Broke shoulder but no exit


No exit


no exits 310/425 yards

 
75 Gr A-Max loaded up with 24 GR of RL-15. I didn't chony them to get the speeds but they shot fairly accurate.
 
I would be surprised if a 224 cal from a 223 made it through a coyote, and real surprised if shot from a 22-250, these are very soft bullets, softer than a v-max. Hornady has no problem using these on coyotes. they are so x=plosive i would not want to hit a shoulder bone though. To whoever said they act like a fmj, you have not a clue my friend.
 
Originally Posted By: Coltbill45I don't personally use the V-Max anymore unless I'm out rabbit hunting. I prefer the Berger bullets or good ole Hornady 55 Gr soft points. Cheap and very effective.

What about when the exact same Berger bullets you "prefer" said "target only" on the side of the box. Did they then only pencil through game but after different packaging become great bullets??? It wasn't until hunters shot and killed many game and varmints with those bullets, Berger decided to market to the hunting/varmint crowd... Make no mistake; they are SAME bullets in new packaging. All the sudden they are magic???

If it wasn't for guys like the one having great success with the amax (using match/target bullets for hunting/varminting), Berger would still be a small target based company that you've never heard of...

Call Hornaday, after a very humorous recording, they will tell you that Amax are great and work fine for varmint sized critters...

What was that about rookies again???
 
I have killed a few whitetail deer using 75 gr amax in a 223. Always got a pass thru with them but they did their job, 40 or 50 yds was as far as any ran. Before using them for hunting I talked to the people at Hornady and was told that being match bullets they simply do not test them for hunting. I would think that the 52 gr amax would be a good choice for coyote although I have not tried them.
 
The 52 a-xmax is so thin that Hornady recomend's a slower twist barrel be used in shooting them so as not to blow apart on the way to the target, i have used them in 1-9's and they work fine for me, but 1-12 to 1-14 would be better according to Hornady, we shoot a lot of beaver around here [all leagle} and a 52gr a-max will unzip a 45 lb beaver like nothing else i've used so far, inculding v-max,. Never would i use them for deer or game i wanted to eat.
 
Dennyd my experience does not mimic yours, every coyote I've ever shot with the 52 Amax has an exit wound. Not just a wound but a legitimate blow out, the size of a baseball I would say. Also I have shot coyotes directly in the shoulder with both the Amax and vmax, the vmax will on occasion splash on the surface, the Amax although making a mess performs much better on bone hits like this. Even after direct shoulder shots the Amax produces exit wounds, it could be bone particles and such but it is something the vmax has never done for me. I'm not disputing you but my experiences are vastly different.
 
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I must be gitten old fairchase, page 5 you said you never get a pass through, page 6 you say you always get a exit. Anyway in my experience they are like a death ray on varmits.
 
I love the lynch mob mentality on this forum when someone else has a different opinion or a different experience with a product that you guys worship. It's a zombie mentality.

It's attitudes like this that drive a forum into the ground and causes the member count to dwindle. Just because you guys had great success with something does not mean that everyone else will. The OP asked how they would work on coyotes and I gave him my opinion from experience. If you guys can't handle an opinion that don't agree with yours on a PUBLIC DISCUSSION FORUM, then you might want to seek a different profession other than being a computer chair YouTube hunter. I actually go out into the field and hunt and that's how I came up with the results of A-Max having pass troughs.

You guys can go back to attacking members who have a difference of opinion. I'm done wasting time on this thread.

 
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What i was trying to get at earlier is that I never had one "pencil" through like a fmj like somebody else had been saying was the most likely result.
 
Yep member count is dwindling. That reminds me of the story of when asked to go to a nice restaurant in New York Yoggi Berra replied "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
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Oh and you might want to glance at the numbers at the bottom of the page... seems a new Max online was broken as recent as a couple of weeks ago.

I thought these type forums are supposed to be a place you read the pro's and con's and the different opinions folks have about a variety of topics. If we all agreed all the time it might get boring. I would only add that the OP can read an form and opinion from the experiences mentioned above.
 
Originally Posted By: venaticYep member count is dwindling. That reminds me of the story of when asked to go to a nice restaurant in New York Yoggi Berra replied "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
lol.gif

Oh and you might want to glance at the numbers at the bottom of the page... seems a new Max online was broken as recent as a couple of weeks ago.

I thought these type forums are supposed to be a place you read the pro's and con's and the different opinions folks have about a variety of topics. If we all agreed all the time it might get boring. I would only add that the OP can read an form and opinion from the experiences mentioned above.


Well if some of you actually knew how to read (moderators included), you would see that I said it CAUSES forum members to dwindle and makes members not want to come back. I can care less how many visitors this page gets as it makes no difference to me.
 
Originally Posted By: Coltbill45V-Max was made for hunting while the A-Max was made for long range target shooting. Too thick of a jacket for hunting IMO and you have a better chance of getting a pass through and your animal taking off on you as if you shot it with a FMJ.

Even Hornady disagrees with you!



Hornady Load Manual, 7th Ed
 
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