.223: Why have 40 grain bullets fallen out of grace for coyotes??

Originally Posted By: derbyacresbobOriginally Posted By: SmeshTriple. I guess there is always a shotgun for the lead free zone or a totally different gun just for that.

If you like lightweight bullets in .224 cal switching to lead free bullets may not be as bad now as it was 3 or 4 years ago.

Nosler makes a 40 Gr Ballistic Tip lead free Varmint bullet and Hornady makes a 35 gr NTX Lead Free Varmint bullet bullet. Nosler also makes a 6mm 55 gr Ballistic Tip Varmint bullet.

These lead free bullets are not real easy to find so if you wait until they announce when the whole state will go lead free you may not be able to find any lead free bullets.

If you shoot a .224 cal rifle and you like the 50 gr and bigger bullets, you better have a 1-9" twist or faster rifle or you will have to shoot the lightweight lead free bullets or make a barrel or rifle change.

Using a shotgun with lead free shot for predators will really be expensive if you want to shoot shells that work better than lead shot.

I am super lucky because my tikka will shoot 55 gr hornaday soft points and Black Hills 62 gr. Barnes TSX to the same POI. I just pull the bore snake when i switch and I'm ready to go. They both shoot MOA, the 55 gr slightly better. The trajectory is almost identical too. It is only off like .2" out to 300. I use the TSX to hunt hogs in the condor zone and it really puts them down. I have taken a few coyote of opportunity with them while hog hunting too. The biggest problem is price and availability. They are 70 bucks per 50 plus shipping. I love using my .223 for jack rabbits and I can shoot up 50 rounds in one day! I hope the NRA and Calguns can stop this ridiculous law.
 
Hey TD.

That's exactly what I found too. It's pretty easy to find a combo that is very close at 100 yards if you reload. Not ideal for F-Class but good for hunting a combo of coyotes and hogs.
 
Originally Posted By: SmeshOriginally Posted By: DiRTY DOGOriginally Posted By: carpsniperg2When I was younger I always bought the lighter bullets. I had way to many runners and switched to 50g+ and the amount of runners I have has gone down probably 70%. It is amazing what 10 grains more of weight has done for me. You sure have a lot of runners... Why? You must be doing it wrong, because you should only have a rare occassional runner. Where are the bullets impacting that is causing all those runners??

+1. I think many people think they hit shoulders when the really hit the front leg. Any four legged critter will get far on three legs. And bone fragments do a lot of damage to the lungs behind them on shoulder shots. Agreed there is a difference between Noslers and Vmax but still, a 40 under 300 out of a .223 should break a shoulder of a coyote every time. Would be interesting to do some gel test with a coyote shoulder bone embedded beneath the surface. Who in CA is up to do some experimenting with high speed cameras?
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Doing it wrong LOL. Just poor bullet performance. Cheap hollow points that blow up and don't penetrate well. A lot of my shots are further then your avg shot. You take that and poor bullet performance and I had more runners then what I do now days. A heavy 50+ and solid bullet design has had a lot more of a bang flop effect for me.
 
A lot of it has to do with the AR-15 craze I think? Finding a .223 with a 1 in 12 twist can be quite challenging these days. Myself I have no use for bullets over 55 grains in a .223 but most 1 in 9 twist barrels don't shoot them that great. 55 grainers were sooting about 1 1/2 moa in my Savage axis and on a fluke I decided to try some nosler varmageddon 40 grain hollow points and to my pleasant surprise the groups shrunk to 3/4 moa.
 
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