Question about “fur friendly” bullets

CallingArkansas

CallingArkansas

New member
First of all I do not reload. But once retirement nears I plan to start, just too many irons in the fire to start a new hobby.

Up until last year I had always shot Federal Premium 55 grain NBTs in my .223 Bushmaster Predator. Exit holes on everything were huge to say the least. Furs here in south Arkansas are basically worthless so it really never mattered. The Bushmaster got stolen and I quickly purchased a T/C Venture Predator in .223 and found that it really liked the Hornady Superperformance 53 grain Vmax.
Then last summer after the courts sentenced the Bushmaster thief to 40 years I unexpectedly received a healthy restitution check from the courts since the Bushmaster was never recovered. So with I nice size check in hand and my desire to have another AR rifle I purchased a Chistensen Arms CA 15 3 Gun in .223 Wylde with an 18” carbon fiber barrel. This rifle also loves the 53 grain Vmax ammo.

I’m not sure if the Vmax bullets are considered fur friendly but their performance has led me to ask some of you much more experienced shooters why I’m getting the results I am getting.

So last week I shot a coyote at about 70 yards broad side front rib shot. Bullet exits with a lot of blood and other particles blown out the other side.

Then yesterday I shot the bobcat and coyote in the picture. I shot the bobcat at 200 yards out and hit him center of his throat while he was sitting and looking straight at the call and me. I expected his head to be barely attached but to my surprise there was no exit.
On the next stand I called in the coyote that hung up about 350 yards out. I thought my side x side was concealed several hundred yards behind me but I watched him look straight toward it and then turn and walk off. Later I noticed the windshield on the side x side was visible and had a reflection from the setting sun. Anyway I barked at the yote and and she stopped broad sided. The bullet enter just perfect at the front rib and exited center rib cage with a 1 1/2” exit hole.
Sm.ms
So I shoot a relatively short range shot and hit a yote broad side with large exit hole. I shoot another yote broadside at a relatively long range and have a fairly significant exit hole. Then I shoot a small bobcat at 200 yards in the throat just below the jaws while sitting. That’s less than 4”s of body mass for the bullet to travel and it doesn’t exit.

I realize what the bullet hits internally can make significant differences in how it performed internally, but not to these extremes. All bullets shot were from the same box and same gun.

Sm.ms
 
I’ve yet to shoot a yote or cat with the superformance crap because I’ve had 5 duds now out of 3 different boxes and Hornady wouldn’t reply to emails after I sent pictures. Only duds in 500-600 rounds now. Also I would have random flyers weigh high and I got it on chronograph as having higher FPS for those shots. So maybe you’re explosive one was going faster then the rest?

But a more common reason is you hit bone and had it blow out. A few guys recommend shooting a bit farther back if worried about fur. Those little rounds blow up like a grenade inside and hitting a bit back is just as lethal as blowing the heart out without the chance of hitting a shoulder bone which will really blow out.
 
Vmax do strange things, ether they do great on pelts or they tear them up quite well. They're varmint bullets made to be explosive, coyotes aren't little varmints and the terminal variability between hitting a shoulder or passing straight between two ribs is too large to get consistent results from that type of bullet.

I've switched to 65gr SGK, pass throughs are a guarantee but the exits are much more manageable and no terrible splash damage on quartering shoulder shots. They even did surprisingly little damage to a small red fox I got last night.

Hard to say about the bobcat and no exit without knowing the shot angle a little better. Chest or straight on shots are my favorite with Vmaxs. The bullet may have hit the cats vertibre and come to a complete stop in all that bone and muscle.
 
Just killed a bobcat out in texas with the barnes 36 varmint grenade.. it worked fine and had a small entrance with no exit. Not sure if they make a factory load with barnes bullets as i reload but when you start reloading it might be a bullet to try
 
Thanks guys. I’m not concerned about fur damage. Just amazed at the remarkable difference on the other end.

Forest ghost you are dead on in regard to the duds. I called up a yote about two weeks ago and squeezed off to a “click”. I was shooting my bolt rifle and bolted another shell. He died! Did a little bench shooting Saturday afternoon just to check my scope after taking a little tumble in the snow with my AR a cpl days prior. Shot twice and all was good. Then pulled out the bolt gun while I had things set up and the first shot went click. That made two in two weeks. I was blaming in it on the gun since both came from the bolt gun. Maybe the ammo though.

If it happens in my AR then I’ll start looking at other bullets but until then I’ll keep punching that same little hole.
 
Bullets do strange things when they hit muscle and bone sometimes. I've shot cats at 35 yards in the neck with a .223 using less frangible bullets and never had an exit. Shot coyotes broadside at various distances with the same bullet and did have.

Hitting fragile bone vs. hitting meat could have something to do with it. Maybe hitting bone caused the bullet to fragment that much faster which caused more destruction where as hitting meat caused the bullet to not fragment as quickly. Possibly veering downwards into the chest cavity. I'm really just throwing out wild guesses though....
 
coyotes are tough to kill. the supperperformance 53 is a great factory round for them. I would call and talk to hornady if I had ONE not fire.
 
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