I guess the gut piles keep them interested...


This morning, about an hour before sunrise, I had just enough twilight to be able to make a 175 yard shot on this young coyote. The 125 grain Accubond, with a muzzle velocity of 2740 fps, took him squarely on the shoulder and exited mid-ribs, dropping him instantly. The exit was about the size of a nickel and had both small bone chips and lung tissue trailing out of it.

Last week, I also took another coyote about the same size as this one. But I shot him around 1 a.m. and elected not to drive down there and disturb things any more than I already had. It paid off as about 40 minutes later, a small (58-60 pound) boar hog came cruising through. He stopped at about 155 yards but was facing away from me and had his vitals covered with brush. So I put the red dot of the 3-12x56 Docter Unipoint near the center of his neck and touched off a shot. The 125 grain Ballistic Tip flew true, smashing through the neck and exiting near the left eye (or where the left eye used to be). Thanks to secondary bone fragments from the neck vertebrae, the exit was both gaping and gruesome, so there were no pictures.

After loading the small hog, we drove over to pick up the coyote but decided to leave it there as it was already crawling with fire ants. This one presented a quartering-away angle, with the bullet entering near the last rib and exiting the front-center of the chest. The 125 grain BT -- as best as I could tell with all of the ants -- left an exit the size of a nickel.

Heh. Using the gut pile from previous critter kills a bait to kill more critters. Nifty, but perhaps might want to keep a few gut-pile raiders around to keep the gut pile in check.

Question:
Looks like you built up a TC in .300 Savage. Any reason for the .300 Savage vs .308Win? I considered anything from .250 Savage up through .308Win in a Savage 99 for my wife before they got too pricey.

I've killed 21 coyotes in the last 22 months without even getting out to hunt, so there is no shortage here LOL.

As to the .300 SVG vs. a .308 WCF: You can't chamber the latter in the Contender. And even a .300 SVG needs to be loaded down somewhat. My load is a book-minimum and nearly 300 fps short of what the cartridge is capable of. The Encore can handle most cartridges; the Contender is more limited.

Nonetheless, if there's something here in TX that I can't kill with a .30 caliber/125 grain bullet at 2700 fps, then I wouldn't be able to kill it with anything more potent, either.

Actually, I use the Contenders not only because I like them but because of health issues as well. Recoil precipitates neuropathy and my RA. I used to use 140s in the 6.5s and 7mm and 150s in the 30 cals, but I've dropped down in weight to minimize the gentle recoil even moreso. Heavy laminate stocks help, too. I used to hunt exclusively with handguns until the pain in my hands became to much to handle, and that is when I decided to keep the Contender format and explore the rifle platform of the little TCs.

Nice looking dog there Bobby.
Good shooting, just don't understand the word
"took" in how that relates to killing animals.

Hey, many years ago Cousin Bill, two of his college friends and I went to Castle Rock to call coyotes. Unknown to me til later. Bill had
told them about me: "he's one hell of a shot.

I had my old Enfield '06, don't recall the bullet now. We all walked to the edge of a bluff and looked down. There was a coyote running away about 300 yards hopping rocks and such.

Just for kicks I fired offhand a few feet over a rock mostly just to make it run harder. Amazingly it jumped up high enough to catch the bullet at the base of the skull.

We had to go see what happened. Talk about UGLY! The whole skull plate and hide was gone. Eye's and all those tendons still there, brain just peeled without damage. Looked much like a vet school's study sample.

Of course that's when Bill said: "I told you guys he's one hell of a shot".

Talk about a fluke hit!.

Cheers Bobby, keep at it.

George

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:
I've killed 21 coyotes in the last 22 months without even getting out to hunt, so there is no shortage here LOL.

As to the .300 SVG vs. a .308 WCF: You can't chamber the latter in the Contender. And even a .300 SVG needs to be loaded down somewhat. My load is a book-minimum and nearly 300 fps short of what the cartridge is capable of. The Encore can handle most cartridges; the Contender is more limited.

Nonetheless, if there's something here in TX that I can't kill with a .30 caliber/125 grain bullet at 2700 fps, then I wouldn't be able to kill it with anything more potent, either.

Actually, I use the Contenders not only because I like them but because of health issues as well. Recoil precipitates neuropathy and my RA. I used to use 140s in the 6.5s and 7mm and 150s in the 30 cals, but I've dropped down in weight to minimize the gentle recoil even moreso. Heavy laminate stocks help, too. I used to hunt exclusively with handguns until the pain in my hands became to much to handle, and that is when I decided to keep the Contender format and explore the rifle platform of the little TCs.

Gotcha. Looks like a fine solution to your situation. Got a buddy with RA and that is no joke.

Your loads look an awful lot like the commercial reduced recoil loads for .308Win with that 125gr pill.
https://images.remington-catalog.com/568984ce4905c

I have had to come up with solutions for folk who can not tolerate much recoil or gun weight. If you ever have to kick the recoil down a notch, 6.5 Grendel works well vs deer & hogs, with minimal recoil. 123gr 6.5mm, ~2400fps at the muzzle with a 16" bbl. Can be had for less than 6lbs out of an AR15 before optics and ammo. Some mini bolt actions weigh less and I bet you could get a Contender built in 6.5Grendel.

User, Rifle, and Doe

125 yard shot impact just behind shoulder. Ran 50-75 yards and then piled up. 123gr Hornady SST commercial ammo. Rifle less than 6lbs before the Leupold VX-1 2-7x33.

I personally wouldn't run a 6.5 Grendel in a Contender, but I have had two 6.5x30-30 AI barrels, and they do exceptionally well. The first was a 26"/1:8 that I had long-throated. I used almost nothing but N160 for 120, 125, 129, 130 and 140 grain bullets and killed dozens of hogs with that rig.

The one I recently sold was a 24"/1:9 that loved the 120 grain Ballistic Tips (app. 2600 fps) and 130 Accubonds at 2525 fps. It, too, had quite a few notches, so to speak.




Then again, there's my little 7mm Bullberry with a 20 1/8th inch barrel that I've had for more than 2 decades now. It's taken hogs well into 3 figures and has never disappointed me. The current load is a 120 grain Ballistic Tip at 2651 fps.

Lots of critter there Bobby. Be Well. Rusty

We all know the .308 is better than a 300 Savage, but a good handload in the 300 takes up a lot of slack in comparison, but mostly the 300 Savage holds some memorys for most of us, much like the Win. m-94..I recall and uncle in my youth who shot his bull elk every year, and he took a lot of kidding harrasement for using that cannon but he never needed to shoot one twice and it really didn't ruin as much meat as the rest claimed.

I always swore I would get me one of those big guns for elk, when I finally deserted my 25-35 and 30-30 I got one just like my uncle skeets but opted for the .308 Savage, all 99S btw, I still yearn for a 300 as its the best whitetail rifle in the So. Texas bush as their ever was, and proved it time and time again..I may get one yet, and keep it...