Am a couple days late posting this...



Couldn't sleep thanks to pain but was fortunate enough to make a tough 185 yard shot on a coyote around 2 a.m. this morning using my Contender with 24" Van Horn barrel in 30-30 WCF.

There were actually 2 coyotes out in the pasture, and for a brief moment it seemed I may have a chance at a double. But as things often go with coyotes, one spooked -- perhaps hearing the click of my shooting light in the calm night air -- and took off like a bolt of lightning. The other sprinted a couple of yards, stopped for a fraction of a second and then began skirting the brushline at a brisk pace.

All I could do was try and get the dot of the Docter scope ahead of the moving coyote and take a shot. As luck would have it, the 110 grain GMX, launched at 2805 fps by a book charge of Re-7, managed to find its way to the shoulder of the year-old male coyote and kill it instantly. The exit, thanks in part to secondary bone fragments, was on opposite shoulder and just a fraction larger than the size of a tennis ball.

If you are queasy or don't like gore, don't scroll any farther than the photo of bullets recovered from test medium. I'm posting a photo of the exit to show how the very soft 110 grain GMX, which is designed to the Blackout velocities, performs when pushed a few hundred fps beyond its design window. I've taken several hogs and other critters with it, and it has been nothing short of impressive, basically turning itself inside out while retaining most of its weight. Too bad a few more mono projectile manufacturers don't extend the use of this same technology a wider range of bullets . It would make the shooters of the small-to-moderate capacity cartridges happy campers.


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Bobby--most folks just don't have any basic understanding about the terminal ballistics or bullet performance of the loads they shoot---thanks for posting up data such as this--

I use 55-gr ballistic tips out of my .22-250 at around 3550 fps and it sure rings the hogs' bells. Not bad for a varmint bullet---and shot placement is nearly everything.

Impressive expansion and exit for such
a light wt bullet. Great pictures again.

Never shot a spire pointed 110gr, and
sure not any copper slugs: yet.

Did use several thousand RN's in the '06
for prairie dogs. No meat left, only a
red triangle from where they were hit til
all the mist was spread.

Up REAL close (2 feet) from the muzzle of
TWO '06's. We spent the next half hour
picking splatters off each others face
from a coyote that jumped up on a rock
we were standing behind waiting for a shot.
That dog blew up like he'd swallowed a stick
of powder. Sure played hell with the fur!

That was before I owned a varmint rifle.
Now I just use 'em in the Blackhawk pistol.

Bobby: that dog don't look like it was very
healthy, sure mighty skinny.

George

George- The picture makes it hard to tell, but the coyote was healthy -- just young. He was a bit over a year old and not filled out yet. Plus, the wide angle view made the gun look bigger and the coyote smaller due to gun being closer to the lens.

I just didn't have the energy to set it up properly and didn't want to wake anyone at that hour of the morning. So a crummy snapshot is the result. Hope all is well with you and that the heat there has tapered off a little.

That exit wound is something else from a 30cal bullet on such a thin skinned animal. Very impressive I must say.

A wonderful experience to get out and hit a coyote on the move. I certainly need that kind of practice. And the load? I just got a 15" Encore barrel and am wondering what to do with it. Maybe AI it? I don't want to waste time and money getting an SBR. Maybe a new style of folding pistol brace set up to attach to the encore with an adapter? Of course it will be threaded at the muzzle. A newer style of truck gun for me. Maybe there is a GMX frangible enough for the improved version of the 30-30 in a short barrel of 15". Be Well, Packy.

That 110 grainer is the only one in the .30 cal Hornady GMX offerings that expands this way. The 110 and 120 grain Blackout bullets from Barnes perform similarly. If your barrel doesn't care for these, the 125 grain SST and 125 grain Speer TNT are pretty wicked on coyotes from a 30-30 (or the AI version) as well. You could also opt for a do-it-all load for varmints through deer with the 125 grain Ballistic Tip. At 30-30 speeds, it opens nicely and retains plenty of weight for ample penetration. In fact, launched at no more than 2700 fps or so, its performance isn't all that different from the 125 grain Accubond.