Greetings,
Having taken on the challenge of can I hit a coyote at 200 yards with a cast bullet, I can give a resounding "sometimes if given enough cartridges". My first of 2 targets was interesting, even though not very outstanding. First I tried a number of combinations of powder and charges. The bullets given me for the 25-06 weighed 90 grains, I have no mold of my own yet (emphasis on yet). I tried H414, Unique, Green Dot, and one other powder, all in at least two charges. The best result was Unique, 7 grains. The H414 sometimes gave a hang-fire if I did not raise the muzzle before firing, not a good thing and no longer used. When loading at first I noticed an ever-so-slight ring of lead after seating the bullet on occasion, and when mentioning this to my shooting buddy he said he had an expander for reloading his 25-20 and loaned it to me for a short while. This helped my groups considerably but not world class groups yet. After a number of load combinations I settled on the best for me with barely enough bullets left over for the coyotes.
I had tried the various combinations at 50 yards, not desiring to walk back and forth a lot to the 200 yard range, energy conservation you know. I started loading enough rounds for the first coyote, and realized there were actually 2 different bullets that had gotten mixed in the box, maybe the reason for the occasional ring. One had a larger meplate than the other, so I loaded the most I could of one bullet after loading some of both, finished the set , and got ready for the range. The bullets weighed the same, so I loaded them all alike. I did not have enough cases to load all the rounds, so went with what I had.
200 yards is reaching quite a ways without a solid rest. I fired a couple rounds into a sighter to find where the bullets were striking, then fired a few at the coyote. I needed a lot of Kentucky Windage. Made the adjustment of hold position, and fired the rest from a standing position leaning against a post. One of the bullet types gave a pretty large dispersion, scaring, wounding and killing the coyote. The other bullet, with the slightly larger meplate, gave a good group, but had a center of mass off the coyote. Just like live coyotes, sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. My spotting scope did not pick up the individual rounds from the quarter caliber, so after a few fired rounds that were checked on by walking out, I just fired the rest
Since then I have received some heavier bullets (thank you GPIdaho), and will use some of them on coyote #2 (I have some loaded for caribou, but all I saw last time out was one caribou butt going into the woods, no shot yet). These heavier 120 grain bullets group much better than the 90 grain bullets. At the very least, when I buy a mold it will be in the 120 grain range. The lighter grain bullets are not liked very well by my 25-06. Thank you RDupraz, I appreciate you willing to give me the bullets to try. Now I know they do not group real well with any of the powders I have on hand. I gave what I did not load to my local shooting buddy, they work very well in his 25-20 (I believe that is it; whatever, they work well for him).
Now, on to the second coyote. How are the rest of you doing?
TK
