What bullet for 22-250 & coyotes

Joined
Feb 26, 2018
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474
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Nebraska
The 53gr Vmax is my "go to" bullet of choice in my 12tw 22-250 & 9tw 223AI and it has yet to disappoint but you really need at least a 12tw barrel for those 53 Vmax I wouldn't recommend them in a 14tw.

In a 14tw 22-250 I'd recommend either the 52gr ELD-M or one of the Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets 55 grains and under. Those 52gr ELD-M always have shot really well in 14tw barrels as have the 40/50/55 grain Nosler BTs. The Nosler BT's may not have the BC some of the Hornady's have but they are a hard hitting bullet.
I haven’t noticed a difference in performance on the BTs vs vmax. Haven’t done necropsy, just field observations. I was hoping the solid base would help on quartering shots, but still doesn’t compare to the 55gr sierras.
 

MOwhitetail

Lil-Rokslider
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Apr 10, 2020
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Hornady 53gr V-MAX bullet in front of CFE223 @ ~3900fps, if not saving fur. Berger 52gr HP Match in front of Varget @ ~3400fps, if you are saving fur.
That V-Max is my exact load! It’s hell on coyotes and I’ve put down quite a few prairie dogs out to 800 yards with it. I’ve also shot a lot of their 55gr SP just because they’re cheap and I’ve got hundreds of them laying around.
 

MOwhitetail

Lil-Rokslider
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The Sierra 55gn gameking have been sold in Australia for years branded as "Super Roo" bullets. They are great killers on roos, and wild dogs over here. That would be my first choice.
I didn’t realize you guys hunted kangaroos down there. Are they a “game” animal or more of a varmint/pest like coyote here?
 

B23

WKR
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1:12 24” barrel - 50gr vmax is at 4050fps and my 55s are at 3700fps with cfe. Never loaded the 53s but I wouldn’t expect 4k out of them.
Maybe not with CFE but with a different powder like RL17 you may be surprised how fast you could launch the 53 Vmax.

My 22-250 only has a 18in barrel so I'm obviously giving up a few hundred fps as well as the 22 CM has more case capacity but I'm sending those 53's out the end at 3600 using RL17. I bet a 24in 22CM could get 4K without standing on it real hard if you used RL17.
 
Joined
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Maybe not with CFE but with a different powder like RL17 you may be surprised how fast you could launch the 53 Vmax.

My 22-250 only has a 18in barrel so I'm obviously giving up a few hundred fps as well as the 22 CM has more case capacity but I'm sending those 53's out the end at 3600 using RL17. I bet a 24in 22CM could get 4K without standing on it real hard if you used RL17.
22 creed yes, but it would need to me a slow twist.

Personally I wouldn’t build a new gun $$$ and bank on finding an accurate load at 4k+. I would plan on 38-3900 out of a 24/26” barrel.
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2020
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354
I didn’t realize you guys hunted kangaroos down there. Are they a “game” animal or more of a varmint/pest like coyote here?
We dont really hunt them, its just population control culling. There are more kangaroos now just in my home state of Victoria than there were in the whole of Australia when Europeans first came here due to the clearing of land, permanent water on farms and improved pasture that has been put in here over the last 200 or so years.

They are mostly shot at night with a spotlight out of a truck. There are quotas and its all very heavily regulated. There are guys that make a living driving from property to property shooting their quota of kangaroos. This article shows a typical roo shooting set up:

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7552363/a-recipe-for-kangaroo-management/
 

MOwhitetail

Lil-Rokslider
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Messages
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We dont really hunt them, its just population control culling. There are more kangaroos now just in my home state of Victoria than there were in the whole of Australia when Europeans first came here due to the clearing of land, permanent water on farms and improved pasture that has been put in here over the last 200 or so years.

They are mostly shot at night with a spotlight out of a truck. There are quotas and its all very heavily regulated. There are guys that make a living driving from property to property shooting their quota of kangaroos. This article shows a typical roo shooting set up:

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7552363/a-recipe-for-kangaroo-management/
I can’t get that article to open up without paying but I found a few others that talk about it.

Pretty interesting. It really seems a lot like the coyote hunting around here. You’ve even got anti-hunting groups trying to stop companies from using their hides as if that’s going to stop the hunting. There aren’t many professionals around here though. Plenty of people coyote hunt for fun so it’s not hard to find people to kill them.
 

B23

WKR
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Messages
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We dont really hunt them, its just population control culling. There are more kangaroos now just in my home state of Victoria than there were in the whole of Australia when Europeans first came here due to the clearing of land, permanent water on farms and improved pasture that has been put in here over the last 200 or so years.

They are mostly shot at night with a spotlight out of a truck. There are quotas and its all very heavily regulated. There are guys that make a living driving from property to property shooting their quota of kangaroos. This article shows a typical roo shooting set up:

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7552363/a-recipe-for-kangaroo-management/
Maybe I'm thinking of something else but aren't these things kind of a hazard out on the roads and a fair amount of them are hit by vehicles? Thought I read that once.

Your laws on snakes is the crazy one for me. Y'all have a lot of seriously poisonous snakes there but isn't the law something like you can't kill them unless they are coming after you and if they are on your property you have to leave them alone or hire a service to come remove them or something like that??
 
Joined
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Messages
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I can’t get that article to open up without paying but I found a few others that talk about it.

Pretty interesting. It really seems a lot like the coyote hunting around here. You’ve even got anti-hunting groups trying to stop companies from using their hides as if that’s going to stop the hunting. There aren’t many professionals around here though. Plenty of people coyote hunt for fun so it’s not hard to find people to kill them.
Yes, our "animal rights" people are just as nutty as yours. Kangaroos are already in very high numbers, and when they try to suggest otherwise its ludacris.

The actual method of hunting coyots is similar. But roos are pretty easy to shoot - very little challenge at all. So shooting roos is just a chore. It has none of the skill that is required to shoot any of the dog species.
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2020
Messages
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Maybe I'm thinking of something else but aren't these things kind of a hazard out on the roads and a fair amount of them are hit by vehicles? Thought I read that once.

Your laws on snakes is the crazy one for me. Y'all have a lot of seriously poisonous snakes there but isn't the law something like you can't kill them unless they are coming after you and if they are on your property you have to leave them alone or hire a service to come remove them or something like that??

Yes, roos can be a real issue since they are mostly nocturnal. My son was driving earlier this year on our way home from a PRS match. As we came around a corner at around midnight, there was a kangaroo just standing in the middle of the lane and we hit it at about 65MPH. We were 4 hours from home, but luckily the car was still drivable.

All native snakes are totally protected here. Its even more stringent than say a grizzly attack in the US. I actually dont think there is any justification for killing a snake, even if you get bitten I dont think you are allowed to kill the snake. Where we mostly hunt we have black snakes, tiger snakes and brown snakes. We mostly see black snakes, but although they are highly venomous, you pretty much need to step on a black snake to have any problem. Tigers and browns can be quite aggressive. They will generally avoid you, but they will sometimes chase people and those bloody things can move quite fast.

And yes, you need to hire a licensed wildlife control company to come catch a snake if you have one on your property. They catch it and take it to some approved location and release it back into the wild.
 
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