DO NOT use Serras .204 bullets for coyote!

[Catfish]

I hit 3 and maybe 4 coyotes today with the 32 gn. Serra bullets and did not get a one. I knocked one down hard twice and still did not get him. When I got home I called Serria and the tec. told me that they were not designed for that heavy of game. They are the most accurate, by far, of any of the bullets I`ve tried and great on groundhogs, but just don`t cut the mustered for coyote. I`ve hear the V-max work well but they are not as accurate in my gun, and neather are the Bergers. I guess I`ll have to go with less accuracy to get the killing power I need. If someone know of any other bullets with tougher jackets that I might try please let me know.

[Ramrod]

A 55 grain bullet from a .22-250 would have bowled them right over. No offence Catfish, but it looks like another .204 shooter learns the hard way. Velocity (or worse yet, Kinetic energy), does not equal killing power.

[nomosendero]

Many have done well with the 39 Grain Sierra, however.

[Qaz]

Please take no offense, but if you hit him twice and didn't even cripple him enough to club him to death, maybe you should be shooting something else. In this age of specialization, sometimes we go a little too far. Some one will have to show me what a 204 can do that a 223 can't do for a lot less money. I mean the terminal effect of both rounds.

[tuck2]

How fare away were the Yots and where did the bullet hit the Yots ? I am going to try out some of the 39 Gr. bullets  in my 204 for prairie dog shooting ,sounds like its great for small varmints. The 40 Gr V-MAX bullet is the one I would use on Yots. Take a look at Hornady s 2005 cataloge,the 204 is the flattest shooting varmint round they list with plenty of energy( 674 ft/lb) to take a Yote out to 300 Yds.

[hellacatcher]

All I know is I put one down with a 40gr remington in a 204. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

[mjbgalt]

i respect your honesty and trying to warn us but i really don't think one instance that none of us saw and that you aren't sure about, is a reason not to use that bullet in the .204.

the .204 itself has way way way more power than it needs to do the job on a coyote.
 i wouldnt ever call your integrity into question and i am sure it happened as you say...but sometimes weird stuff happens...

i have a feeling something else happened to contribute to this...usually a lot of little things...like you couldnt hold quite as still as you wanted, or the coyote moved as you shot, or it was a defective bullet, or you bumped your scope that day, whatever. or maybe you hit it right where you wanted to and it zipped right through and didnt hit any bones or major organs....something like that makes a heck of a lot more sense than to say that the load cant get the job done.
 
there are just too many people smacking varmints down with this load and caliber for it to be not good enough.

if you have it happen a few more times with the same load and gun and etc...then maybe we have something there...

-Matt

[mjbgalt]

well if sierra makes a product so brittle as for it not to work on a coyote, whose coat and hide cant be any tougher than a groundhogs....what the heck!

what he told you doesnt make sense. i mean, anyone wanting to shoot varmints should be able to have one bullet do the job up to and including coyotes, every other brand i buy says what category of game it is for and "varmints" seems to be all-encompassing.

-Matt

[aulrich]

The was some talk (internet hear say) that the 32 sierra's are even more fragile than the 32 hornadys. So a report like this should not be completely unexpected.  The 32's are definitly for the shock and awe varminters blows them up real good,  hit big bone with either and the bullet likely to splash and not make it to the vitals.  

Of the 39 sierra or 40 hornady A guy had measured the thickness of the jackets the v-max was .014 where the blitzking was .009. There are alot of guys thinking the berger heads are going to give the best results for coyotes I myself am going to use the 35 gain berger, but I not shooting for another couple of weeks.

Supposidly the winchester factory load was a decent fur bullet but those seemed to have disappeared.

[Badlands]

test

[Badlands]

Catfish

I had tried to post a reply but it must be lost in cyber space somewhere.
Anyway, I was reading another forum a while back and this same discussion came up.  One of the posters must have been a machinist and sectioned the 3 bullets. What he found was that the jacket thickness of the Sierra bullets was .009" and the jacket thickness of the Hornady and Berger bullets was .014".
The Sierra bullets are deffinately more frangible and were probably designed for varmints more so that predators.  The Berger looks like it will be the best of the 3 more easily available bullets to use for coyote size animals.
Nosler will introduce a new bullet in Dec.  Hopefully it will be a bit tougher bullet that could be used for bigger animals.  I'm guessing it will be another ballistic tip. Hopefully in the 35 - 37 grain range.
Badlands

[Catfish]

Thanks for the in-put. I`m now carring 40 gn. Bergers in the truck too. I may try the V-max on coyote also if there is that much difference in jacket thickness they should also hold up. I`ve heard guys are haveing good luck with the V-max on them.

[mjbgalt]

i guess i should come clean and say that i didn't anticipate what another poster said about the gory varmint explosions. if the bullet was made to make a prairie dog do flips and turn inside out, it may not have been tough enough to smack down a full grown coyote.

i just really thought i wouldn't have to be as selective if a box says "varmint" on the side.

-Matt

[Glanceblamm]

Has been great reading as I am interested in a .204
I was initially dismayed by Catfish'es report but this is sounding more like a problem with a fragile bullet.

[warf73]

40gr. V-Max is the only bullet that has ran down the barrel of my 204.

It kills coyotes just fine and has smoked P dogs also.

Warf

[Catfish]

Glanceblamm,
    The .204 is a great round, shoots alittle flatter than my .22-250 and my .17 Rem. and uses abt same powder charge as the .17 Rem. but hits alittle harder. You do have to use the correct bullet for the game you hunting though. I`m a varmint rifle junky, I have 3 different rounds in .17 cal centerfire I load for, 5 diferent .22 cal. and 2 .25 cal. varmint rifles. % of these are wildcat.
   The Serrias are also great bullets, for small varmint and paper. They are quite abait more accurate in my CZ than any of the other bullets I`ve tried, but they just are not heavy varmint bullets.

[Badlands]

If you are interested in the 204, I have learned a lot of good information from the Ruger204 web site.  
It has load information, articles and a forum dedicated to the 204.  
Since it is such a new caliber, finding reloading informantion can be tough, but I found a lot of it here.  
Be sure to check out the Greymist article.  it has some good stuff.
The gist of it is that, although some people have been able to develope loads for the 40 grain vmax, most are having much better success with the lighter (shorter) bullets.  It seems the 1 / 12 barrel twist that most 204s have is just not quite enough to stabilize a bullet the length and weight of the 40 grain Vmax. but the 39 grain Blitzking seems to work well for most.  I don't know why, they look almost identicle if you set them side by side.  The 40 grain Bergers are supposed to be "Length tollerant" and may work better than the Vmax's, but I haven't tried them yet and haven't read any range reports on them.

http://www.rugerhunting.com/

[Catfish]

Badlands,
   The 40 gn. Bergers definately shot better in my gun than the 40 gn. V-max. I`ve got some 35 gn. Bergers but have not tried them yet. As for loading data I`ve got a bunch of it. There are several places you can get it on the web, but you have to be carefull with any data not from a powder manufacture or or other reliable source that presure test their data.

[Buckskin]

Sounds like some less than desiralbe hits to me.  I can't believe that a yote hit in the goods is going to go too far.  Now a bad hit is another story.  I have seen yotes run on literally one good leg after several hits with a 12g slug.

Who is this member? The account was hi-jacked by the hacker and I need help in identifying the owner of the account so I can restore it for them. If it's you or you know the person it belongs to contact me. Graybeard.

[aulrich]

I think the 39's need to go on the list of not good for coyote (at least if you want to keep the fur) on this thread the two pictures are of what I would have thought was near best case and there are still massive entry wounds

http://www.rugerhunting.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=563

[Lawdog]

I think the 39's need to go on the list of not good for coyote (at least if you want to keep the fur) on this thread the two pictures are of what I would have thought was near best case and there are still massive entry wounds

http://www.rugerhunting.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=563

Thank you for posting that link.       My son bought a .204 just for taking Coyotes with.  I sent the link to him.  Question now is, What bullet/load would you recommend for pelt saving Coyote hunters?  Lawdog
 

[aulrich]

The 35 grain bergers is what I am counting on (I have been waiting for furs to prime up), there are a number of reports starting to come out indicating that it is a solid fur bullet. .204 entrance , few exits and the ones that happen are small.

The 40 grain hornadys don't seem to do too bad either, of the reports I have seen what makes it 2nd is exit wounds though not bad just more often.  I don't think alot of guys are using the 40 hornady because of the troube some guys have had getting them to shoot right.

[Lawdog]

The 35 grain bergers is what I am counting on (I have been waiting for furs to prime up), there are a number of reports starting to come out indicating that it is a solid fur bullet. .204 entrance , few exits and the ones that happen are small.

The 40 grain hornadys don't seem to do too bad either, of the reports I have seen what makes it 2nd is exit wounds though not bad just more often.  I don't think alot of guys are using the 40 hornady because of the troube some guys have had getting them to shoot right.

Thanks again.  I'll pass along any and all information to my son.  He took delivery of his .204 - a Savage Model 12 left hand - just before deer season so he hasn't had time to even dent a primer on it yet.  With the cold weather we've been having fur should be getting prime.  A favor if you will, keep me informed on the success you have with those 35 gr. Bergers?  Lawdog
 

[aulrich]

For sure, I am going to try and take pictures of all of the coyotes I take this year. I am planning to skin in the field so I should get some decent autopsy type shots (time and light allowing).

I have been trying to collect posts showing 204 performance, but oddly enough good pictures are hard to come by. a fair number of shots but almost all are of the clean side (which I guess is half good news).  There have been a couple showing damage or lack there of, but darn it all I can't seem to find them now.

[mitchell]

All I know is I put one down with a 40gr remington in a 204. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

i'm with him on this one i've killed a good bit of yotes with the 40 Vmax almost all where dead right there. even one at 350 just flopped when hit.and our yotes up here are big.

[aulrich]

mitchell

What was fur damage like with the 40's and pic's

[tcman]

Like someone said earlier....no splash and dash with the 22-250 last year....don't expect any this year either.

[Lawdog]

mitchell

What was fur damage like with the 40's and pic's

aulrich,

That is a question that's worth repeating!!   :yeah:

"What was fur damage like with the 40's?"   :?:   Lawdog
 

[mitchell]

sorry i forgot i posted on this,  i don't hunt for fur but there really was much damage. i've only had a few that had a exit and they where messy ( around 2 inch holes ) but most of the time its just a 20 cal in and thats it.

[Coyote Hunter]

I’m not a fur hunter so I really don’t care about anything except putting them down as quickly and humanely as possible.

Here’s what works for me:

40g Nosler BT @ 4050fps, .22-250
52g Speer/Hornady BTHP @ 3578fps, .22-250

75g Hornady V-Max @ 3609fps, .257 Roberts

160g Barnes XLC @ 3020fps, 7mm Rem Mag


The 160g XLC really isn’t well suited for coyote hunting because of their propensity to ricochet, but they were extremely effective on the two I’ve taken with it.  On one I never did find the entrance or exit wound and he dropped like a stone.  

The 40g BT is an amazing effective bullet but inconsistent when it comes to damage.  Sometimes there is only the tiny entrance, other times there is a softball sized exit.

The 52g Speer/Hornady BTHPs get used most often in my .222-50 because I got a bunch of both on the cheap.  But when this batch is done I’m going to the 50g V-Max.

The 75g V-Max is my favorite, partly because it is effective and partly because the 22” Ruger is so much easier to get in and out of the truck than the heavy-barrel 26” .22-250.

Speaking of which, the sun is up and its time to go looking for Wile E. ...