What brand of gun and what cal.???

[otis32]

Looking at getting into varmint hunting, does anybody have any info to share? thanks and good luck!

[Neighbor_guy]

I will stay out of the great gun brand debate, they all shoot.

As far as Caliber... The list can get long, especialy if you figure the long list of "pet calibers". Here is the jist of it...

If by "varmit" you are refering to Fox and Coyote, here is my oppinion, and it is just that, so take it for what it is worth.

1) 12ga shot gun. #4 copper coated buck shot, or Dead Coyote T's. If you are only going to shoot one gun, have never hunted before, or dont have a lot of money to spend, a 12ga shotgun is the best way to get into calling predators. I like pumps over autos because I hunt in the cold. Any of the "turkey" type guns will work.

(2) CENTER FIRE rifle. Some will say a .17 or .22 rimfire will kill a fox and it will, but the centerfire predator guns are better. .204 has a big following, some will tell you it is a bit light for heavy coated MN coyotes, but foxes fear it. Center fire .22's like .220swift, .222, .223, 22-250 are all very popular. They all kill em dead, the 22-250 will damage a lot of fur if the shot hits bone, but with the right round, no exit. If you are not concerned about the fur, a .243 is an excelent coyote gun, it will blow a fox clean in half however.

My choices... I use a 12ga Mossberg 535 Turkey gun with a 22" barrel, xfull turkey choke, pistol grip, and a Tritium bead that can be seen in the dark. It aims and points well, shoots 3"buck shot loads, is light, and comes with a sling. Close quarters, brush, and shots under 40 yards.

I also choose a Olympic Arms AR15 in .223. Topped it with a 2.5x10 scope with a 50mm objective and a 30mm tube. As long as there is a moon I can shoot at night with that scope. "Varmit" rounds will damage a fox pretty bad, regular soft nose is a better choice, but a coyote's hit the ground harder with a vMax than a soft point, so I tend to load based on what I expect to see at a specific stand.

Others will chime in as well I am sure.

Now if by varmits you mean p-dogs, wood chuck, ground squirels, chipmuks, barn rats, pigions, and badgers.... Well, someone else will have to give details there... .17hmr, or .22lr will take care of most of them....

[Grayfox]

Neibor Guy covered it extremely well. I'm kind of partial to my two

17 Remingtons but my son shoots his 223 and does very well. Any of the calibers listed will do a great job but you just have to consider the fur damage. My 17 will put a small hole on entry and usually no exit. I've taken fox with it and same thing, can't find an entry hole on some but others if I don't do my part and hit the shoulder she'll blow a pretty good hole in it.

Any idea what your planning to use or are you looking to purchase?

Rob

[Dave S]

Neighbor_Guy and Grayfox, what are your recommendations for bullet selection? I think this is just as important as choice of caliber.

I've taken one coyote with my .223 but was shooting ballistic tips (wasn't concerned with preserving the pelt). End result = "In like a pencil and out like a basketball".

[Grayfox]

LEP7MM,

I don't reload yet so I'm limited to the factory 17 Rem 25 grain hollow points. I've shot the 20 grain accutips but wouldn't trust them on a coyote. A lot of guys will reload them with 30 grain bergers and they say it slows the bullet down to under 4000 fps and you'll get a little better performance.

Mitchell was using the 55 grain Remington hollow points a few years ago but has now started using the Hornady 55 grain VMAX's. We haven't seen any problems with these either and they seem to shoot pretty well.

Hopefully we'll get a little snow or a good frost before next weeks full moon so we can give the shotguns a rest and break out the rifles.

Rob

[morefishplease]

I like .22-250, but any of the cal. mentioned will work. If your into relaoding, a poplular cal. like the .22-250 will work well being that the die sets, brass, etc. are all easy to find. And you have a lot of options of relaoding, my favorite is 38 grains of H380, 55 gr nosler balistic tip.

[Neighbor_guy]

I dont reload either, mabe someday, for now its factory rounds only. I was a died-in-th-wool fedral guy, but my AR chokes on the stuff. So...

For the rifle I have 2 magazines loaded up when I go. One has 53grain Hornaday Varmit Express. The other has 55grain Hornaday "training" rounds, basicly a pointed soft nose bullet.

I dont have a fur buyer to give me a hard time about holes, but I dont want to destroy everything I shoot either. The Vmax bullets that hornaday loads in the vmax and varmit express realy wollop the foxes, they are just so small. The soft points still go through, but they dont expand as violently. If you dont hit bone, mabe a wound you can cover with a quarter as opposed to a fist. Hit anything in the shoulder blades and you will have issues, no matter what bullet you run.

With the shotgun I like Fedral Copper Coated #4buck shot. It may be over kill, but its what I use. Now if I were to win the lottery, then Dead Coyote, but I can not afford to shoot that stuff. To bad too, because it shoots great.

Part of me wants to look into the 40grain Varmit Express, but I have read a lot of mixed reviews on it. Some love it, saying it knocks Coyotes out stone cold dead. Others say it blows exit wounds you can drive a car though. Or the bullet shatterd against the shoulder blade and the critter ran away. Who do you believe?

[Neighbor_guy]

LEP7MM,

Hopefully we'll get a little snow or a good frost before next weeks full moon so we can give the shotguns a rest and break out the rifles.

Rob

I will be waiting on the Dec. Moon. Night hunting via the full moon would be a bad idea on this side of the river. You wisconsin guys have a bit of a head start on us there.

[Grayfox]

Last year the Nov. full moon was during our gun season in Wisconsin so we went over to Minnesota and did real well. Hopefully the November moon will be good to us over here this year.

Rob

[picksbigwagon]

I too am a die in the wool Hornady guy. I reload my own and i have found my AR loves the 55 grain Vmax and the 60 grain Vmax. I must have gotten lucky with those two load developments becuase I don't even want to try anything else.

I would recommend the .223 caliber for the rifle Otis. Ammo is usually available at most mom and pop hardsware stores and at Petre's in Finlayson (my choice for comparing what caliber to go with, if Petre's has it, it is a caliber most any place will have), and factory rounds are still not outrageous unlike 22-250 or 204. I would hate to know what you pay for the 17 Rem. factory rounds, no change that, how much are those little pills

[Archerysniper]

I have great luck saveing hides with my reloads,I load a 70 grain sierra matchking hollowpoint with my 6mm's they love it and they don't blow up as much as the gamekings.

[Grayfox]

Picks,

I think those factory loads are getting close to $30 a box now. Luckily,three years ago on another predator HSOforum, I found a couple guys trying to get rid of there old 17 Remington factory loads. Ended up buying 12 boxes from one guy for $16 and another 10 or so from another one for $17. Mitchell was giving me some grief for buying so many but I'm sure glad I bought them now!

Rob

[R. Miller]

This might be a stupid question but if I were to use a full choke in my 12 ga benelli and get a box of dead yote T shot, the pelt woul still be good right? Even with the shot through it? Wouldn't mind trying it this year just never really thought to use buckshot.

[R. Miller]

Just looked up the Dead Yote T shot on Cabelas...yeah, that looks like it'd do the trick....

[S.D. Ice Angular]

I would recommend the .223 also in an AR-15 platform.

Cheapest ammo you can buy and it really is a great calliber.

I have a 220 Swift and a 22-250 but I am a gun nut!!!

For one Gun I would choose .223 then 22-250 then 220 Swift.

I do hand load all my cartridges except the .223 because it so cheap to just buy ammo.

my 2 pennies worth...

[Solaris79]

Everyone seems to have their favorite calibers and loads as there are many that are very effective coyote killers. The Remington 700 SPS Varmint in the 17 fireball + 25gr hornady HP's have provided me with plenty of on the spot dead coyotes with good pelts (normally). Same can be said for my Ruger 77 MKII Varmint in 204 ruger + 26gr barnes varmint grenades. Both enter with a small hole and almost always do not exit, unless its a belly shot and then its a mess. As with any caliber, bullet placement is critical if you care about a quick kill as well as the pelt. Both of these guns give me confidence out to 300yds(unless theres a stiff crosswind). I haven't had any issues dropping them in their tracks with either; however, I don't go past the 300yd mark in the field as I think that could start to equate to some lack of sufficient energy problems to do the job effectively on yotes.

Normally, I'll have one of the two center-fires with and I almost always have the beretta 12ga/w 3" dead yote T's along with for close range encounters. If I know I'm going to be in heavy brush I don't even bother with the rifles as the dead yote t's do the job out to 60yds easy/w a tight choke.

Its an absolute blast and it gives me something to do outdoors throughout the winter besides sledding and icefishing, plus I get a little $ coming back if the pelts are in good shape. I'll be out for the December full moon and kick it into high gear from there. Good luck if you decide to give it try!

[Solaris79]

Muskellunge,

Shoot the yoters in the head/high neck area with the dead yote t's and a tight choke and you shouldn't have an issue killing them or with selling the pelt to a furrier. I haven't had any issues with it yet, unless they get to close but that doesn't happen to often. I've shot a couple that were too close (15-20yds) and were kind of quartering shots that got ripped up, and I didn't even bring em in because they were pretty tore up. I normally try and get em from 25-60yds with the shotgun, anything beyond I'll use the rifle.

[workin4bait]

With counties[Yellow Medicine and Chippewa Mn.] now offering ten dollar bounties save those ripped up yotes and turn them in out west.

[Mike Steckelberg]

You can't just bring them to YM or Chippewa county and turn them in unless you can prove you shot them in said county