Is my prospective issue with a .22LR skipping? I don’t really see why that would be more or less of a problem with #1 vs .22, projos are very similar; should I worry that he’ll have terminal performance issues with 30m and 1 foot head shots?
Is my prospective issue with a .22LR skipping? I don’t really see why that would be more or less of a problem with #1 vs .22, projos are very similar; should I worry that he’ll have terminal performance issues with 30m and 1 foot head shots?
Regular lead #2 or #4 even #5 will work fine. He can look for ammo labeled turkey loads. Up to 50 yards these loads will suffice. He should not buy steel duck shot by mistake. The buckshot can glance. The dog will dig under the chicken wire so he must hurry.
You don't need DRT kills. Yotes can die anywhere they want. 22 LR is ideal for that, plus it's a lot quieter than a shotgun.
10/22 FTW.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
Suppressed P90 in 5.7. This is Pistol Forum after all. Standards and all that.
I have had issues with .22 ricocheting off of chicken skulls when the shot angle is not orthogonal to the skull. That was a total cluster. My wife ran into the house to tell me that one of her birds was badly injured but was running whenever she got close. She figured the wound was fatal and wanted to reduce suffering. So she asked me to grab the 10/22. I did, found a safe angle for the shot (backstop), and took it. Less than 25 yards. Well, the bullet hit right where I aimed but it did not penetrate the skull. It literally slid around the head. My best guess is that since the bullet impacted the skull at an angle, it bounced rather than penetrated. I still get nauseous thinking about that poor bird. I made the sure second shot did its job, but I still feel horrible about that hen.
Ammo was 36-grain Federal HP. No way I would use a .22 LR on a coyote unless I could put one in an ear or eye (trapped). And I would rather avoid a close shot due to rabies concerns. Shotgun at distance makes the most sense to me. Then gloves and shovel or let the vultures deal with it.
In that situation I'd go with a shotgun. "Coyote" loads use everything from heavy waterfowl shot to 4 and 00 buck. I'd just use regular 4 buck because I have it, and pick a choke tube that patterns well at the max range. If hunters can use heavy shot and keep the pelt, he has no worries about making a mess of them.
If the coyote is coming at night he's going to need a red or green light.
I talked to a guy who traps/shoots coyotes for a living, and trapping them is difficult.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
I forgot the part about the trapped coyotes. If he uses a set with a leg hold and scent bait, just run a short chain on the trap to limit their movement and whack ‘em in the head with a pipe or bat. Just stay out of range.
A shotgun is probably the best choice, but a .22 can be pressed into service as well. .22 revolvers are classic trapper dispatching tools. A chest shot will penetrate heart and lungs and end the dog, but it will probably run off to die, if it wasn’t actually in the trap. My aunt did that with the “behind the door” .22 rifle to a 100# GSD that was in a corral trying to get a new foal. It ran off and she thought she’d missed, but when her husband got home, he told her it had piled up near the end of the 1/4 mile long driveway.
If the yote running off and dying somewhere else isn’t acceptable due to neighbors, if proximity makes potential ricochets unacceptable as well, then he just needs a shotgun. He’s just gonna have to “put on his big boy pants” and deal with whatever mess there is.
Is the concern re: neighbors with offending them with a firearm, disturbing them with gunfire, or hitting them with an errant round?
If only the first two (which are my own concerns as well), I'm still thinking about getting a H&R 72430 HANDIRIFLE 300BOTB RFL 16 to deal with coyotes and bobcats that I hears are in our neighborhood but which I haven't personally seen as yet.
But I'm a "gun guy" and it sounds like your friend maybe isn't, so for me to add a $1k can that takes me 6 months to get in my hands isn't an oddity.
I'd suggest that maybe he needs more than one gun. A .22 pistol for discretely dispatching a trapped animal, and a 12ga or 20ga for dealing with them when out loose.