Coyote Rifles & Bullets

Advice from a 50-Year Veteran

- L.P. Brezny

It was a mid-winter day in the late 1960s when the big gyp (female) coyote came rolling out of a shallow draw and broke out across a cut cornfield, giving me a crossing shot at about 200 yards. I was on a fox drive with snowshoes in deep powder, and as such, my rifle was a very lightweight Thompson/Center Contender carbine. I pushed the crosshairs a full body length ahead of the running dog and held just above the ears.

The Remington factory 40-grain lead bullet went downrange, and when it met the coyote’s chest it cut through both lungs, sending the animal to the ground in a cloud of snow. It was a low-tech shot to be sure, but these were, for the most part, average varmint loads shot from a popular cartridge of the day in the middle of Minnesota farm country.

Up to that point in time I had worked with and reloaded .30-06 cartridges for a pre-’64 Model 70 Winchester, the above illustrated .22 Hornet and a lone standout performer in my rifle rack. It was a real varmint-gunning cartridge, a factory variant of the old and well-established .22-250 wildcat that I had used for coyotes and fox. The rifle was a Remington Model 700 BDL with a 28inch barrel stamped “.22-250 Remington.” Life was simple, and few decisions were required regarding what ammunition or handloading components to buy at the local hardware store. Bullets, for the most part, were bulk war surplus, Korean-vintage stock in the .30 caliber, and those for the rest of the pack included pure lead bullets, half-jacket gas check bullets or basic jacketed softnose bullets.

Nosler Ballistic Tip