Soilarch

I'd have to agree that FMJ aren't the answer. Regardless of how many varmint guys use them, I don't like the idea of my bullets bouncing around. Barnes are expensive, there are other "penetrators" out there for less. Here my big suggestion, if you're confident enought in range estimation get a heavy bullet and load sloww...makes for cheap rounds, and easy easy shooting once you find a recipe that agrees with your gun. Even the mildest 308 will stomp on a coyote pretty good.

HighDesertWolf

how do you figure bouncing around?? FMJ's are lead core if they hit a rock they will fragment like any other bullet. steel core bullets on the other hand will bounce around a bit before they finally stop.

Little Bow Man 1

.308 Hornady 110 TAP

Soilarch

I'm sorry, to my knowledge if FMJ "glance" an object they are alot more likely to ricochet then many other types of bullets. Yes ALL bullets will ricochet and FMJ WILL fragment...there are always the exceptions.

charlie brown

HDW and I must be in the minority here. lol

Where I live and have the opportunity to go coyote hunting, I can point in any direction and not have a house in sight for at least 10 miles, maybe more. The longest a .308 Win bullet will travel is about 2.5 miles or so. Even if it does deflect, it won't go very far, and will most likely just fragment anyway. Barnes even lists there Solids as varmint bullets. Bullets do ricochet, but by the time they do, they have lost most of there power anyway, so there is no real harm. And if you hit a coyote with a .308 round anyway, I don't believe he would be getting back up and running far enough to make it out of sight.

HighDesertWolf

where I hunt is in the far southeast end of yavapai county, other then my friends ranch there are no other houses for atleast 10 miles. so know exactly what you mean charlie.

killer243

here are some things for you to think about. if a fmj bullet goes through an animal and dosen't open "it isn't supposed to" the bullet dosen't have much friction to slow it down so it comes out a lot faster then a bullet which will open up and lose almost all it's K.E. and speed inside the animal. think about it. that is 1 reason why they will ricochet more then other bullets

reason #2- on a miss if a bullet hits a rock the tip should push into the rear of the bullet opening it up just like it would in an animal and this will cause it to lose it's energy. where a fmj bullet isn't supposed to open up so there is a much greater chance it will hit and not lose much energy and be deflected into the unknown.

now don't get me wrong i'm not saying that fmj's won't open up or fragment but they are not supposed to so chances are that most of the time they won't. think about it the reason you suggested using them was that they aren't supposed to open up so the exit should be almost as small as the entrance.

if you don't believe me run some test and do some research

charlie brown

I know that a FMJ bullet will not open up when it goes through an animal (for most cases anyway). When I mentioned fragmenting, I was referring to a bullet hitting a rock, or other solid object, which would cause it to fragment, so the bullet will not travel very far. I am not concerned about ricochet either way, and I think a lot of people put too much thought into it. Say a coyote is about 200 yds out, you are in a prone position, so you are about 10" off the ground anyway. The coyotes chest is about 14" off the ground. By the time the bullet gets to the coyote, it will be doing probably around 2300-2400 FPS, it hits the coyote, causing hydrostatic shock, displacing the liquid in the dog's chest, and still exiting with a bigger hole than a 22 caliber bullet will leave. It leaves the coyote with a good portion of its energy expended. After about another 200 yds, the bullet will have dropped a total of about 30 something inches, easily putting it right into the dirt. If it hits a rock at that distance, chances are it would ricochet, but again, would not go very far because of the energy lost when a bullet hits an object. This would be if you were shooting on a perfectly level piece of property. I know of very few areas that offer such a luxury. The bullet would easily encounter other objects, like logs, brush, or a hillside before it even made it to 400 yds. If you are shooting in an area where there is a chance of even shooting in the direction of a house anyway, and the distance is not at least a mile away, the .308 would just be a bad choice overall anyway.

HighDesertWolf

went and got some 125 grain TNT hollow points for my 308, I'm currently working up the load. when im happy enough with the accuracy I'm gonna take it out for yotes. Ill keep you all posted of the results as soon as I nail one with it. Im thinking its gonna be pretty explosive, Maybe the yote will feel like a P-dog on some 22-250 medicine.

drinks

Gopher;
If you handload, pulled military bullets are really cheap.
Another way to go would be to use cast gas check bullets, 2000 - 2200 fps is easy to get, usually very accurate and will expand somewhat in the varmit and have a lower risk of causing damage from ricochet .
I load cast in .243, .303 Savage, 7.5 SR and 7.62x54R and have good results in all but the 7.62x54R.