I prefer to have better trajectory and perhaps quicker kills out to 200yds than some of the slower, heavier and more-rigid bullets might provide. My quarries are usually under 30 lbs, including most of Central Maine's coyotes.
Walkabout Varmint Rifle
- Thread starter Picher
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I figured your coyotes were bigger than that. They tend to be larger up north out here.
MachIVshooter
Member
You can watch the bullet's vapor trail through the scope.
I forgot to mention the suppressor is part of that estimated weight.
The base rifle is I think 6-3/4 pounds. ~12 ounce scope, half pound bipod, about 1 lb for muzzle brake & can.
Get you one of these:
Or these:
in .25-20. Not quite as fast as .256, but still able to push 60 grainers @ 2,100, and running 85 gr. cast bullets at 1,000 through a good can is silent death on small game and varmints with a bit more authority than .22 LR.
They may be larger in Northern Maine because of the amount of snow they have to cope with? Deer are often taller also.
This is the reason I like my little Browning Low Wall 223 for a walking varminter. I just fired this 16 round group this afternoon burning up some screw around ammo. 50 grain Hornady VMax in a regular Winchester case with no special prep. Extreme spread and SD basically suck at 98 fps and 28. 100 yards off a portable bench with front and rear bags.
View attachment 974882
View attachment 974882
lightman
Member
I can't walk and stalk anymore like I used to but I guess my Remington Model 600 in 222 would qualify. Its topped with an older Swarovski 3X9 scope. The M600 in 222 usually cost quite a bit more than the 243 and 308's but I found mine at the Tulsa Gun Show for a reasonable price.
The M600 is an interesting little beast. The short little barrel makes it a joy to carry. Nice find on the 222. I currently have a Mohawk 600 .243 and I certainly wouldn't mind owning a 222 or a 6mm Rem, but they are all expensive now.
Nice rifle. Nice weight. Only issue is it don't love the 223.View attachment 971368 My Rem 700 Stainless, 21" barreled .223 "Light Varmint" rifle. Easy to carry, fun to shoot! Has a blued replacement firing pin assembly, because the stainless one dragged, causing poor ignition and these were on-sale. "Sweet" replacement trigger is a Canjar. Bought the rifle (used), from LL Bean's Freeport store. The Remington "Repair Center" failed to find/repair the ignition problem.
Now it's great and has been "rewarded" with this Bushnell 3-12X scope (on sale). It's a bit big, but okay for now. It has a military rangefinder reticle that's a bit too fine at lower powers. Anyway, it's a nice rifle to carry on "walkabouts" or coyote "surveys" in the fields/roads down back. It's a half-minute or better rifle now.
She weighs 8.4 lbs. with scope shown. (Also, Picher-bedded, like all my rifles.)
22-250 is my preferred cartridge for quick UKD shots.
Nice rifle. Nice weight. Only issue is it don't love the 223.
22-250 is my preferred cartridge for quick UKD shots.
I had a couple of .22-250s and it is a good cartridge, but the .223 is more popular and ammo is both easier to find and easier on brass, if you're a reloader. I can find lots of good .223 once-fired brass at the range, not so much with .22-250. I've had two .22-250s and they worked well, but a bit "overbore" compared with the .223 and cases stretch more, due to body taper. I tended to use the .22-250 for larger game than intended, including deer. I don't do that with the .223, but it has disposed of eastern coyotes quite well, and with a little less noise to bother neighbors. When I had .22-250s, .223 wasn't as popular for varmint and target shooting and most found brass was military cases.
All of those points are valid. On the other side. I don't go to public ranges. So range brass is moot.
22-250 ammo is still available at a LGS.
I did buy a 556 bolt gun recently and am starting to like it as a target gun.
I don't go to public ranges either, but I still find plenty of 223 brass. The black rifle folks like to just leave piles of it out in the desert. My mission in that regard is two fold; to clean up the landscape and score free brass. I have hundreds of pieces of brass now. Since my 223 is a falling block single shot, my chances of running out of brass in the next hundred years is nil.
Nice rifle. Nice weight. Only issue is it don't love the 223.
22-250 is my preferred cartridge for quick UKD shots.
Yep, 22-250 is king.
Mine, a Ruger M77/22 Hornet. I bought it circa 1996 in Mesa, Arizona. I used it for peccary hunting and since sniping other various varmints. About 8 pounds 10 ounces.
Gray stainless with target barrel and a Swift 4X12 scope.
Gray stainless with target barrel and a Swift 4X12 scope.
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The barrel and headspace is good on yours? I replaced the barrel on mine...
Mine is fine. I bought the shim kit but never used it as my rifle seems okay in that regard. I know there have been some issues along that way for some rifles. I mostly reload for mine with the Hornady 35 grain V-Max and Lil'Gun powder. It groups well.
I bought mine in 1997 and it had problems. It's a 22 K hornet now with a Shilen barrel. I sometimes use that same bullet and powder, but I prefer the 40 flat base hollow points from Barnes or Nosler and some AA1680 or W680. Better for the heavier stuff.
Did the new barrel solve your head space? I assume it did. I might consider a new barrel for mine, fluted to reduce weight and maybe go to a .17 Hornet or leave it as a .22 Hornet. I can see that the K Hornet might enjoy a heavier bullet.
Gordon
Member
Mine was for two decades a Weatherby .224 Varmintmaster and it was amazing on deer with the 55 grain factory load at about 3300 FPS, devastating on predators as far as you could hit them which was about 400 yards for me. I sold it for alot 5 years or so and bought this Weatherby Vanguard Predator in .22-250 , I had the chamber reamed to .250 AI as that is what I reload my .22-250 into. The rifle is also pillar bedded and I put a Timney Trigger in it as it is the earlier model trigger and was pretty non adjustable. The scope is an then new BUSHNELL Elite Tactical 5-15x40mm Matte (1 Inch Tube) Mil-Dot Reticle with 3" sunshade, AO (Rain Guard)
that I bought on sale when the newer 30mm side paralax $1000 ones came out , it is brite and precise in Deadnutz Gamereaper mounts ! The rifle weighs in the 8 pound range so isn't "light" . BTWI do have a Remington 25-20 pump , ready to go around my small ranch in Ca.. This .22-250 is for more open spaces. I keep it in my PU and it comes out alot in Oregon wilderness and trips from my place there. It is a little too small a caliber IMHO for a deer or elk hunting rig, but all coyotes ect. are dead meat to 400+ yards once on it's bipod !
that I bought on sale when the newer 30mm side paralax $1000 ones came out , it is brite and precise in Deadnutz Gamereaper mounts ! The rifle weighs in the 8 pound range so isn't "light" . BTWI do have a Remington 25-20 pump , ready to go around my small ranch in Ca.. This .22-250 is for more open spaces. I keep it in my PU and it comes out alot in Oregon wilderness and trips from my place there. It is a little too small a caliber IMHO for a deer or elk hunting rig, but all coyotes ect. are dead meat to 400+ yards once on it's bipod !
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Back when I was a teen, I saved all my chore and work money (50 cents an hour working for my family's business) and had more money in my pockets than I carry today. I decided that I was going to have a hunting rifle, and the most common in that time was a .30-06. Okay, then I needed something to shoot it in, so looked around, and this company named Savage had just come out with a bolt-action Model 110 that was cheaper that the Winchester 70, so I bought one. The stock wasn't great...low comb that busted me in the face and shoulder pretty hard when firing from a rest. It needed a scope and I'd used my savings up pretty much, so ended up with a Weaver K 2.5, which a National Rifleman article told me that had almost equivalent sighting accuracy to a 10X target scope.
After getting the stock glassbedded/freefloated using boat repair epoxy (boat shop next to my favorite gun store), I mounted the scope and sighted it in with factory ammo and it shot pretty well. I borrowed my Dad's truck or my sister's car to go woodchuck hunting and was "hooked". A few months later, a guy in the neighborhood had heard I was a pretty good shot and asked if I'd like to go chuck hunting with him. He also had a .30-06 and wanted to practice for deer season by hunting chucks and crows...and so we did!
My rifle was comfortable in the fields and I made a stand-alone bipod out of bent an sweated 1/2" copper tubing that I could stick in the ground to rest the rifle on. It also could be carried in my back jeans pocket, being only about 12" long.
We kept track of all the kills one spring and we each got about 15 chucks that averaged about 220 yards. We didn't keep track of the closer, offhand shots. Eventually, I got a press and started loading ammo, then bought a .22-250, which was really nice to shoot, but my kill percentage may have gone down a bit because those little 53 grain bullets didn't bounce for crap, so we had to hit the chucks without hitting anything else first.
Sorry for the long post. Picture below of the Savage/Picher .30-06 with Bishop/Picher stock, made in 1959 +/-, also the bipod I made from copper tubing.
JP
After getting the stock glassbedded/freefloated using boat repair epoxy (boat shop next to my favorite gun store), I mounted the scope and sighted it in with factory ammo and it shot pretty well. I borrowed my Dad's truck or my sister's car to go woodchuck hunting and was "hooked". A few months later, a guy in the neighborhood had heard I was a pretty good shot and asked if I'd like to go chuck hunting with him. He also had a .30-06 and wanted to practice for deer season by hunting chucks and crows...and so we did!
My rifle was comfortable in the fields and I made a stand-alone bipod out of bent an sweated 1/2" copper tubing that I could stick in the ground to rest the rifle on. It also could be carried in my back jeans pocket, being only about 12" long.
We kept track of all the kills one spring and we each got about 15 chucks that averaged about 220 yards. We didn't keep track of the closer, offhand shots. Eventually, I got a press and started loading ammo, then bought a .22-250, which was really nice to shoot, but my kill percentage may have gone down a bit because those little 53 grain bullets didn't bounce for crap, so we had to hit the chucks without hitting anything else first.
Sorry for the long post. Picture below of the Savage/Picher .30-06 with Bishop/Picher stock, made in 1959 +/-, also the bipod I made from copper tubing.
JP
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My gunsmith threaded the barrel for a tighter headspace. The Shilen is a select match barrel and is larger in diameter, but shorter (20 inches). I wouldn't go with flutes myself as it doesn't lighten the weight significantly. I hear flutes are good for cooling, but I can shoot a hornet all day without any heat. 40 grain bullets aren't heavy in the realm of hornet bullets. Many factory loads come (or used to come) with a 45 grain bullet. What the K hornet does for you is straighten the case out for better life and increase the powder room a tad. I don't load mine hot at all, but if I did, I could probably get another 100 fps over a regular hornet. With hornet ballistics, it just doesn't matter that much. I try to get coyotes inside a hundred yards and I don't shoot much of anything over, say, 125. The hornet is NOT a power house. It is quiet though. I can easily shoot mine without hearing protection.
If I feel the need for more power, I grab a 22-250.
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I have a little Weatherby Vanguard VGL that I use for walking varmint hunting most of the time.It has a 20 inch pencil barrel chambered for 223.A 3X9 Leupold Is plenty of scope for the closer ranges that rifle works good at.My favorite varmint rifle still isn't too heavy,and I do occasionally walk with it,especially when coyote hunting.It's a Remington 788 that I fitted an H-S precision stock to,and it sends 52 grain A-Max's at 3900 FPS,which makes for a very flat shooting load out to 400 yards or so.With a nice light Timney trigger and a 4.5X14 Leupold,it's one of my all time favorite rifles.
gotboostvr
Member
I kind of wish that Savage offered the model 25 with a 18-20" lightweight barrel, instead of the 22" Medium contour.
#7 isn't HEAVY, but that ends up >#8 scoped and loaded.
If I could find a off-the-shelf 223 carbine that weighs around #7 loaded up I might be interested in one as a dedicated 'yote gun. As-is, I'll just haul my ~#9 308win around.
#7 isn't HEAVY, but that ends up >#8 scoped and loaded.
If I could find a off-the-shelf 223 carbine that weighs around #7 loaded up I might be interested in one as a dedicated 'yote gun. As-is, I'll just haul my ~#9 308win around.
I thought my rifle had headspace problems, but it turned out to be a sticky mainspring, after checking headspace. The factory service center didn't catch it, but I bought a new firing pin/mainspring combo on-sale from Remington and it cured the problem.
Good luck with that mission. Based on your comments, I just weight surveyed the rifles I have that I could logically classify as walking varmint rifles. All weights include optics, but NO ammo.
1) Remington Mohawk 600, 243 Win. This is the ONLY true bolt action carbine I own. Glass is a Redfield Revolution 2-7x33mm. Weight is 8 lbs even.
2) Browning 1885, 223 Rem. Glass is a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9x40mm. Weight is 8.16 lbs.
3) Custom Ruger 77/22 VHZ with Shilen Select Match 20 inch barrel. 22 K Hornet. Sightron SIH 3-9-40mm. Weight is 9.18 lbs (OOOMPH!!)
4) Cooper M54, 22-250. Glass is a Leupold VX-II 3-9x40mm. Weight is 8.18 lbs.
Note that the carbine is the lightest, but not by much. Given today's trend of adding the biggest, baddest tactical scope available, I would think that the weights I recorded are not too bad, but they are far from light if you compare it to my 5.25 lb 20 ga. Franchi AL48 shotgun. Or the 6 lb M16A1 I carried in the Army.
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