A personal best, 6 in one night, solo

H

Hecouldgoalltheway

Well-known member
Unfortunately, I only got 4 on video. I had swapped my thermal to a different rifle today, and had turned the pre-record off so I wouldn't have 20 videos of zeroing shots.

1st stand was blank.

2nd stand, I called in 5 total, killed 2, no video. I set up in a long but relatively narrow field that I have hunted many times over the years, and started calling. Within a few minutes, I scanned to my hard right which had suddenly become my downwind and saw a coyote coming in on a rope. I knew I'd have seconds to shoot before he winded me and bolted, so I dropped my scanner and swung my rifle just in time to see him get a nose full and make an evasive maneuver out of sight. I swung my rifle back to the center of the field, and immediately had my scope filled with heat signatures. A group of 4 had run in all the way to the call and were hauling the other way by the time I realized it. I shot the first one on a dead sprint at about 90y, in the skull. The 87gr v-max from the 6cm looked like a firecracker exploding in my scope. I jacked another round immediately and picked the next target. I missed several times, but one of them had decided to run straight away, so I got him with a Texas heart shot at just shy of 300y. He rolled and jumped back up, continuing to move away. I spent the remaining rounds in my magazine trying to finish it, but couldn't connect as he limped into the tree line. I'm certain it didn't last a few more seconds, but I didn't trudge a half mile through the ankle deep mud to drag him a mile out in the deep mud. The mission is elimination, so, mission accomplished. I was really excited about the video this was going to produce, so I smiled all the way back to the truck, then realized that it hadn't been pre-recording. Bummer.

3rd stand. If you watch the video, you'll see that the first round blew viscera out the rear, and as it makes the circle, blood is painting the ground. The running shots are abysmal here, no excuse. I didn't recover this one either, because until I watched the video, I thought I had somehow missed. Shot was about 150y.


About 2 minutes later, and after switching to a den raid type sound, this one came in to about 220y. I have a 200y zero, but I almost held a little too low here, thinking it was a out 150 when I pulled the trigger. It went down pretty fast.


4th stand. This is a massive pasture that I've hunted many times, for years. I watched him come in from a long way out, close to a mile. At one point I thought I lost him, but then he popped out at about 150y. The first shot hit him, and I'm not sure how he soaked it up and stayed on his feet, but the second one was in the skull, and well, you can't tough your way through those.


5th stand. I was sneaking in and scanning, came over a hill and caught these two lounging. The male was the one I hit, a big boy, 40lbs+, so that female hit the road hard. I tried to call her back for a long time, but she wasn't having it.


Made a dry stand after that and called it a night. I'm actually pretty unhappy with this load. I've used the 87gr v-max in the 6arc with good results for several years, and the 6cm load is just a little faster, (125fps), and it really didn't put any of these coyotes down with authority, other than the head shots. I'm going to load some lighter BT's at the speed of light and fix that problem. Thanks for watching.
 
This is the moment of impact on the unrecovered coyote in the first video (stand 3). As you can see, his vital fluids have been blown out the rear, but somehow, he was on his feet for at least another 500y. They are tough.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20250202_051606_Signal.jpg
    Screenshot_20250202_051606_Signal.jpg
    19.1 KB · Views: 28
You got into them good for sure! I wouldn't write of the 87's so fast. I'm not criticizing because I make marginal shots and miss all the stinking time but some of the issue is shot placement, or best I could tell it was. I did like the cussing, reminded me of me lol.

What scope, and what do you think of the purple color?
 
204 AR said:
You got into them good for sure! I wouldn't write of the 87's so fast. I'm not criticizing because I make marginal shots and miss all the stinking time but some of the issue is shot placement, or best I could tell it was. I did like the cussing, reminded me of me lol.

What scope, and what do you think of the purple color?
Click to expand...
Thank you. I know some of the shots looked low, but only one actually was, the rest are boiler room. We'll, except the one that ran out of the frame, that was center chest. There is room for improvement though. I have a 200y zero, so I'm almost 2" high at 100y, which had me holding a low poa. It's an agm adder 640x50. I'm kinda regretting not spending the extra $1k for the lrf now. I've played with all of the color schemes, and that one, (they call it "fusion") seems to give me the best picture for my eyes. It also doesn't seem to wipe out my vision as bad as white hot or black hot.
 
Ah the mid range rise, makes sense. I've never tried other colors much. I just couldn't get used to black hot but my buddy uses it all the time.

Rangefinders, yeah I like it and mine actually compensates when you need to hold low for close range shots. Or if you need to hold high on super close shots on small targets. I haven't looked at enough adders to know a rangefinder was an option. Pretty soon lrf will be the standard I bet, just like recording video and audio.
 
204 AR said:
Ah the mid range rise, makes sense. I've never tried other colors much. I just couldn't get used to black hot but my buddy uses it all the time.

Rangefinders, yeah I like it and mine actually compensates when you need to hold low for close range shots. Or if you need to hold high on super close shots on small targets. I haven't looked at enough adders to know a rangefinder was an option. Pretty soon lrf will be the standard I bet, just like recording video and audio.
Click to expand...
Yeah, black hot doesn't work for my eyes at all. I almost panic when trying to look through it, as I'm certain I'm missing something. It's just so bright too, that when I pull my eye away, I can't even see the remote for at least a minute or two. I feel like lrf should probably be standard since it's so hard to judge range in those things. I want to go back to our earlier conversation about these bullets though. The coyote that I hit on the run, the first shot was essentially perfect. I went out and looked at the coyote in the bed of my truck, and that bullet hit it straight up from the leg, right in the shoulder, went in and out the other side with almost no expansion. It ran like it hadn't even been hit. It's possible that I got a bad batch of bullets or something, because I've been shooting v-max bullets primarily for a long time, and I've seen a few anomalies, but nothing as lackluster as what happened to some of these. This is where that shot broke, and impact was about 1.5" higher than my poa.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20250202_140007_Chrome.jpg
    Screenshot_20250202_140007_Chrome.jpg
    35.8 KB · Views: 16
Last edited:
I guess a bad batch of them is possible. I thought you were saying they splashed, I don't think I've ever had one pencil through. Interesting. Most all of mine are blems, I bought them at the factory for 7 bucks a box several years ago when they sold them off themselves. Now blems aren't really a bargain any more. I have about 600 left, I've been contemplating what I'll go to next. With your 8 twist, have you considered the new 80 eldvt? Hard to believe but they say a 9 won't work with them.
 
204 AR said:
I guess a bad batch of them is possible. I thought you were saying they splashed, I don't think I've ever had one pencil through. Interesting. Most all of mine are blems, I bought them at the factory for 7 bucks a box several years ago when they sold them off themselves. Now blems aren't really a bargain any more. I have about 600 left, I've been contemplating what I'll go to next. With your 8 twist, have you considered the new 80 eldvt? Hard to believe but they say a 9 won't work with them.
Click to expand...
I bought a case of them loaded for the 6arc, but haven't put them to use yet. I've got probably 5k bullets for the 6mm stuff, everything from the 55gr bt to the 115gr dtac, and everything in between. I'm always playing with something different, but like you, I'm loaded up on 87gr v-max. These were factory loaded ammo, and the mv was really slow, but I don't think that was the problem since they've worked so well in the arc. I'm thinking of loading the 55gr bt at about 4k over some rl15. Ive got a few hundred pieces of new nosler brass, I may see what it can handle..🤣
 
jmeddy said:
Jus figured it out. Big dummy, just follow the instructions.
Anyhow, thanks and I thought I was 'listening' to a Pa Mick vid :ROFLMAO: --the exact reason my mic is always off:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
I didn't know the rules about my sailor language, that was why I age restricted them. I'm usually the only person that sees these. I'll have to try to remember everyone can hear what I whisper in the dark.
 
Back
Top