Coyote hunting with 69 TMKs

C

Coyote-conquest

Member
I finally decided to go coyote hunting today and figured I would switch it up and take a 556 AR instead of the usual 6x6.8.
I wanted to try some 69 TMKs over some 8208 that Ive had laying around for a year or so. I mean after all I was assured I can hunt moose with the 77s so 69s should definitely be good enough for coyotes.
I did pretty good for the first time out this year. It was a nice cool day. I ended up shooting 3. I didnt have very good results with the TMKs though. 2 were splashes. First was a slightly raking shot that hit a rib. Ended up with an at least 5" hole. He made it about 25 yards across a creek. Im not sure how he wasnt anchored by looking at the damage.
The 2nd actually went between the ribs and it took 30 minutes to find him. He made it about 50 yards in some thick stuff. I don't think I would've found him if I didn't have my dog with me. It took a while to find where I hit him. He just had a .224 sized hole.
The third one looked like it may have nicked his hip bone or maybe grenaded off a rib. It was hard to tell what exactly happened. It was a massive hole. I almost put a 2nd one in him. He was spinning and I was afraid he would eventually straighten up and run off. He went down in a dip or I would've.
Has anyone else hunted with the 69 TMKs? Have you had better luck? I know 3 isn't enough to judge from but at this point I'm going back to the 6x6.8 with a 70 gr BT.
 
I would think you answered your own question. 1 in 50 is an anomaly, 3 for 3 is proof enough for me that the bullet isn't suited for hunting. I get one bad one in the first couple kills and that bullet gets relegated to the target pile.

There are a lot of good proven hunting bullets out there, 50/55 gr NBT, 55gr Vmax, 55gr SPs,, 52gr Speer Varmint HP, I even killed a couple last year with some bulk 62gr SPs.
 
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Not trying to dig up an old post but I have some info to share from my experiences.

Match bullets dump all their energy into a target like a varmint bullet. You typically won't get a pass-through with them which kills your blood trail. Most match and varmint rounds don't perform well when shooting through a shoulder. So aim for a headshot or neck/chest.

I have killed a dozen whitetail deer with match bullets. They perform well if the shot placement is good.

223 Rem (AR)- 77Gr TMK
224 Valk (AR)- 88gr ELD-M
 
I haven’t shot that many with the TMKs yet but here’s some shoulder shots with the 77 TMK. Big holes and all died without fuss. I use the 77TMK as a deer bullet too and it’s a devastating bullet from my limited experience.
 

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