20 VarTarg bullet selection for Coyote & smaller predators

17Loony

17Loony

Member
Putting a 20 VarTarg together & would like opinions bullet selection for Coyotes. Would your selection change if foxier included as well?
 
For my 20 VT specialty pistol, I use 32 gr VMax. Very fast and devastating upon arrival. I use to use some 40 gr VMax but only use those in my 20 Practical now. The 32's could splash if you hit a shoulder.
 
The 35gr Berger is always a good choice for coyote use in the smaller 20 Cals. The only problem with them is finding some because they are out of stock nearly everywhere.
 
What barrel did you get, twist, length, profile, etc?

I'm trying to decide between 20VT and 20Practical for my kid. A light 18-20" gun for walking. Either way, I'm likely to shoot 31gr Hammer Hunters for fox/coyotes and occassional ground squirrels. A little expensive but fantastic BC and penetrating performance. Probably 24gr NTX for regular varmenting and hopefully they are super accurate.

Too bad Nosler stopped making the 32gr BT lead free, that seems like the #1 multi use performer: high BC, accuracy, explosiveness. I have emailed them several times over months about production timelines, they never respond.
 
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DiRTY DOG said:
What barrel did you get, twist, length, profile, etc?

I'm trying to decide between 20VT and 20Practical for my kid. A light 18-20" gun for walking. Either way, I'm likely to shoot 31gr Hammer Hunters for fox/coyotes and occassional ground squirrels. A little expensive but fantastic BC and penetrating performance. Probably 24gr NTX for regular varmenting and hopefully they are super accurate.

Too bad Nosler stopped making the 32gr BT lead free, that seems like the #1 multi use performer: high BC, accuracy, explosiveness. I have emailed them several times over months about production timelines, they never respond.
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I know the VarTarg has a near cult like following but the 20 Practical is the easy button all the way around. Better as well as easier to find brass and it's just a simple straight one pass neck down with a common 223 bushing die and you're ready to load and go. Also, not all short actions play well with that little Fireball case.
 
I will not use the 20 cal 32 gr vmax for coyote ever again. Out of my 20p the best terminal performance, Berger 40 gr, the 35 gr very close. The Nosler 40 gr BT is decent, you will have some short run offs(30-50').
 
DiRTY DOG said:
What barrel did you get, twist, length, profile, etc?

I'm trying to decide between 20VT and 20Practical for my kid. A light 18-20" gun for walking. Either way, I'm likely to shoot 31gr Hammer Hunters for fox/coyotes and occassional ground squirrels. A little expensive but fantastic BC and penetrating performance. Probably 24gr NTX for regular varmenting and hopefully they are super accurate.

Too bad Nosler stopped making the 32gr BT lead free, that seems like the #1 multi use performer: high BC, accuracy, explosiveness. I have emailed them several times over months about production timelines, they never respond.
Click to expand...
Went with a Pacnor 11 twist 24" in length, to match a CZ Varmint contour. Seems like finding the Berger 35 & 40 grain options come around seldom at best. I had picked up some of the Hornady 45 grain spire point bullets b4 they were discontinued & as they are rather short I expect they may do rather well for work inside of 200 yards for Coyote. I know I would like to experiment with these a bit. Thought I read somewhere that the Midsouth 34 grain dog towns did surprisingly well as long as you don't intend on stretching the legs too much.

Time will tell what will work once this rifle is put together. Hoping to find a bit of a load work up, short cut I suppose. Seems like N120, H4198, A1600, A2200 & Reloader 7 all may be good propellants for this cartridge. Suppose until I try working up loads I won't know what propellant, bullet combinations the new barrel will like.
 
i'm in the midst of a testing process and have used Vmax for my .204 for quite some time. The Nosler 40gr BT have performed exceptionally well, currently I'm testing Berger 40gr BT Varmint and to date these have performed exceptional also, although it's a bit early on. The next test will be the 39gr Speer TNT.
 
I shot a couple coyote with 32 vmax out of a 204 but needed a 2nd shot. Switched to 40 vmax no more issues. I did like the 32's for fox but didn't want to risk it when a coyote shows up so use 40's for both. Should be about the same with a 20 vt.
 
Another thing is my 204 is a 12 twist. I feel with a faster twist you will be more likely to get a splash with the 32's. You made a good choice with the 11 t as it will shoot the 40's, some 12 t won't
 
So I think I have settled on a load for my 20 VT with the 45 GR SP. I doubt that I'll do much better with this projectile than the .515 C to C at 100 yards I am experiencing. Average velocity is running right at 3180 FPS on a warm spring morning. In this case 18 grains of N133 ignited by a BR4 primer seems to be doing all I was hoping for, perhaps a bit more.

Suppose I was hoping to take a cottontail from time to time & have something left for the pot. Based on a starling that was dispatched today my eyes were opened to the fact that my velocity will need to be dialed down considerably if I wish to use this offering for harvesting small table fair.

How slow do you suppose one needs to go to minimize the carnage?
 
Maybe try some Hammer bullets. They are expensive, but not really unless you're shooting high volume. For a few predators here and there it's not a big deal.
 
Ok so while I have little doubt the 45 gr SP that I happen to have in my inventory would do rather well in terms of dispatching the wily coyote. Suppose I just had a incorrect expectation that the 20 cal 45 grain projectile might be more versatile projectile than this worked out. Suppose a Hammer offering might come closer in terms of offering that versatility?
 
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