As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
People who own guns finds all sorts of excuses to have piles of firearms to shoot, and never shoot them, but they are like horse owners in they like looking at them, even if they never ride them.
I have been considering varmint rifles or the perfect rifle and have come to some conclusions, and there is no better place to state them than in a Lame Cherry quote.
The best varmint rifle is one with a bipod.
- Lame Cherry
Accuracy or the ability to not wobble and hold on a target is what precise shooting requires. That only comes with a bipod so the shooter gains a steady aim. It does not matter one bit if you have a 40 inch bull barrel or an 18 inch lever action rifle, if you do not have a solid rest, your odds of making a kill shot on any animals is diminished by 80% in offhand shooting, when one is excited and when numbers of rifles never achieve MOA accuracy.
The varmint group of hunters are gun nuts, in that they are tinkerers. They are always reloading ammo, always looking for something that is faster than lightning, and lighter than a puff of smoke. The problem with that is a light bullet gets blown around by wind, and is affected by temperature more readily than a heavy bullet.
In the past the 22.250 and 220 Swift were the answer to every prayer, but in the end all you had was a small bullet roaring out on a great deal of powder extremely fast. Let us face it that most shooters are not marksmen and they could not hit a bull in the ass with a bulldozer.
Recoil always matters and so does sound. People flinch from both, and it is why the 223 is an attractive rifle, providing it is accurate, in the 150 yard range. Again there are few people who can hit anything at 200 yards, little alone 400 yards, so the 223, firing a 22 caliber bullet is a good choice.
I did notice though in reading Professor Major Boddicker of Colorado in his mentioning that his varmint rifle was a 308, again another NATO round. I pondered that and it made sense as the ammunition is available, is cheap, is full metal jacket to not blow up fur, puts a larger 30 caliber hole in a coyote, and makes them very sick even with a bad hit............and will reach out and touch a coyote to 400 yards if one hangs up at that range, as lamb killers are prone to do.
This leads me to the best coyote rifle, because it calls for another Lame Cherry quote:
The best coyote rifle is the one you already own.
-Lame Cherry
I do not like wildcat loads which one has to reload. I do not like having to reload. I do not like expensive ammo. That would fill the position of the 223 Remington, 308 Winchester and the 30.06 Springfield. If one has those cheap Russian Moissan Naggant in 30 caliber, they would be just as 7.62 accurate with a bipod as anything else with cheap ammo.
If I were building a rifle it would mean people had donated volumes of money, so instead my rifle is an Indian rifle my dad picked up cheap many moons ago, a 742 Remington with a 4 power Bushnell in 30.06 that does not feed the best all the time, but it does kill things when I put a round into critters.
Building a rifle though, meaning buying one and adding things, would have me procuring a pump action rifle in 223, 243, 308 or 30.06. I would mount a scope with a 24 or 36 power setting, because I like being up close and easy to shoot in a scope. Yes the bipod, and I would camo it over with paint, but I would add one feature in I would put a silencer on it, so it would make the big bang, nothing to flinch at or to let varmints know what I was accomplishing.
The silencer is an additional feature not found on numbers of rifles which should be for hunting. It is second only to the high powered scope.
So for most people with a coyote rifle, all they need is a bipod to make their deer rifles into something they can put lethal holes in coyotes. Yes I would love to have walls of guns to look over in delight, because I have a need, but when it comes down to it, it is about a larger caliber for bullet stability, a bipod for your stability and a scope of high power so you can make a shot at distance as if the varmint was shitting on your gun barrel.
Nuff Said
agtG
