predator hunting

[Rancocas]

Anyone ever try predator hunting with a muzzleloader?
I've been thinking of building a .45 half stock percussion rifle and using it on coyotes. .45 caliber because I already have the barrel for it.
I hunt thick forests so the shots should be within 50 yds. or so.
Last autumn while camping out in the mountains near here I heard 3 separate packs of coyotes yodeling at the same time. It was the best of stereo as they called back and forth from ridgetop to valley. They sang for me all night long.

 

I've done it in the past but not in recent years. I used a 45 Pennsylvania, percussion, same caliber you mentioned, and it was plenty for yodel dogs at the ranges you're talking about. Great sport!

Vic

 

[Plains99]

I hunt a lot of coyotes with muzzleloaders. The .45 round ball will take them down but they usually run even with solid chest shots. It is effective on coyotes out to 100 yards. A good .50 caliber load is something in the range of 180 to 240 grains such as XTP's, Noslers, Precision Rifle Spitzers, and Keith Nose bullets. White sells a 320-grain PowerStar that works very well on coyotes. Hide damage is usually minimal... much less than a .243, .308 and often even .223.

 

[musketman]

Predator Hunting:

Do you mean the animal or the alien? :haha:

OK, the animal... :winking:

I have taken the deadly fox squirrel with a muzzleloader, as well as the semi-dangerous 'possum...

OK, so I never taken a REAL predator, but I seen a few coyote-looking dogs on TV before... ::

 

[Stumpkiller]

I usually don't shoot predators out of professional courtesy - like a presidential cantidate never catching a virus - but coyotes cross the line into vermin territory.

Snakes? Snakes are predators aren't they? And Frogs? Preying mantisses. . .es? Garden spiders? As a rule, if it ain't headed for the pot any more I don't put a hole in it. Burnt out a ground wasp nest last fall, but I guess that was more terrorism than hunting.

 

[Zonie]

I've talked to a lot of fathers who would have been happy to shoot their daughters pre-dater when they saw the creep walking up the front walkway to the door.

(Predater: Pre: before, Dater: a person who goes out on dates. Late USA. One who has not succeded in taking your daughter out on their first date.)

Can't say I've heard of any of the fathers following thru on their desire with a muzzle-loader but you know the thought was there. :haha:

 

[Chuck Deaton]

One summer I was in the kitchen and my wife was mowing. Suddenly the door flew open and the wife ran screaming into the kichen and was tearing her clothes off. No I'm not that attactive. Seems she mowed over a nest of ground hornets and then turned around and on the next pass she mowed over the nest again. This time the hornets flew into her shirt.

Ground hornets, terrorists, predators my wife would say so.