Crosman .25 Marauder for coyotes?

[stephenst4470]

I have a 25 Armada and I wouldn't shoot one with it. I consider my 30s the minimum to humanely kill an animal that size. I'm sure the Armada would kill it eventually, but I wouldn't have a ton of confidence in it's ability to drop one like my Dynamic.

 

[BlackICE]

It would work with job brain shot if the gun was tuned to 40+ FPE at a range of <25 yards. The problem is the yotes don't keep their heads still much and anywhere else won't likely kill it DRT.

 

[WNYBill]

Coyotes are tough critters IMHO shooting one with anything under 500 fpe is inhumane and unethical. Local yote hunters say 223 is min, they no longer use a 17 cal. Most have gone to 243 for over 150 yards.

 

[Calson]

It comes down to the bullet and the accuracy of the shot. A clean head shot is quite different from a hit anywhere else. I have coyotes cross over my property and when I trap gophers I leave them out for them to eat. Rodents are their primary food source and so killing them makes no sense at all. Stray cats are a different matter entirely.

 

[fishing43]

Just remember that it takes a lot of red meat to feed 1 coyote per year.

 

[JimD]

While I agree a 25 Marauder (and my 25 P35) is weak for coyotes I don't think it's good to compare fpe for powder burners to airguns. Airguns are more like pistols. Higher fpe means bigger diameter projectiles moving much slower than PB rifles. The formula for fpe squares the velocity making it terribly important. I use it all the time too but I think you need to be comparing similar projectiles with a similar range of velocity for it to make sense. The PB rule-of-thumb is 1000 fpe for deer, for instance, and almost no air rifle is this powerful. But several states permit air rifles at less than 300 fpe. But the air rifle will be a 357 or larger to get to that energy. Most PB deer rifles are 30 caliber or less. The PB has to expand to make a similar size hole which takes energy. They are just different. Not better and worse, just different.

My opinion is that an airgun for coyotes should be at least a more powerful 25 caliber and preferably a 30 caliber or bigger. As with any gun an expert who is very careful with placement can get the job done with less but I think it is wise to have some margin for non-optimum placement.

 

[Corvid_hunter]

If you can consistently hit a inch target at 30 to 40 yards, a head shot will put them down at that distance.

 

[tahoeacr]

What pellets are you using on them?

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I couldn't find my notebook. My favorite is Predator GTO 11.75 g. These I can hit pellet on pellet at 26yds. Over the Winter I set up a range in my garage to test others. 18.9 yards. When I turned the gun all the way up for heavier pellets, the Predators went to a 3/8" group. What I found out was the semi auto was optimized for 16 gr pellets. My results showed the same. 22gr and over would start jamming and tearing up the magazines. My target was 3/4 inch 5 ply. The Hornet 16.20 gr shot 1" group 24.4 ft lb , 835 fps and splintered out the back of the plywood. Haven't tried these yet cause the yotes rarely come down my street anymore. The JSB Exact Jumbo rs 13.4 also splintered out the back but only shot 726fps @ 16.8ft lb. I haven't messed with pressures on each pellet yet to see if I can approve on them. After I go shoot 30 yd and 50 yd I'm going to see. Predator polymag shorts 15.89 weren't very consistent. 1" group 756-773 fps. 20.6 ft.lb. However, today I had a mouse stuck on a sticky pad that was still alive. 9.5 yd shot and the poly mags were what was loaded in the gun already. Incredible damage. Never seen that with any pellet. I'm going to see if backing down the speed will make them more accurate.