gun choke question

i have a coyote problem where i live. right now the only weapon i own is a 12 gauge benelli shotgun. i know it would be better to use slugs instead of regular shot but what choke should i use? don't want to spend the extra money on a slug barrel while i save for a rifle.

I'm partial to improved cylinder myself, but for a larger animal like that, I'd go with a full choke or tighter. Especially if you are using light pellets like bird shot.

i was wanting to use deer slugs

With a coyote I don't think it'll make much difference unless you're trying to get 'em from a distance. A 12 guage would tear open a coyote. Just get some decent buckshot and make damn sure the weapon is clean and lubed before trying to shoot anything that can attack you. I watched my cousin put two barrels of 00 Buck into a bear one night, 10 yards, no choke - I told him not to, it wasn't enough. I'll be damned if it didn't bleed out and collapse after a few hundred yards.

For the record, it was a nuisance bear, we called the game warden and he told us to take care of it ourselves if we felt capable. I was holding a 30-06 just in case.

if you're saving for a rifle, i'd just use slugs until then. no sense in wasting money on something you wont use long.

BTW, you can get a mosin nagant for less than $100 on several different websites. it's not that common a caliber and i wouldnt trust it past 100 yards, but you'd kill a coyote dead with it.

If you just have a cylinder bore, use rifled slugs.
If you have a rifled barrel, use sabot slugs.

Does your weapon have a screw-in choke? I've shot slugs out of everything, but probably a full choke isn't a good idea. You want to use a rifled slug, not a sabot. A rifled (also called Foster) is like a hollow thimble of lead. It will compress down through the choke so it's not dangerous, though a full choke could maybe be damaged. If you can screw in an improved, modified or cylinder choke, no problem. Accuracy of a rifled slug is pretty bad past 100yds. I would not use buckshot on a coyote. A coyote won't attack you--they are about 30# around here--a 45# coyote is huge. But buckshot isn't all that powerful and you are likely to only make the coyote smarter. You want to kill the damn thing when you get the chance, not teach it to be even more sneaky. I have serious doubts that you will get a chance to kill it with a shotgun. More than likely you will need a 200yd weapon.

It is possible to kill coyote with a shotgun. And buckshot. A slug would kill it, if you can hit the thing with one (although you might recover the nose and tail after hitting it with a 1oz slug).

For buckshot, you'll want a full choke. And preferably a long barrel. Couple years ago I got to use an Ithaca 37 Featherweight in 12 gauge. I was a little unsure of how well it would work, being a full choke and a 28" barrel. But when a guy I was hunting with chased a tree rat up a tree (and missed twice, causing the lil guy to come around my side of the tree), I decided to give 'er a try. I wouldn't have tried with the 870 I had been using with a 24" barrel and choke tubes, but I suspected the Ithaca might reach out the 75+ yards..... and it did. My hunting partner was not amused, but I was impressed.

But often you will not see coyote close enough to whang away at them with a scattergun and score hits.

It's possible to eat 15-bean soup and fart your way to the moon, too.

A bear is an apex predator so it's possible to get close enough to it to use a slug gun. A coyote is afraid and the world expert at avoiding humans. They thrive even in big cities--you just never see them. The times I've seen a chance to shoot one was early in the morning when they had a bad night hunting and were taking a chance. From my kitchen window to the start of the woods is 250 yards and that's the distance I would need. A shotgun--nope. They are small, and I could probably hit one through iron sites with an M16 at that range, I would prefer a scope and a bolt-action rifle of the same caliber. A varmint gun.

Buckshot is inhumane, so it should only be used on humans.

88_Eddie said:

BTW, you can get a mosin nagant for less than $100 on several different websites. it's not that common a caliber and i wouldnt trust it past 100 yards, but you'd kill a coyote dead with it.

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Depending on how worn they are they are capable well past that. I have gun magazine where they were shooting a 16" group at 1000 yards using a period correct PU scope. Not wonderfully great but still noteworthy on a 60 year old surplus rifle with a 3x scope.

Around here both Cabela's and Sheels stock bullets, for a little bit Cabela's had fancy Hornaday polymer tipped cartridges... I hope it was a feeler and they get more in because I really liked the concept.

My 1943 Ex-sniper was $100 with the tool kit and bayonet. I stuck a 2x6 pistol scope on it with a Darrel's mount and got a plastic stock to cut down on the weight. At 80yds (as far as my range is) I can do a fairly decent job keeping the holes touching. It has been a fun project but for about the same money I could have gotten an entry level rifle with a scope that shot more common amunition. With the original sights I could outshoot it with my 20ga shotgun with a $80 smooth slug barrel with rifle sights. That thick sight pin covered up the whole paper and it shot way high. I have read they were trained to use the belt buckle as a common sight referance and then the bullet which would put the bullet in the vitals. Since deer don't wear belts that didn't do me much good...

In my younger years I did sneek up well within slug range (less than 100yds) of coyotes while I was deer hunting (only shotguns are allowed in Iowa during antlered seasons) and taken a couple potshots for the heck of it, they are a small target and never seem to stand still. Later on I realised that shooting at them with my thumper didn't do my deer hunting game any good so I quit.

I have heard of people getting rifled chokes, it still has the same sound of the gun going off and then a weird thump sound as the gun farts out the slug that using more open chokes have. I am kind of leary of them and can't see where it would do the threads much good. H&R Pardner single shot shotguns are pretty cheap too, I would almost rather do that than pound on my Benelli barrel (if I had a Benelli) It would be hard to be very accurate at any kind of a range without rifle sights. 100-150 yds is about it with a rifled slug in a slug barrel, I prefer Breneke slugs which work in either smooth or rifled barrels.

my shotgun does have the screw in chokes. and i have been seeing the coyotes within 20 yards of the house. the rifle i am looking at in my hands i should be able to do 500 yards with a scope to see them because they are so dang small. i have shot up to 1200 yards while in the corps so i know my shooting.

baddis said:

my shotgun does have the screw in chokes. and i have been seeing the coyotes within 20 yards of the house. the rifle i am looking at in my hands i should be able to do 500 yards with a scope to see them because they are so dang small. i have shot up to 1200 yards while in the corps so i know my shooting.

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A shotgun will easily handle that.

if your going to use slugs. improved cylinder. if your gona use buck shot full choke.

85_Ranger4x4 said:

A shotgun will easily handle that.

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An execution at 20 yards. Pretty damn bold of them.

baddis said:

i have a coyote problem where i live. right now the only weapon i own is a 12 gauge benelli shotgun. i know it would be better to use slugs instead of regular shot but what choke should i use? don't want to spend the extra money on a slug barrel while i save for a rifle.

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I ran a check in your area (county) and I see no issues with wildlife problems. Are you talking about one or two coyotes?? Or, twenty of them. Deter them with sonic noise. It works.