Other budget friendly coyote whacker

I am thinking a 35 caliber airgun is more appropriate for a coyote unless you know they are small. I started a thread back in hunting where I compared a 22lr to several assumed airguns in 25, 30 and 35 caliber using fpe but also a couple other effectiveness factors that are designed to take more seriously larger slower moving projectiles. A 25 caliber airgun would have to be extra powerful, inconsistent with a $1000 budget, to beat a 22 lr by any measure. Doesn't mean it couldn't work but I think it means you are likely to wound as much as you get DRT results (I think a 22 lr is too small for a coyote). 30 caliber gets to about 22 lr killing power but not much above it regardless of measure. Interestingly a fairly low powered 357 (I assumed 700 fps on 81 grain pellet) was lower on fpe but significantly higher on the other two measures than a 22 lr. I think that is significant. It will poke a big hole without any expansion and penetration should be enough. I think a Benjamin Bulldog would shoot that pellet faster than this and a SPA M60b might be a bit slower. But both would be in budget and I think either would be a good choice for a short range coyote air rifle. AEA makes some guns that should be fine too.
 
I am thinking a 35 caliber airgun is more appropriate for a coyote unless you know they are small. I started a thread back in hunting where I compared a 22lr to several assumed airguns in 25, 30 and 35 caliber using fpe but also a couple other effectiveness factors that are designed to take more seriously larger slower moving projectiles. A 25 caliber airgun would have to be extra powerful, inconsistent with a $1000 budget, to beat a 22 lr by any measure. Doesn't mean it couldn't work but I think it means you are likely to wound as much as you get DRT results (I think a 22 lr is too small for a coyote). 30 caliber gets to about 22 lr killing power but not much above it regardless of measure. Interestingly a fairly low powered 357 (I assumed 700 fps on 81 grain pellet) was lower on fpe but significantly higher on the other two measures than a 22 lr. I think that is significant. It will poke a big hole without any expansion and penetration should be enough. I think a Benjamin Bulldog would shoot that pellet faster than this and a SPA M60b might be a bit slower. But both would be in budget and I think either would be a good choice for a short range coyote air rifle. AEA makes some guns that should be fine too.
Really like the looks of the m60b just wish it had a little more juice.
 
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I don't have one, I have three other SPA guns (all P35s) but I've seen youtubes of people talking about modifications for more power. One guy claimed to be getting 70+ fpe on a 25 caliber shooting slugs. Stock I think it is more like 50 fpe. It seemed like he was opening up the air flow paths. Another youtuber had modified his to add plenum space.

SPA rates their guns very conservatively so if you are concerned based upon their published numbers I would take them with a grain of salt. I watched one today where the guy had fpe in a 25 up in the 60+fpe with slugs doing nothing but raising regulator pressure. He went almost to about 180 bar, however.

But I am pretty sure a bulldog can make more power than the SPA M60.
 
I messed around with my "how much of a hole does it make" calculations. I compare the area of a projectile to the area of various animals to get a feel for whether it makes a big enough hole. I used it to equate a .177 pellet hole through a squirrel to a .75 inch diameter hole in a deer. That convinced me to decide a 177 is OK for squirrels and experience suggests that is true. Not overwhelming but adequate. I calculated the 177 would damage about .08% of the cross sectional area of a squirrel.

If we look at a coyote with a considerably bigger body a 25 caliber would damage .03%, a 30 would damage .05% and a 35 would damage about .07%. A 45 would damage .09%. A 22 caliber hole in a squirrel damages about .12%. To me that says a 35 caliber would be the minimum I would want to use on a coyote.

None of this considers expansion. That could widen the diameter of the hole significantly and as long as the hole is still deep enough it would make smaller calibers more suitable. I developed my depth of penetration in wet paper standard for squirrels by shooting dead ones pinned to a tree. I haven't had the chance to do that for a coyote. My guess is penetration in a coyote needs to be on the order of 3-4 times that of a squirrel. Lungs don't resist penetration like muscles and bone do but a coyote is much bigger so it has bigger muscles and bones. My 25 caliber bullpup penetrates about twice as far in wet paper as my minimum squirrel standard. About 20 magazines. I think it would be light for a coyote based both on hole size and depth of penetration (it is 45-50 fpe). A 70 fpe 25 caliber could probably give enough penetration but if you put an expanding projectile in it then I doubt it would. I have not tested a 35 caliber airgun but I've seen videos of antelope shot with the Benjamin bulldog in 35 where the projectile made it through the lungs but did not exit. It killed the animal but I would consider that light for what they are doing with it. But the antelope was bigger than a coyote so I'm thinking it would probably be OK (at short range) for coyotes.