My dad and I went out thermal hunting last night to see what some new bullets we're trying did to some critters. Well, we park out in this corn field with some brush piles to the north and shelterbelts to the south and west, and some farther away to the northeast and northwest. It was a perfect coon spot. So I go run the call out 50 yards from us and we're just standing by the truck. We were set up for less than 10 minutes and we had this big boar coon start running toward us, we got him stopped at around 75 yards or so and well the rest is history. The bullet we were trying out is a 26 grain 20-250 going at around 4,850 feet per second. The second one was a 55 grain and was way better than the 26 grain but now we know that we have the 26 grains going way too fast. Anyway, here's a video of the whole ordeal.

https://youtube.com/shorts/E_avOsk-wDQ

The video seems to be a bit behind from the sound so it may be a little weird listening to it.

Looks like a good time!

Way to go.Congrats

Why would you want something that fast? Never understood the logic other than to say I can ruin a barrel faster than anyone else. If a 900ft per second projectile can do the same thing, why the “overkill” that didn’t kill?

When hunting at distance, and especially without a range finder, the flatter shooting bullets can remove some of the error in judgement - or guessing. Even with a range finder, when shooting at small targets at distance, a flatter shooting bullet will help to compensate when shooting at the smaller targets

Sounds like overkill for a coon sized critter at 75yds but I am not familiar with that caliber

Thin 'em out!

We just changed the bullet in our 55 grain loads to a 26 without adjusting powder. But since the 26's don't do much, we're either going to back them down a lot or keep doing only our 55s like we have been. So it wasn't intentional and the couple of rounds shouldn't hurt the barrel any.

The speed yes, but the bullet size, no. Our coons take shots like crazy up here and it's very hard to drop a coon in one shot on the spot. Sometimes even the headshots don't kill them unless perfect.

never heard of 20-250. 22-250 common for coyotes. would think whatever barrel using would not stabilize both loads well

Curious how long that barrel is…you’d need at least 25-26” to stabilize something that small and that fast. Add a suppressor and you’re toting a long heavy rifle for coons.
Yes, I understand speed and the flatter shooting bullet, but every video I’ve seen promoting these high speed cartridges has shown average shots at 100yds, not the 300-400yd range.

and sometimes is just because they can and like trying different things.

Why would anyone want to hunt with a 30/30 when a musket works. Or the other way why would anyone want to hunt with a bow x bow or black powder when a 243 or up is so much better.

Options are good and experience trying and testing new things is the only reason we moved up from rocks and spears

17 hmr or a 22 mag should do the trick for you. I've shot quite of coons out of trees with a 22 lr with success. Sometimes a follow up shot was need but all shots with the 22 lr were under 50 yards.

[quote=Wanna Be]Curious how long that barrel is…you’d need at least 25-26” to stabilize something that small and that fast. Add a suppressor and you’re toting a long heavy rifle for coons.
Yes, I understand speed and the flatter shooting bullet, but every video I’ve seen promoting these high speed cartridges has shown average shots at 100yds, not the 300-400yd range.[/quote

I think it's a 26" barrel, we do run suppressed but we don't really ever use thermal for coons, mainly coyotes. Just wanted to show a cool video. We take shots out to 300 yards all the time, last year I shot one at around 486 yards and it only went 20-30 feet.

I think it's a 26" barrel, we do run suppressed but we don't really ever use thermal for coons, mainly coyotes. Just wanted to show a cool video. We take shots out to 300 yards all the time, last year I shot one at around 486 yards and it only went 20-30 feet.