What Milsurp for Varmint Hunting?

If you are hunting varmints in S. ON you are limitedby the hunting regulations in much of it to a bullet diameter of .275 or less. This excludes the 7mm family as well as the .30's. The 6.5 is your most practical choice in a milsurp.
 
Hi. Any rifle will do for varmints. The only thing you'd have to worry about is where in Southern Ontario you're shooting. There are municipalities that don't allow anything greater than .275 calibre, some say .270. Both by the cartridge name, not the bullet diameter. As daft as it is.
It's not all of Southern Ontario either. Mostly in Southwestern Ontario and around TO, but you have to know. You'd have to know about any firearm discharge by-laws too. Most municipalities have their by-laws on-line or you can call the County/Township office during business hours and ask.
A 6.5 x 55 Swedish Mauser is ok. Not exactly cheap shooting and there's little or no milsurp ammo, but the rifles are accurate. The 6.5 will do nicely for deer, bear and moose too.
"...with my M1..." Done it on ground hogs. Astounding what a 220 Silvertip will do to a ground hog. You likely don't want to feed your rifle a steady diet of 220's though.
"...taken with a trappers licence not a hunting licence..." Depends on where you are. Small game hunting licence in Ontario. Some provinces say no FMJ's too. Mind you, commercial FMJ's aren't the same as military FMJ's.
"...live fire training..." Know a guy who was on a BREN range, one day, when a rabbit hopped out onto a down range shooting position. Five instructors left a big hole in the berm.
"...who buys them?..." Some of the fur sales places will. Or have the hide(s) tanned at a taxidermists.
 
25 yrs ago a fellow from Regina, Wilf E. Pile, wrote a comprehensive book on all aspects of hide hunting titled, "Hunting Predators for Hides and Profit". His preferred ctg for coyotes was any of the .243 Win, .244 Rem, .250 Savage or .257 Roberts. A 6.5x55 Swede with lighter bullets wouldn't be too far away from these. In keeping with the MILSURP theme, his preferred fleshing tool was a Ross Rifle bayonet.;)

Nothing beats the pelt quality of a prairie coyote.
 
In Manitoba

the_snowman1 said:
The joys in living in manitoba you have to deal with the extream cold 6 months out of the year but we can shoot coyotes with FMJ
Click to expand...

Yes, we have 11 months of Snowmobiling, and one month of poor Skiing.

Also four seasons-- Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction.

With lots of Coyotes, and thousands of Gophers here in Manitoba, most of my Varmint hunting is done with the .223, .22 Long Rifle, and the .17 HM2.

However, when I want to play around a bit, the .303 Ross or the SMLE get a work out with the great C.E. Harris cast bullet load of 13 grains of Red Dot, and a 160 grain cast bullet.
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A gopher-shooting friend used to make up custom single shot .223s on No4 LE actions. These were single shot jobs with a 1 piece stock and a heavy barrel. They were on the butt-ugly side, but they certainly worked. The No4 receiver looked pretty flimsy with a truck axle size barrel bolted on. He would only use Long Branch or Savage actions for these, claiming that these actions were stronger and more suitable for the .223.
 
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