I was traveling on an elk hunt with my 300 PRC when Hornady made their 2024 new product announcements, and their .308 174 grain ELD-VT bullet was exactly what I'd been trying to accomplish with my 300 PRC for coyote hunting. For those unfamiliar, their ELD-VT line of bullets is a 'long for mass, light for caliber,' match-grade varmint bullet.
They go into greater depth on their podcast, which admittedly I'm a big fan of, on the phrase 'long for mass, light for caliber.' Essentially, while 300 PRC is known for its preference on heavy .308 projectiles, the twist rate that goes into determining what bullet is best really applies more to the length of the bullet and not the weight, though usually the correlation is pretty high between weight and length. With the 'long for mass, light for caliber' bullets though, you can get lighter weight bullets in cartridges like the 300 PRC with match accuracy. The same is obviously true for the very similar 300 win mag, which a lot more people have.
Here's the product page (it's expected Q1 of 2024, per an email they sent me): https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifle/30-cal-.308-174-gr-eld-vt#!/
Here's the podcast I've referenced:
I preface all of this to say that I'm ecstatic to have a 300 PRC load for coyotes. My reloading tendencies have always been pretty bimodal, with me wanting a lightening rod lightweight bullet and a heavy for caliber, ideally subsonic round for suppressed uses (as you might imagine, I'm a big 300 blackout guy). I hope to run this ELD-VT up to 3200 fps or higher and hammer coyotes from 500+ yards, because honestly that sounds like a heck of a hunt. I'm not totally opposed to a coyote-specific western hunt just to use this one bullet, but we'll see what the schedule allows there.
Just wanted to post this here to get input from others. I'm stoked, and I bet this'll scratch an itch that a lot of you might have.
They go into greater depth on their podcast, which admittedly I'm a big fan of, on the phrase 'long for mass, light for caliber.' Essentially, while 300 PRC is known for its preference on heavy .308 projectiles, the twist rate that goes into determining what bullet is best really applies more to the length of the bullet and not the weight, though usually the correlation is pretty high between weight and length. With the 'long for mass, light for caliber' bullets though, you can get lighter weight bullets in cartridges like the 300 PRC with match accuracy. The same is obviously true for the very similar 300 win mag, which a lot more people have.
Here's the product page (it's expected Q1 of 2024, per an email they sent me): https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifle/30-cal-.308-174-gr-eld-vt#!/
Here's the podcast I've referenced:
I preface all of this to say that I'm ecstatic to have a 300 PRC load for coyotes. My reloading tendencies have always been pretty bimodal, with me wanting a lightening rod lightweight bullet and a heavy for caliber, ideally subsonic round for suppressed uses (as you might imagine, I'm a big 300 blackout guy). I hope to run this ELD-VT up to 3200 fps or higher and hammer coyotes from 500+ yards, because honestly that sounds like a heck of a hunt. I'm not totally opposed to a coyote-specific western hunt just to use this one bullet, but we'll see what the schedule allows there.
Just wanted to post this here to get input from others. I'm stoked, and I bet this'll scratch an itch that a lot of you might have.
