My brother has 10 acres fenced off with cattle, goats and a horse. His land backs up to the Sabine river between Texas and Louisiana. There is this buffer zone of protected wetlands between the back of his property and the river. It is several hundred yards from the back of his property to the river. Some of the wetlands is open field, some is densely wooded.
The term “protected” means nobody can build on the land. Not that the coyotes are protected, just the land is protected from development.
Coyotes have moved into that area and are getting too close to his livestock. Coyotes are seen on a semi-regular basis between the back of the field and the woodline. Right now my brother is using a bolt action 308 which he has used to take down several coyotes. He wants to replace that 308 with a 223 as his main predator gun.
He wants a flattop with no front sight, strictly for a scope.
I found a CMMG 18 inch bull barrel, but CMMG does not seem to have a good reputation.
From his backdoor to the woodline I would estimate at around 200 yards. That is just a rough estimate. It could be 175 yards, maybe 250 yards. I have never walked the distance with him.
I am pretty sure the shots will be say 100 - a little over 200 yards.
One coyote that was in my brothers front yard. He was shot with a 22 magnum at maybe 50 yards. Other coyotes have been shot with his 308 winchester.
My brother wants something to fill the gap between the 22 magnum and the 308, and something his wife can shoot.
You don’t need anything special. I’ve taken my 16" carbine out past 300 yards with a 4 minute Aimpoint, or even the iron sights. Just get a good lightweight or lighter weight profile barrel and free float tube with a good, simple optic. A 2-x7, 3-9x or 3.5-10x or something similar will be plenty. A chromelined barrel will work fine but if you’re worried about accuracy, a stainless steel barrel works good. I have a 16" stainless steel middy I got from PSA that would work great with a scope
I presume that since you’re only seeking an upper that there’s a lower (and by extension, an upper, too) already in-hand? if so (?), he’s probably better off upgrading that with a target trigger, a FF forearm and a good low-light scope than trying to get an accurized upper for $700.
for that relatively close range and limited number of shots, a bull barrel isn’t necessary and will really put the wife off due to the considerable weight.
I think you’re going to have a real challenge finding a complete, accurized upper (with BCG & CH as well as ss/chf bbl and ff forearm) in that price range.
for $700, you’re really looking at a RRA, DPMS, Wyndham, Bushmaster setup. Now, those are fine for predator control (my RRA Varmint has yet to have a problem other than choking on a couple of rounds of Wolf steel case), but are lacking the workmanship and more durable (and more expensive) milspec components that give an AR Glock-like dependability for SD/HD/Duty.
As MarkM points out, top shelf ammo is probably just as important as anything else. Don’t forget to use hunting rounds like Fed Fusion or Hornady SST.
I wanted to update this thread with what my brother went with.
I told him to subscribe to the palmetto state armory mailing list. A few weeks later a 16 inch hammer forged upper, midlength with rail went on sale. The price without BCG or charging handle was around $389.
He brought the upper over to my house, I gave him a spare lower I had, bolt carrier and charging handle. Then we went shooting.
Talk about sweet. The weight of the rail along with that midlength gas system makes for very little recoil. It is going to perfect for what he is doing.
The upper was like this one, but with a midlength gas system,
