What's your caliber of choice for coyotes?

[bowhunter57]

I've shot coyotes with a bow & arrow, .223 and now I'm using a .25-06. I've entertained the thought of building an AR in .243 or .308, for coyotes, but the price tag is like kryptonite.

What's your caliber of choice, for hunting coyotes?

Thank you, Bowhunter57

[dawgdad]

.243 is my personal favorite. More velocity and bullet weight than a .223 equals a very high percentage of bang flop hits and no splashes or runners using V-max bullets form 58 to 75 grains.

The added velocity of the 22-250 makes it appealing but most stock barrels are two slow a twist to handle heavier bullets.

If you go the .308 route, the 110 V-max and the 125 Speer TNT are fun bullets to shoot. deadly accurate but do not try to sell the fur as they are hard on a pelt.

[ta17rem]

I save the hides so I don't use a Cal. any bigger than I have to. 17 rem. or a 17 Pred. works for me.

[hoosierdaddy]

.223 in my AR and a Savage .243 is what I normally use , when I just want to flat lay them down for a competition I use either my Remington 7mm , Remington .300 Ultra Mag , Remington .338 or what i'm carrying this next weekend My Remington 35 Whelen , I call that one Strictly Business , I don't worry about saving the pelts since I have to hand them over at check in .

[whiteeagle]

for me the choice is 222 rem ;D

[buckeyeyote]

X2 on the Rem .222. I use Hornady Varmint Express ammo...50gr VMAX moly. Very fur friendly. Life is too short to shoot with an ugly gun.

[yotehunter]

20 Tac 40gr bergers super flat no fur damage

[jrbhunter]

I can remember killing coyotes with the following:

10ga, 12ga, 20ga shotguns
22lr
22mag
17HMR
Tac20
.204
.222
.223
22-250
.243
25WSSM
.270
30Whalen
30-30
30-06
44Mag

I've called coyotes that died at the hands of numerous other calibers.

While nearly each weapon has killed coyotes stone-cold at one point or another, there's no substitute for the reliability of the 22-250 for me. Generally speaking, any larger is going to hammer them and rattle the neighbors windows and anything smaller is going to require some combination of shot placement, bullet selection and load development. Generally speaking, of course... and speaking in the law of averages spread out over varied conditions.

In my opinion, there's a fine line of energy displacement required to "dishrag" a coyote. By this I mean, upon impact they go limp and fall limp as a dish rag. Of course bullet selection and range of impact are going to vary your results, but for calling situations I just love how the 22-250 dispells energy.

It's easy to sit behind a keyboard and ponder how we can crush lungs at 200 yards all day, but I'm much better in my head than I am on the ground. I sometimes get ambitious on 85 yard shoulder shots, I occasionally push my luck on 150 yard runners, and I ask the rifle to dishrag every coyote. I sometimes need my rifle to offset some bad decisions and poor shot placement, so I like the 22-250. I'm not condoning someone throw common sense out the window and carry a 338 to mop up their mistakes, but I think it's all too common for predator callers to outsmart themselves with ballistics diagrams and fur friendliness over a handful of $8 coyotes they don't even have stretchers for.

That said, my pursuit of a perfect coyote bullet is ongoing. I will be working with a handful of 50-55-60gr hollowpoints this summer. Rifles/optics/loads fall into a seperate catagory of priorities for me. They're something I can work on in the offseason, so I try not to sweat them too much during the killing months.

[dawgdad]

Give me one of your '250 AR's and I will dial in a winner for you. I love doing that stuff.

[jrbhunter]

That’s a tempting offer Jeff! I could do without a rifle for a few months and still work on another here.

Honestly, I’m happy with “fair” accuracy if the bullet performance is there. What’s the best way to gauge a bullets penetration and expansion at the range?

[dawgdad]

The best way is the 10% ballistic gel but I never spent the coin to get the stuff and hassel with molding it and keeping it at the right temperature. A couple of different ways I have done it for pistol is to shoot into a box full of wet newspaper or into a row of 8-10 water filled jugs. For the rifle I would shoot them at 100 and /or 200 yards. You compare the penetration by how many layers it gets through and you have the retained bullet for examination. In predator hunting I would want a bullet that has some penetration but pretty much dumps its energy by fragmenting and mushrooming fairly quickly. I would do a known performer like my 75 gr. .243 Vmax as a reference and compare the .224 bullets to each other and the .243.

If you want to spend some money but not as much mess as making ballistic gel blocks - they make a product that is a bit more consistent to evaluate your final choices in bullet.

www.thebullettesttube.com/ looks like a couple of hundred bucks would set you up for a good evaluation. They shoot these at 20-25 yards too.

store.clearballistics.com/product-p/608729261513.htm

This type is also re-usable and about the same cost.

All this still has to be proven on Fur after you make you best assessment in the simulated world.

[dawgdad]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aD3NKc3k_w

About a minute into this one you see a 50 V-max expansion chamber vs. a 62gr TSX deer bullet

this one too...at 200 yards

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCqmclsRQmM

[dawgdad]

Holy crap check this 55 V-max out - talk about total energy dump in 4" or less...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdo1JC5fqPw

[dawgdad]

Still would likely tear up a fox on a side shot but coyotes I hit with the V-max in 223 or 243 dont usually have an exit wound.

[Baumy]

There are too many variables to answer that question... but i carry a 243 shooting 85gr BTHP's and love it. That and a 12ga with 00B and a full choke.