What’s a good chambering for fox and coyote hunting that will minimize pelt damage and get the job done out to 100 yards or so?

22 Hornet if you want something retro and cool. If this wasn't an uncommon round, it is almost perfect.

.223 with appropriate bullets.

.22 magnum rimfire if you are truly limit shots to 75 to 100 yards. This can be a good choice.

.22LR can be adequate at the right ranges.

.357 mag in a rifle. Stick to bullets that won't blow up in a coyote.

Coyotes and foxes aren't that big or tough. They don't take much killing.

.223 or .243 HP.
Normally the heavier calibers will have a higher ballistic coefficient and buck the wind better.
The HPs will penetrate less than a fmj.
Good hunting.

.17 WSM

For the ranges you are talking about, .17 WSM or even .17 HMR. However, since you will have to go buy another gun, and probably glass, unless you have a young man's eyes, and these low volume, high velocity rimfires cost as much as some centerfire rounds, you could also consider a .204 Ruger upper for an AR. Standard GI steel (but apparently NOT p-mags) will feed the rounds, and you can have a very high velocity, low grain weight round to do the job.

ETA: There's nothing wrong with the lighter bullets in .223 for what you want to do, but at ranges of 100 and under, it's overkill.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ArtieS,

i don't like small caliber bullets on anything larger than say a squirrel myself. I know they will work but less than ideal. The .243 is perfect for the job. Can also be used on deer sized animals if food is needed. Easy to shoot, easy to find ammo for. It is just a great all around caliber. It is my first choice for what you needing.

Agree with old rugged cross and msfzoe. A .243 pushing a 80 gr Sierra Blitz SBT at 3,275 fps MV will do the deed. Then again it might prove a tad too explosive on impact. Regardless, a .243 is what you want.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
Agree with old rugged cross and msfzoe. A .243 pushing a 80 gr Sierra Blitz at 3,275 fps MV will do the deed.

All true. A bigger round will easily kill a coyote, and be usable on deer or other medium game. You could even use a .270, and have a rifle that is okay for varmints with the very light bullets and for 300 yard elk with the heavy bullets.

But what is the fun in that? It's cool to have a nifty short range varmint/predator gun . . . and a long range varmint gun . . . and a medium game rifle . . . and medium bore rifle for bears . . . and an ultra long range rife for pronghorn . . . and

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jhe888:


But what is the fun in that?/QUOTE]

Mmmm....

Well for my varminting fun I have an H&R SB2 Ultra 20" 1:12 .223 pushing VMax 40 grainers for close work, a Winchester M70V 24" 1:10 .243 pushing those 80 grain Sierras for intermediate plus ranges, and a Savage 10FP 20" 1:10 .308 lobbing Sierra 168 and 175 pills way downrange for giggles.

The 17's should be a one hole affair. Which would be just the thing of you're hide hunting.

Light bullet .22's should do the same.

JHE pretty much nailed it. ArtieS' suggestion of .204 Ruger is very sound as well. A friend of mine uses a.204 Ruger bolt action for coyotes pretty much exclusively and it sure does the job with prejudice.

Edited to add:

If you take a fox with a .243 I sure hope you don't plan on a full body mount. Head mount is about the best you can hope for. Ask me how I know.

oh come on thunderson. a through and through you would be hard pressed find it, the hole that is

Another option I like for a predator rifle in a .22-250

I am looking for one right now btw.

Also work good on deer.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
For the ranges you are talking about, .17 WSM or even .17 HMR. However, since you will have to go buy another gun, and probably glass, unless you have a young man's eyes, and these low volume, high velocity rimfires cost as much as some centerfire rounds, you could also consider a .204 Ruger upper for an AR. Standard GI steel (but apparently NOT p-mags) will feed the rounds, and you can have a very high velocity, low grain weight round to do the job.

ETA: There's nothing wrong with the lighter bullets in .223 for what you want to do, but at ranges of 100 and under, it's overkill.

Thanks!
The .204 Ruger ammo is on the spendy side. 204 facrory rounds are 60 cents or more but 17 HMR is closer to 26 cents. I don’t reload, so that’s not an option for me with the 204.

I have a suppressed Savage bolt gun in 17 with Vortex 3-12 glass, and a 223 AR but wasn’t sure about the appropriateness of either caliber.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
oh come on thunderson. a through and through you would be hard pressed find it, the hole that is

I hit a fox right in the boiler room at about 50yards with a .243 soft point. I sure didn't have much problem finding the hole as that was what I pretty much ended up with. I did get a good head mount though.

What you see in the pic is about what was left.

For what your after a 22 Magnum rimfire or 222 or 223/556 with heavy 75 grain bullets would be your best bet. Even a 223 with 50 grain varmint bullets will start blowing some nasty holes through a coyote on the other side. Avoid shooting at large bone masses such as shoulder shots.

Way back when in the 1990s I had a buddy that worked on a 20,000+ acre cattle ranch in eastern oregon. A couple times a year he would call me up tell me to come vist and bring the 22-250 and a couple other rifles. This meant lots of varmints and predators. Both are bad for cattle. The 22-250 HB got handload with 50 grain varmint bullets at just shy of 3700 FPS. At various times also brought along 22 LR, 22 Mag, 223, 243 win and 25-06. A typical day on the ranch was 250 - 375 rounds not counting rimfires. Two sometimes 2 1/2 days of that. What I found is the 25-06 was way to much recoil and noise for lots of shooting each day. That one got old very fast. The 243 Win was better but still got tiring (fatiguing) after 75 - 90 rounds of 75 grain bullets. To the point it was hard to shoot well (get real good hits) past 225 yards or so after those numbers of rounds.

I did not seem to have any of those problems with the 22-250 on down. The 22-250 has good hitting ability range even with just 50 - 55 grain varmint bullets but unless they are out a lot of yards it will blow holes sometimes very large if it hits bones before going though the other side with varmint bullets so that is kind of out for what you want.

Some of you guys can't be serious on some of these suggestions. This is pelts OK! at 100 yds or less. .243? really. If its ok for a deer its really not ideal for this. There won't be a pelt.
.22mag would be my first choice.

Any centerfire is probably going to be rough on a fox.

Coyotes vary in size depending on where in the country you are. Some places they're not much bigger than a fox. I've seen them here where I thought they were a German Shepard at first glance.

Ive never killed a fox but I have killed a couple coyotes with .223 and 22-250. With the .223 they don't seem to realize their demise is certain. The 22-250 is the opposite, they are dead before they realize anything is wrong.

Please note that if you go with a .223 from an AR with a 1/7 twist rate, and shoot very light bullets, you may have accuracy or bullet disintegration problems.

I have no experience with this, but I have read that 1/7 can cause light bullets to fly apart from the rotational forces at high velocity. The AR platform often uses a 1/7 twist to stabilize heavy for caliber bullets that are long. An older .223 bolt gun will often have as much as a 1/12 twist barrel, while newer offerings will likely be 1/8 (Ruger American) or 1/9 (Savage Axis).

Given your post above, your .17 should handle anything inside of 100 yards, and the AR with a 50 grain varmint bullet anything from 100 out.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
Please note that if you go with a .223 from an AR with a 1/7 twist rate, and shoot very light bullets, you may have accuracy or bullet disintegration problems.

I have no experience with this, but I have read that 1/7 can cause light bullets to fly apart from the rotational forces at high velocity. The AR platform often uses a 1/7 twist to stabilize heavy for caliber bullets that are long. An older .223 bolt gun will often have as much as a 1/12 twist barrel, while newer offerings will likely be 1/8 (Ruger American) or 1/9 (Savage Axis).

To be all ballistics nerd on you - it isn't the weight of the bullet that causes them to be less stable at 1 in 7 rate of rotation, but the length of the bullet. Faster rotation is needed to stabilize long bullets. Usually, spinning short (light) bullets too fast causes less or no problems. Since weight is a proxy for length, some think it is the weight that matters.

Being spun fast enough to self-destruct in flight is about bullet construction. Very lightly constructed bullets, like the super-light varmint bullets, may not withstand higher twist rates. If they hold up under those rotation rates, they should still be accurate, though.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jhe888,