Best Possible Caliber

[Andy L]

There are alot of good coyote rounds. Like Catfish said, if your serious about fur, can shoot good and are willing to wait for a good shot and make good shot placement, the 17 Rem or some other variation of the 17 centerfire, cannot be beaten. Period.

I was pretty skeptical of the 204. It doesnt take rocket science to figger out that a bigger bullet flying the same speed or faster than a 17, will do more fur damage. But, I saw a few coyotes shot with one a while back. Pretty impressive. Only one damaged hide, the rest had no exit. And, the damaged one was shot in the shoulder joint. I dont care what your shooting, hit one there and you got damage. There werent enough coyotes killed with it to make a good test, but at least it has hope.

With a 22 centerfire, your going to get your fair share of exits. Ive tried, with limited success, to make a 22 centerfire perform as a 17, no exit. The best I came up with was 223AI with a 52gr AMax. You could get some to not exit, but a little off or a solid rib bone and you got a mess. IMO, you would be better off to use a little harder, heavier bullet, such as a deer bullet. You will still get an exit hole in your hide, but with a controlled expansion bullet, it should be fairly small. If you keep it under 200 yards, a 22 Hornet is excellent. Otherwise, I would say a 223 with a good 55-60gr controlled expansion bullet will do fairly minimal hide damage with well placed shots. The heavier bullets will also, should anyway, anchor the coyote a little better with a less than perfect hit.

If your not worried about hide, guess it dont matter what you shoot. As long as its big enough to make a clean kill without making the animal suffer. If I were just wanting to kill coyotes for the sake of killing, as some people do, I would probably shoot a 25-06 with a 75gr VMax. They wont be walking away from that one, good for a loooooong way and not rough on the shoulder. But, Im really not into wasting a viable resource, even if it is only for a few bucks.

Anyway, those are my opinions, experiences and thoughts on the subject.

Good Luck
Andy