I recently got my 22-250 back from the shop & thought I had the ultimate gun for shooting coyote & fox, but I was wrong in bullet selection..
I purchase Winchester 4000+ F.P.S. bullets and took a single shot at 200 yards.
I droped the fox instantly & was very proud of myself untill I approached the fox to see the damage that I had done.
I am trully embarrased to share this, but maybe others will learn from my mistake & others posting to this message...
I aimed too high and split the spine in half as well as cracking 8 ribs & leaving a huge 8" Diameter hole in the fox...
in my state you can use any caliber you want untill dusk, than after that your restricted to 22 Long rifle only.
I have shot SEVERAL coyotes center mass with 22 Long rifle.
Problem is the entrance & exit holes are the size of a pencil or less.
The animal baically gets shot, drops down on the ground indicating a body shot, then runs away bleeding internally.
I would like to find the proper bullet to drop them right away with no damage to the cape.
In the daytime tracking is easy.
At night there is no blood trail, and there is a well worn path so tracking them is hard due to no blood spots in snow.
At night time you are not allowed to use lights of any kind to take fox or coyote so you depend on the snow and moon to reflect light.
Thats means head shots at night are hard, but center mass shots are easy.
I am a reloader & have presses for reloading as well as the 22-250 dies I just purchased recently.
I need the proper bullet combination.
I think it's a waste of money to purchase every kind of bullet to find out they won't work.
Soo, all you reloaders & hunters help me out here.
At night I use 22 Long rifle in the day it's 22-250
I'm sure someone is going to tell me to purchase a .223.
Thank Again
George Wallace
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Just had an article on the .17 HMR(Hornady Magnum Rimfire) Ruger bolt by Erich Carter,Phone: 209 954 1071. It says"it can dispatch yotes,fox rabbits out to 150 yards with clean shots" etc... I have no idea but thought I would pass this article info. along.
22 mag, work pretty good out to those yardages.
22-250 is big enough to kill a deer, I would agree its over kill on a fox or yote.
My little Brother has one with a heavy barrel mine is regular barrelled and theres not any difference we can find. His has a scope and we are able to put bullets through the same hole at 70 yards and a 2 1/2 group at 140, after 140 it get a bits wild with
with mine 170 its a 12 inch circle but the HB is a 6 inch circle.
I dont know anyone with the 17 but has to group tighter at longer yardage due to increased pressures.
One thing we have found is the groups tighten up after about ten shots. Guess the carbon lays into the lands and grooves and tightens the group up a bit.
A 22-250 is a lot of gun for Yots but it is a good one! WHat type of bullet did you use? If you are going to take 200yd shots or closed use a subsonic round in a Ballistic Tip or hollow point (you will need to get into reloading for sub-sonics) See the problem is the 4000+ FPS. If you would not have hit the spin the damage would most likly been worse! If you are buying ammo in the stores buy the lightest tip you can in a Ballistic Tip. Your bullet should never exit the animals body. It should virtually explode inside of it.
God Bless
I believe the 22-250 is a great coyote gun, i own a Encore 22-250 carbine and it shoots 1/4 to 1/2 inch group out at 200 yds and 3 inches low at 300 yds with factory loads, i still adjusting with reloading this caliber, but when i do reload them it shoots an extra 2 inches high comparfe to a factory load, maybe you should try to reload a lighter bullet so it fragments inside on impact or a bullet with less expansion to leave a smaller hole upon exit,there is a good article on coyotes and caliberis in the recent Field and Stream so hope i helped in some way, good shooting
Sorry just had to be a wise a#@.
Ok, here are the new loads I reloaded to try out on FRUIT.
Batch #1 Bullet: 55 Gr. SS109 Armor Piercing/ 39 Gr.IMR 4350
Batch #2 Bullet: 55 Gr. Hornandy #22713 / 39 Gr.IMR 4350
Batch #3 Bullet: 55 Gr. Hornandy #22271 / 39 Gr.IMR 4350
All loading data listed above acvieve 3600+ F.P.S.
Once Fired Brass.
I know people are going to laugh at my first batch I have, but they were allready loaded for another purpose besides animals, but what the hell, there allready loaded,lol
As far as what I'm using in the 22 Long rifle....
Winchester Dynapoint 22 magnum 45 Grain Dynapoint.
I looked in last months Guns & Ammo, and they had an artical on ALL 22 magnum bullets in existance and how they compared to each other & the Dynapoints ranked the best...
I think Oldman is right, and I'm going to have to use like a 45 or 55 Grain bullet and load it down to sub-sonic levels.
The loading data only goes down to 2500 F.P.S. only, maybe thats all I'll need, maybe the high velocity is what is doing me in..
However night time is 22 Long rifle only, so I still need to find a good bullet for penetration without tearing eveything all to hell..
Thank You to everyone posting to this for your help..
Glad we got that 223 thing out of the way, LOL
a .22mag on all my fox hunting. As for coyote with a 22-250 the best bullet I've used with the less fur damage is the Winchester Silvertip in a 50gr. boattail bullet. I've also shot quite a few with the Hornady V-Max in the 50gr. with little or no fur damage. The one's I've shot with the Winchester had a entrance hole and no exit. Yhis also applies to the Hornady. It also depends a lot on how far the yote is from you. Most all close shots will have a lot of fur damage no matter what you use. As for the 22-250 I think it's one of the best yote guns around. I'm also trying a Remington .17 cal. this year. All though I'm still skeptical about the round. As I think it's too small a round for a animal that can take as much lead as a coyote can, and still run.
Coyote
George Wallace
If your going to load sub-Sonics be careful you don"t get one stuck in the barrel! It will ruin the barrel and could kill ya! You sound real knowledgeable about reloading and will have to work the loads down yourself. I have not found good references for sub data.
God Bless
I'm assuming some of you have seen the things...am I the only one that think's they're crazy? Yes, cool, but a little wierd at the same time? I mean the acual projectile is smaller than your typical wal-mart pellet gun but they go like 4000fps or something like that. Perfect 200+-yard squirrel gun if you ask me....any opnions, or anyone own one? Oh yeah, I saw a revolver with an 8" barrel and a frame that looked like it housed a .44 magnum...lol
Size, weight, and speed. Are not as distractive as fragmentation, and the expansion of the bullet. I shoot yotes, fox, and prairie dogs, at long range. .17 ackley mag, and 22/250 are my caliber of choice. Being a taxidermist. I want to do minimal damage but still maintain long distance effectiveness. Down Powering the caliber is not the answer. Use a solid cast bullet with a gas check. in one side. Out the other clean and mean. Just that simple.
I'd refer you to PredatorMasters.com for anything and everything you ever need to know about loading for coyotes and foxes. As far as the .22-250, that caliber, and the .220-Swift are regarded as the hands-down best rounds for coyotes. Fox? Little hot for such a soft-bodied critter.
Lotsa commentary everywhere these days about the li'l .17, and most are seeing speeds of 2-2400 fps. If you're a good shot, and I'm talking good in terms of being able to shoot a coyote's eye out at a hundred yards, then the .17 is a good gun. But, most guys cannot do that. I know I can't. Personally, I wouldn't want one except for a single shot. Shoot him with one shot and stun him enough for me to go out and club him with the other end of the gun.:)
And about your opening remark, "I purchase Winchester 4000+ F.P.S. bullets"..... whoa! Keep in mind that how a bullet performs is a function of its kinetic energy, or energy at work, and the transferrance of the energy of the bullet in motion to the coyote or, in your case, fox, that's not in so much motion. If the load is good, it will do enough damage to disrupt the tissue of the target without excessive damage. If too hot, the amount of energy will surpass the limits of the tissue and what you see is a blow out type wound. The equation of kinetic energy is: KE =mass(M) X velocity-squared (v2). In other words, the velocity of the bullet impacts the bullet performance twice as much as its size. Use the same size bullet and slow it down to maybe 3K fps and you'll have a decent coyote gun that will still make a fox or bobcat deader than necessary, but at last you'll be able to find all the pieces and parts.
And BTW, after shooting at a lotta coyotes, I gave up the .223 and all the .22 centerfires in favor a .25-06 with custom loads to slow things down a bit. Rips the hell outta bobcats, but anchors a coyote very, very well out to about 500 yards.
I'm getting answers here than I thought I ever would.
Lance,
I screwed up big time using those 4000+ F.P.S. bullets, there so accurate it's scary, however you destroy whatever you shoot, so I'll use them for other things :)
Mike Dunbar,Lance,
The only caliber I dont own is a .17 ..
I think I might just purchase one for the hell of it anyways.
I shot the police chief's .17 & was very impressed with how accurate they can be.
I think I'll try going with what Coyote stated with the Winchester Silvertip 50 Gr. BT
Coyote I do have some 55 Gr. V-Max allready loaded, just haven't tested them, i'll try the V-Max first, then the Winchester silvertips as well..
If those two Don't work then I'll call Nosler :)
Oldman I don't even want to play with sub-sonics, the only time I load sub-sonics are for the police departments that use suppressed weapons that they have.
Lance I'm going to check out that web site tonight...
Just think folks, you helped me out, and if this issue ever comes up again we can refer them to the archives..
Thanks again, everyone..
I will post all my findings here for everyone to see..
George Wallace
Just but FMJ bullets of Hornady V-max bullets the fmj bullets will leave small holes, and the V-max will leave 1 small hole and will pretty much vaporize inside the Coyote so there isn't and exit hole.