I am pondering the purchase of a left hand Tikka hunter in .223. Now I already have a 22-250, and a .243 both cartridges kill coyotes very dead, but are sometimes pritty tough on the hides. For my calling, I am thinking of shooting a 50gr Balistic Tip at about 3400fps. What are your thoughts on this setup? What are your personal experiances with this cartridge? Am I going to be dissapointed in the performance of this little cartridge on our big Canadian dogs?

Why not down load the 22-250?

If you are calling them into under 100yd. a .17 will work best. We have over 70 here, most taken with 17 Mark

I have just started shooting coyotes with the factory loaded hornady 50gr V-Max for the 22-250. They say they are going 3800fps on the box. I have only shot 5 dogs with these bullets between ranges of 100 to 365yrds. Out of the 5 dogs only 1 had a big hole in it. And that was in the guts, no surprise there.

The 2 that were shot under 200 yrds only had one hole going in. The 2 shot over 300 yrds had a hole on each side, but no fur damage. Both holes were the same size.

just my findings.

Graylake

I shoot 55 gr V-max in my 250 at around 3600 (my notes aren't handy). I have yet to get an exit on coyotes with that load. Probably more luck than mgmt.

"...are sometimes pritty(sic) tough on the hides..." Use a .243 fmj bullet. Nice neat puncture wound and one shot kill.

Thomas the 223 is definitely fur friendly and inexpensive to shoot. The Tikka is a good choice and a delight to shoot. I shoots lots of coyotes and use the American eagle in a 55 gr. No exits, just dead dogs. If I'm reloading, I use a 52. hpbt hornady match. I shoot coyotes to 300 yds with no problems. I Do NOT like the Winchester bulk pack 45 gr. Too many blow ups on entrance and not enough penetration to kill effectively.

BTW FMJ are not legal for hunting.

I curently shoot the 243 when I want to kill coyotes and do not care about the fur. When I do care about the pelts I shoot a .17. This is a great caliber that is a stone killer and very easy on pelts. I shoot 30 grain bergers. I tried the 223 and to be honest I was not happy at all with the perofromance. Nothing compared the the 22-250. I found the dogs ran further before expiring. I experimented with 55,50, 52 and even 40 balistic tips. None gave me the performance I wanted. As a note I averaged around 60+ dogs a year so this was no based on just a couple of coyotes. I know there is a lot of contoversy over the .17 but I have never been more happy with a gun purchase than I have been with the Rem Model 7 in .17. If you want a pelt gun go to a .17. If you want to kill dogs stay with the guns you got they do not get much better.

Thomas,

Do you go to public land to find coyotes, or do you scrounge the farms East of Calgary, or anywhere else for that matter? I'd like to go out and give it a try, but I'll have to choose between a .22WMR, a .300 WM and a 9.3x62...for the pelt no doubt the .22WMR would be the choice, but in another recent thread some folks cautioned against using this cartridge as being underpowered for coyotes.

Frans

I have shoot a pile of coyotes for fur with a 60 grain Hornady in a .223.I even sucked a few across the border and whacked the in Montana.When the Antelope herds migrate south of the border it concentrates the coyotes and I clean up.If your serious about coyotes for fur.Get a .17 Remington,shoot 25grain Berger bullets and have no sewing to do.I have never lost a coyote with a .17 Remington.I usually shoot them when they hit about 200 yards.I can produce way more coyotes for market with traps and snares but calling is still a favorite.