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Choosing A Cartridge That Works
April 2022
by Justin Uhlir
A number of years ago I was hunting pronghorn in the western part of North Dakota with a Remington 700 chambered in 270 Winchester. I loaded up some 130 grain Barnes Triple Shock bullets on top of a stout charge of Reloader 22. The load and rifle had performed very well on a number of whitetail deer in years prior so I was confident the same performance would be sufficient on pronghorn. Luck wasn’t on my side during the October season. An early blizzard had moved through my hunting unit and after 2 days of driving, walking and glassing we had located only one herd of pronghorns. Thankfully they were in a sneakable spot and I made my way into position in an attempt to get a sub 300 yard shot. I misjudged where the herd was and ended up cresting a hill just above them at 175 yards. I laid prone in an effort to get steady and out of sight. A few of the does busted me and the whole herd took off running wide open to the west. I watched them run out of my unit and out of sight. It was my only chance during the 5 days I hunted. The snow had driven many of the pronghorns in the units farther south and west.
The land the pronghorns were on when I snuck on them was a nice section of public land. One mile deep by one and a half miles wide. It had a number of small drainages running through it and looked like prime pronghorn country. I didn’t want to give up on the hunt so the next morning my Dad and I set off on foot across the section to see if the herd from the day prior were hiding somewhere we couldn’t see from the road. We walked up over a hill and along one of the drainages running through the section. We bumped a coyote out of the draw and it ran parallel to us and then stopped and sat down. My dad and I had already laid down in hopes the coyote would offer a shot. Laser rangefinders were just becoming more common to the average hunter and my dad had an early model from Leica with us at the time. “357 yards” he told me. The coyote was sitting and facing to our right. Not an easy shot by any means. Wind was quartered slightly from left to right towards the coyote so I held my center crosshair even with the top of the dog's ears and held left on the edge of where his butt met the ground. Not very scientific by any means, but I had shot the rifle enough to know this should put the 130 grain Barnes right through his front shoulder. I touched the shot off and the coyote crumpled up on the shot. My Dad and I have always sold fur so shooting a coyote with a deer rifle was usually frowned upon since more often than not it seemed the typical cup and core bullet from a large caliber rifle would destroy the off side of the coyote making it worthless. I hadn’t shot a coyote with this rifle/bullet combo yet and was pleasantly surprised upon retrieval of the animal that there was zero damage to the pelt. The solid copper bullet went through both front shoulders and exited about the size of a dime on the off side. One or two stitches and the prime fall pelt was perfect. It's sad that during this period of time coyotes weren’t worth much.
The author pictured with the 270 Winchester mentioned in the article and a nice North Dakota mule deer.
Over the years of hunting deer with the 130 grain Barnes X Bullet I shot quite a few prime fall coyotes with the bullet and never beat up a coyote any worse than some of my small varmint guns. For my personal taste, a 270 is just too much recoil to deal with when hunting coyotes so I never carried it longer than deer season. Having said that, the combination was a very effective and “fur friendly” set up that lended itself well to both deer and coyotes. Fur friendly is a term used in most coyote hunter circles to describe a rifle that inflicts the least amount of damage on the pelt. Trappers typically shoot the coyote in the head with a 22 lr pistol causing zero fur damage. Coyote hunters don’t have the same circumstances and thus a rifle and bullet combo that shoots flat enough to give a hunter a larger margin of error in guessing yardage, kills effectively to your maximum comfortable range and creates the least amount of chaos on the pelt is what every hunter spends years trying to find and or create. I’ve been at this for 32 years as I write this article and I’m still looking for the perfect combination. I’m beginning to accept the fact that it actually doesn’t exist so having multiple coyote hunting rifles is the only way to combat the problem. And of course as a self proclaimed “gun nut” having two or three or six or seven coyote rifles isn’t a bad thing……right?
More often than not once someone knows you hunt coyotes they ask you two questions. The first question is “How many have you killed this year” to which my reply is…..”I don’t know, quite a few” ( I do know but I don’t care to share it with anyone) and inevitably the second question is “What rifle do you use?”. I love wildcat cartridges and building rifles that are just different enough from what one can buy from the local gun store so, after answering the second question with “I use a 22 Varmint Express Super Coyote Smasher” for the three hundred and fiftieth time and then having to explain what it was only to have the person asking have no clue what I’m talking about…..I now answer the question with “A 22-250” and leave it at that. If they’re also a gun nut, I’ll get into the juicy details of the rifle, the twist, the bullet, the action, the stock, the trigger, the scope, the bipod and the sling. But typically “22-250” is enough to appease the curious mind.
I’ve killed coyotes with rifles chambered for the following cartridges, 17 Remington, 204 Ruger, 20BR, 20-250, 223 Remington, 22 BR, 22-250 Remington, 220 Swift, 22-250 Ackley Improved, 22-6mm Improved, 243 Winchester, 6x47 Lapua, 6mm Remington, 257 Roberts, 25-06 Remington, 260 Remington, 270 Winchester and the 308 Winchester. I’m guessing I’m missing something but those are the ones I can count off the top of my head. I’ve also used multiple different bullets with most of the cartridges on the list. (bullets and their performance will be discussed in a later article) The following statements can be derived from all of this. 1) All of these cartridges will kill a coyote. 2) All of these cartridges have some kind of limiting factor or flaw to be “perfect” in terms of a walking varmint rifle. The second could be argued as an opinion. A few are closer than others to being perfect. To understand what the perfect rifle should encompass we need to look at what criteria is needed for a walking varmint rifle.
Pictured here are 20-250 cases loaded with the 55 Grain Berger .204 caliber projectile. These loads use Reloader 17, Winchester 22-250 brass necked down to 20 caliber and CCI primers. The 55 Berger will travel 3400fps from an 18" barrel with this load. Plenty fast to be effective to 450 yards.
For my style of hunting, walking to and from stands or walking large tracts of land while still hunting, a rifle needs to have the following abilities. The first being easy to carry, no more than 10lbs with all accessories and ammo included. I want to have the longest point blank range possible on a 6” target. It must feed well and be able to fit in a standard Remington style internal magazine. I also want it to carry enough energy to kill a coyote cleanly up to 600 yards. It needs to do all of the aforementioned tasks while being as fur friendly as possible. Much of the last criteria of course is subject to bullet choice. In many situations a gun that carries enough energy to 300 yards is more than enough but I have areas I hunt where I need the extra distance.
The 17 Remington could be the best on the list for fur friendliness and flat trajectory. 25-27 grain bullets moving at 4000 fps is a deadly combo up to 250-275 yards. Past that it starts to lose energy rapidly. The 17-204 ( A 204 Ruger necked down to 17 caliber) shooting 30 grain bullets is a phenomenal coyote calling cartridge. I have not personally used one but many who have them swear by them. But again, past 300 yards energy becomes a bit uncertain in unique situations. The 204 Ruger can be a good fur cartridge with the right bullets. I’ve had good luck with the 39 grain Sierra Blitzking at 3700-3800 fps. Broadside shots or frontal shots are usually DRT. This past fall a coyote I shot roughly at 300 yards ran quite aways before expiring. Not a big deal when you have good snow cover but early in the season with long grass it becomes a nightmare to try to find a dead coyote in broken ground and tall grass. My 204 is built with an 8 twist barrel which is much faster than factory rifles built with the standard 12 twist barrel. Loading heavier bullets in the 204 extends downrange energy but one loses a bit of the point blank range possible with the faster moving bullets.
The 223 Remington might be the most commonly used cartridge for coyotes. Most AR platform rifles are chambered in 5.56 or 223 Remington and are widely used for calling rifles. The 223 is easy on fur with most 40-55 grain bullets but lacks the ballistic excitement that the 17s, 20s and large 22s create. I’ve hunted and killed plenty of coyotes with the 223 to understand that it's a cartridge that doesn't do anything spectacular but does everything good enough.
I believe the 22-250 owns the distinction of being the best all around choice for a hunter that wants a factory rifle, shooting factory ammo and wants something that has the performance for shots up to 400 yards, flatter trajectory and better wind bucking ability than a 223. There is a wide variety of varmint loads for the 22-250 ranging in bullet weights from 40-60 grains. Personally I would shoot factory ammo in the 50-55 grain range. For my own 22-250 rifles I load 52 Sierra Matchkings, 52 Berger Flat Base Target or the 55 Berger Target bullets. All three have proved to shoot very well in almost any rifle I’ve tried them in and have consistent performance on fur when pushed to normal velocities for a 22-250. The 243 Winchester isn’t far behind the 22-250 in all around coyote hunting popularity and has a slight ballistic advantage when running lightweight bullets. Some factory ammo loaded with 55 grain bullets are pushing 4000 fps with the 243. That makes for a very flat trajectory and great performance in the wind. However, at this speed and bullet size, one starts to give up the “fur friendliness” factor. Shots that strike the shoulder or exit through a rib can turn a prime coyote pelt into a giant mess in a hurry.
The author's primary coyote rifle chambered in 22-250 Ackley Improved. This gun is using a Brux barrel, Remington 700 action, a Jewel Trigger, Leupold VX-6 3-18x44 scope , a Harris bipod and Mcmillan Edge stock. The 75 grain Berger VLD is loaded to 3250fps and is effective beyond 600 yards on coyotes.
Another custom coyote rig, this one chambered in 22BR. This rifle was built on a Remington 700 action, with a Bartlien barrel, Remington Trigger and HS Precision stock. The scope is a Vortex 4-16x50. With a 24" barrel the 75 Berger ran at 3200fps and was exceptionally accurate. Where BR cases shine in accuracy they are lackluster at best feeding from a standard Remington BDL magazine.
A 22 BR case (left) loaded with an 80 grain Sierra Matchking sits next to a 220 Swift loaded with a 52 grain Hornady Amax. It's easy to see why the 22 BR would suffer feeding issues compared to the long and sleek 220 Swift case.
Searching for the “perfect” cartridge is a great excuse to own more rifles. I’ve tried many different calibers and chamberings but my personal favorites for all around performance are the 20-250 (a 22-250 Remington necked down to 20 caliber) shooting the 55 Berger at modest velocities. This particular bullet doesn’t need to go very fast to be extremely flat shooting, carry energy quite a ways out and stay easy on fur. I run the 55 at 3400-3500 fps in my current rifle. I’ve found this to be a sweet spot to maintain fur friendly performance. Faster than this and the bullet starts to damage fur quite often. This gun is low recoil and when suppressed a guy can watch the impact through the scope on shots as close as 150 yards away. The downfall……energy loss at longer ranges i.e. 450 plus yards….AND….barrel life. This cartridge is a 500-700 round rifle before velocity and accuracy begin to be compromised.
The other favorite of mine is the 22-250 Ackley Improved. This is simply a standard 22-250 fireformed in a cut chamber for the Ackley case. The shoulder is blown forward and out slightly and the shoulder angle is increased to 40 degrees. When loaded to like pressures a person will gain about 150 fps over a standard 22-250 case. For light bullets this doesn’t gain a guy much for maximum point blank range however when shooting heavy for caliber bullets like 75 and 80 grain projectiles it becomes more advantageous to the shooter. I load the 75 Berger to 3250 fps in my 20” barrel 22-250AI and it is a stellar coyote cartridge for all around use. It can be hard on fur in a closer yardage situation so it's not a gun I use until later in the year when shots are typically taken from farther distances. The round is effective on coyotes to 620 yards for sure and past 250 yards the 75 Berger usually will exit with a small quarter sized hole. Easy to fix. Why do I choose to shoot a cartridge that gains me 150 fps only to cut the barrel to 20” and lose 100 of it? I built the rifle around the bullet. I knew the 75 Berger at 3200-3300 fps from an 8 twist barrel performs well on coyotes. The prior barrel I had on this rifle I loaded the 75 grain Berger to north of 3400 fps and it performed terribly on fur. It was like shooting a coyote with a ballistic missile. Lots of damage. The handful I shot with this combination were all DRT but the damage was more than I or the fur buyers wanted to deal with. I’m sure I will be told that they work just fine at that velocity but, I’ll stick with the load that is a tad slower and more consistent. I've grown out of the "more speed is better" , big ego portion of my life.
A pair of December coyotes taken with a Remington 700 LVSF chambered in 17 Remington. A 27 grain Kindler bullet was used primarily out of this rifle for coyotes. Moving at close to 4000fps it was very effective for a calling rifle up to 250 yards.
Every single cartridge I included in this article can be a very effective round for coyote hunting and one could probably hunt his entire life with only a single choice from the list. Other popular cartridges in today’s world that could be included would be the 22 Nosler, the 6mm ARC, the 22 Valkyrie and the 22 Creedmoor. These particular cases are not doing a lot of things different from cartridges of the old days but who cares…..its an excuse to get another rifle, right? My future plans will include a rifle chambered in 22 Creedmoor for sure. A friend and hunting partner had one for a bit and it is a great round for heavy .224 bullets. Head stamped brass is also available from Peterson Cartridge eliminating barrel wear and component use when fireforming 22-250AI brass.
The hunter must determine how most of their hunting will take place and then pick a cartridge and bullet combination that works best for each setup. Things like terrain, shot distances and even geography can play into picking the right rifle. A setup that works well for late season North Dakota coyotes might be too hard on an early season coyote from the Southern part of the country. Any rifle you own right now can double as a great coyote rifle simply by getting ammunition with the right choice of bullet.
Happy Hunting!
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