Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints fur friendly 223 bullets

Heading to Texas for about a week to do some turkey hunting and hopefully a little predator calling. Will be just south of San Angelo. Property owner says that he doesn't have many coyotes on his place, but lots of bobcats and fox. Gonna bring my 223 and shotgun. Any advice on bullets that won't "blow up" foxes and cats. Have a couple boxes of 53 tsx, and a few 40 grain v max, but don't know if those will work?

Thanks

The TSX should work fine. The 40 gr. Vmax, not so much....they make BIG holes...
Ingwe

I shot three coyotes on a hunt this year using 52/53? gr. Nosler match bullets from my 223, small entrance and no exits. All three dropped in their tracks.
Your shotty will probably be your best choice in close in cover, if you expect shots much beyond 50 yards, I would opt for the 223.

Ah my home town!

Shot several foxes and one cat with speer 52gr hps @ 3300 back in January. I was impressed with the "fur friendliness" if there is such a term.

One fox didn't even appear shot. I didn't think that was possible from a high powered rifle on such a small animal. Others kills had rather small entry holes and I don't think any exited. The few I saw shot with factory loaded balistic tips were more graphic, might have just been shot placement though.

I think any soft bullet should do the trick; hps, tnt, ballistic tip, etc. Try to keep your shots in the chest away from the spine or the shoulder and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the info. Probably gonna be able to do lots of calling while I'm there. Ruger 280, is there a pretty good population of foxes and cats in that part of texas? What types of calls work best? We will be just west of ft. mckavett, I think its about 40-50 miles southeast of san angelo.

There are plenty of foxes and cats in the area no doubt, especially grays. Granted this is a big area with different types of terrain. Some hilly, some flat. Some thick with mesquit trees or places with cedar or oak.

Some ranches are better then others simply because of hunting pressure. If your going to a place where there hasn't been an aweful lot of calling and or trapping you'll be in for a treat. I say that but even with heavy trapping there still seems to be a good chance for a lot of grays.

All the calling I have done lately is at night under a red light. This last trip gave us the best single spot kill I have ever experienced. 5 grays within about 15 minutes without moving the truck. Pretty crazy.

I am not super familiar with the area your going but I think you should do well. There are some pretty good hills (for TX) around there that can easily hold many varmints.

Not the expert caller but I think we did most good with a cotton-tail rabbit call. Since you likely have plenty time you can do some experiment and see what works best for you.

Good Luck!

Me and a bud killed 8 yotes in the last 2 weekends... same load in both Savage 223's, 50gr V-max moly, over 22gr IMR 4198. Only 1 had any kind of a hole. I hit her high in the back and ripped about a 2.5in drain hole.

Palmetto: I have had great "fur friendliness" with the Speer 52 grain Hollowpoint Flat Base 22 caliber bullets.
Good luck on the Texas Safari!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Ruger 280. Do ya'll call from the truck? Does the light scare em much?

Another vote for Speer 52 grain flat base HP bullets.