Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 17HMR 200 yards and under for Coyotes

With a shotgun for close range stuff.

870, Dead Coyote choke, #4 buck.... welcome to 75 yard 'yote whackin'.

A good in-line 209 primed muzzleloader with a scope leaves little to be desired besides a quick second shot.

How many pellets did you get in the 75 yard circle VA?

No kidding... all of them.

isaac and 7X57Steve witnessed it.

So the next logical question is how big was the circle?

30" diameter, IIRC. No bigger than 36" diameter, I know that.

At 40 yards, you could cover the pattern with a 5 gallon bucket lid.

30" circles are for bird hunting and clay's games. Coyote vitals are about 6" - 8". I've adapted the turkey hunters 10" circle as a decent standard compromise size for pattern comparisons. Like everything else you have to hit them where they live or they can and will take a heck of a lot of lead/tungsten and make off for parts unknown. Count only the hits in a 10" circle at point of aim/impact and your effective range will be much better defined.

There wasn't 8" of space in that pattern that didn't have holes in it. 41 pellets, and fairly evenly spaced.

Do what you will and not to start an argument, however, I've found over the years it takes more than one or two No. Four Buck pellets to solidly anchor a coyote and keep them from hauling ass to a new zip code. In fact, I'd like to have not less than 5 - 6 hits in that 10" at point of aim/impact. When I can no longer reliably keep half a dozen 4-BK pellets clustered at point of aim - I call that max range and try not to exceed that. Smaller pellets like T's and BB's need even more hits to be effective. That's my experience anyway... take it for what it's worth to you.

Understood. Not trying to argue; not at all, in fact.

I appreciate the insight.

I shot a coyote broadside, 10 yards, center of rib cage...he ran off and was never found.

Shot another at 35 yards, broadside, he was never found.

22 mag is much better on coyotes and a 22 hornet even better, 221 fire ball better yet.

Keith you may want to read the post or get reading comprehension lessons. For the 100th time .22mag, 22hornet, ect, ect, ect is not an option!

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Wow, shoot the messenger.

He answered your question completely in sentence 1.

Seems to me that some people have no problem while others do...
I wonder why that is???

Whyt dont you talk to the F&G guys about changing it to allow 22mag also?

I got our F&G guys to change to rules to allow pellet guns for turkeys.

Try keeping the range much less than 200 yards. 50 would probably work well.

You don't know much. And believe it...... he shoots better than you do.

Dumbshit. You asked if anyone had used the HMR and their for thoughts. He answered your question.

Maybe. But I killed a coyote at 180 last Jan with an HMR.

Shooting one in the vitals at 15 yards is a dead dog.

I have hunted coyotes since 1978, all over the West and Mexico.

Currently teach predator calling seminars.

I hit the coyotes solid and they ran off, do what you want to do, you obviously are not going to listen to the voice of experience.

Better rifle is a 22 magnum with 40g Winchester HP and a serious upgrade to the 22 Magnum is the 22 Hornet.

Always use enough gun.

You will kill with a 17 HMR, but you will loose quite a few. Forget the reasoning of shot placement, because half of the time you are shooting them on the walk, trot, or run.

The two that I shot with the 17 HMR were standing still on broadside shots, I saw the blood where they were hit, they never even slowed down....running like greyhounds.

I read your post on how the 22 magnum and 22 Hornet is not an option, if 12 ga with 3" mag #4 buckshot is not legal, then I would opt for the use of a crossbow if that is legal.

A 17g bullet will not penetrate shoulderblades, ribs, hips, or spine on a coyote until they come out with some tough bullets.