Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Can you use a rim fire cartridge to hunt yotes

I have a 5mm Remington 592 and was wondering if anyone has used one for yote hunting. I live in Georgia and these criters are becoming a serious nuisance for all.

I'd think head shots at less than a hundred yards.

My first rifle was a Savage 34M in 22 Magnum. I shot a lot of foxes and coyotes with it. Heart and lung shots will kill a coyote but they often run a ways first. I never did lose a coyote and most only ran 40-50 yards with a lung shot. I was sure glad when I got old enough that my dad let me move up into the centerfire rifles. I still have that Savage 22 Magnum although it doesn't see the daily service it did 40 years ago.

Mart

The 5mm will kill 'em quite dead with a lung shot out to 100 yards or a bit more. Hunt 'em and kill a bunch. When you have an extra $300 laying around, lots of 222's, Hornets and 223's out there in that price range. Those are more ideal for coyote calling but the 5mm will shure work for a while.

I shot and killed 3 last year with a 17 HMR, bullets were the 20 grain gamepoints. One ran 50 yards and died, the other two did the yipping death spin and didn't go anywhere.

Now before someone gets their panties in a wad, my main calling gun is a 17 Remington. I just wanted to see for myself how the HMR would do, and it was 'adequate'. Centerfires are obviously more effective.

A 5mm has quite abit more juice than an HMR and would kill them dead out to 125 with good shot placement. JMO

The answer to your question is yes.
I shot one last week with a 20 Vt and saw three others shot with 223s in AR platforms. All were called under 150 yards.
They are tough critters.
I would never intentionally hunt them with a rimfire, too many things can go wrong.

I would have to respectfully disagree. I've no doubt some coyotes have been killed in excess of 100 yards with 5mms, 17HMR's and 22 magnums. I've also no doubt that as many more have escaped with a bullet in them, presumed to have been missed. None of those rounds have the oomph to make reliable kills past 50 yards. Coyotes are tough. I called and shot a lot of coyotes over the years prior to moving to Alaska. I've seen them take some solid hits from some big guns and run off. Most don't with a centerfire but some do. When I was limited to only my 22 magnum I kept my shots to around 50 yards and I don't recall ever stretching it past 75 yards. The 5mm has less power than the 22 mag and the 17HMR less than the 5mm. They may just be coyotes and Lord knows I've killed more than my share but they do deserve to be taken humanely. That's not something rimfires can do reliably much past 50 yards, IMHO.

Mart

Alrs: I have killed Coyotes with a variety of rimfire cartridges including 22 WRF, 22 MRF, 22 Winchester Auto, 22 LR and 17 HMR.
I have never shot a Coyote with the 5mm Remington Magnum.
Yes indeed - I have no doubt with a well placed shot you would bring a Coyote to bag with your 5mm Remington Magnum.
To date I have killed 3 Coyotes with my 17 HMR Rifle - all one shot kills.
I have heard some states only allow "Varmint Hunting" with rimfires or shotguns - is that your situation?
Yes keep the Coyote numbers down and your Deer and Wild Turkey herds will improve.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Generally I won't recommend that someone go out and buy ANY rimfire to hunt coyotes. But in your case you already have it so I say go for it. Let's face it, most of us that have tried coyote hunting sat thru many empty stands before every getting a shot. Some of us still do. Callin a predator can be the most challenging hunting one can do. When you do start getting shots YOU will be able to decide for yourself if the 5mm is the gun for you or if you need to look at a shotgun or centerfire rifle. Personally, I determined that rimfires don't have the umph and range I need for coyotes.

CB

Thanks to all for the input. I will try to keep my shots to under a 100 yards and see how these new Centurion 30 grain hollow point 5mm mags do. Thanks again for everyone's comments.

You can, but I wouldn't recommend it. If the Centurions are accurate enough (try 100 yards from sitting off sticks, 2 inch group max) then okay.
But I will say, even if coyotes are contemptible, they still deserve a "good" as in lights-out death. Overkill is always better than underkill.