Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Fur concerns

All -

Was thinking this over in the shower this am. If a guy's worried about keeping fur damage in check - sell the hides etc. and considering most dedicated varmint/calling rigs probably run from some sort of .17 though 22-250AI - what's better for keeping damage to a minimum?

Light for caliber moving fast, heavy for caliber moving medium/slow?

Yeah - I realize a lot of guys prob hunt with more rifle than listed - but I'm thinking uppper Midwest coyote and very occasional fox hunting here. 300 yards max woodlot/farm hunting.

Trying to convince myself that a Ruger 22hornet that's been punched K Hornet might not be the perfect fur friendly rifle in that regard but a .223 is probably much easier to find.

.17 Remington.




Travis

I hate to agree with flame, but there you have it. I like a .204 but its a little tougher on the critters�.


.17 fireball might be OK too�.never used one so can't say.

I was thinking more along the lines of "regardless of cartridge - heavy for caliber at moderate speeds or light for caliber" - which is best on fur?

I'm guessing the heavy?

I've great luck with light for caliber in 22 cal (40 grain noslers). With that said I run a 17 cal for fur

It you are considering fox at all, go with a .17, either Fireball or Remington.

the 17 hornet is THE fox medicine.....

You can't remove the cartridge from the equation. Size matters.

And although heavy and slow will likely result in a fur friendly'er load, you won't ever use them because it makes range estimation critical and coyotes are ass holes and do not stand around a real long time when coming to a call.

But if you don't want to buy the greatest fur cartridge in the history of the world, a .223 size case and 50ish grain bullets tend to be just about right.



Travis

10-4 - was just thinking that given the relatively short ranges I'm talking here and given how difficult it is to find a .17 anything in my AO - I'd most likely be looking at a .223 based job.

I HAVE a 22-250 Win Coyote but don't care for the weight or uber slow twist on it. Rebarrel would be a possibility but dunno what best fits the .308 boltface that would also be fur friendly.

Neither does anyone else.

Stop over thinking it. Build a 17Rem and be done with it.

teal: Ive had some pretty good luck on coyote fur with a .22-250. That said, when it goes wrong ( as in hitting a shoulder bone..) you could drive through the hole�.but I don't know what else would work on a .473 bolt face.
FWIW I probably had my best luck with a very slightly down loaded Speer TNT, no exits. Next was a normal load in a NBT 50 grainer, usually dime sized exits�with the occasional 'drive-thru'�.


Don't think you want to shoot fox with anything in a .22-250

As in ingwe said the 22-250 can result in saved fur but can also result in a fuggin' mess.

If it was all I had I'd stop caring about fur and hope for 50/50.

Please don't shoot any fox with it.



Travis

And I'd like to add your morning shower thoughts are very different than my morning shower thoughts.



Travis

If like you said you have relatively short ranges then I don't see how the uber slow twist handicaps you

Nothing works 100% of the time but the 17 Remington comes close.

I shoot a 204 cause it seems to kill coyotes a little deader for me. But I've had pin hole size entrances and no exits with 75 gr Vmax's in a 243ai, 77 gr SMK's in a 223, 55 gr NBT's in a 22-250ai and 40 gr Vmax's in a 204. I've also had softball to beach ball sized exits with same and lighter bullets moving faster and slower.

A fox is just waiting to explode.

I'd have to echo the 17 Remington support. Coupled with Hornday's 25 grain HP it works really well for fur. I recently had Pacnor barrel a Charles Daly action to 17 and will be stocking it this winter.

If you are absolutely set on a round with a .473 base, then build a 22-250 and try the Sierra 1365 55 grain Game King. It normally leaves an exit wound but it's usually fairly small, an inch or so most times. It seems to be tough enough to punch though without leaving basketball sized holes. Seems to work well in 222/223 also.

I'll be trying my 6mmx222 this year for fur. I'm hoping the moderate velocity and mid range bullet weights will be a fur friendly combination. We'll see.

For what you're doing I'd go with the 17 Remington and never look back.

I'll also add a "me" to the 17 Rem. crowd.

Im going to try the 'heavy and slow' thing on fox later this winter. Saving fur is not a priority, so if jot doesn't turn out, it doesn't. But Im anxious to see how it performs nonetheless.60 grain NBT going about 2700 fps...

I've killed more coyotes with a 30 calibers than anything else. 130gr TSX don't destroy much fur.

As usual, the best remains a 222 magnum with Uber-fast 40 grain V-Max...