In my early 30s I shot fur for a living. I found the 221 Fireball and the 22 Remington were the best overall. The 223 can be about as good, but bullet selection is important and the faster you go, the more important it gets. For killing them it doesn't matter much, but if you are selling the hides you do NOT want large exits (or any exits.)
My dad has a 17 Remington on a SAKO and I used it some. It was wonderful in many cases, with no hide damage at all, but you can have 17s break up on the slightest resistance at times, and gusty winds play with the bullets more then I liked. The use of the 204 is interesting, but I can't personally speak about them. They didn't exist back then.
My 221 and my 222 were both used with 50 grain bullets. Hits with Winchester 50 grain and also Remington Power-Lokt HPs would exit the dogs, but the holes were always about 1" and were very easy to sew shut. They could not be seen from the outside of the hide and the buyers were very pleased with the fur I brought them.
For a while I tried to find a load that would drop them and never exit. I gave up after many many tries, and found a good bullet that would exit and not shatter would give very small exits and that was better overall then some that didn't exit but others that blew out 3" holes. I loaded by 221 to about 2550 FPS and my 222 to about 2850 FPS and found that just dropping the MV back to those speeds did a lot for the value of the hides. A 22-250 kill on a coyote at 450 was OK but one at 100 was not so good. The 222 would reach them (no matter what the rag-writers told me) out to 450, no problem. I just needed to learn the holds and that was not hard to learn at all.
I killed a LOT of coyotes on farms and ranches that had gotten used to buildings and human activity and were wise, but not spooky enough to run off and stay away. Ranchers and farmers would let me kill them as soon as they found I knew how, and that I would not harm any property or domestic animals. Around farm yards the gun I shot the most and killed the most coyotes with was actually a 22 LR. The reason I bring this up is that I never lost a single coyote I shot with a 22 LR. Not one. All were killed, and only 2 were shot 2 times. All the rest were 1 shot kills. A 22 LR at 125 yards is only going about 900 FPS at impact. A 40 grain 22 bullet at 900 will drop them if you shoot well. So a 50 grain bullet leaving the muzzle of a 222 at 2850 has a long way to go to get down to 900 fps and the impact of the 222 at 900 FPS is still a bit better then the 40 grain LR bullet at the same speed. So why in the world would these people think a 222 is "only good to about 200 yards"???
It's not so.
In the 204s and the 17s velocity may work for you, but in my experience it will work against you at MVs much over 3000 in the 224 bullets. If you shoot for money, and you use a 224 bore rifle, slow it down to under 2900 and you will earn more at the fur buyers.
If on the other hand you just need them to die, a 270 with a 100 grain bullet makes them REAL dead. But so will about anything else.
Thanks for taking the time to write. Whole lot of experience talking.
