Well, this is belated, but for what it’s worth I hunted Reynard passionately in the 80’s, starting with the 243 (Way too explosive), moving steadily down through the 22’s (still too destructive for fur) to the 222 (not flat enough for the barren fields of Iowa).
When I got to the 17 Remington, I found it about the best choice for fox to all ranges here and preservative of fur for the most part. Used Remington 25-gr factory loads. Chrono’ed 3700 FPS out of the petite Kimber model 84 — seemed just right.
