I live in farm country and in the ‘80’s I figured out the 17 REM was about perfect for fox here as you rarely got a close shot but you could reach out with it a bit, it wasn’t too noisy and the frangible bullets broke up well on frozen ground and snow with a miss. And at 200 yds and beyond it wasn’t destroying pelts.
Our fox are mostly gone now but with a commensurate increase in coyotes, and under the same conditions, the 204 seems about right but you need a boiler room hit from 250 and beyond. I’ve gone to Fiocchi and Federal 32’s both of which my little CZ likes.
If windy, which is often the case, I step up to the 243. Hornady Super Performance 75-gr V-Maxes are very accurate and even more so, though slower are the plain Win 80-gr varmint. The 22-250 would be as good as the 243 but in cutting back on firearms, I’ve chosen cartridges with overlapping application also.
