Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 223 Bullet for coyotes

Yes. It is a fairly tough little bullet. It kills coyotes from any angle and doesn't tear up fur too bad. However, I dont think it kills as quickly on the classic broadside chest hit like the 60 gr. VMax.

Ive killed quite a few with 40gr vmax

+1

Not to start a war by any means but I have tried many dif bullets on coyotes and the most failed results were from ballistic tips...v max was the worst...
My go to in 223 and 22-250 is a 55 gr sp...not even sure the make...I bought an ammo can full of them years ago and have shot just about everything with them...
Around here coyotes never give a clean shot...they hide in brush coming to a call or grass and weeds...they never stand still...the sound of the safety will send them into turbo...so it's usually a tactic of getting a bullet in them spot slow them down enough to get a kill shot...
The 55 gr sp will break bone the v max would just make them run faster...if poorly hit....
Sorry I'm not that great of shot at running coyotes
S

A vmax is nowhere near as stout as a nosler BT.
I've had several splashes on coyote shoulders from 50 and 55 vmax bullets but the 50 and 55 NBT has never given me any issues

Hmmm..... I've never had trouble killing them with vmaxes. Even 20 grainers outta the whore-gnat....

Anybody ever try the 62 grain fusion on yotes?

A[b][/b]
I won't disagree with that but I have never used them on coyotes...
My son uses a 20 tac...tod kindler says the end all coyote bullet is the 40 gr blitz king ....NOT! My son a tremendously good shot hit a called coyote at 40 yds ...he turned and ran he nailed him again...I finished him dead with an old 55 gr sp

This is a topic that I have gone back and forth on over the years, but my thoughts right now are.
I won’t ever use 40 grainers again for coyotes, or mono’s. I had a hunt a couple years ago that didn’t allow lead so I loaded up some TSX’s. They work OKAY on deer but horrible on coyotes.
My 2 favorite Bullets right now are 55 NBT and 65gr Sierra bt

Last year I did most of my coyote hunting with a 22-250 using 40 grain VMax's as fast I could push them. Every coyote was DRT, no exits, no runners. Coyotes aren't to kill, so a wide variety of bullets work.

My only problems came with the 204 and the 32 grain VMax. Had several cases of bullet splash and no penetration. 35 grain Bergers fixed that little problem.

From my AR I like the Hornady 55 gr. SP with cannelure for just about anything I would shoot with a 223/5.56. From a bolt gun I have had excellent results using Speer's 45 gr. SP. I have most likely shot more varmints with the latter bullet than any other. Hornady's 45 gr. SP is another good one though not generaly as accurate as the Speer for me. I have also shot a lot of Hornady 60 gr. HP's with perfect satisfaction.

My CZ 527 loves the 50 gr. Nosler BT. I"ve killed a couple of sheep with it and they've gone straight down. It also likes the 50 gr. Hornady HP Steel Case. Both rounds are tack drivers and I wouldn't have any qualms about shooting a yote with either round even if it was for the hide.

Yup.

25.9gr TAC or 25.5gr CFE223. Out of two AR-15's and a Ruger American Ranch Rifle. My notes show average five-shot groups of 5/8" @ 100yds. They work really well on coyotes (NOT fur friendly if you hit a bone!), feral pigs, and whitetails.

Ed

Just curious. Looking at the locations of the posters, could it be that the size of the coyotes - western vs eastern - might be a factor with how the bullets perform and why people might be having differing results with the same bullets.

I'm in Ontario and use cheap Hornady 55 SP w/cannelure. They work quite well, as do the 50 and 55 gr. Rem bulk bullets. The 40 gr. VMaxes don't like bone IME. I used them in my 222s, but kept the velocity around 3000-3100 fps. Our adult coyotes generally are about 40 lbs. The females a few pounds smaller.

I think you have a valid point there. Ive shot a number of Texas coyotes which seemed to go about 25 pounds apiece and had no issues folding them up with a lightly loaded .222 and 50 gr. soft points.

For our Montana coyotes which average bigger I really like a .223 stoked to the gills, or better yet a .22-250 loaded to its potential...

I noticed that with adult coyotes around here, my results were mixed with the 40 gr. VMaxes. If I nicked bone - that included the ribs - they didn't always drop. That's why I use more stoutly constructed bullets. MNR is reporting that some coyotes are breeding with wolves and the hybrids are larger and more solidly built. Even when not pushed to maximum velocities, I am leery about using them on coyotes.

Not related to the 40 or 50 gr. VMaxes, but I had a 35 gr. VMax vapourize on a fox, shot from a 22 Hornet. The bullet struck the right foreleg and came apart. As silly as it sounds, I dumped the 35 gr. VMaxes and went with some older designs with thicker jackets.

This is from Canada's east coast, but makes for interesting reading.

https://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/province-tests-dna-of-82-pound-coyote-126046/

Edited to add:

Adult eastern coyotes are larger than western coyotes, with female eastern coyotes weighing 21% more than male western coyotes. Physical differences become more apparent by the age of 35 days, with eastern coyote pups having longer legs than their western counterparts. Differences in dental development also occurs, with tooth eruption being later, and in a different order in the eastern coyote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote#cite_note-bekoff1978-79

If memory serves, a lot of eastern Canadian coyotes are coywolves. Yes?

The wildlife service says that there has been been some interbreeding. We'll end up seeing bigger coyotes with attitudes.

Life on this rock continues to evolve.

I hear and see alot about these coy wolves...but I dont think the craze has hit out here yet. Our wolves simply run down the coyotes and eat them.

unless they're just horny....