Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles And Go. Best .224 projectile for 223/556 for coyotes to 200

Hopefully the long title says it all.

I shoot the dang things with whatever I have. But a friends dad is a bit older and doesn't like looking for them.

He just started on them with an AR. All I had that was even close but much better than the FMJ the store sold him was 52 BTHP Matchkings. Ugh. They work fine, the wife uses em on pigs and coyotes here.

But probably a better bullet. Vmax. Ballistic tip. Varmageddon or whatever they all are.

Is there a best one. Houses are around so thats an issue. Best weight? We generally never shot anything less than 68s so I'm not familiar with ballistics. Terminal effects etc.

My guess is 50 v max. But 40 might not be out of the question. Or 60 ?

Think the gun is 8 or 9 twist. Its not a fast twist.

Thanks in advance for the headaches ya'll will give me sorting through the answers.

BTW reloading bullets, not loaded ammo obviously

At 200 yards I would grab any bullet in a 223.

I've had really good luck over the years shooting a 60 gr. vmax right at 2850 fps.

Lots of guys I talk to and the coyote hunters I watch on the youtube videos seem to prefer the 53 grain Vmax. Now the trick is to find them anywhere for sale...

50 or 55 Ballistic Tips work good on coyotes.

Define "good".

Just kill them dead?
Fur friendly?
Both?

I have bunches of 62gr. Bear Claws. That’s what I would use. That bullet is good for anything I might want to shoot. It kills pigs plenty good, coyotes wouldn’t know what hit em.

Killing is the easy part- using a bullet that won' t destroy the hide and won't pass through or ricochet is the part most guys are looking for these days. The plastic tipped varmint bullets- Nosler BTs, and Hornady Vmax seem to do the best job of it from my experience and others I talk to...


Bob

I have probably shot the most coyotes with my AR using 55gr BT's. The Sierra 65gr BT also works very well, someone mentioned the 60gr V-Max and they work very well but are the least fur friendly, they really come undone on impact

WOW if a 1-8"twist is not a fast twist in your book .............what do you consider a fast twist ????????????
1-5", 1-6", 1-7"????????????

well,...........yeah

8 Twist should be perfect for light plastic tipped bullets like the 40's, 50's, 53's, 55's. IMO, the closer the bullet is to rated velocity and rotational integrity, the faster it will come apart when it hits something. For 200 yard shots as specified, anything will work to kill coyotes.

6 /6.5/7. Worlds of difference in what you can stabilize right there. 8 won't come close to the 90s I used to shoot all the time. 7 would on good days. hear 7s do the 88.5 bergers though...

Anything less than 7 you can't deal with heavies mostly.

Yes even FMJ. But the point is the best one for DRT even with bad shots. Yes I know that was stupid to post. But it happens. And at night and older shooter...

No one buys coyote hides. Could care less about the hide. If it cut the coyote in half that would be fine too. Thats not how I roll but thats how this project has to be.

My hunting guns are setup for 55 gr NBT’s due to the BDC in my scopes. They work fine but the best killin bullet is the 77 gr NCC followed by the SMK.

In that case, a cousin of mine kills 50+ a year. He likes his bullets light, and fast. Shoots plactic tip 40's out of .223, but does a lot of killing with a silenced .204

The Varmeggedon Tipped are good too if you happen to find some. I’ve used the 40s on all kinds of stuff from crows to pigs and had good luck. Another guy I know here locally likes the 53s for coyotes out of his 223.

60 Gr. Sierra TMK.

MM

We use 55 grain V-Max bullets and no coyotes have complained about them so far.

Before they came out we used 55 grain whatever bullets.

The hides became worthless around here a long time ago so it didn't matter,even the fox with a 300 Win.Mag.