Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Your Opinion - Want a Dedicated Coyote Rifle

I'll bet that Maux Faux shoots....

I would go with the winchester M70 223wssm. I love mine.

Great deer rifle...

But not as good as a .223AI....although Ive heard it was a horrible deer caliber.....

Was hoping someone would catch that..grin...

Savage Model 10 Predator Hunter... although this one is in 22-250. Mine's a tack driver.

I've already got enough general purpose varmint rifles, but for a "Dedicated Coyote Rifle" I just ordered a .25-06 and some 87gr TNTs. I'm pretty sure it's going to do the trick.

If nobody has said it yet, the Tikka T3 in .223 has a twist rate of 1:8 Perfect for the larger grain bullets.

But everybody knows that a Tikka T3 .223 is trash. You can't kill nuthin with one of those cheap things.

For a dedicated calling rifle I keep going lighter and lighter. I picked up one of the mdl 7 predators last year in .223 and I've been impressed. The 1/9 twist will let me shoot some of the heavier pills and being all camo I don't worry about the foul weather. Its a shooter.
Thats the .223 answer for me in a bolt.
A couple of friends I hunt with like the same gun in a .243. Same results except the .243 anchors them much better. Since we don't collect fur thats not an issue.

thanks again men. i've narrowed it down to either a savage model 10 predator, a rem model 7 predator, or a tc venture predator. currently searching the web for best prices. i appreciate the responses.

Good deals can be had on Weatherby Vanguard.

Having just researched and decided on a coyote rifle myself this caught my eye. I saw the topic titled want a dedicated coyote rifle and read the opening lines and had an immediate response in mind, you fell short on your homework in terms of the optimum caliber characteristics, and that's not to say a .223 won't kill coyotes.

I've mainly used two rifles for decades, a .22-250 and a .243, and to qualify that it doesn't mean I haven't shot and reloaded others for bench rest purposes like the .220 Swift, .25-06, .222, 6mm PPC, .22 PPC, etc. I would never consider a .22-250 inadequate, but saying that neither would I say it's the optimum for beyond 300 yards. I've hit plenty of them beyond 400 yards with the .22. What I have noticed is that the high or low hit, or one that got some wind drift and shot to the front or back led to a lot of wounded and running animals. The .243 not only seemed easier to make hits even in adverse conditions, but it sacked the coyotes even with the bad hits that had runners with the .22.

All that said I wouldn't consider a .223 even as good as a .22-250, so have you settled on one of the better "dedicated" Yote busters? I'd say it's a decent caliber but not a great one. 243 is a fantastic wind bucker which leads to more and better hits, and sacks them even with marginal hits. They are an incredibly versatile round, they have top shelf inherent accuracy, and a huge variety of varmint and bench rest capable bullets.

If coyotes is what it's for you might as well gravitate toward one of the best rounds for them.

I'm a bit jazzed about my new rifle, I sighted it in and got a chance to try it out all in the same day. I have a cattle ranch behind me that gives a superb field of fire up to a ridge and across draws to either side.

My friend uses a .22-250, we were looking at a pair of Yotes at about 450 yards across a breezy draw, so we were discussing drift. I told him I was going to compensate by aiming at the hind end just in case the bullet hardly drifted at all, he was thinking he needed to hold wider than that. I wasn't watching his as mine went down like a sack of concrete was dropped on it. His was running up a slight grade to the top of the ridge so when I held on him it was like shooting at a stationary target because he was going straight away. I was aiming just over his hind quarters no drift compensation, it looked like a truck piled into him from behind.

This was the first time I'd shot at an animal with this rifle, it had just been sighted in earlier in the day, I put an Elite 4200 6-24x on it. My buddy said that in all his days of hunting coyotes in Nevada he'd never seen anyone make a double look so easy. Sometimes the force is with you and you get those rare opportunities that come together. I do not think I'd have been as good with a .22-250 as the .243 WSSM made me look.