Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 17hmr good for coyotes?

I don't think .17 HMRs are good for coyotes at all. Sometimes they die right away, sometimes they run off and die of a nasty infection. No matter how you slice it, they aren't good for the coyote.

I don't have much use for 00 buck at all.

If buckshot is called for, #4 Buck is what I use.

In lesser use, if I need a dense pattern that's hard hitting at nominal ranges, I'll use T size down to BB lead shot.

The problem at my place is that if you carry a .17 you also have to keep a real rifle at hand. Any time of day or night we are liable to see a hog weighing in at well over 200 pounds. So the minimum rifle in my truck is a .223 Weatherby Vanguard2 and that is for my grand daughter. I use a .30-06 with 180 SST. Works fine on coyotes, pit bulls, hogs, and any other troublesome varmint that shows up. In my hands it's good for 300 yards. Better shots could shoot further.

I similarly use mostly 4 cartridges.

22lr for a .22 is needed and used for.

45acp for when it's needed.

Next step up is .223... Tractor and Mule rifles, for when you need a rifle, and not a pop gun. Use one for calling predators in the daytime.

.308 on hogs, deer, and calling hogs or predators at night, mostly because I have a thermal riding on one upper, and a nice scope riding on another. If I need to shoot daytime hours I just swap uppers.

I wouldn’t grab a HMR to go coyote hunting, but I wouldn’t pass up a shot if I was carrying one.

#3 buck is my preferred. However, I whacked a ‘yote about 30 years ago with a load of OO. He was about 20’ away, and was a holy ‘yote after the shot.

Back when I was younger, and still calling coyotes seriously like, I carried a benelli 12 gauge auto with number 4 buck and a rifle, usuallly 22/250 but sometimes 257 Robert’s or AI and would even resort to a 270 win on an occasion. Rifles loaded with Sierra light jacked bullets so they fragmented once inside the coyote and didn’t exit, so long as you hit in front of thr diaphram. Also liked the 223, but found it a little lacking in killing power when those call wise yotes would hang up out there 400-600 yards. That was when the old 270 and 90 grain Sierra hollow points really shined.
Back in the 50’s when I first started calling foxes and coyotes hardly anyone else’s was doing it, and the critters were real easy to fool, I used rifle only, Remington 722 in 222 rem.(still have it) that rifle and varmit hunting got me started in hand loading? Hardly anyone was doing that too. About all I could find for powder was 4895 and Herter bullets, shot a ton of herter wasp waist bullets, thought a 1” group was really good. How times have changed.
I tried carrying a rock river heavy barrel AR in 223 for awhile, and liked the rapid fire abilities , but it was bulkier than I liked and it an electronic caller and shotgun just got to be to much
My brother, a damn good caller, lived in Colorado, He and I hunter together quite a lot, both Wyoming and Colorado. Must say together we were a deadly pair. Anyway, he called me one night? his greetings were Bud I did something today you will never in your life accomplish, course what’s that knowing it had to be something about coyotes was my reply, I called in a family unit of 5 coyotes and killed them all on one stand and I didn’t use no damn shotgun either, was his answer.
I never did equal that( closes was 4) and that was the same stand for over an hour and separated coyotes, what about the rest of you coyote hunters here in the Rocky mountain front? what’s your best?

Not a fair comparison, but I was deer hunting one morning and watched a mama coyote run back to a hole where she had her pups. I ran to the house and got some muratic acid and my Benelli with extended magazine, loaded it with 7.5 and went back and poured it in the hole and moved back about 20 feet. Few seconds later here they came, got mama and 5 pups.

I usually use my 5.56, but would like to add a .223 to the herd....in a lefty, so a Tikka probably.

Sometimes a good bit cheaper!!🤣🤣

Extreme prejudice is used when my Win Mag,scatters their guts in a 20 yard circle.It smells like victory .The only good coyote is a dead one.

I use a fast twist 223 with 62 grain Bear claws. They kill cshit out of pigs too.