A wise choice
You got the simpler gun, and allowed money for a quality scope. Good thinking.
Regarding jimbob's comment, I respectfully disagree. The
caliber is plenty good enough for either coyotes or deer. Load 105 gr. for deer, and something in the 60 gr. range for coyote.
I inherited a Remington 788 in 6mm Rem. At first, I was a little disappointed that it is all but a dead cartridge. Then, I thanked heavens for it, because it got me into reloading. I went out looking for ammo, and all that was available locally was the 100 gr. cheapo stuff from Remington. I could only ever get it to shoot maybe 5" at 100 yards. :barf:
On my first box of reloads, that went down to 2-3". Still not stellar, but I'm sure some of it is, shall we say: "operator error."
rbursek made a good point, but it should be remembered that the earlier rifles in 6mm Rem didn't have a fast enough twist rate to stabilize bullets that were suitable for deer. Then, .243 Win came along with attractive rifles in the caliber AND the faster twist rate, and it was pretty much lights-out for 6mm Rem from there. The later 6mm rifles (like mine) had the tighter twist rate, but it was too late.
Do yourself a favor and take up reloading.* It will be worth your while from an accuracy standpoint, and also from one of cost per round. You can get set up with a Lee Loader for probably around $50. If you want to get a proper press, plan on around $100-150. But it will pay for itself after very few boxes of ammo.
Out of a manual loading rifle, you can even make light loads with light bullets just for target shooting, and not beat yourself up too much.
Now, how about a picture of your rig?
* - PM me if you want some tips and shopping advice on this. It is not hard to do.
