Effective range for .243Win for coyote hunting?

J

jrothWA

New member
Friend has farmland that to a rise, where he can set roadkilll for baiting coyotes?

I think 300 yds is max for the 243, for one shot.

Thanks.
 
Aw, farther than that, if you have the skill, know the range and trajectory and can dope the wind. Wind is the big problem, after 300 yards.

Hitting is the problem, not energy. Charles Whitman had a one-shot kill at 420 yards with a 6mm Remington, on a 220-pound man.
 
I once made witnessed back to back head shots on two woodchucks at a lasered 440 yards with my Savage .243. It's the Indian, not the bow that makes the difference here. Coyotes aren't that hard to kill.
 
I watched a gurl kill a cow elk with a 243 Win. Lasered 647 yds IIRC.

She used a Berger VLD Hunting 105 gr bullet.

Went down with one shot.

I don't believe I would have tried it, but who am I to say???
 
"I watched a gurl kill a cow elk with a 243 Win. Lasered 647 yds IIRC."

I'll come right out and say that shot(regardless of whether it worked or not)was darned poor judgement.
I've made one shot kills on coyotes at a measured 410 yards and a couple of pronghorns right at 400 yards using a 243 Win. There's nothing magic about a 243 but it is quite effective on coyotes at 300 yards.
 
Before my buying of a Model 7 in 223. My preferred varmint rifle was a Model 77 flat bolt Ruger in 243.
75 gr Hornady HPs or 80 gr spitzer is all I ever shot thru my 243.

243 is very flat shooting so there is little elevating on purpose required from muzzle to 150 yards. One suggestion: The better the scope mounted. The easier it is to be a successful shooter.
As far as my making distant shots. 243 is quite capable of 300 plus.. But I hold my shooting to 200 max. I don't like long walks to retrieve those seriously wounded or dispatched laying animals.
 
The limiting factor of effective range of the 243 is the shooter.

I load 87 gr bergers at 3000 fps. It stays super sonic to 1450. That would be this guns limit.

The shooter would be limited by his ability to judge wind and other environmental concerns.
 
300 yards is max for the .243 for deer sized game. Not so much for Wiley. You probably want heavy bullets for longer ranges. And it's essential you know the ballistics at long range.
For example, a factory 90(MV 3,100 fps. ME 1,920 ft-lbs.) sighted in .5" high, at 100, will drop 45.5" at 500 with about 711 ft-lbs. of energy left. Not enough energy(that's what's important. Not the velocity.) for Bambi, but sufficient for Wiley. 95's and up are better energy wise.
All that assuming you can hit the proverbial 9" pie plate at 500 plus.
 
a coyote would probably die from a hit with a .243 clear out to 500 or more.

The only problem is whether a person can be so skillful that you could dope the wind, get the trajectory right, have the fool thing sit still long enough for the bullet to get there.

That's a powerful cartridge and coyotes are not invulnerable. The question is going to be can you get a round into that scrawny little thing that will kill it cleanly and not leave it limping off with a broken leg.
 
Shot a Coyote at 780 yards with one of my .243s a little over 2 weeks ago. A 45 pound male, he rolled up dead in a ball right where he was shot.
 
MarkCO - Please tell us about the rifle, the scope and the load. My son-in-law's father has rifles that could probably make that shot, but my rifles (and I)would need at least 50+% pure luck. Edit: Oops, I didn't mean to imply I could make that shot nearly 50% of the time (or even 5%).:o
 
First, NO way I would shoot an elk past 300 with a .243.

The Rifle was the Ruger American Predator with a Burris XTRII 2-10 in Warne Rings. Load was factory Hornady Superformance 75g VMax. Ranged with a SIG Kilo2000 at 780, dialed in 4.4 mils for elevation and 2.4 mils of drift.

I had shot it to 645 yards on paper the day before and was getting about 4" groups in some variable winds and trued my ballistics data. Vertical was just under 3" and horizontal was just over 4" at 645.

Same rig, at 1045, I could not consistently hold a 3 shot group on a 12" plate. On the 18" plate I could. Even though it was still supersonic, I think it had destabilized somewhere past 800 yards.
 
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That's very good performance for a firearm, and you obviously have your ballistics correction skills up to excellence.

The idea that the thing couldn't stop a coyote reliably is kind of a moot point, IMO, the round is able to strike with adequate remaining velocity way out there, and unless you're using the wrong ammo, even slowed down to a crawl it's going to be able to kill. 300 yards you could even kill a deer with the 100 grain bullet.
 
This wears me out. A 243 is the real deal. It keeps enough energy to kill cleanly way out there. That elk video shows that. If you have the ability, the 243 will kill it as far as you can hit it. Be it 30 yards or 900 yards. God Bless
 
My first center-fire rifle was a Rem. 788 .243. It was very accurate. Current asking prices for a 788 .243 go above $600. I sold it to a friend, bought a Ruger 77 .243, glass bedded the action, recoil lug and chamber, and free-floated the rest of the barrel. It was (is) a wonderful, very accurate rifle. I've taken a coyote, pronghorn and small mule deer buck at 400+ yards. I subsequently got two Rem. 700 BDL LH rifles in .270 Win.; and mistakenly sold one but glass bedded the more accurate one in a Brown Precision stock. It was/is a terrific hunting rifle and, if I get another chance to hunt elk, I'll will carry my .270.
 
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