What is the best coyote gun?

603 you mentioned what grain bullets you were shooting in the 260 and the 223, you did not mention what grain bullet you were shooting in the 220. I do agree the 220 doesn't get much penetration with most of the common choices of bullets designed for it. I must also say that at longer ranges, the thud of bullet impact from the 220 on a decent size hog is quite amazing. It's a sound that's hard to duplicate and really gets my heart thumping. I've shot hogs at various ranges with everything from 17 hmr to 458 winmag. I don't recommend it for hogs unless you are really set up for the perfect shot ( neck or ear ) but it truely is a sound I wish all could hear. Ultra velocity hitting a hard, flat, and wet target is simply awe inspiring.
 
Boogershooter, the 260 bullet that did good all-around use was the 100 gr Nosler BT. The 220 bullet I was using was the Nosler 55 gr BT, and I have switched to the 55 gr Sierra GK due to the Sierra being a bit tougher. For a time I used the Sierra 63 gr SMP bullet, and it did work pretty good on pigs. I'd like to be able to use the 60 gr Partition or the 64 gr Nosler Bonded Solid Base in the 220, but they won't quite stabilize. In the 223 I normally only shoot the 40 gr Nosler BT. It's the rifle I keep handy in the house (we live way out in the country in Texas), and I wanted a bullet that would fragment and not ricochet. That little bullet flattens coyotes way better than I ever imagined.

And, just for additional random info, I have found that in the 260 the 120 gr Nosler BT is more effective on large pigs (and deer) than the 100 gr version. The 100 gr version kills them, but I seem to have to do more work, since they manage to get 30 yards into the thicket when I tap them with that smaller bullet. Dragging a 200 pound hog 30 yards was not working out for me, since I'm not a kid anymore.

To summarize, any of those rifles and bullets work great on coyotes, but when pigs are added to the mix, I step up to the 260. Probably a 243 would be an ideal caliber for coyotes and pigs, and a 220, 223, or 22-250 would be perfect just for coyotes.

I tapped a few pigs at about 225 yards, in my hay field, with the 220. Just didn't drop them quick enough. I tap them with the 260 and they don't go far. I took a few coyotes and pigs out to 400 yards with the 260. Never would have tried the pig shot with the 220 or 223.

That has been my experience over the last 10 years here in the countryside.
 
With a coyote.... If you hit them in the body between any two of the four legs with .223 or similar, they will go down.

Pick a gun that fits you well in different positions, can tolerate different weather and that you can support for a few minutes.
 
I know a few people that have tried the 204 on yotes. From what I've been told the bang-flop factor just isn't there. Maybe they are making bad shots, using the wrong bullets, or shooting too far. I've shot them alot at steel plates but not on live critters so I'm speaking purely on second hand knowledge.
 
Some years back, a south Georgia coyote hunter was all "fan boy" about how well his .204 did on coyotes. I'm guessing he was quite accurate, to be able to have his claimed successes. I saw a couple of photos.
 
Since I don't specifically go out to hunt them.very often, it's more of a whatever is handy from a 7Mag, to 20ga. Shotgun. A body hit with a rifle is most certainly not a drop em where they stand shot, them rascals can take a hit and still vanish.
 
I'm sure sometimes they will take a hit and vanish sometimes. But I do agree with the other post about hit them anywhere and they go down because that has been all my experience.

Growing up the guys I hunted with always said that same thing about droppin em with gut shots and such. And to my experience thats been true. I always aim for the shoulder when I can but I'm not to picky, with the exception of one neck shot. Now they might have flopped around on the ground for a lil while before they died from a gut shot but they always did drop in their tracks. But these are smallish East Texas coyotes. And I do imagine that they can take a hit and vanish. I was also using 100 gr. .243 soft points and nearly all of these shots were less than 30 yards as I was sitting in a deer blind for most of em. So even shot in the guts they got drilled pretty hard under the circumstances of the shot itself.
 
"I'm sure sometimes they will take a hit and vanish sometimes. But I do agree with the other post about hit them anywhere and they go down because that has been all my experience."

I've shot pickup loads of coyotes and have found them to be exponentially tougher than let's say deer. I've seen coyotes run off fighting the hounds with 5-6 FEET of intestines dragging in the snow(that one shot with a 30/06 BTW). Ditto with legs hanging by a thread of skin. Center shot in the chest, hit the snow, jumped up, and ran 200 yards.
Back in the early 70's, the .223 was so ineffective (due to lack of bullet expansion) that I quit using it and traded off the rifle. My 22/250 was the most effective killing cartridge in our hunting group(other choices were 22WMR, .243, 6mm, .250/3000, .270, 30-30, .308, and 30/06).
Coyotes are TOUGH and if you want them DRT, use a high velocity fast expanding bullet and don't bother with skinning.
 
I suppose experiences shape our opinions. I don't consider coyotes to be that tough. A couple of them that I shot over the years ran off, but most don't. But, for a couple of years I had a three legged coyote on the place. "Tripod" was probably the one I tapped with my 270 late one evening in deer season. Never got that one in the crosshairs again.

I think pigs are much tougher.

But, let's talk speed. Miss a coyote at short range and they can instantly get to an escape velocity that is stunning. They'll be gone so fast that you'll wonder if you really saw one.
 
Pound for pound a coyote is a very tough animal. If they were the size of a deer, people would be using very powerful rifles to try to anchor them. Several stories of tracking animals that proved to have very serious hits that one would think would be incapacitating, but weren't.

My favorite coyote rifle is a .22-250 at the moment. If I was to buy a dedicated coyote rifle right now, the .243 would get serious consideration.
 
Yes they can vanish very quickly and escape I do agree with that. And coyote wolf hybrids do exist fairly commonly. Now there is predation amongst them but hybrids are a fairly well known existence, not just a cryptid.
We get alota "chupacabra sightings" down here in Texas. And I'm not trying to derail this thread or talk about cryptids that don't exist. But one of these "chupacabras" got shot by a rancher in West Texas so he sent the body to Texas A&M for testing and through DNA tests they confirmed that it was a coyote/wolf hybrid with a real sever case of mange.
There are no wolf's in Texas anymore except for a few Red wolves in East Texas. So it was thought that it was probably an escaped domestic gray wolf that bred with the coyote because plenty of people have grey wolves for pets around here. So hybrids are totally possible and have been confirmed.
 
There's a pretty lengthy documentary on coywolves. Don't ask me where, I don't remember.

There also is coydogs and wolfdogs.... I once caught a coyote in my kennel attempting to mate.

Adding to the question... Rifle fit to the shooter is more important than caliber in my opinion.
 
Back in the 80s I earned a large part of my living with fur. The weapons I started with were a 22 WMR a 22LR in both a rifle and a revolver, and a 22-250. I killed a lot of coyotes with them but each had their weaknesses. The 22 rimfire mag lacked range over 200 yards. This was not a problem in most cases when I carried it because I was shooting on ranches and farms where the owners were having problems and shots were usually within it's range. The 22-250 on the other hand was too powerful for the task at ranges under 200. Hide damage was usually more than I wanted and I bet I lost about 25% of the potential cash because I had to sew up some big holes and the fur buyers would not pay as much for one that was damaged that much.

I also used a standard 22 LR (from a Ruger 77/22) and a 22 LR Colt Diamondback to kill several dozen coyotes.

I then bought a 222 Remington (on a SAKO)
That was the magic gun. It will kill coyotes to rather long ranges and even at 30 yards with the 50 grain Winchester bullets I used, it would not do much hide damage.

You will read that the old 222 is limited to 250 yards by the gun-rag writers. Don't believe it. I killed a LOT of them at 350 to 400 and I remember one I paced off that I killed at 492 paces. Bang-flop.
If we see how well a 22 LR kills them at 50 yards and we look at the ballistics of a 222 Remington coming out the muzzle at 3200 FPS we see that at 500 yards the 222 is still doing very well compared to the 22 LR at 50 yards, so the only limitation is your marksmanship. For money shooters hide damage is a major factor in your paycheck so more power is not the answer.
In 1986 I killed fur for 4 months and when I sold it all I was able to buy a 3 year old Toyota Land Cruiser in excellent shape on just the money I earned in that 4 months. So when I say I killed a lot of coyotes I mean a LOT. And that was only that 4 months. I killed coyotes at other times that year and in every year of my life since I was about 9 years old. I am 60 now, so you can see I have some experience at this.

Well now days I think my best coyote gun is my AR-15 16" barreled carbine in 5.56.

The 222 Remington that served me so well shot a 50 gr bullet at 3200 from a 22" barrel. My AR shoots a 50 grain bullet from a 16 inch barrel at about the same speed. So the bullet is going to act the same way.

But with the AR I can get shots on doubles and every now and then on 3-4 and the recovery time between shots is far less than it is from my bolt action 222. Accuracy is also excellent with my AR so I can't even give an advantage to the SAKO in that way.
Lastly---- to me anyway----Coyote hunting is fun but it's a job and I like the fact that I don't have to take care of my nice wood stock when I throw the AR on the floor of the truck, or when I lay down in the dirt and rocks for a long shot. It's more of a tool than an art form, but in answer to the OP's question, I would say without hesitation that an accurate AR15 is the best coyote gun yet made if you are hunting hides.
If you only want to kill them any rifle is as good as any other, as long as it's accurate.
 
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While I am sure Wyosmith has shot a lot more Coyotes than I have, I did shoot a lot with a lot of different calibers and also for the bounty and pelts on ranchers land who allowed me to then hunt pheasant, deer and pronghorn.

I would agree that a decent AR15 in .223 would be (is) the best all-around choice for Coyotes. I have shot a triple with an AR15 that I would not have got with a bolt gun. I still have what was my primary coyote gun for many years, a Marlin 922M (.22WMR) but I hardly ever shoot it anymore. When I go to shoot Coyotes specifically now, it is always a .223 AR15. I have shot them with big game rifles and the 6.5PCC, .22-250, .243Win and 12g buckshot over the years as well.

If you only want to hunt a few here and there and have other uses for a deer rifle, that would be a decent option.
 
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