.223 load for coyote

[bmoore]

Everyone gave you good advice, theres no secret. A good 50 or 55grn bullet at a good velocity will put them down. I will go a little off course, you said that shots will most likely be under 100 yards? A 40grn Nosler ballistic tip, Vmax or Blitzking or 45grn TSX up around 3,600fps will flatten a coyote at 100 yards.

 

[BrianID]

You have many good choices in bullets. Coyotes are tough animals and you need to make percise shots to quickly kill them on a consistent bases. I’ve shot 16 coyotes in the last 10 months with Nosler Varmagedons 40 gr out of my 223. Range has been 75 to 300 yards, with most 100 to 200 yards. 14 of the 16 dropped In their tracks. One didn’t drop instantly due to a bad shot but he was still dead 100 yards over the hill. The other was spining and would have likely tipped over dead within 10 seconds but I keep shooting if they have even a hint of life left in them. Muzzle velocity is around 3300 FPS because my gun groups better with lower velocities. I could shoot them at 3700 FPS for max load but then my gun only will put 5 shots around 1”. When getting into reloading it is easy to fall into the trap of wanting to load “hot”. You will notice many experienced loaders will often not have their gun loaded with the the hottest load. If you want more speed it is better to switch cartridges. Don’t get me wrong, speed does kill, which is a reason the 22-250 is popular with coyote hunters. The light bullets in 223 will have lost a lot of energy and velocity after a couple hundred yards. I have dropped several coyotes on the run with “Texas heart shots” and they have penitrated well enough to make instant kills. The old soft nose bullets may be the best bullet for 223 but I haven’t tried them so I couldn’t say. I have shot a number of jackrabbits with 70 gr Berger VLD target bullets and I’m sure they would work on a coyote but they wouldn’t be fur friendly. I’ve see a lot of coyotes die instantly with bad shots from a 243 win, you are not going to see that with a 223. Overall I’ve been very happy with the results of the 40 gr Nosler Varmagedon for coyotes in my 223 but I realize the gun/bullet have limitations when it comes to coyotes.