Maverick 52
New member
Well this is my first post, so hello, but I've been reading this forum off and on for the last couple of years.
I've been wanting to get into coyote and raccoon hunting but I hadn't found someone to sell furs to until recently, so now I'm really getting excited to try it out.
I'm curious what you guys think is the best ammo choice in .223 for coons. I'd like something that is going to put em down quick, but not completely destroy the fur. I was thinking something like a 55gr, maybe 40gr V-Max. I figure it will either enter, fragment, dump all the energy into the vitals, and not exit, or it will exit and destroy the fur. My other thought was a soft point of some kind to keep the entry/exit holes small, but I'd think this wouldn't put them down as quickly.
The reason I'm worried about anchoring them quickly is because I've killed a few with a .22lr that basically shrugged the first couple of rounds off, and still ran far enough into the brush I never did find most of them. Some of those were body shots, some were head shots, same results with either shot placement.
If you have any other caliber suggestions go ahead, but I only have a .22lr, .223 AR-15, a 12 gauge, and a .410 available to me(and from reading through the WI small game handbook I'm not sure if I can use buckshot on coons or not...). I'm hoping to make something work with what I have, but if something else works really good I'd check into it.
I've been wanting to get into coyote and raccoon hunting but I hadn't found someone to sell furs to until recently, so now I'm really getting excited to try it out.
I'm curious what you guys think is the best ammo choice in .223 for coons. I'd like something that is going to put em down quick, but not completely destroy the fur. I was thinking something like a 55gr, maybe 40gr V-Max. I figure it will either enter, fragment, dump all the energy into the vitals, and not exit, or it will exit and destroy the fur. My other thought was a soft point of some kind to keep the entry/exit holes small, but I'd think this wouldn't put them down as quickly.
The reason I'm worried about anchoring them quickly is because I've killed a few with a .22lr that basically shrugged the first couple of rounds off, and still ran far enough into the brush I never did find most of them. Some of those were body shots, some were head shots, same results with either shot placement.
If you have any other caliber suggestions go ahead, but I only have a .22lr, .223 AR-15, a 12 gauge, and a .410 available to me(and from reading through the WI small game handbook I'm not sure if I can use buckshot on coons or not...). I'm hoping to make something work with what I have, but if something else works really good I'd check into it.