Whats a good coyote load in 22 Hornet?

wahoowad

wahoowad

Member
Looking to pick up a box or two of a commercial 22 Hornet load for coyote to shoot out of my Browning A-bolt. I use the Hornady 35 grain V-max for groundhogs, shoots fantastic. Figure I should get something less splashy for a coyote.
 
I shot a coyote with 35 gr. v-max in my 218 Bee. 176 yds., dropped in its tracks, not even a quiver. Couldn't find an entrance and no exit.
 
In my experience they only splash when they hit shoulders or big bone (this is Vmax in 223 and 22-250). I shoot them right behind and slightly above the shoulder in the ribs, lights out. All last season I got small entrances and no exits, I would shoot the load you have or go to a pointed soft point if you wanna do shoulder shots.
 
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I feel like shooting the 35 grain VMAX is the bare minimum, and I didn't want to shoot the bare minimum. I now see hornet he has a 45 grain SoftPoint load and that will be my default to try unless someone else can recommend a better load
 
Sorry I didn't notice in your first post that you were shooting 35grn, I would totally agree that is a minimum, a minimum that I would not shoot. If I shot 22 Hornet I would be shooting a softpoint, probably the 45grn you mentioned. Lots of guys out here are crushing yotes with the 40grn Vmax in 22 hornet with handloads but it is just not for me with coyote.......fox yes. My minimum is a 55grn Vmax coming out of my Ruger American ranch at 2800fps. Good luck with your load, I think if you keep the shots inside 200 you will be just fine.
 
I've shot one coyote with a 22 Hornet using the 35gr vmax. It just happened to come along when I was out chuck hunting a couple years ago. It stopped at about 125-150 yards out and was facing me straight on so I aimed right in the center of it's chest. I hit him and he dropped down out of sight for a moment, then popped up again, spun a few times, and bolted into the sage. I found a pretty good blood patch where he went down, plus a few drops where he ran off, but never did find him. After that experience, I think if I were using the 22H for coyotes I would go with a bullet that will penetrate better like the Hornady 45gr soft point. They didn't group quite as tight as the vmax when I test shot them, but still were right around 1.25 to 1.5" at 100yards and should perform better on larger game. And I agree with stated above that shot placement and keeping the ranges fairly short is critical with the 22H.
 
I had good luck with Winchester factory ammo, 46gr hp. Don’t think I ever shot one past 125 yards, all one shot kills, ever had to track one down
 
I've been using a Hornet on coyotes since about 1990, or so, and have shot many, many dozens of coyotes with it. It's a Ruger Sporter with the 20" barrel.

For me, I try and keep the head-on shots to about 100yds or less, and on broadside shots, I'll stretch to about 175yds.

Use a 45gr softpoint that shoots well out of your rifle. I use a 45gr Barnes XLC, and it has improved my bang-flops noticeably over any other bullet I've tried, and I've tried a bunch of them.
 
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