Full metal jacket rounds for 22-250? Who makes them?

mh454

New member
I was thinking of getting some full metal jacket rounds for coyote hunting to maybe help prevent damaging the fur. I was at Scheels where they have a descent collection of 22-250 but couldn't find any FMJ. Who makes FMJ rounds (I don't reload...at the moment)?

P.S. Do ballistic tip rounds (like Federal BlitzKing) leave a nasty exit wound (never shoot a coyote with this gun before)?
 
Don't go the FMJ route. The FMJs have a tendency to go straight through the animal without doing much tissue damage because they don't expand much, if at all. As a result the animals will run many hundreds of yards or more after they are shot and you will have a tough time finding them. Not much blood trail either.

I experimented with Hornady 90 gr. and also 80 gr. FMJs in my .243 and I also tried Hornady 55 gr. FMJs in the 22-250. I spent way too much time trying to track down wounded animals that would have been dead on the spot with hollowpoint or lead pointed bullets.

The first bunch of factory Remington 25 gr. HP bullets I bought for my .17 Remington produced almost the same FMJ type results on coyotes. They seemed to go right through without mushrooming.

The Nosler BTs are fairly explosive. I use the 40 gr. Nosler BTs in my 22-250 for prairie dog shooting. I have also used them on coyotes, but stay away from hitting the shoulder bone. My experience has been that the 40 gr. BTs seem to blow up on the surface when you hit the shoulder bone.

Stay with some factory load with the spire or spitzer point and try to hit the coyotes when they are facing you (if possible) or in the heart/lung area if you get a broadside shot. If you hit them on the fringes you will tear them up almost every time.

You also run the risk of a lot more richochets with the FMJs.
 
Well said, Silverfox.

Lack of a quick kill is why you don't find many .22-250 loads in FMJ. Sellier and Bellot make a 55 grain FMJ .22-250 round. You can buy Sellier and Bellot ammo from Cheaper Than Dirt. FMJ is good for punching holes, be it paper or flesh.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but FMJ was used a lot in Vietnam because a wounded soldier was more useful than a dead one. This is one main reason why the .30-06 was widely replaced with the .223 after WWII.
 
Clean, effective, quick kills....are not often associated with FMJ's. I am not saying that no one has ever had clean kills with them, but by design they are not a killing bullet....they are a wounding bullet...

In my opinion, taking an animals life, should be done with the quickest most effective method, causing the least amount of suffering on the animals part. I am by no means a tree hugger, or animal activist, but to me moral and ethical values play an important part of being a sportsman and a hunter. I plan to hunt groundhogs next year with my 7mm Rem Mag, dispatch will hopefully be instantaneous...even though they are groundhogs and varmints...a life is a life....and should be respected as such.

Just to get this right from the git go, this is not intended to offend anyone or start a typing contest of who is right or wrong. It is just my opinion, and reasoning why I don't advocate FMJ usage for hunting. Have a great day.
 
Me and my hunting buddies wet the full route of trying to find the best bullet to save the hide. Actually, it still continues even though it has gone on for years. We shoot 22-250's and 223's. We usually load down the 22-250. My experience with FMJ goes like this.
We called in a coyote to about 60 yards standing face on to my father inlaw. The perfect shot. He aimed at his chest and dropped him like a sack of potatoes. When we picked up the coyote it was the worst pelt we ever had. The coyote was apparently closer than my father inlaw thought because he hit him a little high. The bullet traveled down the spinal cord blowing up the vertibre as it went. The hide was cut in half the full lenght of the back. We pulled the FMJ and have not tried them since.
 
I used to use fmjbt from Seirra, I ordered them from Mid-South. I used them on red fox. It won't always work on coyote, on coyote you want a bullet that drops them on the spot. The Nosler 55gr flew the same as the fmjbt 55. The Nosler or V-MAx would be a good choice. T.20
 
What are your guys thoughts on the Winchester 45gr load for the 22-250? Not sure what the name of them are, I have just seen them in a 40 round pack in a white box.
 
Because of the mixed results, some good, some bad,I quit using them in my 223. There was no consistency as far as results on coyotes. On smaller stuff they were fine, just not dependable on coyotes. If I use commercial ammo now in my 223. I buy American Eagle in a 55 gr. It kills them dead and very seldom have an exit.

I realize a 223 and 22.250 are different. You may get different results. The coyotes I shot with it were around the 100 yard mark and standing shots.
Some took 2-3 shots to put them down.
 
mh454, I myself use the Sierra 52 grain hollow point.
When it goes in, very seldom do you find an exit hole. I personally never have had a coyote run away if I shot it within 300YDS. The other day I was calling in the sandhills and I had a coyote come in, and I was in a bad spot, the sun was in my face but so was the wind so I took my chance and I called in a big male and he must of saw a glare off my lens or something but he stopped dead in his tracks and I couldn't even lip squeak him in. He started leaving and I got him stopped and let him have it. He rolled, jumped in the air, and ran about 10yds and dropped. I stepped it off when I went to grab him and it was 376 steps. Very seldom do I shoot a shot that far, but sometimes they just won't cooperate. But that is what a Sierra boat tail 52 grain hollow point did for me. It is loaded with 32.5 grains of 4895IMR. This is basically what I use all the time.
 
I have always had great success with 40 gr Hornady v-max. They will make a terrible hole if you hit the coyote in the sholder bone, but if you hit him in the boiler room it's like you scramble the egg inside the shell. They are very explsive. When skinning the only sign I have seen of exits is some very, very small peices of bullet coming out of the rib cage. When I mean small, less than 1/8 inch square. Very reare to have an exit hole.
SAW
 
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