I guess I will need to sell off my 17's and 20's and stay with my 22-250 because they clearly won't work.

Also, all you egg shoot guys just need to forfeit and just let me win that AR15 because it is a 223...

I'm the range chairman at our club and see what spotstalkshoot is talking about on a daily basis. Also whats good enough for them isn't going to work at all for me or you. I know a guy that if he can hit a paper plate at 100yds, thats plenty good enough.

I think these are valid points. I shoot a lot and I shoot a lot of coyotes. I have used everything fron a .17Rem to a .308 to a 12 gauge. I've had runners on just about everone of those at some point. I don't jump right to the caliber. I look at the shot placement first then look at the results of the shot, if I can. Once had a coyote take a dead on chest hit from my .308 and it spun and tried to run. A quick follow up anchored it. The first shot had completely unzipped it's left side. So something caused the shot to veer off after it entered. Was that one enough for me to give up on the caliber? No way. I would just as quickly grab my 17, 204, 223, 6.5g or 308 and go out without hesitation.

I just came back from a week of coyote hunting with my nephew. We were playing with rifles and killed them with a 22 Mag, 218 Bee, 22-250, .243 and 16ga the only one that got back up and got away was with the 243, go figure.

We did take a 223 out one day but didn't see one to shot, I guess the 223 didn't cut it as a coyote rifle.

Old Chili Rojo killed a bunch of coyotes with the old Hornet one year for the foxpro contest. Shot placement, and call them in.

Use something besides UMC ammunition for live targets, many choices out there.

63gr sierra semi point will get ya good penetration. But then again so will the 55gr game king! Both are tougher bullets at 223 velocities.

I used the 223 for years, killed a bunch of critters, but eventually wanted more horsepower. Went to the 223AI then to the 22 Creedmoor, and the difference is night and day.

I still own and use 223s, but if I am calling anything that has the potential to present a shot over 300yd, I am toting something bigger.

I can ditto this....
I used to use .22-250 and hunting buddy has always used .223, and both kill.

The past 2 years I also used a .223 and really enjoy it...BUT I have noticed way more "runners". No problem retrieving them but I think I just started to be aware of it.

This year I switched to a 6DTI. I fricken love this caliber in an AR platform and I used to hate AR's
With this setup, I'm 12/12 including one 500 yard and multiple 300+ yard dogs...with NO runners. This setup has me gleaming with confidence that one loves to have with his rifle. My buddy and his .223 with 55's had multiple vital shot runners just this last week.

The dude needs practice more than anything else, stomach and leg hits, that he even said it shows
how green he is at this game. Muzzle blast scares him or something. 223 is a fine coyote round, but he has to put the bullet where it counts. He has no clue and he has not come back to spread more garbage.

Anyone that says a 223 does as good a job as a 243 needs to actually kill a few with a 243. Sure 223 will kill them but with a larger/faster bullet, you can be off a little and still not have to chase them down. There a reason contest hunters want more horsepower. All the guys saying “just work on shot placement” need to realize that some guys like to be able to knock down runners on the spot with less than ideal shot placement.

Who said a 223 is as good as a 243? I missed that one. But a shot in the leg is still a shot in the leg, same if you unzip their stomach. He shouldn't come on here and say the 17 Hmr is better just because he finally made a good shot., lol.

when i started coyote hunting way back in the day, i saved enough money to finally buy my very first rifle. i wanted a rifle i could use for everything from jackrabbits to elk. i bought a 300 win mag at gibsons. anybody remember the gibson stores?

i killed a shiz load of coyotes with that dang 300 mag. i wounded and lost a bunch too. blew legs off, unzipped em, you name it. truth is i never shot that win mag all that great because it kicked like a mutha.

just saying like others have already said, gotta put the bullet where it matters. 223 will kill coyotes as well as anything.

I remember Gibsons. What I remember most, was when they were going out of business. There was one, I was in, they had a fiber barrel full of barreled Mauser actions, barreled by P.O. Ackley (local). No stocks, just barrels fitted to Mausers and no indication of what kind of barrels. Whole bunch of different calibers, standard and wildcat. Cheap. But cheap was more than I had at the time and I didn't buy one. I knew what I was looking at, too. But broke is broke and I was broke.

Have many times wished I could have bought the whole dam barrel full.

- DAA

I remember Gibsons too. That was my favorite store to go in when I was little to take a look at the knives and guns. Got my first pocket knife and BB gun there.


Even though this is an old thread I'll add my experience with the .223 since that's my main tool of choice for all around critter killin. I've shot 18 coyotes,2 bobcats and a badger with it this Winter. Shots have been anywhere from 50 to a little over 300 yards. All but 3 animals have went straight down. And two of those didn't make it over 25 yards before falling over. One coyote made it about 50 yards before giving up the ghost. I've mainly been using a 55 grain softpoint. Behind the shoulder and neck have been where I'm putting the softpoint. I haven't ever really been a huge fan of softpoints but they're growing on me. You get an exit every time on broadside shots but generally it's not too bad of an exit wound.