Favorite rifles

What do you guys use for your groundhog/fox/coyotes?? I am looking to buy a new gun this spring and I am leaning twoards getting a good old 22-250 or Mabey a 223 I'm still undecided !! I have used an older 22-250 the past few years and it's an awesome round for groundhogs !! They can be pretty nasty on fur but you better believe they are dead lol !! I will post pictures of a few kills sometime soon!!

I like to use a 22-250 also, what rounds do you use?

Well the gun I am using now shoots the winchester 45 grain jacketed soft point rounds the best!! If it's not windy I can put a few shots in a penny sized group at around 200 yrds!! I hear allot of good on the hornady v-max but I don't think they are very fur friendly at all

I keep a .223 in my truck. The reason I went with a .223 instead of a 250 is mainly because 99% of my shots are under 200 yards around here. Shells are cheaper and I can buy cheap plinking ammo to practice with. I keep 64 grain Federal Fusion ammo in the gun when it is in the truck. My gun likes it and I shoot more deer and coyotes with it than anything. I haven't shot a fox or cat with it yet so I don't know what the fur damage will be but the hole on coyotes isn't to bad. The bullet doesn't mushroom to bad on them.

Would you say that a .223 could take an occasional 400-500 yrd shot?? I am still undecided lol Theres a few coyote hunters around here and most of them actually use a 22-250 . They say they usually set up for a shot that is within 100 yrds but around here the coyotes can circle downwind without you ever even seeing them and when the coyotes are running at 400-500 yrds they like a gun that shoots nice and flat so there isnt allot of guess work when taking one of those shot!

There is still a LOT of guess work if you are shooting over 300 yards with anything. You do gain some level of flat shooting. The average person, including most of the people you are talking to, can NOT reliably hit a running coyote at 400-500 yards. It isn't happening regardless of what they are shooting. There are a LOT of variables when you get to that distance.

A .223 shooting a 53 grain V Max sighted in with a 200 yard zero drops 16.9 inches at 400 yards and and just over 35 inches at 500 yards.

A 22-250 shooting a 50 grain V Max sighted in with a 200 yard zero drops 13.5 inches at 400 yards and just over 29 inches at 500 yards.

That 4-5 inch drop gain still means that you have to guess how far over its back to aim when you are dealing with a 6 inch kill zone. This still doesn't take into account the wind. At 500 yards both of those calibers have over 20 inches of wind drift with a 10 mph cross wind.

Realistically speaking, anything over 300 yards with either of those of calibers at a running animal is luck. Lead in the air you have a prayer kinda stuff. You might make a shot at a sitting coyote at 400-500 yard on a calm day with either caliber. But the 250 doesn't have as much of an edge as a lot of people like to credit it with. It is still a GREAT caliber don't get me wrong. I have 2 of them, I just can't justify shooting them much for the little bit of distance it gains me.

Thanks for the reply! Hopefully I can shoot a few .223 rounds and see what i think of them !