As the .204 has become more and more popular for coyote hunting, there is a trend that is coming to light. Of all the coyotes that are lost to hunters that are using the .204, all of them/hunters, that I can find, were using the rapid expanding/ plastic tipped bullets in one configuration of another. IMO, those bullets don't always hold together enough to penetrate enough on a coyote. They were designed for extreme rapid expansion and work excellent on prairie dogs, rock chucks, whistle pigs, etc. Unfortunately, there aren't many other choices in the factory ammo. although I beleive you can now buy .204 factory ammo. that have the 45 gr. sp bullets, which may prove to be good medicine for coyotes. I haven't tried the 45 gr. sp's and won't be trying them because I've been very pleased with the 35 and the 40 gr. bergers bullets. The bergers are a match hp bullet, but they have a proven track record on coyotes.
I know plenty of guys have killed some coyotes with the BK and V-Max bullets, BUT I also have read about the lost coyotes that were also shot with those bullets. I have yet to read even one report of bad performance of the 35 or the 40 gr. bergers, and I suspect thatmore coyotes are shot with the bergers than the plastic tipped bullets. SO it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see which bullet very apperantly performs better for killing coyotes.