There are countless numbers of deer poached from the hard surface road with a .22 mag every year in my state... it has long been the choice of the poacher... but there is a reason why.... it isn't loud.. and the shots are not long... usually under 50 yards.

I have shot more than a few refridgerated coolers full of deer on damage and DPOP permits in the last 15 years using everything from .17s to .330 dakotas. Yes, you can kill deer dead as a stone with a .22 mag. But in order to drop that deer where it stands (which is the point of the exercise here... especially at night and no diff from what the OP is doing with yotes) you had better made a perfect shot and the target had better be closer than 75 yards. Frankly, a .22 mag is not exactly known as being a tack driving weapon... 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards seem to be better than average for most of them... and thats from a benchrest. Factor in night with a red light... the difficulty in judging distance after dark in the spotlight... and a field conditions rest... and the head of a coyote suddenly seems to me a right difficult target. I don't pretend to be Annie Oakley here.. but I'm certaily better than average... lets just be honest with ourselves here.

Anybody who has hunted the eastern coyote care to share their thoughts on whether an eastern yote or a whitetail deer are easier to get within 50 yards of? I've personally never seen a coyote closer to me than 150 yards with only one exception. These things are very very wary if not just downright smart. When you get the chance to kill one, you better make it count. Frankly it is a massive handicap not being able to use a centerfire rifle for yotes here in the east. Some places you can... others you cannot.