does anyone have any experience with using an sks for coyote hunting? I' ve heard that you can get cheap ammo and that they' re relatively accurate. It' s the same price as a henry lever action .22 or a savage .17. I would love to get all 3 but am being limited to 2(you all know how that goes) and the other one is my new browning buckmark. Does anyone have any opinions or preferences on any of these guns? I' ve already got a 10/22 and i' m not sure that i need another .22. Any advice is welcome.

Someone' s been telling you big stories!!! Yes, SKS' s are decent rifles, for bang around truck guns, but I wouldn' t go calling the entire species ' relatively accurate' , if for no other reason than the word accurate appears in it, as they tend not to be, especially in yuygoslavian, czech, romanian, etc versions, the only ones I' d ever give another chance to is Chinese (norinco) and Russian, I' ve been burned by the others, paid $150 on a fresh import yugo, waste of money, while my norinco' s and russians have been decent shooters, the norinco I have now is a 1.5MOA rifle out to 250yrds. They' ll do you well enough if you just want to put a 3-9 compact glass on it and take yotes at 200yrds, but it isn' t by any means a long range coyote gun. I' ve used my current norinco on yotes to 300yrds, but this isn' t your average SKS, I guess I got extremely lucky this time, as I' ve owned 10 or so that haven' t shot anywhere near what this one does on it' s worst day.

Yes, you can get extremely cheap surplus rounds for 7.62x39mm, and I' ve shot thousands of these rounds in rifles I didn' t care about, but if you want your rifle to survive long, then I severly advise against this ammo, it' s incredibly corrosive (despite being labled ' non-corrosive' , I' ve had an SKS, shot in the morning with wolf ' non-corrosive' that was rusting on the gas cylinder rod by 10pm that night!!), absolutely disgustingly dirty/inefficiently burning, and even more problematic, it' s terribly inaccurate, not to mention that it' s usually berdan primed and steel cased, making reloading impractical (not impossible, but not worth the time), and often in a FMJ, illegal for hunting in all states, and unethical if it weren' t.

The henry .22lr isn' t worth much on coyotes, they just don' t have the power to do the deed as a primary weapon, maybe when you just want to leave the primary in the safe and want to limit yourself to under 50yrd shots, then it' d be a choice, maybe not a good choice, but a choice none the least, the .17HMR is a much more effective round, more accurate and gives a longer range, but the 7.62x39mm in an accurate arm is much better still, and it' s legal for deer unless semiauto' s or all rifles are illegal in your state/region/province. The SKS would be your best bet, just be sure to get one that' s in good condition, maybe try to test shoot it before the purchase, or get some sort of ' give me a day or two to try it on, then if I don' t like it give my money back' deal, that way you don' t get stuck with a lemon. And, like any hunting rifle, know where it hits, and use good ammunition, if you use the surplus stuff, clean it before you leave the range, and NEVER use that ammo on ANY game.

IMO the sks is fun to shoot. Accurate........no. The other to .22LR and .17HRM are too lite for big coyotes. Remember the 7.62x39 has around the same power&range as a 30/30 win.

Do you have a " deer" rifle?......better to use it I think for practice for deer season.

You might check out the New England Arms Handi Rifle single shot...Around here they sell for about $180.00--210.00. This would make a nice gun to keep in the truck for coyotes. Caliber?........I would get a .243 win.

good luck and hope you thin out the d@^n critters.[>:]