jessejmc1979

I have never shot a coyote with the 22 mag or the 17 but have buddies that use both. They aren't ideal but for the hunting that we do (running yotes with hounds) they will work. You might have to pass on some shots but if you are patient and not super far they will kill them. If you do your part. Good luck!!

oldsmellhound

Gotta disagree here. A .22 mag will do a coyote just fine with proper shot placement. Even a .22 Long Rifle will take out a coyote with a head shot at close range.

With a .22 mag, use 40 grain or heavier hollowpoints and take head shots. Provided you are a good shot and your rifle is accurate enough, you should be able to shoot out to 75 yards or more. A centerfire is better for coyote of course, but at closer ranges your .22 mag will work just fine.

JOE PA

Huntingkid: You may want to call the game commission about the use of buckshot. In the deer section of the special regs, it says no buckshot in Allegheny county. Does not state this in the small game/furbearer section. Like a lot of the rest of the book, it does not read all that clearly.

Bernie P.

Karamojo Bell killed 1011 elephants using the 7x57 taking head shots but that doesn't qualify it as a good choice for elephants.The head shot argument can be applied to most any caliber/critter but that doesn't mean we should do it.

SwampCollie

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.

huntingkidPA

yea i hear you there! when im out in the big woods, coyotes are waaaaay of in the distance.......But the valley im hunting is only about 150 yards wide. The coyotes i have seen have all been under 100 yrd, which wont happen all the time but i have been able to pin point some of there routes. You don't know how bad i want to use my .270 or .223

GTOHunter

I would think a .22 WMR would take down a Coyote with a good shot placement and a hollow point would do even more damage.

In response to HuntingkidPA:
Here are some of the Rifle we are using right now here in Missouri to take out Coyotes and other Predators aka Bobcats,Foxes and Ground Hogs too.

All the following are Centerfire Rifles:

.22-250
.243
.223 (which is a very good Rifle,light weight,lots of different bullet weights/grains to choose from and it shoots very far out)
.220 Swift
.204 Ruger
.22 Hornet
.17 Remington
.17 Remington Fireball

I know a few Guys that have used their .270 or 30-06 Rifles too...a little too much for Predators especially if You wanting to save the pelts/furs and not do a lot of damage?

Bernie P.

Well we can bat this around forever but I'll take Gerry Blairs word on the HMR for coyotes.That guy has forgotten more than most will ever know about hunting predators/varmints and in his book he relates his opinions on the HMR among others.He won't use it again for coyotes and neither will I.

SwampCollie

Its a lose lose RR.... I suspect that given the choice I'd take a shotgun and something between a lead #2 and #4 buck (laws depending... apparently buckshot is taboo in some places). I'd put a good bet on some Hevi-shot #2 or B sized shot also. I know a few old timers who used to handload lead BBs for pass shooting geese... they had 100% patterns (all pellets inside a 30% circle) at 75 yards. You hit a song dog with 65 .17 cal pellets and I suspect he'll do what you want him to do. Course that takes some doing to get a load like that.

remington still loads the Nitro field loads in everything right up to lead BBs in a 3" shell. Kinda pricey, but not as bad as hevi-shot for sure. Of course dead coyote would work nicely also.

I'm going in a rimfire county this evening... carrying the .17HMR... simply because thats what I got. Going to be hunting near the county line so when we go over into the free fire zone I'm going to break the 7mm08 back out... a .223 is in my immediate future.