Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Hi everyone,
I'm just curious to see if anyone has hunted coyotes with a .22LR before?
Does it pack enough punch to make a clean kill?


thanks :)

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Get em withing 50 yards and nail them in the brain and it'll do the trick. A little underpowered for body shots, but it'd probably do the trick anyways.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

ive pulled a 100 yeard shot in the heard with a 22lr but i dont recomend this gun

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Hunting coyotes with a 22lr will result in more wounded coyotes than it will dead coyotes. Will a 22lr kill a coyote, yes, but if you don't place a perfect head shot(brain) the coyote will run off and either die eventually, or live with a bullet in it! There will be no blood trail, to speak of, so don't expect to trail one that has been hit, unless you have tracking snow! The 22lr is a rabbit/squirrel/target gun!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I wouldnt recomend this but it has been done. I would use something bigger I want to use my 12 guage with buckshot on a yote.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

It can easily be done within 50 yards. If you try it, i would use cci's velocitor bullet thats made for foxes and yotes its a 40 grain bullet that shoots faster than the average 36 grain so its big and fast.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

No thanks, .308 win.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

There is no such thing as 22lr ammo. that is "made for fox and yotes!" The 22lr was not made for it, and neither is any ammo! The 22lr is NOT a predator rifle..period!! Can a 22lr do the job, sometimes yes, was it made to do the job, NO!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Upgrade to a 22-250, lethal on coyotes and very little kick.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

it can be done, but i wouldnt recomend it at all, not unless you have perfect aim and get them in pretty close

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Howler, on cci's website they say that that bullet is made for foxes and yotes i aint sayin go out and try it i was just sayin that if you are i would use those...and they do work i shot a fox lastnight at 65 yards in neck and droped him straight in his tracks. It went in one side of his neck and out the other. You cant tell me i couldnt a yote with my .22 even tho ive never tried.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I shoot 3 last weekend with a 22lr i use the quick shok they are segmented and shot them all at about 45-50 yrds dropped them dead.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

As a general rule, most of the coyote hunters I know or have followed on the various forums recommend a .223 and above. The majority of the replies on this thread discourage using a .22lr for coyotes for good reasons. IMHO a "clean" kill would be the exception, rather than the rule - but that's just me.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Yip, you're right, the cci web does say that they are good for "varmints upto coyote", BUT they doen't even know a coyote is not a "varmint", it is a predator, and a darn tough one at that. And I never said that they wouldn't work neither, BUT I do say you will loose wounded coyotes if ya shoot at a fair number of them. It's funny, I use a 22-250 and seldom "drop them in thier tracks" with it, I wonder how it is that a much lesser rifle ammo combo. does it every time?:eek:

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Howler, you don't think those who do it "every time" might exaggerate just a little, do you? Or they could be extremely lucky or exceptionally good. After 25 years as a wildlife officer, I sometimes found a slight difference between what was said and what was done:D

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

TN, we all know that about anything is possible, heck I shot a coyote when I was a teenager(20 odd years ago), while rabbit hunting back on the farm with my 'ol Marlin 22 lr. I was walkin' the shelter belt around the house when the coyote came running by. I got 3 shots off at it, never knew I even hit it. BUT there was snow, a lot of snow because school had been cancelled that day, and when I got on his tracks I eventually found a couple drops of blood. I followed his tracks about 200 or so yards, and found him piled up. If it weren't for the snow, I never would've known I even hit him. These little tiny bullets, including the 17 HMR. have a following that have done, heard of it being done, or know someone that has done it, killed 'em all right in thier tracks so it must be so! Seems so many people gotta see it for thiemselves, so they try it once, it works, so they believe from then on that the 22lr and the 17 HMR are coyote killing machines! For everyone one story that is positive about the tiny bullets, there are a couple of storys negative and only time and experience will they learn!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I shot over 250 rds of these over the week-end @ 75yds
at 2 liter bottles filled with water and when the bullet hit
the bottles with the caps screwed on, the caps blew off
the bottles as the bullet hit them, caused by the energy
transfer on impact. I am sure it will kill a coyote!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

SO now we are comparing coyotes to two liter bottles full of water!![:o]
I shot nearly two full bricks of that same 17 HMR ammo. this summer at prairie dogs, and what they do to prairie dogs is NOT that impressive. It killed most of them out to nearly 200 yards, BUT some of them were able to drag themselves back to thier holes!!
The 17 HMR is NOT going to leave a blood trail on a coyote, so ya darn well better "drop it in it's tracks" or ya better have tracking snow, otherwise, coyote be gone!!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I shot a "wild" dog once ho had the scabies at 15yards with CCI minimag.
The first bullet hit close to the heart. but i had to finhis him of with a neck shoot. I'm guesing that he was approx 50pound.

I don't think a 22lr is efective on a coyote. It will do at colse range and/or whit a perfect hit.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Sure within reason. No long shots and proper shot placement. Butchers have killed millions of 1000 lb cattle with a single .22 bullet to the head. There are better choices though. .223 and 22.250 are a couple.
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RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I'm guessing that most of the people who would use a .22lr on a coyote spend too much time in front of a screen and not enough in the field .

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I useWinchester 40 grainlead solids, standard velocity "T-22" target ammo (XT22LR), as they leave very little pelt damage. After having shot SEVERAL HUNDRED coyotes with this round, usually from my S & W Model 17 revolver, with four inch barrel, I can honestly swear that EXACTLY seven have required more than one shot, and none of the others traveled more than four feet from where they were when I shot them. :) Oh, did I forget to mention that all the "one-shot kills" were in foothold traps,head-shot, at a range of less than three feet? Seven is the number of 'yotes I have had pull free as I arrived, in my 34 years of coyote trapping. By the way, I ended up killing & recovering only two of those seven! I've taken a couple coyotes with high velocity ammo in .22 LR, but I would NEVER advise anyone to try it, if at all possible. Until just a few years ago, the Dept. of Conservation here in New York required rimfire calibers (when using a rifle)for hunting over a light for varmints & predators. I used a .22 WMR for years, and learned the hard way that even the mighty 22 mag is on the wrong side of marginal. As for the .17 HMR, my partner/brother repeatedly tried toconvince me to bring mine outfor predators. He hasn't had the nerve to try it on coyotes yet, but I have finished three of his wounded foxes with my 12 gauge, and he has made guarenteed track stars of seven others (total 9 failures to stop). The .17 has droppedfive others, as if hit by Thor's hammer! If a bone got hit, the fox done split! PLEASE stay away from the little rimfires![:'(]

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Everyone seems to be making it a bigger issue than it is. Just as some use handguns or archery for hunting and it increases the challenge, .22 can be used for coyotes, it just makes it harder. If you want to find the ones you shoot you must make head shots, and at closer ranges than a high power would be capable of. For a more efficent coyote killing setup don't use a .22, but there is nothing wrong with using one if you use it properly.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I've shot many coyotes in snares in the brain with a 22, and I'd say 80% of the time they usually take another. I have shot and killed 2 coyotes on the spot with a 22 while calling at nite (it is not legal to use anything bigger than 22lr when calling in SD after dark with a light). So, in my experience. I would say, yes, it will them, are there better choices, Yes.

The 17HMR is not a better choice. I've seen what it does to big coons, badgers, skunks, etc, it very rarely anchors them even with a well placed shot.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I used to shoot between 10 and 20 coons a week either in traps or in trees with a .22lr. Even at very, very close ranges, seldom was one shot enough to immediately kill them. A shot to the head would kill them most of the time, but I actually had one or two where the bullet failed to penetrate the skull. Now that was the exception and not the rule, but if it won't reliablydisable a coon less than one foot away, I really doubt it will reliably down coyotes at any range.

If it wasn't a head shot, the coon never went down on the first shot.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I have experienced the same with trapped coon but only when I was shooting at an angle toward the bone..their skulls seem to be very thick and rounded for their size and I would get poor penetration even with dead center bullet placement. I have never experianced this with any coyote, free or in a trap although granted I have shot many more coon. I think it is easier to get a flat angle impact on their larger heads....but once again, your bullet placement is head only, distances allowed have to be much more limiting and you definately want to at least be using hypervelocity solids...trust me coyotes can run a long way when even shot with something like a stinger square in the chest. There are easier ways of doing the job.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

They certainly do have thick skulls. I used to have an junky old '86 Grand Marquis with a raccoon skull bolted in place of the hood ornament:D. I got into a pretty bad accident and plowed into an old nissan. My car was totaled but the raccoon skull somehow was not only intact but stull bolted to the crumpled front end of the car. It even left a distinct dent in the flattened trunk of the nissan. Wierdest thing I've ever seen.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

It can be done like everyone else said but i wouldnt use one. I typically use a .223, that or a .22-250 does the trick.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I would have to say no to hunting coyotes with a 22, other than maybe a 22 mag. iv only hunted coyotes for 3 years, im 17, and i dropped one of many coyotes with my AR15 52 gr. solid on a frontal shot, it laid there, then got up and ran? 22s have a very limited range and are affected by crosswinds more so than most loads. just today i shot my AR15 at about 550 yds open sighted and was very impressed with accuracy of the rifle at such a great range. 22-250s and 223 are a great size of a bullet and has minimal pelt damage

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

Using a "52 gr. solid" and getting great impressive accuracy at 550 yards along with minumal pelt damage doesn't mean much, if it doesn't keep them on the ground. I'd suggest using an expanding bullet next time, might have some pelt damage, BUT at least you'll kill the coyote!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

First we have very highly trained Rifle men that are able to take head shots every time and then a guy who thinks shooting soda bottles is the same as shooting coyotes!!!

For the love of God people, a .22 lr is not for shooting coyotes.

It won't work well and is unethical!!!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

You guys must have some tough coyotes!I have shot many in my traps with a .22lr and never had one do anything but die.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

That has nothing to do with the topic. If you look at the original question you will see that it questions if the 22 lr has enough punch for HUNTING coyotes. Not being shot from 3 feet away while being held by a trap.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I think it would have enough killing power but i'd personally wait until they were within 100 yards :)

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

You have to be kidding!! There are seveal posting about shooting them in a trap.That is the reason for the post!!!!!!!!!!

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

There are some responses that speak of trapping but the original questions is:

I don't see where i says anything about shooting them in traps.

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

at 50 yards or less would do the trick

RE: Coyote hunting with a .22LR?
 

I wasnt answering the question!!!!I was responding to the fact some were saying they have hard time killing them in there trap with a .22 and I find that hard to believe.Is that ok or do you have a comment about that?

I read this and had to register just to post a response to this.

If you are telling me a 22lr with a well placed shot will not kill a coyote you are ignorant, plain and simple. I've personally shot whitetail with a .308 and destoyed both lungs, then watched the deer run off about 100 yrds. So if dropping your target as soon and you shoot it is the mark of a big enough caliber then obviously i need to use a larger gun, maybe a 50 cal will do the job?
A 22lr will kill a coyote as long as the shot is well placed. I wouldnt expect that you are trying to make 200 yd shots with it. But under 100 yds, I would expect that you could EASILY kill a coyote with good shot placement. But I suppose that good shot placement goes with any hunting? I would expect that the person asking didnt expect to do long range sniping with it, he asked if it would make a clean kill. Under 100yds with a well placed shot, simple, yes it will make a clean kill. Just because an animal doesnt drop right when you shoot it doesnt mean jack. If you have never had an animal run after a good shot, you obviously dont hunt much.

The answer to the original posters question is simple.

No.