Still the Griz

I agree with the others who say the 22LR is too small for coyotes. These are tough critters. You may kill him, but it might take a while for him to die. Plus, you probably will never find him, especially since you have a lot of brush. I hunt them with a .223 68-gr. BTHP. It' s a scoped bolt action. If he doesn' t drop immediately, I have an open sighted .357 lever gun I take as a backup, because I' d never find that running dog in my scope!

Some folks use a .223 with 50 or 55-grain Balistic Tips. These don' t penetrate far and disintegrate inside the yote without making another hole. Someone mentioned using a .243. This would probably work find with Ballistic Tips as well.

What' s really fun is hunting them with my .44 Bisley. I use a moving decoy and try to call ' em in within 50 yards. That' s fun huntin' .

Have fun!

Griz
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SMITTY03

I use a .270. Who cares about the pelt? The way that i look at it is that there is one less yote on my lease to eat fawns.

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Nomercy

Being a Ruger I' m assuming your 10/22 is pretty accurate, basically what' s going to limit your range is the " stank" on your ammunition, no usually the problem with high powered centerfire rounds, where accuracy is usually the range limiting factor. It' s not a good gun for yotes, but it will work, I' ve used .22lrs on several yotes, and have never had one get away, but I haven' t missed the ear....yet. I' d say AT MOST, the longest shot you should even consider would be 50yrds, it may do it at longer distances, but I wouldn' t try it, never have, and probably never will, however, I have taken yotes with .22lr' s at 50yrds, and they didn' t get far if they ran at all. Important thing to remember is to either hit the ear (where the skull isn' t very thick on the side of the head) or to get a good heart shot on a quartering away yote (.22lr will not penetrate the shoulder muscles, you might get lucky, but it' s best to go through the thin walls between the " floating" ribs, and then head for the heart, only way to do that is a quartering away). One thing I' ve done in the past, when I got a good quartering away shot on a large coyote, is double tap it, I can bump fire my marlins to empty 10 rounds in less than 3 sec or 17 in less than 5 (in my two favorite guns), so I can double tap the same tin can before it falls off the fence at 75yrds. Get good at that, and you increase your ability to take yotes.

dodger02

I' d be hesitant to use ballistic tips in .243 if you want to save the pelt.

Buddy of mine used a .243 w/ Win. Silver Tips. There wasn' t much pelt left on the impact side. Made a pretty big mess.

Nate58102

I have used my .270 win and not holed up the pelt to bad most of the time. I only use that when i am deer hunting. I also have shot one with a .22 lr and killed it. It ran a ways and i wont do it again but it did work. A perfect shot presented it self so i took it and it made a hole the size of a pencil on only one side so that was ok.

deerhuntr107

Well then what should I use if I want to save the pelt. Would any type of muzzle loader work with minimal pelt damage, or what cal. rifle should I use?

confused272

a .22 LR will do the job but not well go with a .223 at least and shoot it in the head if you do that pelt damage shouldnt be much of a problem

Nomercy

Keep your shots to 75yrds or less. A .22lr doesn' t pack much punch, so you aren' t going to be able to penetrate the shoulder. What I usually do (mind you I have a very accurate Marlin 60--->2MOA @100yrds) is take head shots or take quartering away shots placed just behind the rib cage. The head is obvious, but the rear rib shot is important too, from side-on, you can' t penetrate to get to the heart through the muscles surrounding the shoulder, so you need to get through the ribcage where things are thinner, but to do this well you need to damage a couple key things, i.e. heart, lungs, diaphram. If you hit in the rib cage, it' s probable that you' ll hit the lungs if not the heart, but they can run a long ways on one bad lung or two bad lobes (since back there you are penetrating the lower lobes of the lungs and " panic breathing" depends on the upper lobes). If you take a quartering away shot on them, you puncture the diaphram on the way into the lung, they breath hard and the diaphram shreds itself, plus you get the lung and a more likely hit on the heart.

How fast can you fire your 10/22? I' ve never had much luck with rapid firing them, but I am able to bump fire my Marlin fast enough to hit a can twice (if not three times) before it falls off a fence, so I' ll oft bump fire it into the ribs of coyotes just for extra insurance.

You might consider stepping up to a .22mag or hornet, for the extra umph in a light arm.

Best bet, however, is to step into the world of high power varminting, buy a .223 (as much as I hate .223' s they' re cheap) or a .22-250. It will cost you more, but I guarantee you' re costing yourself yotes by using a .22lr, you don' t have the range. I don' t have a .22-250 anymore, but I' m buying one again soon, but I' ve been using my .30-06 and my SKS a lot this year, even with the pathetic trajectory of the 7.62x39mm round I have AT LEAST twice the effective range over the .22lr' s I own. Any deer rifle will be better than a .22lr, I use my .45-70' s before I take my .22' s out anymore.

shaunpm

how about a 30-30?