Best Calibers for Coyote Hunting

You’re lying in bed after another hard day of doing whatever it is you normally do. You’re just about to close your eyes and get some of that sweet, sweet dreamless, when all of a sudden you hear it:

HOODLE-HOO-YIP-HOO-YIP-HOO

“Drat!” you exclaim as you jerk your head off your pillow, sending the long, pointed sleeping cap you like to wear sailing across the room. “It sounds like those darn coyotes are at it again!”

You race to your bedroom window and throw its blinds open. It’s just as you suspected. Your lawn is positively teeming with coyotes. Some of them are attempting to light your grill. Another has figured out how to ride your daughter’s tricycle. You watch his little hind paws clumsily kicking at the pedals when the obvious dawns on you. You’ve got to do something about this.

We recommend using a GUN. But that begs the question which has been weighing on countless Americans’ minds lately: Which cartridge is best for knocking the stuffing out of yotes? There are a many great ones, a few of which we’re about to go over (with one good example of each). Keep reading if you want to achieve total enlightenment.

Top Coyote Calibers

223 Remington

Do you, like millions of Americans, already own a rifle chambered for 5.56×45 (which, as you’re likely aware, is also compatible with 223 Rem)? Then give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve already got a capable yote cannon.

The 223 Rem’s primary appeal is its widespread availability. It’s difficult to walk five feet into a sporting goods store without stubbing your toe on a case of the stuff. But that’s not to say it hasn’t got all the hallmarks of a proper yote load. You’ve got your flat trajectory with adequate stopping power. You’ve also got your wide selection of expanding bullets to maximize lethality, as well as ample non-expanding alternatives if you’re trying to minimize damage to hide and fur.

Hornady Superformance 53 grain V-MAX ammo is an excellent choice for hunting coyote. Its bullet is designed to rapidly fragment apart immediately following impact, which poses the dual benefits of extreme lethality and reduced risk of an exit wound (key if you’re collecting pelts).

204 Ruger

The 204 Ruger is nowhere near as popular for coyote hunting as the 223 Rem – but it doesn’t deserve to be that way. It boasts some of the highest muzzle velocities of any cartridge on the market (not as high as the 220 Swift, which we declined to highlight solely because its ammo is generally more difficult to find). That means you can avail yourself of the flat trajectory which helps compensate for ranging mistakes. It’ll also deliver the stopping power that’ll assuredly ruin any coyote’s plans for the rest of the day.

You can’t go wrong selecting the right 204 Ruger ammo for varmint and predator hunting. We consider it a “small game only” cartridge, so you don’t really have to worry about bringing a deer load to a predator hunt. You’d be well advised to choose a heavier, higher-momentum bullet for coyote hunting, such as the 40 grain AccuTip-V featured in Remington’s appropriately named Premier AccuTip-V series ammunition.

22-250 Remington

Want something a little more powerful for coyote hunting than the 223 Rem, but also substantially more popular than the speed demon 204 Ruger? Then the 22-250 Rem is the .22 caliber companion you want.

The 22-250 Rem’s greater length necessitates the use of the AR-10 platform (although traditional hunting rifles are the far more popular platform for the cartridge), yet its trajectory is flatter and harder-hitting than either of the rounds we’ve recommended so far. So long as you keep your quarry within 400 yards, the 22-250 won’t make you feel like you brought too little gun to the yote fiesta.

Some hunters do occasionally choose the 22-250 Rem for deer hunting (though it is generally considered underpowered for that purpose, and accordingly favored by outdoorsmen in search of a greater challenge). While any deer load can capably topple a yote, you’d do right to choose a predator-specific cartridge. We recommend HSM’s Varmint series 50 grain Tipped VarmintKing (TVK; formerly “BlitzKing”) cartridge, which showcases the flat trajectory and commanding terminal ballistics of one of Sierra’s best hunting bullets.

243 Winchester

The 243 Win is the most versatile hunting rifle cartridge on this list; not the kind of thing you’d necessarily want to use for home defense, but ready and able to take medium game within ranges out to 400 yards, and more than enough to bag yotes past 500. If you could own only one hunting rifle, then a 243 Win would serve you quite well.

You’ll find a healthy assortment of ammo specialized for whitetail and varmints/predators in this chambering. Obviously, you’re going to want a lighter bullet that’s designed to commence lightning-fast expansion and fragmentation at the instant of impact (as opposed to a tougher, deeper-penetrating alternative). To that end, you can’t miss (figuratively speaking) with Winchester Varmint X 58 grain Polymer Tip Rapid Expansion ammunition.

22 Magnum

Some folks use the 22 LR to bag coyote. These are typically expert marksmen who are harvesting fur at pretty close range. Convention holds that the 22 LR’s maximum effective range for coyotes is 75 yards, and even that’s arguably a little too generous. At the end of the day, the odds of merely injuring the animal are too high to make the 22 LR a sound recommendation to most shooters. You do not want to hear the pathetic noises a wounded coyote makes.

The 22 Magnum (aka 22 WMR) is by no means a juggernaut that offers hundreds of yards more wiggle room for coyote hunting. But with good shot placement, it can humanely KO a yote at 100 to 125 yards. So long as you’ve got the skill it takes to land a clean kill, the 22 Magnum is a swell choice when you want to do everything in your power to preserve pelts.

Your Choice – Your Harvested Coyote

Choosing the best rimfire ammo is pretty easy. Just go with CCI! In this case, go with the Idaho rimfire virtuoso’s Maxi-Mag 40 grain JHP ammunition, which is loaded with clean-shooting, flat-flying, expanding, and relatively unsophisticated projectiles. Just add marksmanship!

Wow! We’d sure hate to be the coyotes in your neighborhood now that you’ve learned some of the best rifle cartridges for hunting them. But just to be sure, our list is far from exclusive. The 22 Nosler, 220 Swift, 6mm ARC, and 6mm Creedmoor are also excellent picks. So too are the 38 Special and 357 Magnum, if you’re using a lever-action rifle. And if you want to test your 9mm, 40 S&W or 10mm PCC’s capabilities on coyotes, have at it! There’s way more than one way to shoot a yote.