Fur Friendly Coyote Rounds

Fur Friendly Coyote Rounds

By Troy Hoepker

It all happened in an instant! The coyote exploded out of the ditch and through the heavy grass on a direct path straight at the caller! Only minutes earlier I had hung my caller from a tree limb and took a seat elevated on a pond dam overlooking CRP grass with a deep timbered ditch running through it. I pressed play on the remote to begin the sounds of the bunny blues and it was as if I had also pushed play on that coyote at the same time. She had been bedded down in the ditch close! I caught glimpses of her as she ran through the grass and quickly turned on my camera. As soon as she stopped 15 feet from the caller, I snapped a quick picture and then focused on the job at hand of killing her.

She moved in again, convinced that there must be a tasty meal hidden in the low branches of the cedar tree in front of her. She basically stuck her nose right on the caller as it was still blaring full blast. It all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to stop the caller. As she came by the cedar she whirled around the entire tree like a barrel racer at the rodeo and then with a whiff of something she didn’t like I’m sure, or too much sound and not enough prey, she shot straight back the way she had came! It took two barks from my voice to get her to stop but I managed to thread a bullet through the limbs between us. At impact, she bounced like a top for a second and then tried in vain to run before dumping herself into the nastiest entanglement of multifloral rose bushes you’ve ever seen. The .223 round had killed her quick at only 40 yards catching both shoulders but leaving her hide intact, albeit tangled by a few rose thorns.

Fast forward four days later, and I found myself tucked into a fencerow overlooking a small patch of timber surrounded by crop stubble where I knew a bobcat was calling home. This time it would take a little longer thank goodness and after about twenty minutes of calling I spotted something sitting out in the bean stubble just to the south of cover ahead of me. In typical bobcat fashion, it was just there, seemingly materializing out of nowhere and I hadn’t seen it arrive. He started a slow walk towards the cover just as I acquired him in my scope and I feared he’d go into the weeds. I centered the crosshairs on the walking cat and sent the 50-grain Hornady critter-gritter through the air 125 yards to its intended target. Upon impact, the cat leaped three or four feet into the air and stumbled into the cover a few yards in front of his nose and out of sight. He was in thick cover and for the first 20 minutes of looking, I was having zero luck finding him. Usually when I’ve shot coyotes that jump like that on impact, it’s a good shot but I was starting to wonder? Finally after retracing my steps I found him only twenty feet from where I’d shot him in the first place. The load had preformed perfectly and the cat had no exit wound after the bullet caught the kitty just behind the shoulder.

The .223 load that I hunt with was designed partly for this exact purpose. I loaded and test fired lots of rounds to find just the right combination that would be the most accurate out of my particular gun, have the velocity and energy to effectively kill coyotes while still being as fur friendly as possible. I settled on a 50-grain Hornady V-Max bullet pushed by 23.5 grains of 2015 Accurate powder with CCI small rifle primers and Winchester brass with a cartridge overall length of 2.235. It travels in the neighborhood of 3200fps. Those two different animals shot in the same week, both at different ranges, offered little to no pelt damage on those valuable hides and left me extremely pleased with the round.

Kill them with a 30-06 or a .22 long rifle, dead is dead and for many that’s all they want. Many others however, sell the hides they collect and for those of you that do, you’ll want to use the most fur friendly ammunition as possible without sacrificing so much that coyotes survive their wounds and get away far enough that they are never found. It’s a fine line and as well an age old question that has been debated and argued thousands of times over the years.

Now I’m not going to tell you that my load combination has never torn up a coyote hide. It certainly has before. But for the most part it’s performed extremely well on coyotes at over 300 yards and coyotes at less then 30 and that’s what you’re after. A load that will kill instantaneously at different ranges yet still be forgiving enough at those ranges to induce minimal hide damage because we never know how far out the next target of opportunity will be when it presents itself.

Before getting into coyote sized calibers and non-Swiss cheese causing ammunition, let’s talk a little about the other factors we have some control over that help with pelt damage. First and foremost would be shot placement. Regardless of what you shoot, a full frontal chest or headshot have a higher likelihood of a non-exit wound. So whenever that shot is possible and you have the confidence to take it do so, especially when larger calibers are concerned. I’ve taken predators of the coyote, fox and bobcat variety with headshots and usually have good luck so long as I’m not lobbing howitzer shells at them. When considering broadside and quartering angled shots things get a little tricky. You can fire the most fur friendly thing known to man but once that projectile hits a rib bone or other bone, then all bets are off. Bone fragments being shattered and sent helter-skelter all over the interior of an animal’s vitals can blow big holes through the exit area of the bullet. Alternatively, one has to be careful punching through thicker bones such as the shoulder as well. Most hunting bullets in calibers designed to hunt coyotes effectively smash through even the thickest of bones a coyote has to offer but go too light and too fast with your bullet selection and you can actually “splash” the shoulder which means a high velocity round actually ricochets off the shoulder and never penetrates. I like a velocity and bullet weight combination that smashes through the shoulder bone on entry and expands and slows with enough resistance that it doesn’t smash through the opposite shoulder with extreme damage.

The faster the bullet, the greater its energy and in earlier days extreme speed likely meant damaged fur. Nowadays, polymer tipped bullets made from many manufacturers are designed for speed and also designed to either explode violently on contact or penetrate with controlled expansion. Our lust for speed must still be taken with a grain of salt however as it’s important to research any type of bullet your considering so you can tailor your round to your exact desires. Even factory ammunition has a broad array of choices available to the predator hunter. But reloading ammo yourself is the ideal way of custom tailoring the perfect load. Pairing velocity with expansion and kinetic energy is achieved much easier by reloading. Strong penetration is the first vital step. After initial penetration, the next thing you want is a bullet designed to expand or even fragment (in some cases) in a rate of deceleration that provides the perfect amount of hydrostatic shock to the internal organs and fluids without causing tissue separation that protrudes to a great degree to the opposite side of the animal’s external membrane.

Full metal-jacketed bullets leave pinpoint sized entry and exit holes but often times just don’t deliver enough internal damage to anchor a notoriously tough coyote. While the wound from a FMJ round might be lethal and fur forgiving, too often the coyote will run for long distances after the hit and with little blood loss leaving you little to track. Smaller calibers such as .22lr, .22 mag and .17 HMR can certainly kill a coyote sized animal with the right shot and are fur friendly, but are generally considered undersized, especially for shots of considerable distance. More popular coyote centerfire calibers include everything between a .220 all the way up to a .270. The .220 Swift and .222 Remington provided hunters of the 1950’s and for decades after the extreme speed they craved with great accuracy and for the most part, did well on hides. Handloading for these calibers can provide a round designed for effective killing and minimal fur damage as well as longer barrel life if loads of the .220 Swift in particular are backed down. I wouldn’t shy away from these calibers even today.

Possibly the most popular of all coyote calibers is the .223. It’s my favorite of all calibers for the purpose of calling coyotes and the average distance of the shot for such a hunting method. It has an effective range for longer shots combined with the many possibilities it offers in load selection. I sell fur and I’ve found the .223 to give me the best combination of coyote killing power and fur friendly consistency at varying ranges. As I stated, I load a 50-grain Hornady V-Max bullet with 23.5 grains of Accurate powder because my rifle shoots great groups and it’s forgiving on fur. Your mileage may vary however and I certainly would recommend trying the 50 or 52-grain Sierra BlitzKing or Varminter bullet as well. I’ve used both with good success. A 55-grain bullet can also deliver comparable results as far as fur damaged is concerned. These bullet weights are made by several manufacturers and are popular for good reason.

Rivaling the .223 in popularity is the 22.250 and it offers the same lot of .224 diameter bullet weights as the .223 only with greater case capacity maximizing velocity. You can customize your charge and back down the speed if so desired. Currently I shoot a Sierra 52-grain hollow-point boat tail with a charge of 35 grains of IMR 4064. Over the years, I’ve shot coyotes with various bullets in the 22.250 offering out of multiple guns and fur damage results have varied. I’ve found the load I use currently shoots well out of the gun I presently own and even though the Sierra MatchKing isn’t necessarily recommended for hunting applications, I’ve found that for coyotes, it seems to have an upside when considering fur damage. Although, knowing me and my never-ending tweaking with this caliber, I’ll likely be in search of something even better in the future. One thing to consider is the method in which you take the majority of your coyotes. If most of your shots are taken at running animals as you take up the chase then velocity becomes more of a factor. Increased speed translates into increased pelt damage and so you must find that fine line or choose one over the other in such cases. A boat tailed bullet likely polymer tipped or highly frangible bullet designs might be something to experiment with in the 22.250 and or the .243.

The .243 is considered by some as too much gun for coyotes, but when reloading for it, you can help its reputation of being hard on fur. Staying away from maximum “hot” loads can greatly help it and other larger calibers when it comes to tearing up hides. I shoot an 85-grain Sierra hollowpoint with 42 grains of IMR 4350 powder. But there are lots of choices for it. Some coyote hunters swear by a 100-grain bullet backed down on speed while others think a lower bullet weight such as a 58-grain bullet is the way to go with a mid-range powder choice. There is certainly an argument to be made for either side. The lower bullet weight at similar velocities to that of the 22.250 or even the .223 makes good sense while at the same time a 100-grain bullet backed down on speed can certainly anchor a coyote with the lower velocity decreasing the bullet’s energy at impact. For me, since the 58-grainer didn’t shoot as well out of my Remington 700, I decided to go more “middle of the road” and choose the 85-grain bullet.

I also shoot a .204 and it has become a very popular coyote cartridge. The 40-grain Hornady V-Max proved to be tack drivers out of my Savage when joined with 25.5 grains of 2230 powder. Even this tiny bullet can blow up a hide on occasion though when you hit a rib bone. It’s screaming along at such extreme speed that it can tear things up in the right circumstance.
Along with these calibers, there are other smaller choices such as the .17 Predator, .17 Remington, .218 Bee, and the .22 Hornet. These calibers would be great on hide damage and certainly have the velocity needed to kill a coyote although effective killing range of the shot might be an issue. Larger calibers including the .270, 7mm, 30-30, .257, 25.06, etc. can certainly enter the conversation but you would need to handload for these calibers to begin to achieve consistent desired results when skinning animals. Shooting these larger calibers at close range to a coyote often times leads to a gaping hole.

This year coyotes are one of the few wild animals that remain strong in price, but prices are only good if you’re bringing in pelts that aren’t all shot up. There’s nothing worse than having a successful hunt turn sour as you walk up to the coyote you’ve just taken and discover the sight of a gaping exit wound on the animal. It takes money out of your pocket or causes you a lot of extra work to sew up. And I for one am no seamstress. Do yourself a favor and shoot the best fur friendly round that you can. Your furbuyer will thank you too!