# Crazy damange from .223



## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

OK, so I shot my first yote this past weekend. Super pumped because I've been trying for years and finally connected. 
Anyway, I had never really shot anything with my .223 before except for targets. I really didn't know what to expect. After doing some research I decided that 55 grain Ballistic Tips would be just what the doctor ordered. Since I don't do my own reloading, I bought five boxes of different brands of cartridges and figured out which one shot best (funny thing, they were all within an inch of eachother, so I use them all).

Anyway, back to my story. So me and a buddy are driving around his uncle's pasture when we spot this coyote just standing there not 75 yards away. I bail out, flip out the bipod and steady my rifle.

BANG, Flop.

I'm all excited and I run over there. I'm thinking "yes, first coyote, I'm gonna skin this baby and get it tanned." Then I looked at the entrance hole. Holy moly... It's about four inches across and at least two inches wide. Now, that kind of lateral damage makes me think she was quartered away slightly (I got her in the neck after she started walking away and I mouth called her back to a stop). But I had no idea those ballistic tips would expand so violently on contact. My thought process was a tiny entrance and massive expansion inside resulting in no exit. Good theory...until I put it in practice.

My other thought is that maybe since she was hit in the neck, the bullet hit her vertebrae and exploded, thus causing all the trauma.

In the end, my friend's dad really wanted to skin it for some reason and proceeded to turn it into swiss cheese (I kept trying to slow him down and told him to be patient...only to see another hole in my precious pelt...sniff  ) Oh well, with the damange from the bullet hole it probably wouldn't have been a good hide to tan, anyway.

Theories? Anyone else have this happen? Should I up the bullet weight?


----------



## tikkat3 (Jun 27, 2006)

Good to hear you got your 1st! I would slow the bullet down if anything, and I'm not to sure you should be posting that story on the internet haha, I dont think you can jump out and shoot a coyote while driving off an established trail there is a very fine line somewhere within that driving off trails for coyotes rule.


----------



## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Dont worry, you were perfectly legal.

As far as pelt damage with a .223.....piss on it. I could bring 20 coyotes to you tomorrow, ten shot with a .22-250 and ten shot with a .223 and you wouldnt be able to pick any of em out with any bit of certainty. Ive seen some BIG holes with stuff alot smaller than a .223. The next one you shoot, under different circumstances may not show hardly a drop of blood.

To many variables involved. Grazing hits open em up more than solid square hits.

If what your using is putting em down hard, keep on using em!


----------



## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

Thanks bareback. I kind of figured as much. I'm leaning toward the non-dead-on-shot theory. I was curious more than anything.
I think I should go out and test this theory by hunting a lot and shooting a bunch of coyotes...you know, for science 

tikkat3,
Actually, what I did was perfectly legal. We also were on private property for which we had permission (as I said, it was my friend's uncle's land). As far as varmints in North Dakota are concerned, you can shoot them right out your vehicle window if you want. 
Thanks for the heads-up, though.


----------



## coyote sniper (Apr 15, 2009)

Lots of wierd things can happen when shooting coyotes a couple weeks ago I shot 2 of them with 50 grain soft points one square in the front of the chest and the other quartering towards me the one facing me didn't even leave a exit hole the other one one of my friends said looked like I shot it with a howitzer!! both were about 150 yrds. My guess with yours was that you blew up on the neck bone.


----------



## Sask hunter (Sep 11, 2008)

Shoot them in the head pelt damage will be nearly no existent.


----------



## tikkat3 (Jun 27, 2006)

I really could care less what method a coyote is shot and I'm not trying to stir anything up but I work for the Fish and Wildlife Service and asked a state warden about this last year, The way he clarified the law he said you can drive off trail to get to better calling spots and areas but if while driving off trail you see a coyote you cannot shoot it. I have always been told growing up that you just have to jump out of the pickup and its fair game. I know its not written in the proclamation that speciffically but thats how he explained it to me. There would be no way to prove that there was not pursuit, which could be considered flushing game. and that your vehicle didnt aid in kicking the coyote up. granted yours was standing.


----------



## Snowgooser (Mar 28, 2008)

BBJ is completely right. I killed a big male yesterday morning with my .22-250 at about 25 yards (I was waiting on the other one to get closer) square in the chest just above the point of the brisket. Pin hole in and that's it. Yesterday afternoon I shot a mangy female at about 75 yards in the chest just above the point of the brisket. did a quick autopsy and the pelt was ripped from the bullet hole up about 6 inches and some how there was a exit hole beside the shoulder blade!? Kind of amazing since I was shooting down. I popped another mangy one this morning close with a broadside chest shot and it looked like a pin hole and that was it. You just never know. My partner uses a .243 and sometimes its a little hole and others it isn't worth picking it up. I don't reload yet either and I shoot Federal 55gr soft points. I had thought about having a local gun smith load up some slower ammo , but the loss of trajectory at longer distances wasn't worth it for me. Just my opinion.


----------



## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

here is a little info that should be relevant to the damage issue. i tried the 40 gr b-tips in a 220 swift when they came out. i had exit wounds that were worse than my 243 ever produced. i carefully cross sectioned a bullet with a scroll saw. the base of the bullet is 3/16" thick and does a great job of carrying the schrapnel from the front of the bullet clean through the coyote. i then switched to the v-max version from hornady. it does not have the thick base. damage problems were nearly eliminated. try the v-maxes, you will have very few exit wounds. the ones you do get will be small. many of my fellow dog busters here use them in the .223 and like them. 
congratulations on that first yoter, you may end up hooked for life, willing to endure anything to keep hunting them...


----------



## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

Congrats on your first, here's to killing many more...

At 75 yards you are going to get all the damage any round can muster. If you hit bone or fringe the dog, it's almost certain you'll have a mess with anything this side of a 17HMR...

My favorite bullet for both the 223 and 22-250 is the 50 grain Ballistic Tip. My favorite 223 load with the 50 BT has a MV of 3200 FPS and my favorite 250 load does 3600 FPS. My go-to coyote rifle is a Tikka T3 in 243 shooting a 70 grain Ballistic Tip at 3330FPS.

When I was shooting for fur I used as fragile a bullet as was available (I really like the old 50 grain Sierra Blitz King in the 22 centerfires), reduced the load a bit more while still retaining accuracy, tried to stop the fox or coyote to shoot him between 100 & 200 yards, and if at all possible took them in the center of the chest as they faced me. Usually that Blitz King fragmented inside and if any thing exited it was tiny fragments that left holes to tiny to be stitched.

Wished the 204 was around in those days, it would have been ideal for my method...


----------



## Snowgooser (Mar 28, 2008)

Has anyone shot the 40 gr vmax out of a .22-250 with good results?


----------



## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

i used that combo for one year. it was one of my favorites over the years. under 100 yards, damage was often present, but often only in the 2" exit range. sometimes it was as bad as 4". beyond 100 yards, i seldom had an exit wound. killing power was excellent with several downwind dogs taken in the 400 yard range. my longest was 583 yards. but it was a spinal chord strike. i shot over 2 dozen dogs with the setup and found little fault with it. one of my friends is using that combo right now and is reporting similar results. my cousin has also ran it off and on for years without complaint. if i wasn't obsessed with tailoring everything i own to specific needs, i would probably still be shooting a 22-250 with 40 gr. v-max.


----------



## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

Snowgooser said:


> Has anyone shot the 40 gr vmax out of a .22-250 with good results?


Yes, I've fiddled with them extensively, and you have to define "good results". It was a decent calling/fur round but for yotes beyond 100 yards, but harsh on fox (the main target in my fur days) at pretty much any distance. Inside of 100, it more often than not made a mess of things even with a coyote. As I said, the 204 would have been, and IMO, is the champ for a calling/fur caliber.

For my thin & dusty dime, I don't like the 40 grainers out of the 22 centers, particularly the 250. The 40 is much more susceptible to & unpredictable in the wind than the 50 & 55 grain stuff, and sheds velocity much faster. I can kind of see using it in the 223 if you figure you have to have 22-250 speed but don't have a 250, but it doesn't make much sense in the 250 itself , where you can push a 50 or 55 grain pill plenty fast with all the advantages of their much greater BC....

If I figured I wanted to shoot bullets that small, I would get another 204 (traded my first one and have never seen a good reason to buy another as I have a 223, 250, 243, and 257 Wby. It was accurate & fun and all, but as far as yotes are concerned it had the same limitations & issues all tiny bullet calibers share) and use my favorite bullet for that round, the 32 grain V Max.

I long ago came to the belief that every caliber has it's ideal bullet weight envelope, the one it was designed to launch. When a guy tries to make a caliber into something it's not with that ideal weight, he's usually not happy with the results/trade offs. So being, if I want a something radically different than what I can achieve with say, a 250 with a 50-55 grain pill, I go with a smaller or larger caliber and tailor the load to be desired performance...


----------



## lyonch (Feb 26, 2006)

You simply had a case of what they call bullet splash. This will happen with virtually most ballistic tip bullets in a .22 caliber. I use to shoot 55 grain vmax from hornady and ended up having a few dogs get bullet splash and run off only to never be found. I switched to 55 grain sierra spitzer boat tails and although the bullet usually goes through the animal (if broadside) the exit hole is not that big. I have yet to have a coyote do the spins. The bottom line is that it don't matter what bullet you shoot, shot placement is the key to DRT coyotes!


----------

