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Everyone’s favorite fur friendly 223 load

Matt_3479

I’m just finishing setting up my coyote rifles for the season. Main rig will be the 20 tac, but I have a pair of 223 I’d like them to see some action. I’d really like to have them be fur friendly as well. One is a truck gun and one is my a target 223 but would really like for it to taste some blood. Any recommendations for bullets to load. My target gun eats everything, the truck gun I’ll need to put some work in but have this week and next week off so want to jump on this
 
One of mine i run 50gr nosler ballistic tip varmint and the other hornady 50gr vmax. I love the nosler bullet better, but i just found my 1st box of it in 3 years. I had even contacted nosler about production of this bullet. They had taken a brake i was told back in 2018 and then stupid pandemic made it worse. I stock piled as mouch as i could. Ended up buying a lot of vmax just in case could not find nosler. Vmax is way cheeper now also than noslers. A buddy uses the 53 vmax and it has worked well. Very high bc if that matters for longer shots.
 
55 varmageddon with Benchmark and BR4 has always shot sub .25 and killed a lot of coyotes for me without a hint of fur damage.
 
65 gr Sierra Gameking has always worked great over RL 15 or Varget , I cant remember which, for me. No coyote has walked away carrying one at least. As far as fur friendly , well,, not so much. I've also used Sierra 60 gr HP's with great results, they seem to not open as fast as the 65 GK's, I read they were designed to operate at 22-250 speeds and they act more like a controlled expansion bullet at 223 velocities. Any dead coyote is a good coyote.
 
I'm loading a couple ARs and a bolt gun with 52gr Berger Varmint. I've killed a handful of dogs with them and yet to have an exit on any of them. They are also the most accurate bullet I have found as well.
 
Im mainly worried about pelts as I have so many guns that will tear a hole or rip them apart but my uncle is a trapper and sells to the fur auction so he likes to take as many of our yotes as possible. Last season he was only able to save 7 out of the 21 shot. Looking for a better ratio this season.

so main coyote rifle is switched from 39gr blitzkings to 35gr bergers, and id like these two to be functional as well for buddies and back up.

I’m happy to pick up any components necessary but have a bunch of powders I’ll be starting with. Just looking for the bullet itself. I have a few I’ll try but figured I could get a starting point. I was told 40gr blitzkings hammer and never exit.
 
boltfluter said:
40 gr V-max pushed as hard as you can get in a .223. My Tikka is about 3750 or so. With well placed shots, straight on or behind the shoulder, they never exit for a perfect hide. Just my personal experience.

Paul
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Same with mine. I run Benchmark with 40gr vmax in my 22" barreled LVSF. Performs excellent on fur
 
hunter67 said:
I use 53gr vmax or 55 Hornady soft point both with 8208. Great on dogs. I rarely get an exit with the vmax
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I’m definitely interested in the 53gr vmax. I feel like I could get them going pretty quick and holding a decent bc should make those slightly longer pokes easier!
 
ncageneral said:
65 gr Sierra Gameking has always worked great over RL 15 or Varget , I cant remember which, for me. No coyote has walked away carrying one at least. As far as fur friendly , well,, not so much. I've also used Sierra 60 gr HP's with great results, they seem to not open as fast as the 65 GK's, I read they were designed to operate at 22-250 speeds and they act more like a controlled expansion bullet at 223 velocities. Any dead coyote is a good coyote.
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I really like that bullet but I agree, tends to remove a shoulder if you hit one.

American rifleman recommended the 62gr Federal Fusion in factory ammo and I've not tried on fur but it does shoot well.

I have seen posted some good results with the 55gr E-Tip which certainly shoots accurately.
 
Having literally tried every bullet under the sun over 25 years of coyote hunting you will be hard pressed to beat the 40 V-max. 300 + coyotes sent to auction in Canada is a pretty good sample lot. Second choice,as mentioned, is the 50 gr SX. Good luck!

Paul
 
boltfluter said:
Having literally tried every bullet under the sun over 25 years of coyote hunting you will be hard pressed to beat the 40 V-max. 300 + coyotes sent to auction in Canada is a pretty good sample lot. Second choice,as mentioned, is the 50 gr SX. Good luck!

Paul
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Hey Paul,

thank you. That’s a wealth of test subjects there lol. Have you noticed similar results with the 40gr blitzkings too? Only reason I ask if cause I have them, if not I’ll be starting with the 40gr vmax for sure and appreciate That. Now if I could only find 300 yotes in southern ontsrio that are willling to come to a call lol
 
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