What is the best caliber.. to use on Varmints?

[Smokeater]

Way back when we were makin' good money selling hides, the .17 Remington was all it took. DRT and just one itty bitty hole.

[chrisk]

30-378

Anything less wouldn’t work

[Keg]

I killed a bunch with a 22-250 with Hornady ammo, 40 grain bullet. That sucker is whistling at nearly 4,000 fps and it didn’t tear them up. Don’t use it on the ribs of a 250 lb. hog though, he’ll give you a dirty look !

I’m referring mainly to bobcat or fox… I have a 22-250.. but haven’t used it yet… I haven’t had it that long…

[CabezaBlanca]

12 gauge with bird shot. Gotta get them in close though!

[TacticalCowboy]

Anything less wouldn’t work

I’d hate for the bullet to bounce off

[Maxlab]

22-250, 223, 243

[bowtecmike]

30-378

Overkill is underrated

Sent from my SM-A716V using Tapatalk

[okrattler]

I’m referring mainly to bobcat or fox… I have a 22-250.. but haven’t used it yet… I haven’t had it that long…

On thinner skinned critters like bobcats and foxes that 22-250 is gonna be rough on them more times than not. Shooting a bonded bullet would be about the best thing for those in that cartridge. It'll be more likely to punch a hole though them rather than fragment on impact. The trouble you may find with bullets that peel back instead of fragment is they may run a little before collapsing because it's not dumping all of its energy inside of them. Which could be a problem especially predator calling at night. It can be hard to find something that runs even 25 yards at night.

What I don't like about some highly frangible varmint bullets and even softpoints if you're off just a little they'll run off sometimes. Hit that shoulder bone on anything and it's gonna blow it wide open. I've lost numerous coyotes over the years using V-Max and a handful with softpoints do to the bullet "splashing", fur flies but they get up and run off never to be seen again. The ones that don't have a softball sized hole in them and require a lot of sewing to fix the hide. I only ever ran into that issue once with Hornady 52gr BTHP's on a female coyote I hit too far up into the shoulder/backbone. If you hit a critter on the "edges" with anything it's gonna be tore up somethin awful. The bullets I mentioned before hold together well enough to punch through the shoulder of critters and fragments or if it happened to exit it'd leave a hole about the size of a nickle if it was a bad exit. Never saw any much worse than that to the best of my memory.

Having said that I've gone through a few different fur buyers since I first got started. Some were less picky about bullet holes in animals than others. I started shooting 55 grain softpoints out of my 22-250 and .223 both a few years back. Not necessarily because they were more fur friendly but because they consistently dropped them on the spot no matter which way they were facing and they were easy to find everywhere. You can go into just about any store that sells ammo and find them. I tore stuff up worse of course but I shot 63 animals in a row after I made the switch and didn't lose a single one. Out of both the .223 and 22-250 both I get golfball sized exits pretty regularly. That's on coyotes,raccoons and badgers. Fox and bobcat it'd be worse. The one bobcat I shot with softpoints I hit in the neck and it left a pretty good sized hole. Bigger than a golfball. I don't recommend those on the thinner skinned stuff. I've shot the .223 almost exclusively for the past 16 years or so. Used 40,45,50,52,53,55 and 60 grain bullets of different flavors and they'll all get the job done. I'm just not real big on many of the lighter plastic tipped bullets. 55 grain Sierra Blitzkings killed really good but I knocked some big holes in coyotes with those from time to time. Some of that was shot placement too though.

[RifleBowPistol]

Are you referring to .14/.22 short, .14 Ack. Hornet, and 14/.221?

I don't remember which wildcats those guys were using, probably something like a 12/221. The wildcats they were shooting, were using a case about the size of a 221 Fireball, to cases about the size of a 222. I don't even remember where I read the info they wrote. I know both guys were out west, I want to say they hunt Utah and Idaho. I had never heard of 14 caliber guns, I think I was on a varmint hunting group. Those two posted a lot of info on 14 and 17 caliber stuff, where to get bullets, who makes the barrels, ECT. I want to say those guys kill something like 1000 plus coyotes a winter, each. It lead me down a rabbit hole, looking up 14 caliber bullets and barrels. That caliber is just not common enough for me to spend the money on building a rifling in that caliber. I don't know what group I was on, have not been able to find much info on 14 caliber pieces since.

I would not mind trying out a 14 caliber gun, I really like what the little 17 caliber rounds do.

[Artos]

17 Fireball is going to be one of your best bets if saving pelts...I like the swift when just kill'n.

[Keg]

On thinner skinned critters like bobcats and foxes that 22-250 is gonna be rough on them more times than not. Shooting a bonded bullet would be about the best thing for those in that cartridge. It'll be more likely to punch a hole though them rather than fragment on impact. The trouble you may find with bullets that peel back instead of fragment is they may run a little before collapsing because it's not dumping all of its energy inside of them. Which could be a problem especially predator calling at night. It can be hard to find something that runs even 25 yards at night.

What I don't like about some highly frangible varmint bullets and even softpoints if you're off just a little they'll run off sometimes. Hit that shoulder bone on anything and it's gonna blow it wide open. I've lost numerous coyotes over the years using V-Max and a handful with softpoints do to the bullet "splashing", fur flies but they get up and run off never to be seen again. The ones that don't have a softball sized hole in them and require a lot of sewing to fix the hide. I only ever ran into that issue once with Hornady 52gr BTHP's on a female coyote I hit too far up into the shoulder/backbone. If you hit a critter on the "edges" with anything it's gonna be tore up somethin awful. The bullets I mentioned before hold together well enough to punch through the shoulder of critters and fragments or if it happened to exit it'd leave a hole about the size of a nickle if it was a bad exit. Never saw any much worse than that to the best of my memory.

Having said that I've gone through a few different fur buyers since I first got started. Some were less picky about bullet holes in animals than others. I started shooting 55 grain softpoints out of my 22-250 and .223 both a few years back. Not necessarily because they were more fur friendly but because they consistently dropped them on the spot no matter which way they were facing and they were easy to find everywhere. You can go into just about any store that sells ammo and find them. I tore stuff up worse of course but I shot 63 animals in a row after I made the switch and didn't lose a single one. Out of both the .223 and 22-250 both I get golfball sized exits pretty regularly. That's on coyotes,raccoons and badgers. Fox and bobcat it'd be worse. The one bobcat I shot with softpoints I hit in the neck and it left a pretty good sized hole. Bigger than a golfball. I don't recommend those on the thinner skinned stuff. I've shot the .223 almost exclusively for the past 16 years or so. Used 40,45,50,52,53,55 and 60 grain bullets of different flavors and they'll all get the job done. I'm just not real big on many of the lighter plastic tipped bullets. 55 grain Sierra Blitzkings killed really good but I knocked some big holes in coyotes with those from time to time. Some of that was shot placement too though.

The g-son hit a bobcat with a 308 and lead tip bullet… and wanted to save the hide… There was no saving it….

[okrattler]

The g-son hit a bobcat with a 308 and lead tip bullet… and wanted to save the hide… There was no saving it….

A cool cartridge you may consider for shots out to 150 yards is the .17WSM. it's a rimfire but it hits like a big gun. Doesn't tear things up at all. That's what I shot my first grey fox with and it's got plenty of power to kill coyotes out to 150 yards. They may run a little ways with shots to the body but I've shot several with my buddies gun and never lost one. Leaves little tiny holes unless you're shooting prairie dogs and stuff. Then it is pretty nasty.

[eradicator]

I’m referring mainly to bobcat or fox… I have a 22-250.. but haven’t used it yet… I haven’t had it that long…

My 22-250 will drive tacks but its hell on fur and have had a couple instances of bullet splash as well.

[softpoint]

Anything that you want to kill them immediately with no running at all has to be pretty destructive to their insides. And anything that is very destructive to their insides will also be destructive to their outsides if the bullet exits. The various 17's are probably pretty good, as others have stated, or load some 40-45 grain Hornet bullets to a moderate velocity in that .22/250, just so they won't vaporize in mid-air and that should work, too. Of course, if they do happen to exit, they will be destructive.

[Keg]

My 22-250 will drive tacks but its hell on fur and have had a couple instances of bullet splash as well.

Yes.. I’m afraid my 22-250 and the ammo I have will do just that…