243 too much for fox?

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dog slayer

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looking to buy a good coyote/deer rifle. but id also like to shoot foxes with it and not ruin the furs. i shot a rabbit with my buddys 243 yesterday and put a huge hole in it. is that what i can expect with a fox?
 
More often than not, I'd say that a 243 is going to do a lot of hide damage on an animal as small as a fox. I usually don't like FMJ bullets for hunting, but maybe they might perform ok on a fox when shot from a 243.
 
A .243 is a combo gun for predator and deer. That is providing you don't hunt fox/wolf for their fur.

As a qualifier, I own a .243 that shoots 3/4" MOA and I hunted predators. But I never worry about fur damage.

Then again you can use the non-expanding bullets (if you can find them) for the predator to minimize fur damage.
 
My 243 blows up animals. My 22 Hornet has never exited a ground hog. Thery just flop over dead. You could use a 223 or 222 loaded to Hornet velocity with a 45 gr bullet and get the same result.
 
find a 17HMR for the foxes, never seen a "good" fox shot with a centerfire. Unless using FMJ's but around here that is too risky in my opinion....too many farm houses.
 
you really in between with deer and fox like many said if you really want to protect fur .243 is not the way to go....a .223 or even better a .17HMR or .22 hornet would be better:)....
 
As others have stated, that 243 will not be kind to pelts. No bullet that I am aware of from a 243/6mm will stay in a fox. A coyote end-on, maybe, but a fox is not very big. Great deer rifle, and also good for pest destruction, though. Regards, Eagleye.
 
I've seen it recommended that you use a big game bullet that will expand a little in a fox killing it but not blowing huge holes in it. Because it's a big game bullet it will hopefully exit leaving two holes both of whick could be easily sown(?) up.
 
I have shot fox with both 243 and 25-06 with a variety of bullets including big game...nothing but a big mess, including seperating limbs from the body...it will kill them :)

a messy kill is promised
 
I remember shooting a fox with a 180 gr Remington RN Corelokt from my #4 when I was a kid. It looked like someone threw a football through it. If you want to shoot fur, there are two solutions with the .243. One solution is to use a non-expanding bullet like that 75 gr needle Barnes calls a bullet. The second solution is to load a conventional big game bullet to low velocity, say around 12-1500 fps. This will work pretty well if you call them in.
 
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