The .243 is a great caliber I have used it many times to take white tail deer but most of my hunting was out of a tree stand and within 100 yards I do think that the .308 is a much better deer caliber and perfectly fine for coyotes, like others have said if you pick the right bullet fun damage can be minimized if that is important to you
.308 for coyotes? Input?
- Thread starter DVS_182
- Start date
What speed are you shooting at that a 150 Core Lokt doesn't blow right through a coyote??? Every deer that I have seen shot with that bullet had a pass-through...
OP - probably the best coyote/deer compromise caliber of the .308 family is the .260 Rem... sure you can use .243 on deer and yes, you can shoot coyotes with a .308... but the .260 is comfortable with both...
Don't know speed... never felt the need to chrony them. Next time I have the chrony out I'll throw a few past it and see for ya . They aren't hand loads though. It's the only store bought round I have and a few 180s. Range taken them at is between 50-200meters, 200 only happened once. Heck see if I can dig up a photo for you!
You can use the 303 or 7mm on deer as well. So get yourself something for coyote. If you want to keep the pelts buy a varmint cartridge. Anything from the 17 hornet to 243 will be fine. If you are not going to hand load then look at something around the 223 good general purpose hide gun. If you're going to be calling at shorter ranges you can go with the 17's to the 22 hornet.
Realize that if you want to hunt both deer and coyote with the same rifle and save the coyote hides you will probably be using different ammo for each animal with a different poi.
Realize that if you want to hunt both deer and coyote with the same rifle and save the coyote hides you will probably be using different ammo for each animal with a different poi.
I hunt the dogs to kill them - so I prefer my 243 with a souped up the nosler 70 gr - it is a laser out to 400 yards using H335 powder. A 243 is a 308 case necked down to 6mm. For the deer, I prefer the 95 gr or the 100 gr. The frangible little 70 gr bullet does punch massive exit holes in them too - so if for fur bearing, I would use a more solid bullet.
I find with the 150 gr, the 308 is also very accurate, but I'm not overly fond of the bullet drop past 300 yards. I cannot seem to find a decent load with the 125 gr bullets that can equal the tight groups of the 243.
I find with the 150 gr, the 308 is also very accurate, but I'm not overly fond of the bullet drop past 300 yards. I cannot seem to find a decent load with the 125 gr bullets that can equal the tight groups of the 243.
