Building a coyote gun on a budget!

Suther said:
Far more fast twist 223s available than fast twist 22-250s though.
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Absolutely true, but he's building his own rifle. He can get whatever he wants in terms of twist rate, weights, etc. Why build something you can buy off the shelf?
 
jjohnwm said:
I'd suggest comparing apples to apples rather than oranges. The same fast twist rate on a .22-250 with heavier bullets will maintain its position as superior to the .223 with the same bullets and rates of spin.
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Most .22-250 rifles on the market tend to be 1 in 12 or 1 in 14. While it is much easier to find .223 in the 1 in 7 to 1 in 9 range.

jjohnwm said:
Or did you really mean what you actually wrote, i.e. that you want a slow twist rate for a heavy bullet? If you did, then, once again...sorry, but no.
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Sorry, I inadvertently reversed the slow and fast. So, if you want to shoot a relatively heavy (long) .224 cal bullet, you will be wanting a barrel of 1 in 9 twist or better. (These are not hard boundaries). I think the .223 barrel offers more flexibility (and longer life) in this regime.
 
jjohnwm said:
Absolutely true, but he's building his own rifle. He can get whatever he wants in terms of twist rate, weights, etc. Why build something you can buy off the shelf?
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With a budget of $1000 hes not buying a new barrel, so hes stuck with whatever factory barrel/twist options he can find. And while there are a few faster-twist 22-250s out there (American Predator is 1:10, I think tikka did some fast twist 22-250s too?) they're the exception rather than the rule.
 
Suther said:
With a budget of $1000 hes not buying a new barrel, so hes stuck with whatever factory barrel/twist options he can find. And while there are a few faster-twist 22-250s out there (American Predator is 1:10, I think tikka did some fast twist 22-250s too?) they're the exception rather than the rule.
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Yeah, I forgot about that budget...and I even have an American Predator in .22-250 that's one of my coyote favourites. If the OP bolts one into a chassis, he can use .308 AICS mags handily. :)
 
my first go-to would be a Howa from PR, some good values listed in their 'special buys', 223s and 243s under $700
Sporter barrel is fine for most yote work, budget Nikko scopes come on the packages, run it til it dies, if....
 
Mike112288 said:
With $1000 to spend I’d say get a tikka varmint rifle in 223, 22-250 or 204 ruger
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did that twice, two tikka varmint stainless .204's (slow learner, but finally got it), 1" at 250 with federal 39 Sierra blitzking factory (sadly discontinued), but the facking rifles are way too heavy when actually calling and trying to move the gun on them, build away, a 6 arc if trying to do long range game, skip the heavy .22 stuff, 6 arc out of the box, a howa would be the ticket, nothing needed, not even reloading, get the lightweight ones not heavy barrel!

I've got a 6.5 grendel howa that is easy half moa with factory 123gr eldm and it's light, slabbed action, fluted bolt and hollowed bolt handle, still shoots a house on fire feeling like a BB gun, legit one handed ease for positioning or dropping the sticks and swivelling on the yappies with the other hand swinging the BB gun the direction of the flea bitten mongrels
 
If weight is a concern then don’t go tikka I guess. Try finding a used cz 527 varmint, 527 American or cz 527 carbine in 223 or 204 ruger. Prob my favourite light weight bolt action.
 
I don't see a need for heavy barrels for coyote rifles. You aren't going to be doing high-volume rapid-fire shooting; a heavy barrel makes sense for prairie dogs or ground squirrels, where you are going through hundreds of rounds in a short period and are likely not moving around much. I sure don't want to carry around a heavy-barrel gun going from one calling spot to the next to the next.

Kind of the same for barrel life; you could burn out a barrel pretty fast on small varmints in quantity, but a great coyote hunting day is still likely less than 10 shots fired. Your barrel will outlive you.
 
Holy smokes. A whole page of answers and all you guys can do is argue about calibers.
I have built a coyote gun like this before for quite cheap buying used items off nutz. Sav axis, rifle basix trigger, and a mystery heavy barrel in 20 practical (essentially 204)
My advice to you would be to go with an action that lots of others use for builds as well. Savage, Remington, Tikka then watch the EE for takeoff barrels. Lots of guys want to build a custom rig will buy a barreled action then sell the barrel for cheap. I have seen plenty of Remington and Tikka barrels for $100

Don't listen to the mob telling you not to use 22-250. That caliber is still one of the most popular coyote calibers there is.
 
Yotarunner said:
You use a rossi 92 for coyotes ??
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I do, why? Is that strange? Genuine question, maybe from lack of experience or maybe its location, I’m in Ontario and none of my shots are any farther than 100, maybe 150 yards on an off chance.

But why would someone build a custom chassis/action/barrel for varmint control? I find my gun cheap, accurate, reliable, nice and short and easy in and out of the truck.
 
MosinMan13 said:
I do, why? Is that strange? Genuine question, maybe from lack of experience or maybe its location, I’m in Ontario and none of my shots are any farther than 100, maybe 150 yards on an off chance.

But why would someone build a custom chassis/action/barrel for varmint control? I find my gun cheap, accurate, reliable, nice and short and easy in and out of the truck.
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Ah. That would do it.
In the prairies shots past 100 are very common and fast flat shooting rifles are the name of the game for that situation. The reason for the speedy little guys is that under 400 yards depending on loads, bullets, wind etc there is very little holdover which is beneficial on small flighty targets like coyotes. No need to range and dial just hold on hair and pull the pin.
The smaller bullets are also ideal for those that are saving hides. The little bullets do lots of damage inside and not a lot of damage outside. Nowadays with fur prices down people are caring less and less but personally I take great pride in killing a coyote with next to zero fur damage.
As for building the perfect rifle. If your going out multiple days in the winter and shooting a fair amount wouldn't you want to have a comfortable accurate rifle to do it with?
 
Yotarunner said:
Ah. That would do it.
In the prairies shots past 100 are very common and fast flat shooting rifles are the name of the game for that situation. The reason for the speedy little guys is that under 400 yards depending on loads, bullets, wind etc there is very little holdover which is beneficial on small flighty targets like coyotes. No need to range and dial just hold on hair and pull the pin.
The smaller bullets are also ideal for those that are saving hides. The little bullets do lots of damage inside and not a lot of damage outside. Nowadays with fur prices down people are caring less and less but personally I take great pride in killing a coyote with next to zero fur damage.
As for building the perfect rifle. If you’re going out multiple days in the winter and shooting a fair amount wouldn't you want to have a comfortable accurate rifle to do it with?
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That actually makes way more sense now (even the argument for 22-250 over 223 from an outsider perspective) sorry to hijack I just see this topic argued every other week so I thought I might ask. Seems location has the biggest implication on my question, around my farm the Coyotes are mangy looking things, barely a pelt on them worth using, for a while there distemper was showing up in the coons and we were burning the trash pandas and coyotes alike after, hell I was using a 45-70 just out of proficiency/availability sake at the time.. But for harvest 20 cal makes a lot of sense, especially in that environment and as mentioned above, it’s not like you’re needing to make quick follow up shots. Thanks for the insight, sometimes I forget how big the nation is.
 
Cabela's is offering the Camo Savage 110 with a Vortex 4x12 for under a $1000, it even comes in the 6.5CM that is apparently really good for smaller game.
 
Currently have two 22-250's, a regular and the Ackley version. Both on 700 actions (well, one is a 40x, but that's almost the same). Can't say I've had any brass stretching problems, but it is a throat burner if you run them hot and a lot of shots repeatedly. Good cartridge though. Not the fastest 22 centerfires in my stable, but certainly a useful cartridge. However, if you're not shooting very long distances, a fast twist 223 would likely do everything you want it too. Could AI that too, if a little more speed is your thing. - dan
 
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