is a 308. to large?

[WI COONER]

I have a browning bar short trac stalker in a 308 cal.. I think it would make a REALLY nice yote gun, but is it to large of a caliber? I have heard of a few people that its all they use but would appreciate some other opinions.

[Rimrock]

It'l killum for sure. If you are saving the hides it might be a little rough on them. Different bullets will give different results. You may find one that works well. If that is all you have, use it. Good luck.

[WI COONER]

thanks for the input! Im looking into getting a 204, but ill just use what got for a while yet

[cuyama87]

I would go with a 22-250 over a 204. I have seen guys use the 204 and have to track the dog for a good 200 yards

[WI COONER]

oh really!? I will take that into consideration, thank you

[michael.magorian]

As far as the .308 goes, just buy some 110 gran bullets. They will have a hell of a zip on them and shouldn't destroy the hide so bad. You might need to shoot your rifle and adjust the sites a tad.

If you were looking into a strictly coyote gun, I would go with the age-old proven guns. The .223, .22-250, .243, .25-06. Ammo is much cheaper than your .204 and you can find it anywhere. I had a 6mm I bought just for coyotes and it shot great but it was a pain finding ammo and it was always expensive to shoot, so I got rid of it.

[driftwood blue]

Just what do you want to hunt with that 308??
good on deer.. on coon-- NOPE Bobcat Nope.

a few years back I was hunting coon near Sandy Texas--- north of Johnson City.. one of the fellows had a Ruger auto 22 the other had a nice stainless rifle with a scope-- turned out to be a 30-06.. anyway after the dogs treed a coon the fellow with the Ruger could not hit it.. the other fellow (and I thought it was a scoped 22 at the time) shot the cannon..sounded like a cannon anyway! he surely hit it and all that fell out of the tree was a little blood and some mangled hide..

LOL! what an experience!

[WI COONER]

Any recommendations on bullets in a 110 grain? Hornady in a hollow point?

[hunter22]

I use a ar 15 in 223 when we run with dogs cuz the yote is usually on the run and then I can get many follow up shots. When I am calling I use my 22-250 so i can get better range. Neither caliber tears up the hide to bad. But I agree if all you have is a 308 then I would just get lighter grain bullets. Good luck hunting.

[Mike Leonard]

I have used the 308 with great success on coyote. Here in northern New Mexico we deal with a lot of wind and heavy bodied well furred winter yotes. I bounty hunt and hunt for depredation more than fur so I am not as concerned about sewing up big holes as I use to be. The 308 with a 130 Gr. Barnes TSX really does the trick and the nice thing about using your deer rifle you get a lot of off season practice that can really pay off in the deer woods next fall.
I know these seem like pretty big guns but they can really be a help when the winter winds are screaming across the snow and a big dog hold up out there at 300 or so and set on his butt and barks at you. The 204 and 223 seem pretty puny at that time and you wont
't mind that little extra recoil with your heavy winter camo on. One of my favorite long shot guns is a Savage Long Range hunter in 7MM RM. With 110 Barnes TTSX smoking out the barrel at 3500 FPS, I don't worry much about correcting for range on anything but extremes and just touch that sweet crisp Timney trigger(yes got rid of accu trigger I hate em for hunting) and it's lights out for Mr. Coyote.

The 22-250 is still hard to beat all around on varmints but you have to feed it the right food to get the most out of it. If you got a good rifle that you like and can shoot it go bust a few coyotes it's about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on. LOL!

[WI COONER]

thanks for all the info guys!

[CODY FANKHAUSER]

If you are worried about saving the hides,look in to some full metal jacket ammo. Should zip right through like a needle and still have plenty of knockdown power for a 35 pound yote to the 135 pounders we have running around this state. Happy hunting!!!

[Kenneth]

Keep in mind that full metal jacket ammunition might not be legal to hunt with...

[Warner5]

Making a good shot is more important than what you shoot. The lighter higher velocity loads are nice for a flatter trajectory up close, but as you go up in bullet weight you gain ballistic coefficiency because the heavier bullets are longer. Most of the time the heavier bullets will pass up the lighter one's in performance once the shots go down range.

Thumb through a reload manual, compare calibers and different bullet weights. Keep in mind if your working hides a lighter high velocity round will expand very violently, in most case's making one hell of a hole on the exit side. Most of the quality ammo a fella would use to take deer or bigger game should work nicely for a thin skinned critter like a coyote w/o ruining its hide. A 308 is a fine choice for what your doing.

If you want something a bit more zippy look at a 243. Hornady sells loaded ammo in a 55gr bullet it shots over 4000fps. But then you can pick up nosler partitions or barnes triple shock ammo in the 95-100gr range, its a very versitle caliber. Mike's advice about carrying the same gun is great, being comfortable with what you carry is a big part of quick, confident shot placement. Hope this helped, I didnt learn this stuff thumbing through a magazine. Trial and error guided by a reload manual was my way. John.