Man, bunch of good info in here. Now it's time to work. I'll be back. Please keep paying taxes. Lol.

Montana, in places is quite windy. I have a .204 and shoot 35 gr bergers. Love it. However, for the parameters you listed, the 22-250 is far better suited. I have one in ackley improved. Love that gun. Lights out in the 200-400 yd range. I know the predator control guy in Great Falls. He shoots 6.5x284, but predominantly long range. In the 700-1000 yd range. Again, love the .204, but loses to much energy downrange, and since you're not shooting prairie dogs, go with 22-250 for 200-400 yard coyotes.

Great old round, I use it or a 243 with 55 grain sierra blitzkings.

Haha, marine. I just saw on other post you are moving to Augusta. Those winds off the front are tremendous. 200-400 you might just have to move up to the 6mm range.LOL

Big dog get a 22 250 of its got to big a hole give it to a Afghan and tell him it's a magic turban lol

Never owned a 204. Never heard any complaints about it. I like my 22 250 though I don't see any advantage one over the other. 250 is a decent deer rifle out to about 250. No idea how the 204 would be. I'm guessing you want an excuse to buy yourself a present. Take a look at the 22 hornet. Will reliably kill coyotes out to about 75 yards. ( tough animal. miss the heart at distance good chance it will die someplace you won't find it) Absolutely fox medicine with little damage to about 200. Badgers, cats beaver same thing. Great bait gun for prairie dogs and jack rabbits. You will be happy with yourself for buying one.

I use a 243 win with a sierra HP bullet and lapua brass loaded with alliant or hodgdon powder. Bullet selection is key in any of the cartridges listed.. I like the Sierra hollow points for fur, they dont expand rapidly like a ballistic tip will sometimes at close range high velocity. I also have a 22-250 in the cabinet for coyotes, I use the Sierra 55gr gamekings in it. Sierra ,hornady and Nosler bullets, all of them shoot well. See what bullet your gun prefers to shoot. I like the 6mm bullets for thier high ballistic coefficient -bucking the wind a little better then those smaller calibers.

IMO once you get past 350-400 yards the .22s and smaller just don't have the B.C. to buck the wind the way the 6mm and larger do. The possible exception being something with a fast twist that is set up to shoot the 69+ grain .22 caliber bullets at a healthy starting velocity. My old tang safety ruger .22-250 may get a new 1:7 barrel for this exact thing.

Right now I shoot a .223 and .22-250 and my kids have a couple youth .243s with short barrels that have performed well on coyotes. I am seriously considering something along the lines of a 6mm-06, 6mm Ackley, or .243 Ackley for those coyotes that hang up at 350+. I picked up a .25-06 a couple days ago to play with but it will most likely turn into a donor action/stock for the 6-06. I hunt with my kids and wife mostly these days so they will be shooting anything inside 250 or so with ARs, short barreled .243 or the .22-250.


My daughter shot this young coyote at 62 yards square in the chest while it was looking at her. It had no significant exits with a 100 grain power point out of her 16.5" barreled .243. I was expecting a mess. Solid chest hits cover a lot of sins.

Hey Marine I'm pretty sure you already new you were gonna need a heavier bullet for the conditions you are expecting out there. The reason I bought the .243 was because you can now buy 55 grain bullets for it and push one out the barrel at about 4000 ft./ second. What I found was that my rifle doesn't like them very much, averaging just under an inch at one hundred yards. That's on a calm day ! As the years have gone by I've settled on a 65 grain hornady ballistic tip and done very well out to 670 yards. I've never had an exit hole even at 90 yards on any well placed shots ( this shouldn't be a problem for a man that makes a living with a gun, ) ! My point is these days you can buy a seventy grain bullet for the 25-06 and push it out the barrel at about 4000 ft/ second and you have plenty of room for fine tuning with heavier bullets for high wind conditions.

What ever you buy I'm sure you will figure out how to make it do what you want !
Regards,
Don

Yes. Please ask them. Ask them to stand out about 200 yards. Then check the damage.

Mike

you can really make about any .22 cal centerfire work, throu selected choice of bullet size, weight and velocty, really.......there gonna be no "ONE" perfect caliber and bullet combo that fits all requirements.....and depends a lot on what YOU want....do you want extreme range and accuracy as your no. 1 and fur damage kinda 2nd place, or you want minimel fur damage, at expense of some long range flat trajectory and knockdown, kinda hard to have the "perfect" one for both.........Ill tell a simple one....shoot a 223, with 40 gr bullets, and fast as ya can throw em....you somewhat end up with velocity and tragectory of a 22-250, and reasonable fur damage gun.....40 gr. ballistic tips at max 223 velocity around 3500 (ya gotta be able to push past max loads data in loading books to do this) pretty much stay inside the dog past a 100 yards....and if you can hold shots in a 3" circle at 300 yards, and can put them in the correct spot w/o hitting shoulders, your gonna drop and find most that ya shoot......in a rather simplistic view.....if I wanted extreme range and accuracy Id max out a 250 or a 220 swift.......

All the depredation guys out west that I know, who kill coyotes all year, prefer the .220 swift.

if wind is the main hurdle just get as fast a twist as you can, go with the highest BC bullet that ya can, any 2 given bullets of the same BC, fired at the same velocity, drift and drop exactly the same, regardless of weight or diameter, in other words an 80 gr 22 bullet will drop and drift less than an 80 gr 6mm shot at the same muzzle velocity.
RR

6.5 Grendel? 223 75 grain bthp Hornady reaches out pretty good, but for flat reaching out 204 ruger sits on top, until it gets windy. 75 grain would sure have an advantage. Of the 3 I stated I own 2. 223/204. I use mine a lot hunting in the ocean. Seals. The 204 is good on calm days. 200-350 yards. The 223 I use a leupold mark ar scope, has drop out to 600. Kinda cheating but my meat is what I'm after. 204 is like a laser. Point an shoot. Can't beat it on a calm day. Zeroed at 200 yards. All three test rounds are always touching @ 200. the 28" pro hunter barrel helps, all my varmint rounds are bull barrel. Heavy yes, trade off accuracy.

What kind of ranges are you guys shooting out to with the .204?

I have a Rem. 700 in .204 and a Rock River ar15 in 223. The weight difference alone keeps the 204 in the truck, I'd like to shoot the long gun once I get some shells reloaded.

I can also think of some dogs I wouldn't have killed this year without an autoloader. Just something to keep in mind when you have 2 or more come in.

the 204, to 400 yards mirrors the 223's trajectory with a 35 gr bullet, a better bullet in the 204 will help.
RR

Longest 550 yards with 204. Dead calm. Dead crane.

17 hornet marine boy!!

Hornady 32 grain vmax, top notch in my rifle. Wasn't to fond of 35 grain Berger. Didn't shoot as good groups as I'd like. Guess what works in 1 gun don't work as good in another.

have taken a couple groundhogs at 550 with a plane jane 223, 55 gr hornaady sp in reman ammo
RR