223 1-8 twist 16" Fur friendly bullet

2

204Gunner

Active member
What bullet style and weight do you suggest for fox and bobcat?

* My barrel shoots 53 V-max very well, but not fur friendly. I also have loaded 60 Ballistic Tips but not tried them off paper yet. I have not seen accuracy with anything over 62 grains so far.
 
I would look at a reduced load with 40, 50, or 55 grain bullets if it's a bolt gun, but kinda off the table for what I assume is an AR.
 
My 16" gun (1:8 also) shoots Nosler Partitions extremely well. Easy to load at 2.245" and feed flawlessly. Loaded down a bit with 22.5 of Benchmark and they are excellent. Probably the 2nd best bullet I have tried (60 VMax outdoes it by a little). They usually are straight pass throughs on coyotes unless you hit a shoulder. Even then they aren't too bad on the pelt.
 
I use a 60 grain vmax with 25 grains of benchmark in my 14.5" pof. Clocks around 2850 fps. Can't see the hole going in coyotes and about a 25 to 50 cent sized exit hole on average. I use the same bullet loaded at 2975 fps in my 20" ltr and it normally doesn't exit with straight on neck and chest shots, or extreme angle shots, and I can't ever see an entry hole. I never shot a fox with the load but their thin skin blows up no matter what you hit them with. I've ripped hugs holes in fox with a 22WMR shooting 30 grain vmax. Shotgun is your only safe bet to save fox hides. I bought a box of 50, 60 grain .224 ballistic tips but never ladder tested them. I'm guessing the solid copper base is going to about guarantee an exit...and I'm guessing with a big exit hole. There's alot of guys here that use the 40 gr noslers and claim they don't exit and are fur friendly
My LTR shoots them ridiculously accurate like the 60 grain vmax but I've never tried them on fur.
 
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I've probably shot close to 100 coyotes with 40 gr Nosler ballistic tips or 40 gr Nosler Varmageddons out of an AR and bolt 223. Unless I hit "edges" they have been fur friendly. On a smaller fox, I would not be surprised if they made big exit holes.
 
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That’s a bummer the 53’s aren’t fur friendly in your setup.

I shoot them out of my 22-250 and they do great on fur. I very rarely have a big Hole. Most of the time can’t even tell they are hit
 
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This year I am shooting 50 vmax in a 16" 223 @ about 3000-3100 fps and don't have much damage unless I have a bad hit. They blow out the guts if hit in the belly. I think the 40 vmax would have similar results
 
Ermine. said:
That’s a bummer the 53’s aren’t fur friendly in your setup.

I shoot them out of my 22-250 and they do great on fur. I very rarely have a big Hole. Most of the time can’t even tell they are hit
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I hit a red fox behind the shoulder and left a baseball size exit hole behind the other. Shot was a little over 100 yards.
 
204Gunner said:
I hit a red fox behind the shoulder and left a baseball size exit hole behind the other. Shot was a little over 100 yards.
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Oh gotcha. Yea fox are tough not to blow a big hole. So thin skinned. Haven’t had any issues with 53’s on bobcats and coyotes . But yea a fox is another story.
 
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Hornady 50 gr SX is the best I have tried out of AR223 for Coyote, Red fox, raccoon. Easy to tune(no tip limit in mags), 3200-3400fps, and they are cheap. Shots under 50 yards any 223 bullet is a problem on Fox hides.
 


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