Best caliber for grey fox

D

darylhood

New member
Ok I am sure this topic has been talked about before. But I am wondering what you guys think is the best caliber for grey fox hunting. I like to save my hides and I use a 12 gauge with hornday magnum bb's but my wife loves her 243 but it is hard on the hides. Looking at getting her something else to use on the greys. Let me know what you guys are using and how the furs fair.
 
I like the .17 calibers, especially in centerfire, and do most of my hunting with a 17 Fireball. Very fur friendly. The .22 Hornet is also a good choice at under 150 yds. IMHO.
 
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I found out 2 weekends ago that 22-250 is not the answer for saving fox hides (which I don't care anything about on fox since I hunt contests). At least with 50 grain Vmax or 52 grain Bergers it blew them up well. .17 caliber mentioned above would be a good choice. Maybe somebody can attest to a .204 since I don't own one. It may be too fast to keep from exiting even with a Vmax bullet.
 
17 Remington using the Remington factory 25gr Hornady HP bullets is great on fur.

As for the .204, I cannot recommend it for being fur friendly, especially not with a poly tipped bullet.
 
My vote is on the 17 calibers. No recoil and not a lot of noise. I shoot a 17 Ackley Hornet that I think would be great out to 250 yards. If you need to stretch it out I would vote on a 20 Tactical. Flat as a 22-250 and just as deadly. Also very low recoil and with the right bullets no exit.
Safe shooting
Doug
 
The answer is the 17 Ackley Hornet. I kill them at 25 yds, no exit, I kill them at 250 yds no exit. I love the Browning 22 Hornet, so I bought a second one and wildcatted it to the 17 Ackley Hornet. Now they are marketing a Hornady 17 Hornet which is close, couple hundred fps short of my Ackley Hornet. Accuracy is everything, don't rake em'

At 3900-4000fps, the little 20 grain bullet disintegrates and the hydroshock inflates them, you can see it through the scope, they swell up then they deflate and drop. I sometimes find copper metal "flakes" in the outbound side inside the hide but not all the way through.

My 17 Ackley Hornet has killed a bunch of foxes, both Reds and Grays, not a couple here and there. I love its performance. I have tried them all.
 
The little 20 grain V-Max is coming out of the muzzle of my 17AH at about 4000fps, close to 17 Remington speed, so at that rate I would say pretty darn good. I am building a 17 Remington now for use with larger grain bullets (25-30). Once the pill is airborne all things are equal as long as speed is equal I guess.
 
204 with any of the poly tipped is hard on fur. I have shot them with 35 Bergers with quarter size exit not softball like V-Max do.
 
All of them mentioned will do the job at one range or another, but not all ranges. That is where the 17 Ackley Hornet and the 17 Hornet separate themselves from the others. They will do the job extremely well from 25 to 300yds for the 17 AH.
 
I have only shot foxes with my 17AH. I believe it to be the premiere fox rifle for Grays in close or those Reds that hang up out there at longer ranges. It gets the job done with minimal damage.

I have known folks that kill coyotes with the 17 Ackley Hornet, but myself I cannot address that, haven't done it. Bullet weight and speed considered, it is the same as the 17 Fireball shooting factory Accutips. My 17 AH chronys at or just above 4000fps.
 
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