.22-250 Remington - Mostly Long Guns

Last Sunday was a rather lazy day spent with family and friends, followed with an early dinner that, as usual, was followed by a discussion of guns, ballistics, handloads and hunting.

- Brian Pearce

Afterward, a walk was in order so several family members and a couple of working Australian Sheppard cow dogs left the house for a 2-mile walk through our place.

We had scarcely covered 75-yards when we observed a coyote in the hayfield, then a second and a third. We had sixguns, but the distance was too far and would require the luck of a lottery winner to connect. So I kept my eye on them as my son Porter hightailed it back to the house and retrieved his Savage Model 10 Predator Hunter Max 1 .22-250 Remington along with a SIG laser rangefinder, but somehow forgot to grab a rifle for me!

By now three more coyotes had appeared for a total of six. They were milling around and on the move, so a shot must be timed correctly to connect. Porter went prone, obtained a good rangefinder reading and waited for just the right moment to squeeze off a shot. About 15 seconds later his rifle cracked and a coyote went down at a distance well beyond 400 yards. The other five coyotes instantly scattered, with two going into a nearby irrigation ditch for cover while three others ran all out across the field. Porter remained prone, so I whistled and one stopped to look back from a distance of more than 600 yards, which was its last mistake as Porter launched another Hornady 53-grain V-Max bullet that put it down instantly. One of the two coyotes that had taken cover in the ditch suddenly returned to the field at a distance pushing 500 yards. The .22-250 cracked again, with that coyote going down in a pile. At a distance well beyond 600 yards, another coyote was still high-tailing it for cover at a quartering angle. Porter fired again, just missing its left shoulder by an inch or two.