Preferred rifle for coyotes??

My picks....

For the coyotes, my first choice would be the new .300AAC Blackout. It offers great ballistics & you can add a sound surpressor later.
The .300AAC Blackout lends itself better to the AR platform than a few other calibers & it's growing in popularity. Stag Arms, Ruger & Smith and Wesson(M&P) now have .300AAC Blackout AR rifles.
Ammunition both for hunting or personal defense/duty are available too.
The older 6.8x40mm round is powerful also. It has good specs & works in AR series rifles but my first pick would be the .300AAC Blackout.

Rusty

The 300 BLK will work if you don't mind having the same range limitations as the 30-30 or 7.62x39

Fella's;

To correct a couple of comments: I don't use a 58 grain 6mm bullet, I use a 75 grain 6mm bullet. It's slower, I don't care, it seems to get there in time anyway. What it does do is offer significantly better S/D and B/C. Both of those factors make the heavier bullet behave far better in the wind. Here, we have recorded ground winds in excess of 100 mph. Not that I even attempt to call/hunt coyotes in such conditions, but conditions I do hunt them in are quite likely beyond what's experienced in the flat states.

900F

I just bought a .338 WM...

Greg

Back in about 1999 Ruger made a heck of a good batch of M77 MkII rifles in 220 Swift. The stocks were beautiful, inletted perfectly and the guns would group inside of an inch right out of the box. All they need is a trigger. My dad is very happy with his. These are a long range coyote getter!

ExAg;

I dunno, a .338 might be a little light for coyotes. Now where's that tongue-in-cheek icon? OTOH, might be just right for some of those California Cougars

900F

Early in the season I use a .204 Ruger in a CZ527 when I hunt alone. Compact rig and very fast to handle. As the season wears on I switch to my 22-250. I shoot a model 16 Savage (22-250) because it is light. When I hunt with a partner I use an AR-15 in .223 if I am doing the close in work and/or second shooter (on multiples). In the late season, if I am the long range shooter for coyotes that hang up I use a 6.5-284 with a semi-heavy 26 inch barrel. I used to use a 7mm Rem mag with 168 Bergers when I was the long range shooter in calling contests.

I use a Tikka T3Lite .22-250 with a Nikon Prostaff 3-9. The three heavy barrels stay home on 'yote hunts. My heavy .308 bolt goes along for the ones that THINK they got away....

Can the rifles and switch to handguns......i use a 17 FB XP-100 for fur hunting mostly, but will be testing a 243/87 V-Max XP-100 combination some this season.

If i were using a rifle again (still do some actually for damage control type hunting ) it'd be another 243/87 V-max combination probably overall.

My foxer of choice (don't have 'yotes over here) is a .223 CZ 527 American with a 3-9x36 scope on the top (A4 German Reticle). Is nice and compact with a 20" barrel. Also use it on the running deer range as swings quite nicely.

I've got coming a .257 Roberts on an FN Commercial action. That with a 75gr V-Max might become the new favourite...

If you are looking at an AR platform but want a bullet with a good B/C for wind, etc., consider the 6.5 Grendel.

Buddy of mine uses an AR-10 243/87 V-Max combination and kills more dogs out to 800...ish on 1st shots than anyone i've ever shot with. Absolutely phenomenal what can be accomplished with that system...assuming you don't mind carrying it around.

One other option worth considering is an AR 223/65 Sierra Gameking, which was my go-to coyote hunting system for some years to ~500 yds. or so.

Gonna try the 264LBC on Tuesday. Hopefully the yotes cooperate. Been seeing a cougar too. That would be just too cool.

It's my understanding that a .223 shooting a 70 gr. bullet will kill just fine out to 500 yards. But where I live a 300 yard shot is the most you're likely to get. There are some places that I could shoot farther but there are always farmhouses out there in the distance somewhere. But I bought my .223 bolt gun with the idea of killing coyotes at fairly long range. Again I don't get many shots past 300 yards. Heck I don't get many shots at all since I can't get out and go like I once did. But I would have no trouble firing at 400 yards on a coyote with my .223. If I would happen to get a chance to shoot into a pack of the critters I would probably just use my SKS. Out to 200 yards it would be plenty accurate for that work and it can put down a lot of fire in a short time.

Again the area is just too populated to do much shooting and the coyotes aren't coming close into my house. The last house I lived in had a bunch of them swarming around the property (about 15 acres) but only at night. I need to get more aggressive but the only one I've seen at my current house saw me and he saw me drawing a bead on him with my rifle too. I think he sensed he was in trouble because he hasn't been back and I was told he was a regular here when I first moved in. They're smarter than people think.

But given the chance I don't think a 300 yard shot would be tough at all. My rifle will do head shots at 300 yards all day long even in a pretty fair breeze. I'm not talking 25mph sustained or more but up to that I can generally hit what I aim at down to a 2" group size or less. I can't imagine a coyote living with a 70 gr., .22 caliber round putting holes in it's head.