I went out this morning with a guy from my gun club and his son to do some coyote hunting. I took my 257 AI, Fred had his 22 Hornet and his son Jeff had a 222 Mag.
 
 Stand 1: I was facing south, Jeff was facing north and Fred was doing the calling. After about 15 or 20 minutes I hear Jeff whisper that he sees one. I slowly turn my head so that I can see it out of the corner of my eye. It's trying to circle down wind and so Fred stops it before it can catch our scent about 150 yards off. Jeff shoots and misses. I now turn around and pop one off at the south end of a north bound coyote but it's just a wasted bullet.
 
 Stand 2: no visitors
 
 Stand 3: After about 20 minuted Fred sees one way off. It drops down into a dip and I get turned around. As I watch through my scope I see not one but two coyotes coming in pretty hard. I say that I'll take the one on the right and leave the one on the left for Jeff. Again they're trying to circle down wind to catch our scent. Fred tells us that the next time they stop to take them. He barks once then twice and the one I'm watching stops. As soon as it does I let her bang and 183 yards later the 75gr V-Max goes to work. As soon as I shot Jeff shot and missed. I racked another shell and Fred tried a wounded coyote sound but the coyote didn't care much about it's companion and wouldn't stop. I again threw a bullet at the south end of a north bound coyote but no dice. So we went to check mine out. It was a nice female. I was pleased to see that there didn't appear to be much damage to the pelt but I was kind of surprised that she had managed to turn her self facing away before expiring. So we took pictures and I contemplated skinning it out. Then Fred flipped her over. There was a 4" exit wound on the other side! Now I'm not so sure that the turning around was completely voluntary. OK, so that's not the fur friendly bullet choice.
 
 Stands 4 and 5: nothing
 
 Stand 6: After about 10 or 15 minutes I see on top the hill and head or way. I whisper to Jeff and he passes it along to Fred. This one is a pretty hard charger and Fred stops it at about 150 yards as it tries to circle down wind. And my rifle experienced operator error and the bullet didn't connect. I'm not sure what happened, I felt like I was right on when I squezed off but I obviously wasn't. :o He didn't feel like hanging around to give me a chance to redeem myself. Jeff popped off a couple and actually came real close but not close enough.
 
 Stands 7 and 8: Nothing.
 
 After that we were tired from the walking and being short on sleep so we decided to call it a day. But I had a great time and look forward to doing it again with Fred and Jeff and hopefully next time getting a few more. I did get pictures and I'll post them as soon as I get them developed.

Sounds like ya'll had an exciting hunt!
They were really coming in good today....I suspect they might be a little hungry with all the snow you have had there.

:) :)

Rockinbbar

Good readin' thanks for posting ! Lookin' forward to the pictures.

I'm not too surprised you had an exit hole with a 257 AI. Have you used this caliber much in the past for coyotes? I almost went with my .270 Win with 90 gr varmint bullets but figured it'd damage the pelt too much and a coyote or bobcat would end up looking like one of those prarie dogs after a varmint round hits. I ended up getting a .204 ruger and use 32 gr v-max's. Good job though on bagging one.

M1, I've used it before but never with this bullet. I've always used a 100gr Hornady SP which is the same load I use for everything else and the damage wasn't near as severe. I had my 222 with me but I wasn't sure of how far our shots would be and I'm much more confident in my 257. I just need to play with it more. But 183 yards is about as far as I'd want to shoot with a 222 anyway. The 257 gives me a bit more reach and the bullets are more resistant to the wind that constantly blows in eastern Colorado.

Way to go HB!

My experience with the 85 grain Combined Technology Ballistic SiverTip was similar to yours - big exit hole. I don't think the .257 is really a varmint caliber if you're interested in pelts. If you load heavy-for-caliber bullets to minimize exit holes, you reduce effective range. If you load light-for-caliber bullets to extend range, you increase exit hole diameters.
 
Where are the pictures?
 
Paul

HB,
I friend of mine has a .222 and it's an excellent round.  I'd think you'd be good to 300 yards.  But if you're not comfortable with it I can see why you were reluctant to bring it.  How about a full metal jacket with the .257?  You'd get a pass through but should be small holes.

gitano, as luck would have it I just put a new roll of film in my camera before this trip. I need to either find some 12 exp rolls of film or shoot more coyotes and use up the whole roll. I hope to get out once or twice more here soon and I'll use the rest of the roll up so I can get it developed.
 
 M1, Like I said, I need to play with my 222 a bit more and shoot it at longer ranges. My gun club has a 200 yard range but I haven't had the opportunity to shoot the 222 at that distance. I just got done working up a load that looks like it'll work well. I now need to practice with it. The 257 on the other hand I've shot coyotes at 275 paces, deer out to 250 yards and a galloping antelope with the best shot I've ever had to make. It's just a gun that I shoot well and enjoy shooting. I've considered the solids made by Barnes but from what I've heard from others they just punch a small hole and the coyote can run along ways before expiring and I don't want that. When I post the pics you'll see why I enjoy shooting it so much.

Hunterbug,  are you sure she turned herself around before she expired....or perhaps she was blown around?  
 
I went hunting Sunday.  Bagged one yote.  For some reason my cur was off smelling things and I think my collar remote is low on batteries and I couldn't page him.  It was a long sit and I had rabbit squealed several times with no luck.  There was a slight breeze and I hadn't had any luck with wind.  I decided to get out my coyote howler and do some mock yote fight noises.  Lots of growling and dog whining.  I wasn't even through calling when I seen a yote making his way in.  I paged my dog and repositioned my Bi-Pod.  There isn't much snow, so the yote blends in with the sagebrush really well.  I lose him for a minute but then see him moving down a two tracker trying ot get down wind.  I squeal a few times and he stops.  Game over!  I see a leg or a tail flopping in the brush.  Of course, that's when my cur shows up.  He knows the gun means dead animal...(more often than not I hope).  We go down there about 125 yards to retrieve him.  Boy that 47 grn jacketed hollow point in the .223 did a number.  My cur doesn't know what to make of the dead yote.  It's his first one ot chew on.  He finally got to chewing on him a bit.  Earlier this year I missed 4 yotes in one day.  3 were no doubters and I missed.  this is with the same gun.  It's new, but I can rub bullet holes from the bench.  I guess I just got excited.  It was one of those days.  The next time out.  I spun a coyote around and then hit him in the rear on a dead run.  He spun in circles biting his haunches and I thought for sure he'd lay down and my cur could finish him.  I was wrong.  He trotted his way off in the distance.  The next yote was crossing the road and I hit him trotting.  Dropped him like a bad habit.  I let the dog loose on him and the Yote took off running like he was shot out of a canon.  I guess I must have hit him in the front leg to drop him like that and have him run away still.  So For me this year it is Me 1 Yotes 4 and 2 ties for the wounded dogs.

Yotecurhunter,
 What was the exit like with that JHP?  My .223 loves the 45 gr JHP Winchester factory loads.

Yote, at first I figured that she had turned herself around but after seeing the exit she probably got blown around by the impact. Next time out I'll take the 222 and see how it does.

RAtherB,
 
Are those winchesters 45 or 47 grn because I believe my UMC JHP are the same grn.  I couldn't remember. I thought it was 47 grn.  Anyhow, my .223 loves that grn as well and I almost went with the Winchester since a few folks said their guns shot those 47/45 grns really well.  My groups are a lot better now with the lighter bullet.  Also, the exit wound wasn't pretty.   I wouldn't call it a pelt saver.  However, I like the JHP over the FMJ because when I shot prairie dogs with my FMJ, the bullet holes were so clean that they were able to go down their hole all the way evenhtough they were dead.  My JHP gives me a nice sound when I hit those hole diggers and it did the trick on my Yote.  What kind of gun do you shoot your .223 out of?

My .223 loaded with 55 gr ballistic tips blows through evry time at 300 yards...about a 50 cent piece size exit hole...
I was thinking of getting the 75 gr vmax for my .243, but now I beieve the 100 gr.sp's I currently shoot in it will blow less of a hole than the v max 75's...

Rockinbbar

Rockin, when I get the pics developed I'll show you what a 75gr V-Max will do to a coyote and it ain't pretty. I think I'll go back to the 100gr SP in my 257.

yotecurhunter,
 I have a Savage Model 10, one of the newer with the AccuTrigger.  It is just an awesome rifle for the price, about $430 out the door, tax included.  Like others have said, the scope isn't a fine tuned optic that costs more than the gun (maybe less than a couple boxes of ammo) but it holds zero and magnifies the target.  It shoots those Winchester 45 gr JHP at approximately an inch, though I am sure a better shooter than me could get it down to 3/4 of an inch easy, maybe 1/2 with handloads.  I haven't tried any premium ammo or ballistic tips yet.