What Calibre

[moses 5]

Hi guys just wanted a bit of advice i have been doing alot of fox stalking lately with the semi auto 12g and have had plenty of missed opportunity.

what calibre do you think i should go for for stalking either 22-250 my first thought or .223. i will also be applying for my .22 for rabbit control.

 

Thanks in advance

Edited August 31, 2010 by moses

[AzMaN 0]

Hi guys just wanted a bit of advice i have been doing alot of fox stalking lately with the semi auto 12g and have had plenty of missed opportunity.

what calibre do you think i should go for for stalking either 22-250 my first thought or .223. i will also be applying for my .22 for rabbit control.

 

Thanks in advance

 

both have their own pro's and cons, overall the 22.250 will be more expensive to shoot and in theory if your buying ammo will wear the barrel out quicker than a .223 but its a fair few shots before that happens (1000's)

 

.223 has more range of factory ammo but reloading them the differnece will be pence for the extra powder in the 22.250.

 

.22-250 flatter and alot faster than the .223 but more of a bark frm the muzzle.

 

horses for courses rearly, i went .223 just for the fact i had been given 100's of cases but if i was starting out again i may have gone the 22.250 route for the flatter trajectory.

Edited August 31, 2010 by AzMaN

[njc110381 0]

I wouldn't even bother considering .22-250. A .22 Hornet can down a Fox out to 150 yards. A .223 double that. If you want to go for something even harder and flatter than that then go for .243 as it's very similar to the .22-250 with the major difference that it is Deer legal. You never know what may come up in the future so if you're going to burn that much powder you may as well make use of it. The .243 will send a 55grn bullet up to 300fps faster than a .22-250 can!

[dave1372 83]

Hi guys just wanted a bit of advice i have been doing alot of fox stalking lately with the semi auto 12g and have had plenty of missed opportunity.

what calibre do you think i should go for for stalking either 22-250 my first thought or .223. i will also be applying for my .22 for rabbit control.

 

Thanks in advance

 

My advice is invite a couple of people to come along to your permission and let you have ago with various calibres and see what you like the best.. I would say most foxes are shot at distances less than 150 yards anyway. If you are trying to shoot cheaply than the smaller calibres are more cost effective. I chose the 22-250 because in my opinion it is very flat shooting upto 300 yards. Just aim at the top of the shoulder on any fox upto 300 yards and you should hit em all ! But each to his own, the .243 is definitely versatile and worth considering.

[sir-lamp-alot 0]

i have just had the same dilema as you and i opted for the .223. my reason was as already stated the cost of ammo. i think that as a tool a .22-250 has the edge for the longer foxes which are out past 200yrds but i have had a lot of experience shooting literally 100's and 100's of foxes in the lamp and very few foxes are shot out past 200yrds with the main of them in the 120-160yrd bracket so what is the point of the extra range if you will very rarely use it and remeber many people will claim to shoot foxes up and over 3 manybe even 400 yrds but things look a lot further at night and peoples imagination does run away with them

[Deker 3,478]

This is always difficult to answer as I have several rifles to select from, this has also been done many times and there is a lot in the archives to look up, I seem to remember the poll was pretty close between .223, 22.250 and .243.

 

Anyway.

 

The reason for the result was quite simply because everyone comes at this with their own agenda, I have a .223 and a .243 and with the ammo choices available I have no requirement for a 22-250.

 

As someone else said, not that many foxes are taken past 200yards, and you should be able to do that with a .223 without too much trouble, to be honest most of mine are probably under about 120 yards, certainly had a few past 200 but it is not the norm for me.

 

So you have to ask yourself a few questions, then buy a .223! (or a .243 to cover yourself for deer as well)

[jamie g 17]

i had the same trouble when getting a foxing rifle. i got the 22/250 in the end and never looked back. im getting a semi custom rifle now and that is going to be 22/250 again.

 

for foxing there superb and small deer like cwd and muntjac. imo its ok for people to say a 243 will trump a 22/250 with light bullets.

 

it will but look at the extra powder your going to use. people also say you can use it for all uk deer. which you can use the 243 for that.

if you got deer on your land fine but if you havent there isnt many that will get granted 243 just for fox.

 

barrel wear will be more with 22/250 then 223 but if its a foxing rifle what does it matter it will last you ages. i no of people that have shot close to 2000 rounds with a 22/250 and well the accuray has opened up its still mor ethen accurate enough for foxes.

 

everyone wants a super accurate rifle but for normal foxing ranges most factory rifle sare more then enough for fox size targets. get a good mod on the 22/250 and you wont notice the difference by much for the sound.

 

im not trying to plug the sale of my own rifle but the one i have for sale is a rare beasty to find in shops these days. its got a soild h&s stock and jewell match trigger. ive shoot 500 rounds down it and there is no barrel or throat wear. the key is to look after and clean them right.

 

its took a good head of foxes members on here that have been out with me will tell you how accurate it is having a top trigger helps no end. i havent missed much with it.

 

i just hope i dont regret selling it when the rpa im getting comes

[jamie g 17]

ive also forgot to say that well fast light bullets help on the lamp your be surprized with the drop of the heavier bullets. a 243 pushing 55 grain bullets are very fast and dont have much drop at say 300 yards. but a 70 grain bullet fired from one is still moving. and you look at a drop chart and there isnt much more drop with heavier one at 300.

 

and when they get to the target they hit much harder then the 55