Good foxing calibre? Suggestions

[jamie g 17]

i have used 222,17rem fireball,223,22/250 and seen 204 used to great affect to by my mate who has one. he also has a 6br which is very good.

 

what you have to look at is the shooting you do what sort of ground do you shoot over. around here there pretty large fields so most shots are around the 200 yards at night some even out to 250 depending on how lamp shy the fox is.

 

i love the 22/250 it hits very hard, its very forgiving at night under the lamp. by this I mean sometimes range can be hard to get right at night. and you haven't always got the chance to range it with rangefinder. the 22/250 is a great flat shooting round and so is the 204. 243 is with lighter rounds also but not all forces will give one just for foxing which is silly. as it is a varmint calibre.

 

the 17 cf rounds are great if your ground is flattish. of course you still have to take care. but the little pill expands superb and very rare they exit a fox. really you need to reload though if you went for one of these.

[mattydski 560]

OK, what range? .22lr, 17 Hmr, .22WMR, .204 Ruger, .22 Hornet, .222, .223, .22-250, .220 Swift, .243, 6mmbr, 6.5 x 55. I'm sorry chap, but it's such an open question! 12 bore with the right cartridge, out to 40yards?

 

Ric is right, each calibre has its own advantages/disadvantages. Think about what you current needs are and then what you are likely to be doing in the future and how much you are going to spend. I would bear in mind the following points :

• Get the best scope you can afford...a lot of people say spend as much on the scope as you do the rifle, and I wish I had taken that advice initially. There is nothing worse than looking through cheap scopes when trying to lamp a fox.
  

• Hobbies have a habit of growing arms and legs. If this is you just moving into centrefires it maybe that you are likely to progress from foxing to shooting deer at some point? So ask yourself can you afford to buy another rifle and buy another scope aswell in the future. A lot of people that have centrefires soon move onto reoading too so this is an additional future cost you need to think about! If you have more than one calibre you may need to buy more dies etc! A .243 is a good all round calibre for deer and foxes.
  

• If you want a fox only rifle then I would consider ammo costs/reloading costs and get a calibre that is cheap to buy ammo/reload. In my experience % of foxes are shot at less than 200 yards so pretty much any centrefire calibre will do that. A .22 Hornet or .204 ruger is a lot cheaper to reload than a 6.5x55 for example, not sure about to buy ammo though...anyone else know that?
  

• Put up a post and ask a few local people to see if they will let you see what different calibres are like.
  

Hope this helps a little.

 

I use a Hornet as well as my .243, load both, .243 comes in about 70-80p, Hornet comes in at about 25-30p.

To buy Hornet is £20 for 25 rounds (Hornady factory 35gr vmax) and £26/20 Norma .58gr vmax.

[fox_hunter 1]

Range would be 150 yrs max.

[wortley 0]

Jamie G talks a lot of sense of what a know, I am only the lamping man for a friend of mine I have been doing it with him for 18 years, he has had many calibres but at the moment he shoots 6mm br norma very rare do we get an exit wound he says its flat to 200yrds.But we have shoot cubs as little as 50yrds when squeaked and they just come running to 300yrds with a lamp shy adult. At the moment I think he is necking down a 6mm br norma case to fit 177 bullet (Hope I've got that right) we will have to see what that will do.

Edited August 10, 2011 by wortley

[Ratsmasher 36]

 

the 17 cf rounds are great if your ground is flattish. of course you still have to take care. but the little pill expands superb and very rare they exit a fox. really you need to reload though if you went for one of these.

hoping to get into fac in the next couple of years and .17hmr will probably be the plan but why do you say about reloading

just cost saveing?

cheers

ratty

[jamie g 17]

hi mate you cant reload the 17 hmr as its a rim fire. I was on about reloading for the 17 centre fire rifles. if you put 17 centre fire in Google you can read up on them and see the difference in them all.

 

the reason I mention reloading for them. is factory ammo for a 17 centre fire is dear. also not a lot of shops stock the ammo for them. so if you reload you can save money over time. and also have more choice of which bullet you want to use and get better accuracy out of your rifle.

[JonathanKent 16]

Hi Ratsmasher,

 

He is talking about .17 CF (centre fire) which lots of users reload because if you get it right its cheaper, can be more accurate and some calibres are often very difficult to get in factory off the shelf ammo especially some of the smaller or more obscure calibres.

 

A 17HMR is a .17 Hornaday Magnum Rimfire cartridge and practically speaking you cant re-load rimfire cartridges. Also .17HMR is not THAT expensive (between £10 - £17 for 50 rounds) where as a centre fire round, depending on calibre is around £1-£2.50 a bullet.

 

Hope that helps.

 

ATB

Jonno

[Ratsmasher 36]

Hi Ratsmasher,

 

He is talking about .17 CF (centre fire) which lots of users reload because if you get it right its cheaper, can be more accurate and some calibres are often very difficult to get in factory off the shelf ammo especially some of the smaller or more obscure calibres.

 

A 17HMR is a .17 Hornaday Magnum Rimfire cartridge and practically speaking you cant re-load rimfire cartridges. Also .17HMR is not THAT expensive (between £10 - £17 for 50 rounds) where as a centre fire round, depending on calibre is around £1-£2.50 a bullet.

 

Hope that helps.

 

ATB

Jonno

aahh missed the cf bit

thanks

ratty

[Sidelock 10]

a French 88 loaded with grapeshot lol lol only joking