Help me so I know what to expect hunting coyotes with the .17 Hornet .

Hello , I'm a long time reader but a first time poster here on the Kentucky Hunting forum . I have a .17 hornet and purchased some of the Hornady 25gr hp factory ammo for it and I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this combination for coyote hunting ? I have several other pred/varmint rifles that are more powerful but I was wondering how effective this would work on coyotes inside of 200 yards ? I'm sure that with this tiny round that my shots will have to be very accurate , but will they be able to get away with a boiler room shot , so do I need to be certain to not shoot unless I am able to get a rare headshot ? I do reload but I have not started reloading this cartridge as of yet . Hopefully someone out there can give me some first hand experience . Thank you

 

I was hoping that it would drop them quickly with the 25gr hp . But after getting the rifle I read a lot of people online talking about how they think that the 17 fireball is not effective enough for coyotes .

 

Mine IS the 17 hornet and after reading that about the 17 FB , I was very uncertain about using my little hornet . Thank you for the info .

 

I have one more question . I just noticed on my avatar that it has the word ( fawn ) , can I and if so , how do I change that to something not quite so panzy .

 

I totally agree with you about it's not the kill but I don't want even a mangy coyote crawling off and dying a slow agonizing death . I try my best to always drop an animal that I shoot as quickly as possible

 

I hope to get out Monday and do some coyote calling but with all of this rain , I may have to use a boat to get to Meade county . I will not be using the little 17 hornet even if I am able to go , but I may use my 22 hornet if I don't use my ar.

 

I've only shot one animal with 17 hmr and unfortunately it was when the round first came out , I believe it was one of the 17gr bullets . I shot at a pretty good size groundhog with it and it was able to crawl away and get into it's hole before I could get to it to finish it off.

 

I've heard that if you use a 17 hmr on coyotes, to make sure that you use the 20gr or a fmj bullet because the 17gr will almost certainly just make a splash wound on one . I would have to assume that obviously depends on where exactly you hit them . I would not be too afraid to use the 17 hmr on fox , IF I were using a well constructed 20gr and I was within 100 yards of the fox whenever I took the shot . I no longer have a good place to hunt groundhogs , so I do not get to hunt them very often , but if I did I would make certain to use a good 20gr bullet if I were using the 17 hmr .