204 or 22-250

If you already own a 22-250, and were looking to buy a new rifle for fox/coyote hunting which would you prefer, a 204 ruger or a 22-250?

.223 if you are shooting at 200+yrds. 204 has been good for close range, but lacks in the longer distances.

22-250 that you have works fine. Assume you have a bolt action rifle. A .223 as Randy said works fine also and can be purchased in semi-auto.

Thanks guys. i guess my real questions is does it pay to purchase a 204? i forgot to mention that i already have a 223. The 223 is in a Ar platform, and the 22-250 is a bolt action.

there’s nothing any of those do that a 22.250 can’t do, plus it shoots farther!

It depends on if there’s a problem you’re trying to solve, or if you’re just hankering for another rifle.

My best coyote rifle is a shotgun. It’s a cheap 12 gauge shotgun that hurls 3 inches worth of BBs through a tight choke. Hits them like a ton of bricks, doesn’t tear them up, and even I can hit coyotes with it with an alarming regularity.

So if your question is do you need a .204 given what else you have in your arsenal, the answer is probably “no”. But that doesn’t mean you don’t want a .204…

I seriously thought about one as it would be a heck of a prairie dog wrecker. But I’ve been trying to reduce the complications of having too many overlapping calibers and the ammo hassles it produces, so I bought another .22-250 and called it good.

Grouse

Haha. Going through this same dilemma right now. I’m looking at the Savage Bmag in 17 WSM vs the 204 though.

Nice dilemma to have, is it not? hehehe

Yes. Ironically my buddy back home and I start this conversation yesterday. We both have an itch to scratch. I don’t have an “deer/elk” rifle. I’m leaning towards a 300 WSM but the reality is, I’d outfit it with some decent optics and the gun will likely only come out of the safe once every 10 years.

The reality is I’ll shot a 22-250 more than any other caliber day in and day out. I love how my Axis shoots but I’d like a “nice” gun in that caliber. I don’t care for the AR platform so that’s out. The 17 WSM will be a nice gun for my daughters to hunt yotes with me in the future. Oh cripes, I don’t need any other guns but I’m gonna buy something….

If your serious about adding another rifle that will fill another niche.

Fill a niche with any of these the 6.5 Grendal, 6.5 Creedmoor 6.5 Remington. Light recoil does much better in wind, can really reach out and touch someone better then any 22-250 .223 .204, or 17. Even a good 6MM same as .243 great round for that extra, one may want to reach out and touch someone..

Kooty,

If you’re thinking of something your daughter can shoot that will be fun well…… I’d lean pretty hard toward a .204 vs the 17WSM. The difference being that you can still shoot Hornady ammo, with good shelf availability, and add to the range of effectiveness. .204 is commonly in either 32gr. or 40gr. varmint tipped bullets whereas the 17WSM is only 20gr. Out to range, the .204 will reach further and have more energy when it gets there. As for acquiring an elk rifle, I might be parting with my Tikka T3 Lite. It has a Boyd’s stock on it but if you wouldn’t want that I still have the original synthetic and the box. No issues……. it just sits around!

Grouse,

I’ve found myself wrestling with the same issue. A .204 for prairie pooches sounds great and I think it’d be a blast but it can’t outrange the effectiveness or versatility of my 22-250. Thus, I too have wrestled with the idea of getting a second one. Would you just get another Axis and call it good or would you try another brand or look? My current is a PD shooter and seems to love 45gr. rounds. The idea of a .204 is to either replace this purpose or get another 22-250 as an exclusive, open country coyote shooter. Orrrr…….. since I have a pair of 223s for the same reason, should I just leave well enough alone??? I get those “bugs” to buy another gun but I want to stop doing that simply for the sake of doing that. I don’t have to look far to find wiser uses of those funds.

@stillakid2
“I might be parting with my Tikka T3 Lite. ”

If that is the 270WSM, shoot me a PM with your price. My brother-n-law is very interested in one since he shot mine. I don’t want/need any scopes on it.

AT this point Randy, me and that 270WSM T3 Hunter are life buddies! I was referencing Kooty’s interest in a 300WSM, which I have, but not quite as attached to. Part of me wants to hang on to it and work with it a little more, because it’s not bad, it’s just not as dead on as the Hunter is, and it’s likely to sit for quite a while yet before I’m actually going to need it. Even then, I don’t know if I’d choose it or just stay with the 270WSM instead. The quarry desired would be elk. Part of me says to hang on to it and another says that if a friend like Kooty wanted/needed one, I’d be okay with letting it go where it might see some use. There’s certainly no rush. I was just putting it out there for Kooty to think about. However, if by some odd life twist I need to part with that 270WSM, you’ll be the first to know!

Kid, my main reason for trying the Axis in the first place was that I didn’t want to continue burning out barrels on much more expensive rifles, just to shoot overgrown rodents. So I tried an Axis .223 just after they came out to see if they could do the job. Once I got the formula down for making them shoot <MOA, I just stayed with them.

It’s not that there aren’t better rifles out there, the point for me was that the Axis is the best rifle that I’m willing to pay for considering I’m just going to fry the barrels on them.

Grouse

I fully understand on that hunter 270wsm. Quickly becoming my favorite overall caliber!

Randy, I admit, there’s a certain “comfort” that comes over a guy like me when he finds a magnum caliber along with a round it really likes and becomes one of the best tack drivers in the safe! Where I don’t load, finding compatibility in a factory round that breeds nothing but confidence is everything. This is, IMHO, the most spot on, accurate gun in my cabinet and I can’t wait until the day comes I can head west and see what we can do together!

Grouse, I think I’m going to be kicking this around for a while. I enjoy what a 22-250 can do so much that it’s almost as if I don’t want to use my 223’s, and honestly, that’s just dumb! I have plenty of ammo to use 223 for open country coyotes and a couple of decent rifles to apply to the effort. I shouldn’t discredit them. But ever since I went prairie doggin’, my head has gone nuts for 22-250. What I’ll probably end up doing is finding another 22-250 and feeling like I have the father/son/tag along friend options covered. Again, no rush though. I’ve got a pretty big iron in the fire that’s going to eat up a lot of time and I probably won’t need to make up my mind for another 3-5years anyway so……. unless it’s a deal I can’t refuse, I’ll probably wait on this dilemma.

We’ve developed a team system for P-dogs that works well for where I’ve been going. 2 guys with a tripod rest and a turkey stool can move easily and quickly around the dog tows with 2 guns and ammo.

We move to a position, use the .223s as the “starter” gun to clean up the close in rodents out to 300 yards. That usually provides enough shooting to warm the barrel up so then we switch to the 250 and get the ones farther out. Then we either change directions or advance and repeat the process, .223 first, 250 next. After we work out the town or the direction we’re moving, it’s back to the truck for a break and to change to a different set of rifles.

Using this mobile approach, we don’t do as much long range shooting as the guys who set up fixed benches do. But according to our guide, we tend to kill significantly more dogs than the benchrest shooters because our shots are much closer on average.

But as you can see, this approach kind of favors standardization.

Grouse

Sounds like a good system! In my mind, now that I’ve been out there, is exactly what I imagine I’d like to do. I’d even take it a step further and have my Savage BTVSS 22WMR ready for shots that are <150yds. Provided it’s not too hard to carry 3 rifles in this process! LOL I knocked a few out last spring with that one out to 110 and with 40gr rounds it still took the heads clean off so I’m confident I wouldn’t be leaving them injured as easily as a 17HMR might. If that one can join the effort, it’s still cheaper per round than the centerfire options.

As for trading out for cooler barrels, I would definitely have to pick up another Axis and pray to God it liked the same 45gr loads my SS model does. There’s no denying my giggle factor when cracking off shots +300yds out. Again, now that I’ve done it, I can’t imagine not having a 22-250 in the strategy/arsenal mix. It’s just a phenomenal round!