I was talking to a colleague earlier on today about rifle selection and I wanted to open up the discussion. As I have said in the past I use a 6.5x55 for both deer and fox control, as my ticket allows me to do. I am in fact in the process of finding a more versatile scope and starting to handload to tailor the rifle to this role. My colleague on the other hand has a .243 yet is adamant this is his deer rifle and that he would not use it specifically for fox. Instead he has a .222 and is very dubious about the idea of dual purpose rifles.
I understand some people don't feel comfortable lamping with a 100grain bullet due to risk of pencilling and the thought that it is less likely to break up upon hitting the target/backstop. Surely though if your backstop is in place and you are using frangible varmint bullets a 6.5x55 is just as safe as a .22 centrefire
So any opinions on this- the deer/fox rifle vs the specialist fox rifle?
I understand some people don't feel comfortable lamping with a 100grain bullet due to risk of pencilling and the thought that it is less likely to break up upon hitting the target/backstop. Surely though if your backstop is in place and you are using frangible varmint bullets a 6.5x55 is just as safe as a .22 centrefire
So any opinions on this- the deer/fox rifle vs the specialist fox rifle?