Favourite foxing calibre

[Longstrider]

Howa 1500 in .204 Ruger on a Hogue stock, Wildcat mod and a Hawke 6-24x44 'scope. Feeding it with Hornady Superformance 32gr at the moment, and am yet to have Charlie take a single step after the shot, even at ranges I'd have never expected to be taking them prior to discovering the .204. Flat as a flat thing that's been flattened, and a deal more accurate than I am so I see no need to change. Going to be loading my own ammo for it soon, but twist rate determines that I'll be sticking to 32gr bullets.

 

[kenbro]

17 predator, got a fast twist barrel and reamer some 223 brass, mustard with 30 grain fodder.

Ha, Dan Clemment’s design, and a great round it is.
Dan was one of the designers of the 19 Fireball Improved. He gave me his reamer for that round when he’d finished with it. I had a 19 FBI built and it was very accurate and good on foxes.
I eventually got Neil McKillop to change it back to a 17 FB.
Ken.

 

[andychas]

I use a 22-250 for night foxes (thermal spotter and Pulsar NV sight) with 50gn Vmax at around 3750fps, and a 243 with 87gnvmax for day dusk/dawn. puts them down humanely and without fuss, as do the calibres mentioned above of course.

 

[bluesako]

mine is my 17rem sako vixen i love it on fox i use 25gr bergers 24 1/2 gr viht 135 bs

 

[Neilmetters1966]

223 for me cheap and do the job
And plenty choice of brands if you don't reload

 

[JTO]

I try to keep things simple and cheap. .223 for foxes and other vermin, .308 for anything bigger and .284W for on the range. it must be costing some people nearly £1 a short in barrel wear.

 

[Markfox]

I use my 7x64 Brenneke for fox and deer about £2 a round and I go thru about 60 rounds a year no target shooting tho

And I’ve just bought a 22WMR for everything else that’s smaller to replace a 22 hornet as the factory hornet ammo is nearly £1.10 a shot as opposed to WMR 0.35P and when you shoot 500 odd rounds a year it gets expensive

 

[jb1]

I try to keep things simple and cheap. .223 for foxes and other vermin, .308 for anything bigger and .284W for on the range. it must be costing some people nearly £1 a short in barrel wear.

The moment I count the pennies each time I squeeze the trigger I would sell up and get a set of bowls or take up knitting.

 

[Klenchblaize]

300 Weatherby Magnum or 220 Swift. Just depends on how big they are.

K

 

[Border]

I had one of, If not the first (10 twist barrel, not good.) 17 Rems. In the UK, bought off John Longstaffe in ‘72 i think, and over the years I nearly always had one.
I’ve had several slash wounds when hitting a fox rib or shoulder, not nice.
My prefered bullets were always Hornady sp. when I could no longer find those I bought a good stock of hp ones from Channing Nagel and they were brilliant. Not sure whether Chan. still makes bullets, seem to remember there was a problem getting jackets when Berger didn’t make enough J4s.
I used a 17 FB for few years and than was fine also for foxing. I think the slightly slower than 17 Rem speeds were sometimes an advantage,, helping bullets get inside before blowing up.
I seldom Fox now, but I think a 17 Fireball would be my choice, just because of the land I shoot foxes over.
17 Rem. a very good fox round, but, if you regularly shoot at longer distances, there are much better choices.
Ken.

Hi Ken,
I have shot between 50-60 fox with my 17Rem. I started off with Hornady 25 grain HP and graduated to the Berger 25 varmint HP. The Hornady`s gave me more exit wounds than the Bergers, probably due to smaller meplat. I haven`t experienced splashes of yet though most of my shots are bib or side on h/l and sub 150m. For me it is my favourite fox calibre,

 

[Border]

17 Remington or 6mm Norma BR are my choice of fox calibres.
Started off with 6.5 Swede and sierra varminter HP, that worked as well......

 

[Bert/Ernie]

Started off with a 22-250 and tnt's but change of Estate and was more often than not too windy, so use my trusty 25-06 for most of the time now with v max.

 

[kenbro]

The moment I count the pennies each time I squeeze the trigger I would sell up and get a set of bowls or take up knitting.

Have you seen the price of wool recently?!
Ken.

 

[kenbro]

Hi Ken,
I have shot between 50-60 fox with my 17Rem. I started off with Hornady 25 grain HP and graduated to the Berger 25 varmint HP. The Hornady`s gave me more exit wounds than the Bergers, probably due to smaller meplat. I haven`t experienced splashes of yet though most of my shots are bib or side on h/l and sub 150m. For me it is my favourite fox calibre,

Hiya,
I think I’ve been somewhat unlucky with my fox splashes as I’ve a friend that uses 17 Rem exclusively for fox and in 40+ years shooting together, he’s yet to have one that’s not drt.
Ken.
Ps. The Hornady bullets I had were soft points, don’t know whether that would have changed things for me though.

 

[25 Sharps]

Hey... I love slightly unusual cartridge choices and yours sounds like a doozy!! Who did the barrel and chambering for you please my man??

ATB ..... and shoot safely.

try 5/35 SMC then . . .

 

[25 Sharps]

Current foxing calibre is .223 AI as thats what I am using but my favourite calibre rifle is my 0.22H which is excellent out to 150 yards provided its not windy

 

[25 Sharps]

The moment I count the pennies each time I squeeze the trigger I would sell up and get a set of bowls or take up knitting.

To be fair if you're shooting a lot of vermin with CF cost can come into it, I shoot 100-150 rounds of CF most months between, deer, fox, vermin and target that adds up for me and is why I reload!

 

[wraith]

tikka t3 supervarmint in 204 39g blitzkings at 3800fps you hear the hit before the bang flop dead on the spot ace foxing round

 

[bluesako]

+1 what jb1 said my 17 rem cost 20 p a round to load bs

 

[RCS Deer Management]

As a side note, I often see that people like their particular bullet because they have never had a Fox move a step after being hit? Is this due to shooting a reletivly low number of foxes? I have had well hit foxes run or alive after being hit with .17hmr, .22lr, .22 hornet, .222, .223, .22/250, .243, 6.5 creed, 6.5x284, 7x57, .308, .300 win mag. And with bullets from amax, vmax, seirra, Berger, ect. You get my point. I have have had the odd runner with literally every combination I have tried, probably only 1-2% of foxes that are hit well but this still accounts to several every year.