The Best Coyote Ammo 223 – A Succinct Guide

We hope you love the products we recommend and just so you know that as an Amazon Associate CoyoteHunting.org may earn from qualifying purchases.

OK, so you have a 223 caliber rifle that you want to use to hunt coyotes. Knowing what the best coyote ammo 223 to use, can be pretty tricky as there are so many different options out there.

The 223 rounds we will discuss today for you to use on your next coyote hunting trip will include:

• Nosler 40 Grain Varmageddon
• Barnes 36 Grain Varmint Granade
• Hornady 40 Grain V-Max
• Winchester 55 Grain Ballistic Silver Tip
• Hornady 50 Grain SPSX (Soft Point Super Explosive)
• Nosler 40 Grain Ballistic Tip
• Speer 50 Grain TNT

For the purpose of this guide, assume these are all hand-loaded rounds – loaded to almost maximum charge. This guide is based on the video below, you can watch it, or read our summary and ratings of each ammo type underneath:

All tests will be conducted from around 12 yards away to check the explosive power of each round inflicted on a cantelope.

so… which is the best 223 coyote ammo?

Speer 50 Grain TNT – TEST

Cantelope Test:

Obliteration. Only a very small amount of Cantelope remaining in place.

Nosler 40 Grain Ballistic Tip – TEST

Cantelope Test:

Explosive, but less so than the Spear 50 Grain TNT. There was less left in place in the end, but the pieces were larger in size and gave slightly less of an explosion.

Hornady 50 Grain SPSX (Soft Point Super Explosive)

Cantelope Test:

Much less explosive than the first two. Around two-thirds of the cantelope was remaining in place. The round pretty much just blew a large hole through the center.

Winchester 55 Grain Ballistic Silver Tip

Cantelope Test:

Blew some parts of the cantelope around 10 yards away from the impact. It definitely exploded with some large force and left only a small section intact.

Hornady 40 Grain V-Max

Cantelope Test:

While the Hornady left nothing on the resting platform that the cantelope was placed on, after the explosive round, there was still a rather large piece still intact.

Nosler 40 Grain Varmageddon

Cantelope Test:

The Nosler Varmageddon definitely appears to be the most explosive from the nozzle. A piece of the cantelope landed very close to the shooting position, showing that the explosive force was well rounded within the cantelope.

Barnes 36 Grain Varmint Granade

Cantelope Test:

Very similar explosive effect to the Nozzler 40 Grain Varmageddon possibly just topped the varmageddon. It was too close to call, so I gave it the same 5 star rating anyway.

The Best Coyote Ammo 223 In Summary:

OK, so now that we have looked at the some varmint/coyote ammo, which is the best coyote ammo 223?

In our opinion that the Barnes 36 Grain Varmint Granade was the winner, followed closely by the Nozzler 40 Grain Varmageddon. The thing is though, you would probably be very happy with almost all of these ammo options.