204 vs 22-250: Coyotes' Worst Nightmare

Even if you’re new to varmint hunting, you’ve heard of the 204 Ruger and the 22 250 centerfire cartridges. They’re two of the best coyote cartridges on the market.

While we know these calibers are better than many others in specific situations, how do they fair when pitted against each other?

Keep reading to see how the 204 vs 22 250 stacks up compared in ten critical categories.

204 vs 22 250

The 22 250 has had a devoted following for many decades, while the 204 Ruger is only a couple of decades old.

The following categories are what matter most to the average hunter and shooter. We will keep a tally of each section’s winner and declare the winner in the conclusion.

Let’s get started with a cartridge comparison!

Cartridge Specs

The 204 Ruger parent case is the 222 Remington Magnum necked down to 0.204". The shoulders were pushed forward slightly and increased the angle to 30 degrees.

The .250-3000 Savage necked down to accept 22 caliber bullets is the parent case for the 22-250.

The 204 has a base diameter of 0.3764", and the 22 250 has a base diameter of 0.47".

The neck diameter of the 204 Ruger is 0.2311" and 0.254" for the 22-250.

The 204 Ruger shoots a slightly smaller diameter bullet of 0.204", while the bullet diameter of the 22-250 is 0.224".

The case length for the 204 is 1.85", and the 22 250 has a slightly longer case length of 1.912".

The 204 Ruger has an overall length of 2.2598", and the 22-350 comes in at 2.35".

33.2 gr H2O is what to expect for the case capacity of the 204 Ruger, while the 22-250 has a case capacity of 44.6 grains.

Lastly, the maximum pressure (SAAMI) for the 204 is 57,500 psi, and the 22-250’s max pressure is 53,000 psi.

Recoil: 204 Ruger vs 22 250

Recoil is an essential consideration because a round with heavy recoil is more difficult to control and will slow the rate of follow-up shots.

Recoil is primarily affected by muzzle velocity (FPS), powder charge, bullet weight, and rifle weight.

Both calibers have very low recoil, but the 22-250 is almost double that of the 204 Ruger.

This might sound like a lot, but it’s not much of a difference when you look at the numbers.

The 204 Ruger has 3.8 ft-lbs of free recoil when chambered in a typical 7lb rifle.

The 22-250 will have free recoil energy of 6.72 ft-lbs when fired from a 7lb rifle.

The winner is the 204 Ruger. Most shooters will notice a little difference, but neither caliber will leave your shoulder sore from shooting it, so don’t let this be the determining factor.

Trajectory

The trajectory of the bullet is the bullet’s path to the target. It is an arch because gravity pulls the bullet down.

To counteract gravity, a higher velocity is needed. When the bullet’s velocity is increased, it will resist gravity for longer.

The trajectory is important to consider because it’s easier to be more accurate with a flatter trajectory.

The trajectory will change when you use different bullets, so take these numbers lightly. They’re only intended to give you an idea of what to expect from each caliber.

The 32 gr V-MAX load for the 204 has the flattest trajectory with only -31.8" of bullet drop at 500 yards.

At 500 yards, the 22-250 Rem 40 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip has a bullet drop of -36.2".

While both rounds have a relatively flat trajectory out to 500 yards, the 204 is capable of a flatter trajectory and wins this section.

Continue reading 204 vs 22-250: Coyotes’ Worst Nightmare on Ammo.com

4 Likes

223 works real well on Coyote’s

3 Likes

“The 204 Ruger has an overall length of 2.2598”, and the 22-350 comes in at 2.35"

22-350 is that a new caliber?
@Ammodotcom
My 6.5 Grendels do a fine job on yotes.

2 Likes

The cartridge in question is the .22-250. The .204 Ruger was a new cartridge developed by Ruger as the “hot” varmint calibre. I personally think they screwed up. They could have chosen the .20 Tactical. It was among the first of the “sub.22” cartridges developed. It is basically a 5.56 case (for better pressure control) necked to .204. It’s a “wildcat” round, but there ARE cases made for it - now.

IMO the .20 Tactical outshines the other two in several areas.

vs 22-250: Shoots a smaller, lighter bullet (Hornady red-tip 33gr). Because it’s a wildcat round, there are no “official” loading tables, but if you start about 22 gr and work your way up, you will find either max speed, or max over pressure. I loaded to about 27 gr, which about all the parent 5.56 case will hold anyway. Depending on powder, my best chrono (late spring) was 4560 FPS. That was just a few tenths grain less than what made the bolt hard to open. (These were all fired from a Dakota Arms Predator rifle.) With that kind of speed, I went to transition about 800 yds, +/- a few. Longest dog kill was 830 yds but it took me about 10 shots to finally hit him. The cartridge was quite flat shooting, so you could spot for yourself. With that kind of velocity, the wind wasn’t nearly the factor it is with other cartridges. With this set-up I could easily get 15 or so shots in before cooling the barrel (more on that later). I have fired about 2K rounds through this barrel (?Llija barrel) with no sign of wear. Try that with a .22-250. That cartridge usually shows signs of wear within about 300 rounds, and a lot of varminters replace the barrel at about 1K max. Part (or maybe all) of the problem is heat. The .22-250 takes a LOT more powder, so it gets the barrel hot a lot quicker = wear.

vs: 204 Ruger: The 204 Ruger uses the same bullets, so there is no real difference there. However, the parent case takes a lot less powder, allowing only about 3950 FPS as max velocity. 500 FPS is a LOT of difference in speed. One result will be that the bullet goes through transition a lot sooner, so less range. Cost in powder load is not much to talk about.

Heat. Basically, heat is a rifle barrel’s biggest enemy., Military rifles have chrome-lined barrels to better deal with the heat generated. So any method of lowering the barrel heat generated. Friction, of course, is a big factor. That is dependent on bullet calibre and weight. The first is pretty standard across these compared cartridges. The latter favours the 204 Ruger and 20 Tactical.

A friend and I hunted prairie dogs in ND for a number of years. We hit upon a method of keeping guns cool, rather than have 6 guns are rotate through them to allow each to cool off. What we did was bring CO2 tanks with a regulator and a pistol-grip nozzle. The end of that is threaded. We then took one or two cases of each cartridge we were going to use, drilled and tapped the primer hole to allow us to thread the case onto the end of the nozzle. Then, when the barrel was warm (we never allowed a barrel to get HOT!!!), we’d insert the case on the end of the nozzle and pull the trigger, giving a 45-60 sec blast of CO2 down the barrel. That made the barrel stone cold ready for the next batch of shots. On a typicl hunting weekend of 3-4 days we used up perhps 2 or 3 tanks, although Phil was paranoid enough to bring about 10 tanks. We also used full tanks to anchor the poles at each corner of the canopy we put up. Kept it steady in the breeze.

Just my take.

4 Likes

Think I just got schooled by @Devereaux …lots of great info in there gave me an idea. Thinking on that co2

3 Likes

How damn many prairie dogs come out at a time?

3 Likes

:joy:. I once shot about 9 dogs around ONE hole - about 500 yds out. Dogs on the Rez in ND live in “towns” so you could have 2-5 dogs up at any one time. EXCEPT when an airliner flew overhead. In the sunshine there, even though the A/C was 10’s of thousands of feet in the air, it cast a shadow on the earth. Dogs knew “shadows” meant eagles; they just treated ALL shadows as eagles and in a heartbeat they all dived underground - and stayed there for about 30 minutes. Great time to make a head call and not miss a shot. :innocent:

3 Likes

On a regular day one would shoot 300-500 dogs, depending on how aggressive you wanted to be. My shooting partner was a”body count” guy, so in the afternoons he “walked” the plain. Geography out there was such that it appeared flat but was, in truth, very low rolling ridges. So as you walked, you would come up on whole towns you couldn’t see from your fixed shooting position. Phil regularly exceeded 400 kills a day. I was more focused on making longer range hits, so I generally stayed at the morning shooting position we established. I usually shot >300 dogs a day. Not EVERY shot was a hit, so I fired perhaps some 20-30% more rounds than hits.

4 Likes

This has got me thinking. I am shooting a moderate amount of suppressed fire these days. Maybe I should consider the CO2 trick with the cans. Make them easier to handle a LOT quicker.

4 Likes

Damn, ready made moving targets, hell of a deal :grin:

3 Likes

Not much movement. Dogs are really, really stupid. They either sit next to their hole or scurry from one hole to another. Either way they tend to be more of a distance/wind solution than a running target one. Kind of like most hunting solutions. I would say most of the time hunters don’t take a lot of running deer shots, at least not at distance. And most shooters don’t know how to calculate hold-over and lead for a deer at, say, 400 yds (longest shot on my friend’s WI farm).

3 Likes

I went praire dog hunting in Colorado before was a lot of fun great rifle skill exercise :clap:

3 Likes

Yeah, it was developed by the Ballistic Typo Institute in partnership with B.S. Arms.

4 Likes

Good to know there are still organizations out there interested in getting the word out :joy::joy::joy:

3 Likes

Ok that make sense.

4 Likes

Your seriousness is almost funnier than the funny :rofl:

4 Likes

Everytime I click on certian emoji’s a blue set of visors comes up. What is that @Robert

2 Likes

No idea, haven’t seen them

2 Likes


@Robert

3 Likes

odd, just since the update I imagine?

I can’t report it as I’m no longer on the developers forum, its probable that will disappear after the next update, If I see that myself I can investigate more

2 Likes