The new 204 ruger has proven to be the most accurate small bore round available. It screams at 4225 FPS with FACTORY ammo. It is a very impressive round with its speed, accuracy, mild recoil and report, and it is also a better round for windy conditions.
The biggest downfall to this round from my experience and from others as well is that it is a very explosive round and tends to cause a lot of pelt damage. Luckily for us there is a NEW round from winchester that offers a 34 grain Nosler bullet that offers 4025 FPS. This is the perfect round for the guys who want to shoot fox and coyote and not blow them up (although explosions are fun to see, so is a $40 pelt). The bullet is a hollow point which will not explode on impact, yet offer a lot better penetration. The VMAX bullets from hornady (also the new remington ammo, which is the SAME bullet as the hornady) explode on impasct which prove ideal on prairie dogs and other small game, but I like to see a little better penetration on my dog hunting. I have lost a few dogs due to lack of penetration, and I have been lucky enough to get my hands on some of the new winchester stuff and it gets er done on the yotes. I shot one yesterday at 225 yds and had it exit, with minimal damage to the pelt.
I was a little happier with the accuracy of the hornady ammo through my custom remington where I averaged under .25" groups at 100 yds off the bench. I now average .37" with the winchester stuff, but that is still good groupings.
So in summary, use the hornady for your priaire dogs, and the winchester on the fox and yotes if you like to save your pelts.
Good luck on getting the ammo right now though- it is tough to get.
