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What do you prefer for coon hunting, what caliber and pistol or rifle?

4-10

when trapping I use a .22 magnum just in case I need a little extra.

I like my ruger single six 22lr. It is my favorite pistole for almost everything.

Ross

17 hmr

When I start coonhunting, I did the shooting with a .22 pistol colt diamondback 6 inches barrel, with iron sights. I live in Mexico and the trees have leaves year round. I am a very good shooter with pistol, because I practice free pistol and air pistol that are olympic disciplines. Sometimes when I got to the tree and the coon was at a good height, maybe 25 feet, with the leafs and with one hand with the light so you will see able to see the iron sights and the coon at the same time, it was very difficult to kill with one shot clean shot. And twice the coons jump at the first shot and the dogs were not able to tree them another time.

So I tought if they do the job of treeing the coon and I want to kill the coon, I am not going to fail. So I bought a Remington 572 BDL pump action .22 caliber. I put a telescope Leopould Vari III from 1 to 5 powers and now I can hit them very easy in any part of the body I want to shoot them at. I usually shoot them at the head or at the neck, because I dont want them to tear up the ears of my dogs.

The other option for weight you have to carry, but I haven´t try it, because for me is very difficult to buy a new pistol here in Mexico and I don´t want to put a telescope to the diamondback I have or the Smith and Wesson K-22 six inches that I also own. But you can try with a six inch revolver with a telescope (Smith and Wesson or Ruger they are still in production) The colt diamondback if you find a good used one. I dont recomend any semiautomatic pistol with a telescope, because I have never like a semiautomatic weapon for hunting for safety reasons, even that for shooting in average they make much better groups than the revolvers.

Saludos and hope my experience can help you some.

X2 17 HMR

I am a fan of packing a pistol cause I like the light weight and the freedom to move.
Most of the time I take my Browning Buckmark 22 pistol. It is light weight very reliable and very accurate. It works very nice on coons and is cheep to shoot. If Iam going after bigger critters I take my .357 mag.
I have shot a good size lion with a 9mm and it killed him with one well placed shot. I believe bullet placement is the most important thing. You should use whatever gun you can shoot the best wether it is a rifle or a pistol, and there is no substitute for practice.

How about a .177 crossman air rifle sting without chance of killing it before the dogs wrestle it to the ground it gives the coon a fighting chance LOL.

I wear a Browning Buckmark in .22 caliber. It is a shooting raskal and easy to carry while fighting through thick brush.
Adios,
Gary