The 22 Creedmoor spent years as a wildcat that people had to load themselves. Hornady brought factory ammunition to it in 2026 — four loads at once — and Nosler has a fifth.
It is the fastest thing on this site. The 69 grain V-Match leaves at 3,550 feet per second and is still carrying 892 foot-pounds at 500 yards, which is more than twice what the best .223 load manages at the same distance.
The loads
The Application column is the manufacturer’s own classification, not my read on it. On a cartridge this new the distinction is the whole story: five loads exist and one was built for predators.
| Brand | Load | Grain | Bullet | Application | Test barrel | Muzzle | 300 yd | 500 yd | Muzzle energy | 500 yd energy | Drop at 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hornady | V-Match | 69 | ELD-VT | Varmint | 24” | 3,550 | 2,832 | 2,412 | 1,931 | 892 | -27.5” |
| Hornady | Superformance ‡ | 65 | CX | Hunting | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hornady | Precision Hunter | 80 | ELD-X | Hunting | 24” | 3,285 | 2,687 | 2,330 | 1,917 | 964 | -31.1” |
| Hornady | Match | 80 | ELD Match | Match | 24” | 3,285 | 2,687 | 2,330 | 1,917 | 964 | -31.1” |
| Nosler | Match Grade ‡ | 85 | RDF | Match | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
What the labels mean on a stand.
Varmint is the ELD-VT: thin-jacketed and polymer-tipped, designed to come apart on a small animal rather than pass through it.
Hunting is the CX and the ELD-X. The CX is monolithic copper built to hold together and penetrate; the ELD-X is controlled expansion for deer-sized game. Both will kill a coyote easily and neither is trying to preserve a hide.
Match is the ELD Match and the Nosler RDF, both target bullets.
What that means for coyotes
The 69 grain V-Match, and nothing else in the category. It is also the only load here that was designed with a predator in mind at all.
The 22 Creedmoor is arguably the best long-range coyote cartridge a factory rifle can be chambered in right now, and a hunter walking into a shop has one box to choose from. Everything else on the shelf is aimed at paper or at deer.
The full chart
Velocity and energy from the muzzle to 500 yards, every load. It scrolls sideways.
| Load | Grain | Bullet | Application | Muzzle | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | Muzzle energy | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V-Match | 69 | ELD-VT | Varmint | 3,550 | 3,296 | 3,057 | 2,832 | 2,617 | 2,412 | 1,931 | 1,664 | 1,432 | 1,229 | 1,049 | 892 |
| Superformance ‡ | 65 | CX | Hunting | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Precision Hunter | 80 | ELD-X | Hunting | 3,285 | 3,076 | 2,877 | 2,687 | 2,505 | 2,330 | 1,917 | 1,680 | 1,470 | 1,282 | 1,114 | 964 |
| Match | 80 | ELD Match | Match | 3,285 | 3,076 | 2,877 | 2,687 | 2,505 | 2,330 | 1,917 | 1,680 | 1,470 | 1,282 | 1,114 | 964 |
| Match Grade ‡ | 85 | RDF | Match | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Notes on the data
Every figure is the manufacturer’s published one, and where nothing is published the cell is empty rather than calculated. Sources: Hornady 22 Creedmoor and the product pages for 69 gr ELD-VT, 80 gr ELD-X and 80 gr ELD Match.
Two 80 grain loads carry identical figures, and I have not been able to confirm they should. The ELD-X Precision Hunter (#83412) and the ELD Match (#83411) publish the same velocity, the same energy and the same trajectory at every distance. Two 80 grain .224 bullets at the same muzzle velocity out of the same case is plausible, and a page filled in from its neighbour would look exactly the same. It is being checked. The ELD-X product page also sits at a URL that reads 90 gr while the page itself says 80, which does not increase my confidence in either.
‡ Two loads have no published ballistics. The 65 grain CX Superformance has no table on its product page, and the Nosler 85 grain RDF Match is listed here for completeness — it exists, and its figures are not yet sourced.
No ballistic coefficients, for the same reason as the 22 ARC page: Hornady publishes BC on the bullet pages rather than the ammunition pages these velocities came from, and mixing two documents in one row is how a table starts lying.
Beyond the majors, the 22 Creedmoor is loaded by several smaller outfits — Hendershot’s, HOP Munitions, Gunwerks and Copper Creek among them. None is on this table yet. Tell me what to add and check your state’s rules before you go.