Depends what you define as long shots. Also when you say 'wolves" are you talking timber wolves ( i noticed you are in alaska) or just the run of the mill bush wolve/coyote?? If you are talking about timbers I would go with the 22-250 because it hits harder then a 223 and shots flatter and longer. For where we hunt here in Ontario alot of guys are shooting .17's They are blistering fast,QUIET,inexpensive to shoot and reasonably long ranged. Shots out to 250yds on coyotes are not out of the question.

 

I whacked a prairie dog at 339 yards with my 223. They do work pretty good out to that range, and past which in any caliber you must do a lot of long range shooting and ballistic tomfoolery to know what your bullet's doing. So to reiterate a point made earlier, define your long range and you'll define your cartridge selection. Going beyond say 400 you might look into 243 or 260 to carry energy downrange and guard against wind deflection.

 

I guess a long shot for me would be 250 - 350 yards. And yes I would be shooting at (hopefully!) timberwolves, and even a few coyotes and lynx. What kind of scope should I be looking at? I use a Leupold VAR-X II 4-12 A/O on my .300 and love it. However my scope knoledge is rather limited. I just need something that won't break, and has really good optics. Thanks.

 

If are hoping to get a timber out at 300+ yrds I would lean towards the 22-250, or maybe even a 243 . They both still pack a wallop at those ranges. A 223 would surely take down a timberwolve but IF and ONLY IF the shot placement was perfect. If you were a bit off and missed the vitals you could end up only wounding it, something that any good hunter wouldnt want. You want a clean fast kill, so the animal doesnt suffer much and you can quickly recover it, vs tracking a wounded animal for hours .My personal choice would be the 22-250 but thats only a personal preference. As for scopes a 4-12 Leopold would be just fine. Allows for long range shots without being over powering at closer ranges. Too many times I seen guys with big honking scopes that have been unable to 'track' a close range critter. For deer hunting I like a 1.5-5X scope as its easy to pick up the deer in the scope as its running through brush even at 50 yrds, yet powerfull enough to zero in on a buck bounding across a swamp 200+yds away. If you think most of your shooting will be long range you can always crank it up to 12x... for those closer shots you can dial back down to 4x.. a good comprimise if you ask me.