.22LR Ammo Suggestion

[cougar_guy04]

Does anybody have any suggestions for some varminting ammo for a .22LR?

My uncle has some raccoons/possums that need to be dealt with and his tool of choice is his Marlin 25 .22LR rifle (only other gun he has is a single barrel, break open 20 gauge). He's been using CCI Stingers and wanted something with "more pop" for dealing with the critters. He said he can shoot them and they just run away. I figured his problems were shot placement, but is there a .22LR ammo that has some more punch than stingers? Most of these shots aren't going to be anymore than about 25 yards I'd figure.

[jeepinbanditrider]

I have an idea but it would require a new rifle.......22 mag, or .17hmr. I just get the 10 dollar per brick stuff at Wal-Mart and that seems to rock the squirell's world around here.

[rimfire]

Originally Posted by cougar_guy04

Does anybody have any suggestions for some varminting ammo for a .22LR?

My uncle has some raccoons/possums that need to be dealt with and his tool of choice is his Marlin 25 .22LR rifle (only other gun he has is a single barrel, break open 20 gauge). He's been using CCI Stingers and wanted something with "more pop" for dealing with the critters. He said he can shoot them and they just run away. I figured his problems were shot placement, but is there a .22LR ammo that has some more punch than stingers? Most of these shots aren't going to be anymore than about 25 yards I'd figure.

I dont think you can get much more in a 22LR than the 191 ft-lbs of CCI stingers. I'll agree with your shot placement assessment. I routinely kill groundhogs with subsonic target ammo with less than 1/2 the muzzle energy of a stinger. I've never had one move more than 2 ft, and most just drop right where they're at with a shot to the ear. Raccoons are tough critters though.

If you want to stick with rimfire, have him step up to a 22 Mag or a 17HMR. These have better bullets available but a head shot should still be the goal.

[zac07]

I heard the winchester Xpert hollow points were supposed to be nasty when it expands. Try rimfirecentral.com and they have a whole section dedicated to 22lr ammo.

[gsh341]

I shot a skunk with .22LR hollow points once. It took 10 shots to stop him. If you're gonna shoot racoon, skunk or similar I'd get a .17HMR or .22mag.

[Tally XD]

Originally Posted by rimfire

I dont think you can get much more in a 22LR than the 191 ft-lbs of CCI stingers. I'll agree with your shot placement assessment. I routinely kill groundhogs with subsonic target ammo with less than 1/2 the muzzle energy of a stinger. I've never had one move more than 2 ft, and most just drop right where they're at with a shot to the ear. Raccoons are tough critters though.

This is good avice! I just bought several hundred rounds of the CCI Stinger 22LR with 1640fps velocity jacketed hollow points. These things are lethal!

I have been regularly killing possum and armadillo with regular low velocity conical ball shorts. Good head or chest shot with these worked very well and were quiet enough I could shoot after midnight even.

Still, I also had a lot of grey fox tearing up garbage and stuff so I got some CCI Standard Velocity HP's. These would kill fox just fine if the shot was placed just right, but I wanted a quicker and more sure kill. I have used CCI Velocitors in JHP LR 1150fps with very good success, but when I got these Stingers. . . . holy crap!

I have not shot at anything larger than a grey fox so I cannot attest to their effectiveness on anything larger than a medium sized dog.

[Tally XD]

Originally Posted by gsh341

I shot a skunk with .22LR hollow points once. It took 10 shots to stop him. If you're gonna shoot racoon, skunk or similar I'd get a .17HMR or .22mag.

What range were you shooting from?? Were your shots placed at the head or shoulder area? I have had NO problem killing (as I already stated) possum and armadillo with regular low velocity shorts at 25 yards. Skunk should be no more problem to stop than a ferrel cat.

[Prometheus]

Shot placement is key when using a .22lr...

He 'keeps shooting them and they keep running away'.. crap man thats cruel. I take issue with anyone torturing animals. Thats what it is.

Get him to the range and teach him to shoot. I don't think a .22mag or .17hmr will help, it'll just leave a more seriously wounded animal running around the place.

Otherwise use the scatter gun on them. Thats a sickening image to go to bed with, poor critters running around all shot up

[gsh341]

Originally Posted by Tally XD

What range were you shooting from?? Were your shots placed at the head or shoulder area? I have had NO problem killing (as I already stated) possum and armadillo with regular low velocity shorts at 25 yards. Skunk should be no more problem to stop than a ferrel cat.

I was shooting from about 50 yds and head shots are pretty hard from that range on a moving animal. I'm not sure where the hits were because the skunk did the whole stink thing. I'm also pretty sure it was rabid because it was stumbling and acting oddly. That may have had something to do with it taking so long to die.

[Gunzzi]

+1 on the CCI Stingers, if I remember the question correctly, this is the best .22LR ammo you can get IMO.