Whoa.. I have some respect for the .22 now...

[jonathon]

Okay, not 15 minutes ago I shot another rabbit..

A 36 grain lead round nose hp Remington(from one of those Golden Bullet Packs) out of my Henry Goldenboy.

Usually I'm dead on, but today I missed and shot off his front leg on the first shot, he skimpered into the woods..

I chased him after that, found him just sitting there, back towards me. I took I aim at the upper back(couldn't see his head as good). Pulled the trigger, bang, he drops instantly, no movement..

Walk up to him slow, don't want him springing back up and running off(had it happen before, spent two hours looking for a wounded rabbit..). When I got up to him.. I nearly through up.

The 36 grain LRNHP entered through his back and exited out of his chest cavity, shattering the spine and little sternum. The exit wound was about the size of a large golf ball.. and ALL of his insides were on the ground next to him...

I wish I could have recovered the bullet to see how it expanded...

In short, I'm beginning to wonder if I should stick with the .22 for rabbits if I want them intact..

[SONICMASD]

i hit a squirell yesterday with my .22 passed right threw his neck and dropped him instantly, no damage to his meat, i guess it just depends where you hit him. but yes ever since i shot myself in the eye with my .22 i also have an appreciation for the round, it is rather powerful, i used to just think of it as a glorified pellet, but its a serious round. i have some of those no gun powder 22s, you cant even hear then at all, i use them to kill rabbits in my yard and i hit one in the neck and took the slug (which expanded a lot) out of his back leg! passed all the way through his entire body and thats a powderless one! so i can just imagine.

[oneeyeross]

Jon...It is not legal to hunt with a rimfire firearm in WA state....just thought I'd throw that out there, since you're putting information onto a public forum & all.

[jonathon]

oneeye, don't go there, off topic, and .24 cal is the min for game animals when I took the hunters ed 3 years ago.

[Long Path]

oneeyeross, be careful about quoting the law without taking the totality of the law into account:

WAC 232-12-047 Unlawful firearms for hunting.
(1) It is unlawful to hunt any big game with:

(a) A fully automatic firearm.

(b) A centerfire cartridge less than 22 caliber for cougar.

(c) A centerfire cartridge less than 24 caliber for any other big game.

(d) A shotgun, provided that a 20 gauge, or larger shotgun, using shells loaded with slugs or buckshot size #1 or larger, may be used to hunt deer, bear, and cougar.

(e) A shotgun for any other big game, except that a 12 gauge or 10 gauge shotgun using slugs may be used.

(f) A handgun that does not meet the following criteria: Have a minimum barrel length of four inches, per manufacturer's specification, and fire a centerfire cartridge.

(g) Any rimfire cartridge.

(2) It is unlawful to hunt game birds with a shotgun capable of holding more than three shells.

(3) It is unlawful to hunt game birds or game animals, except bullfrogs, in a manner other than with a firearm, a bow and arrow, or by falconry, except persons with disabilities may use a crossbow with a special use permit as conditioned in WAC 232-12-054.

(4) It is unlawful to hunt game animals or game birds with a shotgun larger than 10 gauge.

(5) It is unlawful to hunt game birds with a rifle or pistol, with the exception of blue grouse, spruce grouse and ruffed grouse.

[Emphasis added by me.] Rabbits are NOT big game. It's just fine to shoot them with a .22.

The Washington regulations are more specific on the issue here:

WAC 232-12-242 Hunting restrictions. It shall be unlawful to hunt wildlife, except bear, cougar, mountain goat, mountain sheep, moose, or turkey, during any modern firearm deer or elk season, with any firearm 240 caliber or larger, or containing slugs or buckshot, unless valid license, permits and tags for modern firearm deer or elk seasons are in the hunter's possession.

FWIW, I was most impressed with the accuracy and killing power of the Winchester Power Points while hunting last month. They're a tiny bit (say a buck a brick) more expensive, but the money is worth it.

Friends, don't ever forget that even the diminutive .22 LR can kill a man farther away than you can recognize him.

[jonathon]

FWIW, I was most impressed with the accuracy and killing power of the Winchester Power Points while hunting last month. They're a tiny bit (say a buck a brick) more expensive, but the money is worth it.

I'm going to try them at your recomendation then . Maybe .50 more a brick last I checked at Bi-Mart.

I've known a .22 can kill a person easily.. but just never realized they could leave a wound channel that big

On another note, I've noticed I can take a rabbit more humanely the last few times after I've spent probably 20+ hours practicing with this specific rifle. Before, I had only put 200 rounds through it and wasn't proficient enough(and didn't have the wisdom to see this..) to make a humane kill..

Now I can nail the tab off a pop can out to as far as I can see the tab

[sm]

I was most impressed with the accuracy and killing power of the Winchester Power Points...

+1
+2

[Jseime]

always respect firearms.

even the tiny .22 that some people call a beginners round or Kids gun will and has killed deer sized game.

im not saying that its a good idea to shoot deer with a .22 but people have done it. Ive seen a coyote fall to a .22 and heard of it many times. never underestimate the .22lr if you use the proper bullets.

[Long Path]

Jseime, it's interesting that your sig mentions "Relentless pursuit of the satisfying THWACK !" (I'm posting that from memory now-- can't see it.) Last month while hunting in West Texas, we did a little varminting on the side. Several times a prairie dog or rabbit would be seen by one of us, and the others couldn't see it. "Where is it?" "Over there. About 120 yards out." "Where? I don't see it..." Pow! ...Twack! "There." We ALL knew what we'd find upon getting to the spot, having heard that whack. There's no sound like it. With a high quality .22 and good ammunition, I saw some amazing one-shot kills on jackrabbits at ranges I would theretofore have thought out of bounds.

[Jseime]

ive seen the .22 perform very well too especially in the hands of a good shot. my friends and i use mostly HPs on everything so we always know when we hit or miss.

we have trouble spotting sometimes too
"there he is"
"where"
BANG...thump
"oh i see"

[CarbineCaleb]

.22LR is certainly all you need for squirrels and rabbits - I am always amused when I hear debate about centerfire rifle calibers for them... and whether this or that is enough I mean, you can even take these guys with a pellet gun.

If you want less kablooey, you can try CCI's Small Game Bullet (SGB) round. It's basically a solid flatnose lead bullet. Can always just take headshots too.

[Long Path]

I've no experience with the .22 varieties or even much with the .20 varieties, but .177 pellet guns work okay (but only okay) for squirrels hit in the forward chest or the head, but not so well for just centering them. Pellet guns are INEFFECTIVE for jackrabbits. (Which, of course, we all know to actually be hares.) They're marginal for big cottontails.

[JRLaws]

The people I have known, from my great-uncle down, have all used .22s for squirrel.

Many years ago I wanted a Marlin, bolt action .22. All Wally's had was the .22 mag and I was young and in a hurry....
I tried a few head shots with it on my first hunting trip, with terrible results. The three squirrels I hit were mangled and absolutely horrific, the last with only and eye left for its head. I've only used a .22 or small shotgun after that. A .22 is plenty for squirrels here in Kentucky and anything more is just too much.

[mdhunter]

Longpath,

I think a pellet gun should handle cottontails just fine, if you take headshots. I grew up in Alaska, and shot more snowshoe rabbits and ptarmigan with a Crosman BB gun (I used BBs, didn't even use the pellets after a while) than I can remember! Never had one get away, if you hit em in the head the snowshoes just leap high up in the air and kick a lot, but didn't seem to go anywhere.

It's a blast chasing them in the snow when YOU are also on snowshoes, I got pretty good at running in snowshoes (if I missed my headshot or if we flushed a rabbit before we got a shot off), pumping the Crosman (maximum of ten pumps back then), then stopping, chambering a BB, and getting a shot off.

I used a BB gun because we lived on the edge of an Air Force Base, couldn't use firearms on the base. We also learned (eventually) that we weren't supposed to use a BB gun either, the MPs stopped by one summer day and asked us to stop when we were shooting.......mice. Can you believe it??? Oh well.....

Michael

[chemist308]

The .22 gets some respect--heck it'll go through a 2x4 edge-ways at point blank! Probably not supposed to admit to this, but I know for a fact it will do a deer...

[impact]

Lagomorph! Why I remember these things I do not know.

[Capt. Charlie]

Lagomorph! Why I remember these things I do not know.

Yup! Now, do you remember what mainly distinguishes them from rodents?

My "crazy memory" is telling a red fox skull from that of a grey fox. Genus of Red Fox is Vulpes, and the fracture lines on top of the skull form a "V". Genus of Grey Fox is Urocyon, Fracture lines on top of the skull form a.... you guessed it, a "U". Funny the stuff you remember from college.

[Long Path]

Yup! Now, do you remember what mainly distinguishes them from rodents?

Ooh, Ooh, I do!

And I've always thought it strange that such an esoteric thing like which surfaces the enamel grows on teeth should determine an entire phylum of taxonomy. . .

[yorec]

.22lr hypervelocity hps can blow a rabbit in half... Faugh! I remember sitting at my grandfather's feet listening to stories of how he used to stalk and kill deer to feed his family when growing up in the 1920s - there were no caliber restrictions and few season and bag limit laws that anyone paid any attention to back then, hungry kids came first. He used a .22 with the cheapest fodder he could find. Many times .22 shorts. Worked fine for deer, rabbits, birds, anything that'd fit a cooking pot so long as he got close and placed the bullet correctly. (We're talking a dozen feet and in the eye here, lol - his storys not mine! )

Shot selection is what's important here - of all the thousands of rabbits I've taken over the years I don't remember one going more than a couple of spasmodic jumps when hit squarely in the head with an .22lr round. The only reason I know of to use these "new fangled" hyper rounds is to feed a gun that won't function with something else - ya gotta be able to hit what you aim at to make clean kills on rabbits.

[Sulaco]

The .22 gets some respect--heck it'll go through a 2x4 edge-ways at point blank! Probably not supposed to admit to this, but I know for a fact it will do a deer...

+1

[mtn. man]

When i was a kid growing up here in hillbilly land most familys kept a couple of hogs.
In late fall they would butcher them and salt cure the meat. Most would use the 22lr or even 22short to put them down. I've seen this done many times and almost every time a huge porker fell like he was shot with a 44mag.
Worked fine with a domestic pig in a pen but i dont think i'd wanna try this with a razorback.
Or anything else with tushes or teeth and a bad atitude.

[Clayfish]

A few years back I was deer hunting and it was one of those hot miserable mosquito ridden days in early season here in Ga. I wasn't really feeling like sitting untill dark and I always keep a fishing rod in the truck so i decided to wet a line. I was fishing right beside the truck when i heard a noise near. I looked up and there was a small feral (~75lbs) hog staring me down. I reached for my .30-30 but decided since he was only 15 yards away I didn't want to mess up any meat. I reached for my ruger single six and snuck around to put the truck in between me and the hog just in case he charged. One shot square in the head and he let out a squeal and fell dead. My first hog was with a .22.

[JustinNC]

Lagomorphs have 4 top insicors *sp* and scuirids do not. Lagomorphs also have a paper thin, sort of perferated maxilla or something like that. I forget the scientific terms, just gimme 2 skulls and ill show u the difference lol <Fish and Wildlife Management Student>

[joab]

Lagomorphs have two sets of teeth one set of temporaries and a set of permanent that grow in after th first is shed. Rodent only have one set.

Lagomorphs have a white enamel on their teeth Rodents have yellow enamel

Both have no anatomical root

Most rodent's molars do have anatomical roots and do not continue to grow lagomorph's molars do not have anatomical roots and continue to grow like their incisors do

Lagomorphs have 4 upper incisors one set behind the other rodents have 2

Rabbits have shorter legs and ears than do hares

[Quickdraw Limpsalot]

mt. man -
I grew up popping hogs in the head with a .22 too, but I've also seen plenty of .22 bullets glance off an ol' pig's skull if not hit just right. They were none too happy about it.