Unusual Varmint Shots

[roy reali]

What is the most unusual cartridge and/or gun you have used to shoot at varmints? I want to know if anyone has blasted a buny with a Garand. Or fired a Sharps at a squirrel. Anything that seems out of place in the world of vermin destruction.

[Crazy Carl]

I had a buddy in the Army from Montana. He said they'd shoot prairie dogs with a .375 H&H.

[T. O'Heir]

"...blasted a bunny with a Garand..." Shot a ground hog, close, with a 220 grain Silvertip, long ago. No damage to the rifle, but the chuck had no offside. Bottom of the head disappeared on the first shot. The shaking made me thing it needed another shot. Didn't have my bayonet with me.
12 guage bird shot at very, very close range, just to see what would happen, made one disappear too.

[jimbob86]

Popped a prairie dog w/ my EMP, and he was out there a ways, 30-40 steps or so, only the top half of him showing above the mound.....

[taylorce1]

I've shot prairie dogs with most of my rifles even my .375 Ruger. One day my BIL and I were shooting them with our .50 caliber Muzzle loaders in preperation for deer season. Patched round ball with 90-95 grains of Pyrodex made the little vermin tumble out to 60 yards or so. Much past there and we were hit or miss with the old front stuffers. I did fill my doe tag that year at 75 yards with my ML.

[nathaniel]

Ive used my 357 mag to shoot mice before.

[Brian Pfleuger]

12ga deer slug on a woodchuck. MIraculously, it survived long enough to get to it's hole. It did leave a trail of nasty looking stuff complete with entrails but it did get back to the hole.

Also, once shot a squirrel that woke me from a nap while deer hunting. It was probably 3 feet from my feet, I was sitting on the ground, leaning on a tree stump. I didn't even pick up the gun because I had it resting between my feet with my legs crossed. I just pointed and pulled the trigger. It was sitting up looking at me. Pretty well vaporized the squirrel. I doubt it was more than 2 feet from the muzzle. All I found was the back legs and tail and some splatter.

[Scorch]

When I lived in NV, a bunch of guys would get together for a "Big Bore Bunny Bust", nothing under 33 caliber allowed. So I brought my 375 H&H and my 11X60mm 1871 Mauser. Lots of big stuff there, one guy even brought a 450 NE double rifle. FWIW, the bunnies lost.

[Pat T]

Friend of a friend brought out a semi-auto version Tommy gun we were going to plink at cans & whatnot with. Noise woke up a sleeping raccoon in the corn crib and he high-tailed it across the hayfield toward the woods about 400 yards away. Buddy of course dumped the mag after him, no harm no foul but lots of laughs. Coon must have thought he woke up in a Rambo movie!

[huntinaz]

My buddy shot a coyote with my 45 colt levergun. I'm putting a peep sight on it and it's going to become my medium range coyote rig. Should be a lot of fun, and not considered by most to be a coyote caliber

I would like to slug one too with a 12 gauge eventually.

[cornbush]

Ground squirrels regularly get 416 Rigby on down, its pretty good practice, squirrels or prarie dogs at a couple hundred yards make a deer no sweat.

[k31]

i had to empty the muzzle loader on the last day and found a chubby red squirrel needless to say the .50 cal mzl downsized the squirrel quicker than a Richard Simmons tape in fast forward

[roy reali]

I was goofing around the desert here last summer. I had my little Colt Pocket Positive on my belt. It is a small doulbe action revolver chambered in 32S&W Long. It isn't exactly a long range outfit.

I spotted a jackrabbit standing next to a rock a good 15 yards away. I didn't think I had a chance, but decided to give it a try. It was going to have to be a standing shot, there was no cover or nothing to rest the gun on.

I cocked the revolver and aimed right at its eye. I squeezed the trigger, the gun went off, and the hare did nothing. It wasn't hit, but it didn't move either. The next shot hit it right in its eye. My grandson and a friend of his were there. I had them convinced it was a typical type shot for me.

[snowtoday]

that's really amazing experience.

[camper4lyfe]

I blasted a woodchuck with a 20ga with #6 shot at about 10 yds. It's all I had at the time, and we didn't want them getting under my parents' gazebo.

[Stillhunter]

Texas heart shot on a fox squirrel,about 40yds,243 win.WOW!!

[woodguru]

You almost had to see this to believe it, but a turkey shot directly in the eye, in one eye and out the other with a .22.

Now here's the weird part, aside from not being able to see it didn't affect the turkey's ability to get around at all.

So my wife's veterinary client comes down the drive as I'm chasing a turkey around the yard. She goes in to my wife and tells her I was chasing a turkey around the yard and amazingly enough I cornered it against the wood shop and got it. My wife asked her "What?", and the woman said yeah, I couldn't believe it when I saw Keith chasing a turkey around but I really couldn't believe it when he caught it.

So I had some esplainin' to do about what was going on. My wife is a bird specialty veterinarian and did a residency with a turkey operation so she knows a bit about turkeys. She said it would be possible to shoot eye to eye without damaging anything lethal to the turkey aside from a wild turkey that can't see not doing well eating or avoiding predators.

I was using a target rifle with a deck railing for a rest so a head shot was really easy to make. The eye is center of the head mass so it made a perfect crosshair point dead center on the head and that's exactly where the bullet went, go figure. An 1/8th of an inch off center and it would have been a perfectly lethal head shot. So now I know to aim just a bit back of the eye.

Now that I'm in a different state I don't use a .22 anymore, but at that time I harvested a lot of turkeys for the table with head shots. The thing I liked about that is there was no meat messed up, a miss left an unscathed bird, hits were decisively lethal except for that one time. I hate fielding shotgun pellets in a table bird. It's amazing how many pellets I'd find in the breast meat of the birds I've head shot.

My grandfather used an old 20 ga/.22 combo and said most of his turkeys in the days when turkeys were fewer and harder to get were taken with the .22.

[DiscoRacing]

I shot a squirrels head off one day during gun deer season with a 30-06.... I didnt see anything else to shoot,,and since the squirrel only lost his head It was still good eatin.

[Lazy R]

Ground squirrels with:

M1 carbine

Smith 586 8 3/8 .357

Smith 686 6" .357

Glock 23 .40 S&W

Ruger Super Blackhawk 7.5" .44 Mag

[Prof Young]

Varminter's:

I was plinking with a Heritage six shooter chambered for 17hmr. Could see fish in the pond. I know, you aren't supposed to shoot at water but the angle was really steep, there wasn't going to be any bounce. Anyway . . . I got one.

Live well, be safe (don't shoot at water)
Prof Young

[Major Dave (retired)]

with a 7 X 57 Mauser, loaded with a 110 grain Norma load (listed at 3300 fps MV, IIRC).

One shot, @ 245 paces, one red mist.

End of hunt!

[Bones]

Used a M-3 "Grease Gun" to shoot jack rabbits.

[egor20]

Not really "varmints"

Shark Watch in the Navy. with a M-14 E2
Kinda turned me off of the full auto (ouch )

[hooligan1]

I once shot a ground squirrel that was sunning itself on a rock in front of my friends trailer, with my .45 caliber mountain rifle, I was only trying to "bark" the little fella. I have "barked 1/2 dozen squirrels with it, NEERY a smear of a piece were to be found!

[TX Hunter]

Keep it Coming, this is exactly what the Anti Hunters want to read about.
I myself do not Varmit hunt, I hunt small game, that I do eat and therefore I use a .22 Rimfire.