I have been asked by a friend to cull a few fallow deer (similar to whitetail) the problem is that the shooting will be done extremley close to the house & noise is a big concern. Im looking at putting together either a .32-20 or even a .357 mag single shot rifle. Has anyone got any opinions / ideas on a good caliber for this little excersise. Animals will only be head shot & used for meat, maximun distance wil be 50m

I'd be sorely tempted to use my silenced .22 Tyrol and a solid rest for that type of work, if it's legal. Some would argue that it's risky, but IMHO the only risk is in placing the bullet less than perfectly.

I've heard of a local lad who cut back and rechambered a 9x57 barrel to 9mm short (.380 ACP), fitted a silencer and a low-powered scope, and uses this rifle for all his Impala culling. Nice, but a costly exercise for a VERY specialised application.

Most of the hangun calibers will fill the bill, if you're close enough. The 44mag is noisy though. I was thinking of the old heavy weights, that kill by their size and weight, not their velocity. Cartridges like the 45Colt, 44-40, and 38-40 at their original load levels.

LJ38L,
It all depends how quiet and "legal" we want to be. Friend needed to cull some fallow (overstocked) from within a fenced paddock and found a .22 with subsonics to be fine. Strictly head shots though and nothing over 30m. A .357Magnum with a nice heavy bullet at subsonic velocity will do the trick as well, but why buy a rifle for a once off cull? Personally I'd use a scoped .22 with subsonics.
Con

You can load cast bullets down to under 1000fps and out of most rifles they well be fairly quiet. I find that they are really accurate also most rifle well shoot them into one hole. I just got done loading some for my 338winmag 225gr cast at 800 fps shoots well. I long barreled 357 like 24inchs would be nice also.

I would choose the .22 Hornet with a 45-50 grain bullet! If that was still to noisy, then I'd choose a .22 Magnum!
Either of these will do the job without a lot of noise!
Chuck

.22LR, solid bullets. High neck, ear and eye shots. 30m and under.

One more vote for the 22LR at close range. (<50rds)
I knew a old guy that raised 6 kids and never had a piece of beef in the house for over 40yrs. He claimed the 22 was the best cartridge ever developed. Always took head shots, and swore HPs wouldn`t penetrate, you had to use solids.
He did switch to a 22 mag in his later years but claimed it was a bit noisy.
I`m not condoning his actions, but the results spoke for their self.

What no bow huntin.......... I say put a Hoyt on dem der fallow's.......... Wish I live closer

How about a 300 Whisper with subsonic loads. Kinda why it was designed.

what about a 7.62 x 39

1) The noise is a function of the grains of powder divided by the sum of the barrel and cartridge volume.

2) The velocity is a function of the peak pressure and the expansion ratio.

Both of these drive one toward a small volume case and long barrel. I have 45acp rifle with 26" barrel, that when loaded to 65 kpsi and 230 gr, would make an excellent deer rifle to 200 yards and is very quiet.

LJ38:

I have dispatched deer that have been hit by cars at distances of up to 125 yrds or so over the hood of my Toyota 4 Runner with a 22 Mag.

Head shots will drop them like a brick. An example of damage is that each time I have done it, you can see the ear drums bulged out of the ears and shaking the head, sounds like water inside a boot, ( from the damage to the brain and all the blood). Blood is always leaking out of the Nose and mouth also.

I have done so with either Full Metal Jackets or Hollow Points. I carry one in the truck during a lot of long trips in the western USA, if nothing else to break up a trip at times, by shooting prairie dogs, or a coyotes or ground squirrels.

For all of the critics that infest this board, sorry NO Poaching Done with it. Sorry, better luck next time.

I would vote for the old poacher special: the 25/20. It's super quiet with the standard velocity factory loads and hits a lot harder than any of the small .22's. If you needed it even more quiet, you could go to the 117 gr. RN and load it subsonic.

Gabe

I once hunted with a guy who lives on feral goats he takes with a 22 Mag. He likes a 22 Mag because the noise of a bigger rifle scares them and he has to go hungry until they settle down again. I used a scoped Marlin 882; he insisted that I use FMJ ammo. If I hit the brain or spine, no worries. Note that I did not say "head or neck." I bounced that tiny slug off of one goat's skull just above the eye and we had to chase him for a long time. I had to shoot several times--all hits that would have been fatal had I not jerked the trigger and gotten his adrenalin going with my first shot. Put your slug exactly in the sticking place or stand by to track.

For a slightly bigger animal, do research. Check the internet for cross sections of deer skulls. They're out there, but you have to dig for them. Or kill one however you can and dissect the head. Locate the brain exactly, noting thick and thin spots in the bone around it. Half a centimeter is a miss with such a little bullet, and if the bone is sloped very much, you might get a ricochet as I did. Or you might be able to put a solid into the heart if you were shooting dead on or through the ribs. Just don't count on that tiny bullet to break any bone.

Hope this helps, Okie John.

http://www.swivelmachine.com/index.htm

I don't know if you could get something like this in Aus. or not. If you ordered from the states it is just an aluminum tube but how much it would cost to ship I don't know.

Everyone should look at this link these are some of the coolest things I have seen. Sean

.22 Hornet or .218 Bee.

I'll second the hornet or .22 Mag. The subsonic .22s are NOT a good idea...even with a head shot they can be very UNreliable.

If I'm going to shoot something, I want it dead...not running off wounded. No if, ands or buts.

Okie John;

My best results with the old 22 Mag was the preverbial " between the eyes" shot. If you stand up, most time the game will look right at you if it is not inclined to Run. As I use the Hood of My 4 Runner as a rest, most times they will not take off just seeing your upper torso.

They are too busy trying to figure out what you are up too.

Funny but as a second note, any bear that I have ever seen, that you are in a stance of holding a rifle, will not look out of curiosity, It will just take off and run. ( Can't verify that on Grizzlys or Kodiak or Polar bears, for the critic section.)

I'd use whatever I had around with a cast bullet at @1000 fps. My .357 Max Handi with .38 Specials would do fine. So would almost any other rifle throwing bullets of 150 grains or more accurately. That .45 ACP Mauser would be just the ticket, but I bet I could do the same thing with my .45-70.

LJ38L,
In either the last Shooter's Journal or one before that someone was advertising CBC single shots for under $200. Can't remember who it was, but if you can find the advert and they have a 357Magnum then you'd be laughing... Load up some heavy cast projectiles at subsonic levels put a cheap scope on it and away you go...
Cheers...
Con

180g Hard Cast in Trun Cone Flat Point in a 357 Mag out of a 22 inch NEF at 750 FPS. I use a lite IMR4227 load. The 180g Cast at 750 will penetrate both completely and not that loud and has zero recoil out ot the 22 in single shot. I use it on wild dogs with excellent results. Have seen it shatter the pelvis and exit at 50 yards on a 50 pound Coy-doggy. 22RF in the head works too.

RB

Longbow or crossbow?