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| one of us |
you can kill a deer with a .22 Mag (rimfire) and a head shot. That doesn't make it a deer rifle. Personally, I'd rather drop a deer with one shot using a tried and true round (30/30, 308, 30/06, 270, 280, etc.) and a heart/lung shot or a neck shot or what have you then chase game all over creation because I used some small bore more suited to ground squirrel and hit the animal in the head or neck, or did a real botch job. That's my opinion. | |||
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one of us |
quote: I Europe we use .222, .223 and .22-250 (plus .22 Savage and 5,6x50) on roedeer, even though this cailbers are considered as a minimum. Many hunter find them too weak, however. But the Barnes X have remarkelly improved the efficiency of the .22 kalibers. You wuold need a least a .243 with the bullets you�ve mentioned to do a proper job. Fritz K. | |||
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| one of us |
The hi-vel 22's are OK, IF you keep your shots to standing broadside at 100 yards and off the shoulder...Shoot behind the shoulder where only ribs are met, and don't take neck shots or head shots. Neck shots sometimes blow up the 22's and head shots a little off will break a jaw or whatever and the animal will starve to death... I always liked the 60 gr. Hornady SP or HP...The Noslers and Bx are self defeating as the 22 kills by shock and when you use a partition or an x bullet you limit expansion....Remember they don't leave a blood trail so they should be limited to open country.... Taking the above into consideration it becomes obvious that any intelligent thinking person would choose otherwise and get a proper caliber...thereby not being limited to such circumstances, unless thats all he has to hunt with... A person who is able to modify his hunting practices can kill any animal with any rifle but he is at a distinct disadvantage.. I killed a lot of deer in my mispent cowboy youth (We had a ranch in Mexico) with a Win. M-63 22 L.R. and had no problem doing it...A couple of H.P.'s in the lungs at 25 or 30 yds. and they made few tracks, or a head shot for an instant kill...At times I didn't even get off my horse to shoot if they jumped up real close. When I earned enough money to get a 25-20 I thought I was shooting a magnum, but it didn't kill any better than the 22 to tell the truth...When I got a 25-35 Win. I became an assasin, It killed at 200 yards even, wow! I recall the days when all one could get was black market military ball ammo for his 30-06 because there was a war going on and ammo was non existant. We ground the points off so we'd have a soft nose..You never knew what the reaction was going to be, sudden death or a 2 mile tracking job..You just shot and found out..It did increase my tracking skills considerably... I've been all thoes routes and I wouldn't take for the experiences but it made me appreciate the more capable calibers and I see no reason to use anything less than say a 25-35 or 30-30 on deer and an 06 is just that much better..... ------------------ | |||
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| one of us |
A personal source of irritation that I have is related to your question. Invariably, a bunch of the answers will say a .22 is no deer rifle, but if you ask how many they've shot at with one, the reply is always none! I'm in north Mo, not south Texas where deer weigh 150 lb and a .22-250 or .220 Swift will kill deer. I made this discovery the old way, by shooting, not talking about it.I've probably shot a dozen or so with the Swift and standard 55 Sierras and a hot load of H414. One deer went about 2 steps.If I were a tree stand hunter, as you can get in awkward positions to shoot a heavy recoiling rifle, that's all I'd use. I also do a lot of big cornfield hunting and drive deer out of ditches and use a 7mm Mag.The deer i killed w/the Swift were does & meat deer where if they don't turn broadside, what the hell, go find another one. Don't let anyone BS you and say .22 cf won't work, but they're not for trophy hunting or running shots. Guess I got all this off my chest now I'll go load some .220's and get ready to pop some coyotes next winter. | |||
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| <Ol' Sarge> |
Paul, My Dad has killed about 12-15 deer here in Southern MO with a .222 out to 200 yards using factory 50 gr Winchesters. All were heart lung shots and most dropped at the shot. He said only 1 ran - and it only went @ 50 yards. If you make a bad shot they can go a long way with little or no blood trail. I absolutely hate head or neck shots. My brother-in-law told me he missed a head shot once. After I looked around a while I found some skin and a tooth. I looked for that deer for 2 days before I found him and finished him off. Awful! ------------------ | ||
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fellas i am so tempted to try a 22-250 on whitetails, damn the writers the deer in north carolina are small, but sensible shots only | |||
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| one of us |
Jstevens, For meat hunting?? Don't you think the hot 22's tend to bruise (bloodshot) an awfull lot of meat, even when shot behind the shoulders, pretty nasty stuff?? That was my experience and I have had them blow up on the necks and shoulders on more than one ocassions while culling Springbok and Blesbok where we would shoot several hundred a day, or night which ever the case may have been... I think you will find there are a number of folks on this board that have shot game in the hundreds, perhaps thousands, and are no "BS"...and quite a few of them consider 22's a second rate big game round, including yours truly... ------------------ | |||
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| <cs> |
Not trying to beat a dead horse, but I think a .22 cf is okay for deer under the right connditions. Around here many people use Mini-14's and 22-250's. Granted most of our deer are 100# give or take, but they work nicely at ranges up to 100 yds. Every year countless deer fall to the mighty .22 LR, have even put away a few myself with one. I think it is up to the hunter to know his limitations and the limitations of the animal he is hunting (this however is not always the case). I have never killed a deer with a 22 cf, but thats mainly because I have never had the chance to own one. I have seen several killed cleanly with one, so I guess I am in the 22 cf-for-deer camp. | ||
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| one of us |
I posted about a friend of mine who had a 14 year old son in Kentucky kill a 157# buck with a 223 Remington and a hand loaded 60 grain Nosler Partition at about 60 yards. The deer went down at the shot. The bullet entered about the last rib and exited just behind the shoulder on the off side. But I still don't think a 22 centerfire is a good deer cartridge. Yes they will work in the hands of a skilled rifleman. Like I have said I have killed more 1000# steers with a 22 long rifle than I can count when I was on the farm and all the neighbors buthchered their own meat. Never did take more than one shot. Sure don't make the 22 long rifle a big game cartridge either. Just my opion. Shoot Safe, Shot Straight......RiverRat | |||
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| one of us |
Ray- I may have been misunderstood when by my last post. I'm frustrated by people who say the hot .22 rifles won't work when they haven't used them. Surely you noticed that I said I hunt myself with a 7mm Rem Mag (sometimes 7x57) because of the type of hunting I do. If you hit a bones in the shoulders with either of them, not much meat left either. Of course, one of the advantages of rib shots is if you hit shoulders, you're not ruining the best cuts anyway. My son and brother's son both shot their first deer with a .220 and a .22-250, and were 8-9 yr old farm kids, had already shot up a lot of ammo, were small built and my boy's shooting went to heck with a .243,so out came the .220. No, they're not an ideal deer rifle unless they're all that you have, but in that case they'll sure work.Good shooting always works better than more power. I've noticed in some of the gun mags, they're almost against using 6mm for deer now, and that is wrong. Again keep in mind I hunt with 7mm of one type or another.The ones I or the boys shot were in our winter doe only season-shot for meat while coyote hunting | |||
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| one of us |
I don't think anyone can discount a 60 gr. 22 at 3000 FPS will kill a deer at 100 yds when shot behind the sholder, it kills like the hammer of Thor. But as the angle increases so do the chances of wounding.. I do believe they are good starting guns for kids, under supervision, to hunt with because of the recoil factor..All my kids started out with a 222, and it was successfull, under my watchfull eye...Shots were at 50 to 75 yds. and I had a backup gun, but never needed it.. Any caliber is a good deer gun if you modify your hunting style to match the caliber...A 222 at 50 yds. is certainly a better deer caliber than a 300 Wby. at 600 yds in MHO.. But, for all hunting conditions a 250 Sav and up are just plain better... ------------------ | |||
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