Most of the time 22 magnum will definitely stop our sage rats and does a fair amount of damage. I took some CCI's out that had the Speer TNT hollow points. I expected typical performance but was pleasantly surprised. These TNT bullets literally blew the sage rats apart. If hit in center of belly I would get about a 3 foot diameter spray of body parts. I was impressed. Just thought I would pass this along.

Old Elk Hunter, My Ruger 77/22M didn't shoot those very well but it does like the CCI Maxi Mag+V. I think those weigh 33 gr or so. If a solid body hit on a ground squirrel is made it darn near cuts them in half!
We took a young lady over to Klamth a couple a of weeks ago, the weather was horrible for sage rats , but she managed 3 shots and 3 kills out to 75 yards or so. She was thrilled! BT53

My Marlin 25M shoots CCI's +V with the best accuracy.

I tried the Winchester Supreme S22WM last week and they hit about 5-6" higher than the others with OK accuracy.

I like the 22MAG, and don't feel it is obsolete yet. At least not by 17HMR figures. Bigger bullet, more power.

Flippy,

Is SpringTucky a reference to a real or imagined place here in Oregon?

For whatever reason, my .22 Maggies just can't stomach any of the CCI loads. But one of the most explosive loads on smaller varmints such as your sage rats is the Winchester 34 grain JHP, which is now sold in the Supreme lineup. Back when first introduced, they were available in a Varmint Pack of 200 rounds & included a free plactic ammo box, and I went through a number of those packages. If memory serves, they sold for just over $20 per box. Wish I would have stocked up...

All of my rifles do very well with the Rem 33 grain polymer-tipped loading, but this is one of the more expensive .22 WMR loads out there.

quote:

Originally posted by Old Elk Hunter:
Flippy,

Is SpringTucky a reference to a real or imagined place here in Oregon?

Elk Hunter,

I bet he is referring to Springfield. We will see when he replies.

Cheers
seafire

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:

quote:

Originally posted by Old Elk Hunter:
Flippy,

Is SpringTucky a reference to a real or imagined place here in Oregon?

Elk Hunter,

I bet he is referring to Springfield. We will see when he replies.

Cheers
seafire

Yep!

I sort of expected Springfield, aka East Eugene.
I spent about 40 years just north of there. Eugene must have the highest density of domestic cats of any place I have visited. I can't drive through the neighborhoods near the U of Oregon without my trigger finger going into spasms.

quote:

Originally posted by Old Elk Hunter:
I sort of expected Springfield, aka East Eugene.
I spent about 40 years just north of there. Eugene must have the highest density of domestic cats of any place I have visited. I can't drive through the neighborhoods near the U of Oregon without my trigger finger going into spasms.

Most of the spasms are caused by cats...
the rest by the FREAKS!

It is the U of O, after all.

I will admit that it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between a scrungy cat and a scrungy student. I suspect that they have equal value in the scheme of things. I don't like being around either one and they both stink. At least you can kick the cat and get away with it.

Old Elk Hunter:

When I lived up in Seattle after I got out of the service at Madigan Army Med Ctr in Tacoma, back in 1978 and 79, I'd say the highest density of cats I ever saw was Seattle.

YOu might find this funny, and it would drive cat lovers crazy, especially the PETA crowd.

We had a bunch of guys living in a house who were all single and we all had our own shift kind of work, so it was a flop house more than anything else. Gals were over there all the time, and one time this black cat showed up that just didn't leave because all of the gals thru there would keep feeding it.

Next door to our place was a garage that was like an auxillary center for the gas station over on the main drag a mile away. They owned the lot next to us and then the lot behind us, which held two large garages that they worked on vehicles for customers.

All they had to put drain oil in was to pour it into 55 gallons drums with no lids, on them. When they were getting full some recycler came out with some sort of vacuum system that would just suck the oil into his old tanker truck which had to be a 1940's something or other.

Well this cat hanging around our house finally goes into heat and we had a million cats hanging around the neighborhood. These cats belonged to all of these YUPPIE liberal types of the day, or the hippy types. All of these cats are also hanging around the repair garages next door, while the guys are trying to repair cars.

Finally one guy evidently got tired of one of them one day and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and went and dropped it into one of those barrels full of drain oil. It was a long haired white cat evidently. Well the cat, got out of the barrel and scampered up the hill behind the garage, leaving an oil trail all the way up it. All the way home I am sure.

The other 10 guys that worked there thought this was so funny, that they started doing the same thing to the other cats hanging around the garage. A week or so later, the crowd of cats really thinned out dramatically.

We all would sit around drinking beer on a friday afternoon and talk and laught about that. Our biggest source of humor was not the reaction of the cats, so much as it was contemplating the reaction of all these Yuppie and Hippie male and females when their cats showed up home being soaked to the bone in old used motor oil.

I am sure that it took eternity to clean the darn cat's fur. I have no idea of the number of cats that got sick trying to clean themselves, but since none of us young guys were really cat lovers it really was not a major concern.

At the time we all thought it was pretty funny.

Cheers
seafire

The students are what they are. I was really referring to the "hippie-freak, liberal" types. AKA "professional" students...

Flippy,

Definitely know the type of student you are referring to. We had some at OSU. Most were engineering majors who could or would not complete their graduation requirements. All they did was occupy space and waste time.

My .22 mag was responsible for this. It works if your careful and don't expect it to equal bigger gun performance. Nate

The boys sure have big smiles on there faces

Future “Krat†hunters in the making.

That cat is nearly as big as they are...

I have found CCI TNT hollow points work well on rabbits and possums,i use CCI quik-shot in my 22lr do CCI load these quik-shot bullets in 22mag over there in the states?

Not that I'm aware of. Their website doesn't list it and I've never seen it anywhere.

There are probably 40 different loadings for the 22MAG here. The problem is trying them all.

Big Nate,

Where did you find a Ruger .22 Mag in stainless?
I have yet to see one in a retail store.

I just looked more closely at your photo. The rifle in the photo is a .22 LR - right?

The .22 mag is a fine round,but I can't bring myself to getting one. Can't reload it. I use 58 grain cast bullets in .22 center fires and that at about 2000--2200 fps exceeds performance of the .22 mag and is much cheaper to shoot.

My boy in holding a standard 10/22 and he was not in on the shooting. I was holding the mag in one hand while taking the picture. This helps to explain how poorly centered it was I hope.( at least thats my excuse.)

I take my boys with me whenever I can. This cat came in to a call as fast as many coyotes. This was the first 'cat they'd seen, hence the fingers. Nate

Nate,

Congrats to your boys and congrats to a proud dad!
thanks for sharing those photos.

If you are like me, I enjoy my son having field successes a lot more than I do having them myself.

Cheers
seafire

I am amazed at how fast the Maxi Mag+Vs are out of the 17 inch bbl of my Taurus carbine...2350 to 2415 fps. They go slower out of longer bbls, so I expect that 16 - 17 inches is about optimal.

I have not chronographed any of the 22mag loads, yet. You can HEAR the difference in impact speed when shooting them at over 100 yards however.

I do know that 22LR bullets for the most part exit the fastest from barrels around 14". So 16-17" would probably be about right for the 22MAG.

The CCI MAXI-MAG+V's have the best accuracy out of my gun.

Got my June 2005 issue of Shooting Times mag and there is an article comparing the 17HMR to the 22MAG. Pretty interesting stuff. Pretty much confirms what my experience was with both rounds.