Caribou Gear Tarp

What is the maximum point-blank range of the "lowly" .22 Long Rifle Rimfire?

What type of person keeps this up with the responses that HT keeps providing? I mean there has to be a "gotcha!" moment or maybe just some unusually large need for attention mixed with zero online experience? Or just a big giant joke. I don't get it.
perfect trolling neffa, humorous, mildly bizarre and accurately off target w/ a touch of naivete.
The oxymoron was a great hook in headline
The season is early but certainly a nominee for @huntingwife 's awards.
 
If you put the barrel in a vise and hammer the last 6 inches "up" about 1/2 out of alignment with the breach, you can get another 100 yards out of it. I sight my 22 in at 147 yards. Why 147? Because that's how far it is to my neighbors deck and I hate his cat, who shits in my kids sand box. I've only hit his goose twice and the cat door once. I will get that SOB.
As I shared previously in the "Feral Cats" thread...

My max range kill on a cat with a 10/22 is 160 yards, paced off. OSOK. Bushnell Rangemaster 3-7 variable scope WITH DIAL. I bought that rifle in 1976 for $35 and it had beautiful roll markings. "Made in the 200th Year of American Liberty" right there on the side of the barrel. Much better than the new ones made by millennials.

Butchering cats can be tricky because they are so lean. They taste kind of gamey unless you grind in at least 10% rendered beef tallow with them. After that you can make ground cat tacos with a good dose of Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. You have to cook them to at least 160°F in case of Trych. Sous Vide or crockpot is best.

I once used this same 10/22 to kill a peacock. I worked nights and all day that damned bird would sit on top of my neighbor's roof and yell, "HAAALP! HAALP!" A righteous kill at 65 yards. I waited until he walked the ridge line to a point where their redwood tree gave me a clean backstop and, "Pop!" OSOK again. No evidence of wrongdoing left behind. Peacock tastes pretty good roasted, too.
 
How might one get respect as a serious poster here? I would rather first study up prospective guns, calibers and loads before laying money down. My OP is targeting those experienced in varmint shooting with .22's for some input. Maybe some here can share their experience or is this just another two-bit hunting forum like dozens of others out there.
Learn to spell "Terrific" for starters.

Now Tom, I'm going to throw you a bone and take you seriously for a minute. No BS. Mostly because I am a narcissist and like to write about myself.

Starting around age seven with a Sheridan Blue Streak until I moved to Idaho in the early 1990's, I would say my kill ledger would run into 5 digits. IDK because we didn't keep logs.

I grew up on a 400 acre cattle operation in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Sniping ground squirrels for fun and pest control was our daily pastime. We had a Nylon 66 (the brown lever action one.) and it sucked. I wish I still had it though. Those things are actually pulling good coin at gun shows. Our first 10/22 made us the envy of the neighborhood. A box of 100 Mini-Mags would set you back 79 cents. A carton of 550 about $4.00. As cheap as ammo was, we didn't waste it because we scored each other on confirmed kills vs rounds fired.
After 1968, they were not supposed to sell minors any ammo that would feed a handgun, but we could collect enough pop bottles to buy all the 22 LR ammo we wanted at our local general store. They had rifle and shotgun ammo, too. Wouldn't Gov Newsome blow a gasket over that.

Everything I learned about rifle shooting - breathing, stable positions, sight picture, trigger control, etc. I learned in those days. When I was getting ready to go to Idaho (where I now live) to hunt deer and elk, I would go to the ranch with my 30-06 or 6.5x55 and spend time busting squirrels with them in practical field shooting positions. This was years before civilians had accurate rangefinders.

BTW - worrying about MPBR and ballistics before you have mastered all the aforementioned basics is actually going to delay your mastery of the art. Shooting with a 22LR at small game is a lot like trad archery, you just have to do it again and again until you are consistent. We had the advantage of a virtually unlimited supply of ammo, targets, and time.

Ditto for bipods, leave those in the truck.

The whole secret to varminting with a 22 LR is to zero at 50 yards. Wait until the squirrel is up and barking and aim for the head. That gives you a two inch oval kill zone. No hold-over out to 100. A hit will give you an audible "Whop" sound. Like coyotes, the more ground squirrels you kill, the more they breed. They are also cannibals. A wounded squirrel will not go into his burrow to suffer a slow death. His brother squirrels will rip him to shreds in short order. I've watched it through my scope.

As you get better and more confident, you "aim small. miss small" and go for more horizontal shoulder shots and then for head shots.

I have a different 10/22 now and still enjoy taking it out. My 1976 was stolen. My favorite squirrel and small game gun is a Ruger 77/22 with a trigger job on it. They have become pretty expensive, but they are worth it if you can find one.
 
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Everything I learned about rifle shooting - breathing, stable positions, sight picture, trigger control, etc. I learned in those days.

Same here. When I was a child I was set loose on the rodents, lagomorphs, canines, and feral felines of Eastern Montana with a Marlin bolt .22, hand me down Bushnell 4x, and a surplus ammo can full of a random mix of old and new .22 ammo. I used to walk my shots in to prairie dogs like I was lobbing mortars. With CCI Stingers I killed a few coyotes way farther away than I had any business shooting at them.

I think my varmint annihilating days as a kid taught me a lot about hunting and shooting.
 
Learn to spell "Terrific" for starters.

Now Tom, I'm going to throw you a bone and take you seriously for a minute. No BS. Mostly because I am a narcissist and like to write about myself.

Starting around age seven with a Sheridan Blue Streak until I moved to Idaho in the early 1990's, I would say my kill ledger would run into 5 digits. IDK because we didn't keep logs.

I grew up on a 400 acre cattle operation in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Sniping ground squirrels for fun and pest control was our daily pastime. We had a Nylon 66 (the brown lever action one.) and it sucked. I wish I still had it though. Those things are actually pulling good coin at gun shows. Our first 10/22 made us the envy of the neighborhood. A box of 100 Mini-Mags would set you back 79 cents. A carton of 550 about $4.00. As cheap as ammo was, we didn't waste it because we scored each other on confirmed kills vs rounds fired.
After 1968, they were not supposed to sell minors any ammo that would feed a handgun, but we could collect enough pop bottles to buy all the 22 LR ammo we wanted at our local general store. They had rifle and shotgun ammo, too. Wouldn't Gov Newsome blow a gasket over that.

Everything I learned about rifle shooting - breathing, stable positions, sight picture, trigger control, etc. I learned in those days. When I was getting ready to go to Idaho (where I now live) to hunt deer and elk, I would go to the ranch with my 30-06 or 6.5x55 and spend time busting squirrels with them in practical field shooting positions. This was years before civilians had accurate rangefinders.

BTW - worrying about MPBR and ballistics before you have mastered all the aforementioned basics is actually gong to delay your mastery of the art. Shooting with a 22LR at small game is a lot like trad archery, you just have to do it again and again until you are consistent. We had the advantage of a virtually unlimited supply of ammo, targets, and time.

Ditto for bipods, leave those in the truck.

The whole secret to varminting with a 22 LR is to zero at 50 yards. Wait until the squirrel is up and barking and aim for the head. That gives you a two inch oval kill zone. No hold-over out to 100. A hit will give you an audible "Whop" sound. Like coyotes, the more ground squirrels you kill, the more they breed. They are also cannibals. A wounded squirrel will not go into his burrow to suffer a slow death. His brother squirrels will rip him to shreds in short order. I've watched it through my scope.

As you get better and more confident, you "aim small. miss small" and go for more horizontal shoulder shots and then for head shots.

I have a different 10/22 now and still enjoy taking it out. My 1976 was stolen. My favorite squirrel and small game gun is a Ruger 77/22 with a trigger job on it. They have become pretty expensive, but they are worth it if you can find one.
I did not even know the spelling of my handle was a boo-boo. TERRIFIC is not an everyday word like it used to be. The double F in my mind's eye must come from my seeing the word TRAFFIC much more often in print.

Thanks Mr. 45 for the ballistics pointers on .22 Long Rifle.

PS- I have asked the admin to correct the spelling of my handle.

Just for fun I played with Hornady's online ballistics calculator. The bullet drops fast past 75 yards.
.22 ballistics.png
 
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I did not even know the spelling of my handle was a boo-boo. TERRIFIC is not an everyday word like it used to be. The double F in my mind's eye must come from my seeing the word TRAFFIC much more often in print.

Thanks Mr. 45 for the ballistics pointers on .22 Long Rifle.

PS- I have asked the admin to correct the spelling of my handle.

Just for fun I played with Hornady's online ballistics calculator. The bullet drops fast past 75 yards.
View attachment 207791

Why don't you consider getting a scope you can dial with and practice shots out to 200 yards or so? It'll give you experience dialing for range. A quality .22 with a decent scope is more than capable of taking prairie dogs and such out to that distance. It does take a little practice, but .22 ammo is cheap. And it's quite a lot of fun.

You can get a 3-9 Leupold VX-Freedom with a CDS dial for about $200 new. That would pair fine with a CZ and give you what you need.
 
This is also the kind of chit people find confusing…you’re talking about having sufficient down range velocity to humanely kill…a gopher🤦🏼

What's the downrange velocity of a shovel? That's what I used to kill gophers in our little orchard when I was a kid. You put a hose down the hole and wait until the hole fills up and the gopher comes up for air, then you swing the shovel over your head as hard as you can and flatten the little sucker, like whack-a-mole in real life. I got $2 a gopher, then went to the hardware store and spent that money on .22 ammo to go shoot other things because gophers weren't worth the ammo...
 
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What's the downrange velocity of a shovel? That's what I used to kill gophers in our little orchard when I was a kid. You put a hose down the hole and wait until the hole fills up and the gopher comes up for air, then you swing the shovel over your head as hard as you can and flatten the little sucker, like whack-a-mole in real life. I got $2 a gopher, then wen to the hardware store and spent that money on .22 ammo to go shoot other things because gophers weren't worth the ammo...

Right? We’d kill them by sticking a road flare down the hole and stomping a Coke can down any place we saw smoke.

Jesus why am I even talking about gophers right now🤦🏼
 
perfect trolling neffa, humorous, mildly bizarre and accurately off target w/ a touch of naivete.
The oxymoron was a great hook in headline
The season is early but certainly a nominee for @huntingwife 's awards.
Apparently I'm pretty naive to the art of trolling.
 
OK I'll bite - I have dispatched quite a few PD's with a 22. Leave the CZ at home and get yourself a 10/22T and a scope with knobs or ballistic reticle. With a 22, you should be more worried about the wind than drop. For young prairie dogs and gophers at an unknown range, use a ranging/windage shot with best elevation guess and adjust from there. Aim it like a water hose. And don't bother going to go and play Dr. Quincy ME after every shot. Why run off 50 to inspect one? It's all about volume - shoot till its too dirty to function then clean it and get back at it.
You seem to be more interested in carrying "pretty" rifles around with awesome engraving and trying to impress somebody with stats and fancy ballistic terms rather than actually using them. You probably have matching camo socks.
 
Ahem


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