Opinions please on best .22 rimfire ammo for gophers at 75 to 150 yards

randyhub

randyhub

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
66   0   0
Location
Calgary
I will be going out for a full day gopher shooting with some others, and I would like to know what others have used that worked the best.

My gun choices are an bolt action Anschutz Model 310 and a 10/22 Ruger, at ranges between 75 and 150 yards.

So I am loooking for an accurate round with good expansion, have used bulk .22 it's okay but nothing fantastic.

Any real world experience will be geatly appreciated, thank you. :sniper:
 
Last edited:
Unfortunatly the real world experince is something you have to do yourself. The best ammo for the gun, depends on the gun itself. I have quite a few different brands of 22 ammo cause different guns like different ammo.
With the 10/22 alone, you'll get 10 different people saying 10 different brands.
This doesnt sound like much help. But the best way is to buy a few different brands and see how the gun likes it.
 
My opinion is about the same, except, I'd leave the 10/22 at home. The Anschutz will be a way more accurate option. The one I had would be hard-pressed to hit a gopher at 50 yards. Anything over 75 yards is stretching it unless you really know the rifle well and the wind is cooperating. Consistent hits out past 100-125 yards will require a good scope/rifle/ammo combination and lots of practice. I've hit gophers out past that (well past) but it was a combination of luck, more luck, and a lot of practice. And...dumb gophers that didn't hide with bullets landing all around them while I figured-out my windage/elevation. lol Most of what I considered "long shots" with my 22 were in the 100-125 yard range. Lots and LOTS bought it in the 30-75 yard range and yep..they were also lots of fun.

To your question~not all 22s will shoot a given ammo the same way, nor can you change brands if your scope is zeroed for a particular ammo...and expect to hit anything. When I set-up a 22LR gopher gun, priority was to figure-out what it liked to eat. In other words, like Riggs says...it depends on the gun itself. It will tell you. I have personally shot the most using CCI Blazer that was run through a hollow-point die...but...guys I've spoken to out there who love shooting them with .22s seem to favour either CCI MiniMag or American Eagle bulk pack. I shot hundreds last year using an open-sighted BRNO 2E and CCI Blazer solids. Off-hand shots, walking through an infested pasture over the course of a week. Lots of speed, but they didn't open-up like the hollow-point ones. A good HP really smacks them hard, and they usually dropped on the spot.
 
Am I the first to say .17hmr? ;)

My Savage MkII loves the cheap wildcat stuff. Other than that the CCI stuff all works great in mine. I'm waiting for the prairie to thaw so I can play some more.
 
Thanks guys, going to try a few different types of ammo, and like most say 40 to 75 yards sounds the norm 100 to 150 yards is getting out there for .22 rimfire.

I like the .17 it's just I do not need another rifle in the vault, heard way too much from the wife last month when I came home with a STG44 in .22. :(
 
Cci standard velocity
They are rated very good for consistency.
They hit gophers hard. Head shots ��
Body shots they run 15 feet and roll over dead.
Cci velocitors work well but $10 per box
 
Use whatever ammo your gun shoots the most accurate. Usually not the highest velocity stuff. 1022s are not usually the most accurate rifles. OK for tin cans at 25m but gophers at 100m, not so much. Marlin, Savage or CZ are better especially bolt guns. Anschutz even better. Semis, my vote CZ 512, Marlin 795/60 or Savage accutriggers and Remy 597. Have had good luck with Remington Golden Bullets for bulk and CCI Mini Mags HP for good ####e.
 
when i grew up on the farm outside of Calgary i use to shoot exclusively Remington Yellow-jackets.
by far the best round ive ever used for gophers.
a nice satisfying 'cer-whump' when you hit them with it.
the hollow point on them is double what a lot of the hollow points are which pretty much cuts those little buggers in half.
shot close to 100,000 rounds growing up of all different brands of 22 ammo with my 10/22 and the Yellow-jacket is what id recommend compared to any brand out there, for the price.
 
I'll 2nd the Remington yellow jackets if they're accurate in your gun. When I first started hunting I had a semi auto Mossberg 22 handed down to me. It shot yellow jackets very well. Like wayupnorth I shot a pile of groundhogs with that gun and the yellow jackets were deadly. I even shot a couple fox that winter when I started coyote/fox hunting with the guys and both fox were dead before they hit the ground. Short head shots though 1 was about 40 yds the other 75. They don't shoot well out of any of my 22s now but CCI min mags do.
 
randyhub said:
Thanks guys, going to try a few different types of ammo, and like most say 40 to 75 yards sounds the norm 100 to 150 yards is getting out there for .22 rimfire.

I like the .17 it's just I do not need another rifle in the vault, heard way too much from the wife last month when I came home with a STG44 in .22. :(
Click to expand...

Wait until you get a pile of gopher shooting under your belt. That STG might get replaced with a nice bolt gun! :) (unless the Anschutz 310 is yours)

I didn't mention .17s because of ammo cost. Hard to argue about their effectiveness though. :) In fact, I think 17HMR might BE the ultimate gopher round...but for the cost of .17 round, I can buy 8 CCI Blazer .22LR. .17 is fun...but not 8x more fun. (for me) Were I shooting spots without many gophers (25-50 a day) I'd probably use a .223. 100 or so gophers per outing? 17HMR for sure. The type of days I had last spring in S. Alberta? .22LR all the way. :)
 
Thanks, yeah the STG is my son's, the 310 and 1022 are mine. Had the 310 since 1975. Been shooting gophers for years but never really tried to look at it for accuracy as gone are those days of using Butler Creek mags in my 1022 and just using more ammo.
The farmer will not allow me to use my .223 bolt action.
 
CCI Segmented Hollow Points of the High Velocity flavour, but only in the Anschutz and not the 10/22. They list at 1640FPS out of the muzzle, and are a bit hot for semis (hard on the action) but work great out of bolt guns - these are what I have my CZ zeroed for.

Because they're frangible, the energy dump is... Impressive. Even glancing shots drop the little diggers stone cold on the spot.

And the higher velocity makes for easier long distance shooting - less worrying about holdover. I zero at 25 yards, which puts me about 3/4" high at 50 yards, and 1/4" low at 75 yards, and a bit over 1" low at 100 yards. Essentially, anything out to 100 yards, you hold "centre mass" on the gopher, and it hits.

After that, the velocity is really starting to fall off, and the bullet drop gets steep fast. But it's even worse for mini-mags and yellow jackets, which only have a muzzle velocity around 1250-1300FPS.

http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/detail.aspx?use=1&loadNo=0064
 
grelmar said:
CCI Segmented Hollow Points of the High Velocity flavour, but only in the Anschutz and not the 10/22. They list at 1640FPS out of the muzzle, and are a bit hot for semis (hard on the action) but work great out of bolt guns - these are what I have my CZ zeroed for.

Because they're frangible, the energy dump is... Impressive. Even glancing shots drop the little diggers stone cold on the spot.

And the higher velocity makes for easier long distance shooting - less worrying about holdover. I zero at 25 yards, which puts me about 3/4" high at 50 yards, and 1/4" low at 75 yards, and a bit over 1" low at 100 yards. Essentially, anything out to 100 yards, you hold "centre mass" on the gopher, and it hits.

After that, the velocity is really starting to fall off, and the bullet drop gets steep fast. But it's even worse for mini-mags and yellow jackets, which only have a muzzle velocity around 1250-1300FPS.

http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/detail.aspx?use=1&loadNo=0064
Click to expand...

Forgot about this stuff, don't see it for sale often. I've inquired with my LGS.
 
Riggseven nailed it as each is slightly more finicky for other flavours.
I would run with AE hollow points , CCI Quick Shock or CCI velocitors...
My Sako Fin Fire was deadly with AE hollow points out to the range your suggesting.
Shoot your gun and become one with it, in the end the gophers will die when you hit them.
Rob
 
WARNING!!

Use only in firearms having standard ANSI sporting barrel/chamber dimensions. http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/detail.aspx?use=2&loadNo=0064

You have been given some terrible advice here!
grelmar said:
CCI Segmented Hollow Points of the High Velocity flavour, but only in the Anschutz
Click to expand...

Anschütz chambers are tight, match quality just slightly looser than EPS Match. They are NOT suitable for any "stinger" or "Velocitor" type ammunition!!!
 
Still have a partial box of Stingers. Bought years ago, fired some through my 310. Big difference in report and recoil. A bit of a push to close the bolt as I recall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom