22 for Deer

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I have never taken a deer with .22 rimfire, but two episodes.

When I was circa 7 or 8 my Dad had got a nice whitetail deer - when skinning it, was a .22 bullet all grown into the fat/muscle under the hide on the rump - a scar in the hide where that bullet had passed through - assumed someone had taken a too long shot with a .22 at a deer going away - that would have been circa 1962 or so.

When I was circa my 40's, I met an older gent in North Central Sask who was very proud of his new-to-him Win 94-22 in 22 Magnum - said it was a "perfect" deer gun for him - the Win 94 in 30-30 was just too loud - he had almost got "caught" firing that 30-30. He had a leather scabbard under the hood of his elderly snowmobile - seemed to work pretty slick - we had deer meat for supper with him.

I was recently able to acquire 100 rounds of 25 Stevens - a rimfire round - an elderly neighbour was hoping to find some ammo for his "Grandma's deer gun" - a Stevens Favourite - that they still have on the family farm - he recalls going to SIR in Winnipeg "way back when" and getting a previous box of ammo for that rifle.
 
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Great thread MiG25!
Now add a "3" onto the tail end of your "22", sprinkle in the words bear and elk and we would really be having some fun, Rokslide forum style.
Emotions run high, hemorrhoids flare, egos are both inflated and crushed to dust and ######s get sandy, Serious entertainment.
 
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Deer are pretty small animals, no doubt a rimfire can take one out. What conditions would dictate an ethical shot is a completely different discussion...

Centerfire .22's work great on deer though. Shot my first deer with a .220 Swift, right in the neck. Dropped like a bag of hammers.
 
Disco Bob said:
Why would anyone call anyone an A Hole if one was to use a SKS on a deer? I know quite a few First Nation Hunters who uses such a rifle when hunting deer or larger animals.
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Who said anything about the SKS? Lol
 
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Looking at ballistic gel tests on the 'net it is clear that the 22, be it LR or WMR, can out penetrate many much larger cartridges.

Back in the day when I shot a lot of pests with the 22LR, I always said the Winchester Super X hollowpoint was the best. Unfortunately I have been unable to find them for years. It certainly has more smack, to use that term, than the 9mm.

22-lr-gel-test-results.jpg
 

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MiG25 said:
Looking at ballistic gel tests on the 'net it is clear that the 22, be it LR or WMR, can out penetrate many much larger cartridges.

Back in the day when I shot a lot of pests with the 22LR, I always said the Winchester Super X hollowpoint was the best. Unfortunately I have been unable to find them for years. It certainly has more smack, to use that term, than the 9mm.

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The .22LR has more "smack" then the 9mm!? :onCrack:
 
Penetration has never been the most important criteria when it comes to killing something the size of a deer lol.

bcsteve said:
The .22LR has more "smack" then the 9mm!? :onCrack:
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Yeah lol.

Whatever this "smack" is, 22lr being argued as a better killer than 9mm is pretty funny too.
 
Joel said:
Penetration has never been the most important criteria when it comes to killing something the size of a deer lol.




Yeah lol.

Whatever this "smack" is, 22lr being argued as a better killer than 9mm is pretty funny too.
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The 22 is not lacking penetration for deer sized Game.
 
The 22 is not enough! It can and has been used. Lots of poachers. Any hunter worth salt is upset if a shot animal is not recovered. This will happen more with a 22. I know of a few killed with a 22 in the depression. A friend killed a black bear with a load of #4 shot in the 60s . It stood up in some brush as he was retrieving a duck. But only an ass would hunt with that.
 
bcsteve said:
The .22LR has more "smack" then the 9mm!? :onCrack:
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That ballistics chart is missing some critical information.... like is the velocity measured at the muzzle (V0) or farther away.. V25? V50? Secondly, it doesn't state the distance the gel blocks were placed from the muzzle, nor does it state the energy on target at the given distance relative to the velocity. None of that information in the chart can be reasonably used to say that .22lr, magnum, etc. outperforms center-fire calibres.
 
Twan said:
That ballistics chart is missing some critical information.... like is the velocity measured at the muzzle (V0) or farther away.. V25? V50? Secondly, it doesn't state the distance the gel blocks were placed from the muzzle, nor does it state the energy on target at the given distance relative to the velocity. None of that information in the chart can be reasonably used to say that .22lr, magnum, etc. outperforms center-fire calibres.
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All you can really take from that is "they go deeper".

Which may or may not be a problem, depending on what you're trying to do. What seems imporant to me is the fact they leave an icepick like, pencil diamter wound very soon after their initial expansion, and that deer really don't require a whole lot of penetration to kill. Its far from the most important attribute of a deer bullet.

Can't really say a 22 is more impressive than this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN2g4kuVpbw

Penetration certainly doesn't look any worse. Expansion way beyond the whopping .22-.24 cal the 22 bullets are exhibiting, and much more cavitation.
 
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I submit to you guys that the 22 was banned as a Roadblock to those of low economic status because everyone could afford one and that beyond 20 yards the 22 is a superior Deer Cartridge to the legally required (in certain areas) shotgun with 0 or 00 Buckshot as well as superior to the legally allowed 9mm.

But the 12 gauge has much more boom and you know, movies show Bad Guys being blasted with them.
 
Based on your backyard testing, perhaps.

Would be interesting to hear from those who actually kill deer with 00 buck inside of 30 yards. You've shown absolutely nothing to demonstrate that it is more effective than 9mm at anything, you've only asserted so. Based on absolutely nothing but "because I think it is". Carries no water. Bullets that are bigger, expand better, and penetrate far enough to get to the important stuff if not more so...well. Hard to explain how somethig the diameter of a drinking straw is better.

If a 9mm bullet went in Biggie Small's butt cheek and went far enough to hit his heart and kill him, I think it can handle reaching 12" through a deer's vitals man lol

There's still no proof of this "it was to keep poor people out" idea other than some a priori logicking going on.
 
MiG25 said:
I submit to you guys that the 22 was banned as a Roadblock to those of low economic status because everyone could afford one and that beyond 20 yards the 22 is a superior Deer Cartridge to the legally required (in certain areas) shotgun with 0 or 00 Buckshot as well as superior to the legally allowed 9mm.

But the 12 gauge has much more boom and you know, movies show Bad Guys being blasted with them.
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I can get behind all of this. The stories I heard on the elk from horseback...weren't just one time one offs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zq46m6hBB4

:)
 
blakeyboy said:
I can get behind all of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zq46m6hBB4

:)
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Until you run into that little Dagestani guy and get dropped by a grappler lol

But for sure, if you're gonna have either precision OR power? Err on the side of precision :) Thankfully there's lots of super easy shooting cartridges that have way more of both than the 22 and are no problem at all as long as being overheard while poaching or too poor for a pot to piss in are not a factor haha
 
Take a deer sized target, put it at 30 yards, shoot it with Federal Premium 12 pellet 00 Buckshot. It'll kick like an Elephant Gun, then look at the target and tell me you would pick that over a 22 WMR.
 
MiG25 said:
Take a deer sized target, put it at 30 yards, shoot it with Federal Premium 12 pellet 00 Buckshot. It'll kick like an Elephant Gun, then look at the target and tell me you would pick that over a 22 WMR.
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Honestly? With a good choke I probably would. Have had some 870s, 500s and a Stoeger Condor with Mod chokes that make it a high hit probability at 30 yards. Can't say I've ever been intimidated by 12 ga buckshot. Definitely find 8 and 9 pellet pattern better than 12 though, in that order.

A fella could also get some reduced recoil loads that penentrate 16" thick animals just fine too lol. We can throw rocks 30 yards.


How did you prove the 22 is "vastly superior" to 9mm? I think I missed it. The pictures of hardly expanded .22 cal bullets were nice though.
 
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