22 WMR appropriate small game

Not that I would do it, but the trapper I bought a 9422M off of said it took more deer than he could count. I suspect it did take a few, but his stories do tend to get exaggerated.
 
The WMR is a perfect round for exterminating those pesky beavers that flood out your or your friends property. Took out several last year at a friends place with head shots.
 
The 22 mag has better penetration then the 17 hmr and is better suited to coyotes for that reason. I use mine for mainly fur bearing animals during the appropriate seasons and for jack rabbit hunting and calling fox and coyotes if the shots are to be close. Often I bury myself in snow covered ditch banks and ambush predators and small game that travel the iced over ditches. For this the 22 mag is ideal and has a fairly low report. It's a great squirrel gun as well. Really knocks them out of th tree tops
Great for sniping crows in smaller fields where bigger center fire guns spook cattle
 
My friend used it for fox, coyote and the odd wolf. There is plenty of good ammo out there. Just keep the distance fairly close and shoot straight.
 
Have been using a 22mag since the late 60's. Originally bought a Win. M-275 pump, then traded it for a W 9422 when they came out and I still have it. mainly used it for ground hogs and jack rabbits when both were more plentiful. Great small game getter out to 100 yds. plus. Never tried it on anything bigger than ground hogs. Coyotes would probably be okay if shots were kept 100 yds or under using 40 gr hollow points and the shot well placed. My 9422 at 100yds off sand bags if I do my part correctly 5 shots will group about the size of a quarter. I have always used the Win. 40 gr HP as that's what was available. All these newer bullet weights and types were unheard of and I really don't think I would get any better results than I am getting at present. I had a lot of feral cats at the old house which can be cagy at the best of times, the 22mag claimed many of them. I also a have it's arch rival at the time a Rem 5mm mag. It was my grandfathers, and we used to shoot ground hogs together. The 5mm probably had the edge over the 22mag but I would never admit that to my grandfather as we always had a friendly running feud as to which calibre was better.

There are several guns in the cabinet that I will never part with and the 9422 in 22mag is one of them, also the 5mm because of who owned it.
 
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It's like a .22lr on steroids, and I regret selling mine. It dropped hefty groundhogs with authority (the .17HMR does not), and was plenty accurate out to 100 yards for that. I wouldn't take it out coyote hunting, but wouldn't hesitate to shoot one inside of 75-100 yards if the opportunity presented itself. As for game size, anything up to and including groundhogs/foxes I'd say it's a great caliber, but with that extra power comes allot more noise too. I tried 9 varieties of .22WMR ammo through my Savage and couldn't reliably get it to shoot MOA with any of them. Sure, lucked into a couple of groups that did (Hornady 30gr. V-Max) but most groups were in the 1"-1-1/4" range. Because I consider it a closer-range gun, mine wore a 3-9x40 AO scope, and I found that to be sufficient. Another .22WMR is on the radar for me in the next year or so, toying with the idea of getting a Ruger American. I've read good things about that rifle, in that caliber.
 
22mag is nice for farther shots. I can hit a 12" gong at 200 yards. Its really tuff to do that with the .22lr but occasionaly I'll get lucky
 
plenty enough for coyotes I use .22lr on them from time to time when out hunting other things although if you are hunting anything you want to eat if not use any of the thin jacket varmint bullets made for the .22 mag a FMJ should not break apart and would be plenty for the small critters
 
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