Semi Auto, .22 or .17 for gopher hunting

CyaN1de said:
How many gophers can you shoot in a day? Take 1 shot and make it count. :D ;) then again, peppering the poor f@cker with 25 or 30 rapid fire rounds could be fun too I guess.
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Well my record was 623 in one day. So with cheap federal bulk packs it cost me less then $30.00 for two bricks (1050 rounds). Now assuming I had used a 17hmr and hit every one with the first shot it would cost me $159.00 with tax. BIg difference.
 
Yea, i would call that a big difference, the ammo doesn't matter to me, as long as it shoots. I can spray and Pray doesn't bother me. I want to get one that shoots fast.

how come no one mentioned .22 mag...half the price of 17hmr and heavier bullets ??...way better that 17 as far im concerned....
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What is that? can you give me a link?
 
Why .22 mag and why heavier projectiles? There's no need for them. .17 HMR is fast and flat and reduces the chances of ricochets due to its lighter projectile and ballistic tip.

Farmboy,
Based on your intial post you're looking for a firearm that can put out some lead and do it for many years to come. If this is correct than a 10/22 is the only choice. With a 6-9 inch bipod you can still use a 25 round magazine with no interference. There are several makes of both 25 and 50 round magazines available to feed your habit. The 10/22 is well made, well supported in the industry(40 years of production and still counting. It is the best selling semi auto 22 in the world.) and usually cheap to upgrade one piece at a time. Naturally the sky is the limit, you can spend stupid amounts of money on one if you like.

The CZ in either 17 or 22 is still an excellent firearm. The down sides are this. Ammo is quite pricey and can be difficult to find. They are significantly louder in their report(17 Hmr that is) than 22. The CZ is heavier and will tire you after many hours of carrying it in the field. Of course the CZ is more designed for stationary work. If you're comfortable with slow follow up shots and thus fewer fired rounds in a day along with higher costs and very few accessories than the CZ is the ticket.

As I mentioned before, I have both. When I'm tired of walking around or simply want to try my hand at some distance shots, I break out the CZ and do some work.

I'm sure others will agree that you won't regret buying a 10/22. At nearly half the cost with a million accessories available and cheaper ammo, you really can't go wrong.

TDC
 
I have both as well and must say the poor 10/22 is collecting alot of dust since the 17 HMR came into the family.
The 10/22 is diffently a great rifle for playing around popping gophers at 50 yards. I got a little tired of firing 5 shots at 1 gopher just to hit him though. And that semi feature with a 25 round clip makes the wallet lighter REAL quick! True, my scope was not that good, but I wanted so much more.
I went to the gun store and dropped 500 bucks on a savage with scope, bipod, sling and 500 rounds!!! Now its 1 shot kills to 125 yds EASY, 150-200 yds usually takes 2 shots. Instead of playing at 50 yds and walking around closer to the gophers all day, I sit down for a hour and plunk away. Trying to reach a gopher at 250-300 yds just seems like more fun.

But pick something that YOU want and you'll be happy with that, good luck!
 
Yup that's typical for hmr, but to tell you the truth you need both a 22 and an HMR. When I am out I typically carry both because anything 75 yards and closer is just no fun with the hmr.

You need to have bothe because every once in a while you run into fields that are just sick with them, as an example a buddy and I when through 3000 rounds in one day when it is high volume like that 22 is king.

But this time of year when there are not that high of volume the hmr is better with the extended range.

One other option is marlins semi in 17m2 semi auto fun with 50yards more range than your typical 22.
 
4some.jpg
 
Where did you find those stocks!!! ^^^^^^

TDC

ETA: That was not 17HMR, I'm confident that was .223. I've Pm'd the author of the vid, we'll know for sure.
 
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Well, hopefully we can find out, and man, holy you got some pretty sweet guns, 4 different colors, i preffered the clan one and the olive drab one.
 
More info on STOCKS shown in pics above

Sorry about that guys - I was in the middle of posting re those stocks, got busy, hit save and never got back to it to add any information (doh!)

Those are not my guns (I wish!). The stocks are 'Christie's Super Stocks'. I believe in another thread on here someone said it cost them ~$250 to get one into Canada (no CDN suppliers yet that I'm aware of - I'd already contact Questar to see if they were planning to bring any in). I've heard good things about them so far. More info HERE.


TDC said:
Where did you find those stocks!!! ^^^^^^
TDC
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Farmb0y said:
Well, hopefully we can find out, and man, holy you got some pretty sweet guns, 4 different colors, i preffered the clan one and the olive drab one.
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Some of the Marlin semi's have 14-shot tubular magazines, easier for lying down and shooting. Pretty decent price, under $200, and top it with a decent scope for under $100, and you're in gopher-shootin' heaven!

By the way, are you the mechanic at a small gas station by the name of 'Hank'?
 
My biggest frustration with the 10/22 is its lack of accuracy. Rarely am I able to get one-shot kills like with my Savage or a centerfire. Especially out at a hundred yards.

The HMR is a very intruiging round. I had one for a while. But, as I see it, the only advantage offered by the HMR is that you don't need to collect your brass and reload; otherwise a Hornet, 222/223 or other small centerfire will offer a lot 'more of the good' for the same sort of operating costs as the HMR.
 
Prosper thats only true if you reload, right? Plus the fact that rapid firing of the 224's in center fire heat up a barrel in a big hurry, where as a heavy barrel HMR never really gets hot, in my opinion. Not that I shoot gophers like you guys do , although sounds like you have a blast. FS
 
You can shoot pretty steadily all day long with the Hornet or mild 223 loads (blue dot works great for this) and not have to worry about barrel heat.

The splat factor makes it all worthwhile
 
prosper,
I don't know what you would call "poor accuracy" but I have no issues hammering gophers at 100+ yards all day. My 10/22 is stock with the addition of an aftermarket butler creek stock. A buddy of mine who runs his 10/22 exclusively with a reddot(and a butler creek side folder) can make kills to 100 with some effort. Usually seated or resting the rifle off a fence post etc. We shoot nothing but Federal bulk pak ammo and we shoot a lot. Two boxes each per outing is normal. My rifle has seen a catalogued 35,569 rounds since new and still shoots like a champ.

I do enjoy running the CZ 452 in 17 HMR as well as my buddy's Rem 700P in .223. I just can't afford to feed either of them the quantity of ammo I'd like to. That and the availability of .223 isn't great.

TDC
 
Well, at the range, my 10/22 does 2" at 50 yards. Which makes one-shot kills nigh impossible on a 1.5" target. Especially when compared to my centerfires, where one shot kills out past 200 are more the rule than the exception.

And if you find the availability of 223 to be a problem, I have to seriously question where you buy your ammo. Hell, even wal-mart carries that stuff
 
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