birddog 68
Well-Known Member
That's quite a poke with a 22. I'll definitely need some range time to stretch mine out that far. My farthest was slightly over 100 yards and I thought that was good. lol
22 LR hollow point suggestions
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trodgers
Member
Years ago was looking for a deep penetrating 22lr for head shootin hogs. The Federal ??? with a truncated point, weight was about 37 or 38 grains, had the deepest. Beaned (no offense) serveral hogs, furtherst was about 80 yards. Scared him up close and yelled obscenity's at him as he ran. Must have tick him off, he stopped and looked back at me. Marlin 60 delivered to his eye socket and he was 160 lbs of mass. Head shots a must...
birddog 68
Well-Known Member
I think we're talking about different hogs trodgers. I'm talking about 5 lb ground hogs not 160 lb hogs. Head shots preferred on ground hogs and definitely on hogs!
taylorms
Well-Known Member
It has been a few years (this ammo might have changed since then), but my Kidd barrel shot best groups with Winchester 333 22lr 36 gr hollow point. This was comparing to various CCI, Federal, Remington, and various Eley rounds.
Last summer I had the opportunity to help out a friend who was having ground hog issues. They had pretty much taken over the area around the barn and one of the pastures. I ended up shooting some 30+ groundhogs using a Tikka T1x MTR with a Vortex Crossfire 4 x 12 sighted in at 100 yards. I was using Winchester Silvertip 37 gr segmented hollow points. This ammo grouped between 0.6 and 0.75 at 100. I shot bench rest on sandbags off of a picnic table or prone. I waited until the hogs stood up on hind legs and shot for center of mass. Every one of them died instantly and didn't move. This ammo is supremely accurate in my rifle and proved that with the proper ammo that groundhogs are very easy to kill. The two hogs shown here had mistakenly wandered close to the farmhouse. Neither of them both females made it back to their den that day.
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Depending on the rifle I used and groupings, I have used CCI 38gr HP, Fed Hyper Vels, Yellow Jackets, Stingers, and interestingly enough, I had very good groups and fast kills with old Federal Lightnings that we placed in a homemade point trim die and filed off the RN to a FN at around 36gr.
Aguila is my go to ammo for budget 22lr. See photo of two 5 shot groups. That being said 22lr is not going to be very forgiving on anything less than the best head shot at any kind of distance on a ground hog, they are just too tough. I like to use 22 mag or my 204 for ground hogs around my place. Good luck
For shooting gophers I have always used Winchester Xpert Hollow point High Velocity, very similar to Super X. That large hollow point lays a big smack down on live targets and is much more deadly than the round nose. The CCI stinger is a great round if it shoots well out of your rifle. The CCI Velocitor segmented rounds are also very effective. There is no upside to shooting low velocity ammo at game, especially larger ones like ground hoggs. More velocity, more energy down range.
50 yard test groups using a CZ452, before it was glass bedded. It shot the same ammo even better after bedding. You can see the Xpert and Stingers are not as accurate as the Champion Round nose, but more than accurate enough for shooting to 100 yards.
50 yard test groups using a CZ452, before it was glass bedded. It shot the same ammo even better after bedding. You can see the Xpert and Stingers are not as accurate as the Champion Round nose, but more than accurate enough for shooting to 100 yards.
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DRock
Well-Known Member
CCI segmented hollow points have been my favorite for prairie dogs. I shoot the subsonics suppressed and even the sound at impact sounds more devastating than the standard hollow points. Accuracy is good but not quite as good as target ammo. But you don't have to head shoot with them so the accuracy is not as important to me.
HunterLV
Well-Known Member
As much as I hate to give up my secret, these 21 grain 22 LR are about as fast as some 22 WMR. They are 200 fps faster than Stingers. They are hard to find, and not cheap, but they have been one of the most accurate rounds out of my custom 10/22. They will do some serious damage to those whistle pigs.
I have found these to lose a lot of their performance past 75 yards. I think the bullet is just too light and not well shaped aerodynamically to retain its velocity. The Stingers suffer some of that too, just not to the same extent. At less than 75 yards however they do perform well. The 17 HMR is a much better option over 75 yards.
The 22 rimfire can be quite accurate at the longer ranges and responds comparably to centerfires, but on a different scale. Our Rimfire PRS matches have targets as far as 350 yards. They key is to find a suitable rimfire cartridge, use a scope that has sufficient and accurate turret(or reticle) range, and for first shot hits, and use a ballistic calculator /RF. With an accurate BC and velocity programmed into my G7 BR2 RF, drop and wind dopes can be relied on for first shot hits out to 300+ yards. Of course the values(using a 100 yard zero for each), a range of 300 yards in MILS, and a 10MPH FV wind…22RF/ 10.2E, 3.0W……6.5x284 with a 140gr@3000FPS/ .9E, .3W. About a 10X difference! But it works and serves as great(and inexpensive) LRH practice in the off-season. My set-up…Out if the box Savage TR, Vortex AMG(borrowed off one of my center-fires).
Amen to that; ever since I bought my A17 in .17HMR, the .22's stay in my gun cabinet. Head shots with the .17 are DRT, and body shots anchor them 90% of the time.
birddog 68
Well-Known Member
I can change out my 22 lr barrel on my CZ 455 to 17 HMR but didn't think I would be gaining much. Honestly I never looked at the numbers. Maybe I'll take a look at what I would gaining.
