My buddies and I started hunting varmints, mostly woodchucks, with our .30-06s for practice. We handloaded 125 grain Sierra soft points and shot quite a few woodchucks. I was handicapped by my 2.5X Weaver scope on the Savage 110, but still managed to shoot as many chucks as my buddy did with his 4X scope on a Model 70 Win...even out to crazy distances for a deer rifle.
Best caliber for small game hunting?
- Thread starter IronsightJM
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Sneakshot92
Member
This is true for the most part. However a reloader that can cast his own bullets would be better suited with a 218 bee, 22 hornet or even a 25-20.
AFDoc
Member
If you hand load, then I think .223 in a bolt action rifle is a good choice. You can load it hot for coyotes, and you can load it light for squirrel. It is a very versatile cartridge.
redneck2
Member
you guys understand that this thread started over three months ago?
The best part about the .17 HMR is the trajectory, being a bit flatter than the .22 WMR out to about 130 yards or a bit beyond. Sighted-in at 125 yards, it varies less than an inch from line of sight of a scope to about 135 yards. That's the limits I'd expect of a rimfire cartridge, though I've made small game kills at about 200 yards with it, albeit with a bit of luck.
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When several of us started varmint hunting we were about 15, earning about 25 cents per hour part-time and barely a Freshman in high school. I used my brother's single-shot .22 LR Remington and saved my money to buy a .30-06 Savage about 1959, a deer rifle that cost me about $115. new, at discount. Maine was still quite rural around Central Maine Cities and there were almost no rifle hunters of woodchucks and crows. I saved more money and bought a 2.5X Weaver for $30 bucks and a Weaver top mount. It took a while to think about hunting woodchucks, since the rifle was to be a dedicated DEER weapon.
A kindly gentleman at the gun shop suggested woodchucks for practice at hunting/shooting game. He suggested a couple of good spots to hunt woodchucks and my buddy and I were hooked!! He also had a .30-06 and another of his buddies had a loading press. We were in business!!!
So, considering that my Dad never owned a gun, I didn't own any until a Savage 110, .30-06, and at about 15 yrs. old, I became a "varmint hunter". It didn't take me long before I decided that the original Savage sporter stock wasn't cutting it, so I ordered a "90% finished" Bishop stock, fitted it, sculptured it to the dimensions similar to a Weatherby, finished it and epoxy-bedded it. It killed a bunch of woodchucks and a few crows and I found myself being a varmint/deer hunter!
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The Savage 110, .30-06 that I had at 15 yrs. had trouble digesting the reloaded ammo. Primers backed out, flattened, and it had a few misfires. I didn't know much about reloading and we were using a buddy's press, set up for his Win. 70 30-06. Both he and Dave, my good hunting buddy had Winchesters that worked fine with the ammo.
I decided to send my rifle barreled action back to Savage to see if they could fix the problem. When it came back, it had a new bolt and supposedly was to factory specs. That didn't solve the problem, however.
I had another problem. My best girl said she wanted to get married. I told her that I'd marry her, but only after I got a reloading setup of my own, because I'd never get one if newly married. I almost fell over backwards when she told me she'd buy one for me for Christmas!!! Christmas came and I got enough money to buy a CH "H" press, dies and a powder scale.
OKAY! So I read the instructions as to how to set up the dies and started making ammo. The first rounds made fit the rifle well and stopped all the problems I had with the buddy's setup!!! Apparently, the two Winchesters had much tighter chamber length than my Savage, so after headspacing according to instructions, using once-fired brass in my rifle. That was the cure!!!
Yes, my girlfriend of nearly 3 years and I were married the next summer, and this summer it will be 55 years...and still going strong!!! (However, I have a different reloading press...a Rockchucker.)
I decided to send my rifle barreled action back to Savage to see if they could fix the problem. When it came back, it had a new bolt and supposedly was to factory specs. That didn't solve the problem, however.
I had another problem. My best girl said she wanted to get married. I told her that I'd marry her, but only after I got a reloading setup of my own, because I'd never get one if newly married. I almost fell over backwards when she told me she'd buy one for me for Christmas!!! Christmas came and I got enough money to buy a CH "H" press, dies and a powder scale.
OKAY! So I read the instructions as to how to set up the dies and started making ammo. The first rounds made fit the rifle well and stopped all the problems I had with the buddy's setup!!! Apparently, the two Winchesters had much tighter chamber length than my Savage, so after headspacing according to instructions, using once-fired brass in my rifle. That was the cure!!!
Yes, my girlfriend of nearly 3 years and I were married the next summer, and this summer it will be 55 years...and still going strong!!! (However, I have a different reloading press...a Rockchucker.)
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Demi-human
maybe likes firearms a little bit…
Impatient?
Imagine conversation by mail!
Zombies don’t rise till after one year.
I’m here to read, think and talk. (Not necessarily in that order...
)This thread is as good as any!
And @Picher is a good read.
Yup! Gladly.
Yes. They're exceptionally difficult to skin, and require parboiling for a good while to render them tender. Young ones are better.
Demi-human
maybe likes firearms a little bit…
If you wait til their old, they’ll wreck the shed.
FL-NC
Member
Anything more powerful than a 22 LR is really going to mess up squirrels and rabbits, if you plan on eating them. At the same time, 22 LR is too light for coyotes, unless you can put one in the ear.
Oh baloney. Head shot with .22 WMR has never been a problem for moi.
Sneakshot92
Member
I do the same with my 17hmr. It ended up supplanting my 10/22 in 2012 when 22lr first went through the roof.
40-82
Member
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- 527
I do like the .22 Hornet. I've killed something like thirty wild turkeys with it and a few coyotes. It'll stretch out well beyond a hundred yards, provided there's no wind. It's a little too powerful for things like squirrels and rabbits unless you stick to only head shots.
Case life isn't wonderful and a random load lifted from a manual is more likely to be dismal than mediocre, although it can be accurate enough. Inch and a half at a hundred and fifty yards is achievable.
For close range small game hunting, I have a lot of affection for the 32-20 and the 25-20. Sometimes, if it's what I have in hand, I'll press the old 38-40 in service. A non-expanding forty caliber bullet works well enough.
Case life isn't wonderful and a random load lifted from a manual is more likely to be dismal than mediocre, although it can be accurate enough. Inch and a half at a hundred and fifty yards is achievable.
For close range small game hunting, I have a lot of affection for the 32-20 and the 25-20. Sometimes, if it's what I have in hand, I'll press the old 38-40 in service. A non-expanding forty caliber bullet works well enough.
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
Sort of. Maybe more precisely anything faster. Moderately loaded cast bullets out of milder centerfires like the various .25's, .32's, .38's and even the big bores work very well without destroying too much meat. Depending on placement. It's a shame that most states outlaw centerfires for small game because rifles like lever action .32-20's are supreme small game guns.
Frulk
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I killed a javelina cleanly with a .22 Mag headshot before but it wouldn’t be my first choice on an ongoing basis for that species. Somewhere on another thread right now there’s a discussion about instances were shooters felt under gunned. That day in south central Texas was one of those times for me.
Up to raccoon I feel comfortable with nothing other than a .22 LR.
I’m encouraged that a few of you mentioned the .327 FM as an option. Friday before last I clocked a 120gr LSWCGC over #9 at 1727 FPS out of a Henry with a 20 inch barrel. Had that been in my hands that day in Texas I would not have felt under gunned in the least bit. If you reload your bullet weight options and drop in ammo cost expand exponentially.
Up to raccoon I feel comfortable with nothing other than a .22 LR.
I’m encouraged that a few of you mentioned the .327 FM as an option. Friday before last I clocked a 120gr LSWCGC over #9 at 1727 FPS out of a Henry with a 20 inch barrel. Had that been in my hands that day in Texas I would not have felt under gunned in the least bit. If you reload your bullet weight options and drop in ammo cost expand exponentially.
cdb1
Member
I didn’t know that, guess I’m lucky.
I might want something more powerful than a .22 Magnum if hunting them, but if were out walking and encountered javelinas I wouldn’t feel under gunned.
Armednfree
Member
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- May 21, 2020
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Henry 32 Federal magnum. Shoots 100 grains bullets at more than 2000 fps and other 32's much lower
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