This should be easy....

I think that this can be recast as: At what range can you place the bullet in a target the size of a quarter? Or nickle just to be sure.

If you can hit the squirrel with it reliably it will kill them. Accuracy will be your limiting factor not lethality on squirrel size targets.

You'll be able to kill it further out than you can see or hit it.

So, over on Rimfire Central a few years ago, a poster of some prominence outlined the chain of events that led him eventually use 22 shorts for dispatching feral swine (wild hogs) in the semi urban areas of FL.

The details escape me but range had to be short and shot had to be placed pretty precisely. Certain ammo recommendations were even given IIRC.

Cannot remember the poster’s name and I don’t have a link but it might jog someone else’s memory if they frequent RC.

More pertinent to your question is that I think 50 yds is possible with a bit of holdover from a 25 yd zero. Even with a 22 short, if a rat is close enough to hit within MBPR then it is close enough to kill. MPBR of 22 short on an inch size target can’t be too far. I cannot find bullet drop charts for 22 short anywhere. The best I can find is for 22 LR subsonic. With a 50 yd zero it climbs to an inch at 30 and drops an inch at 60.

earlthegoat2 said:

So, over on Rimfire Central a few years ago, a poster of some prominence outlined the chain of events that led him eventually use 22 shorts for dispatching feral swine (wild hogs) in the semi urban areas of FL.

The details escape me but range had to be short and shot had to be placed pretty precisely. Certain ammo recommendations were even given IIRC.

Cannot remember the poster’s name and I don’t have a link but it might jog someone else’s memory if they frequent RC.

More pertinent to your question is that I think 50 yds is possible with a bit of holdover from a 25 yd zero. Even with a 22 short, if a rat is close enough to hit within MBPR then it is close enough to kill. MPBR of 22 short on an inch size target can’t be too far. I cannot find bullet drop charts for 22 short anywhere. The best I can find is for 22 LR subsonic. With a 50 yd zero it climbs to an inch at 30 and drops an inch at 60.

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For those who may not know, MPBR is “Maximum Point Blank Range”. It’s a term meaning if one holds dead center on the vital area of an animal, the bullet will not rise above nor drop below that area so it can be hit with no estimation or holdover. The sizes of these zones vary based on the critter.

If a small deer has a 8” circular heart-lung vital zone, then the bullet won’t rise more than 4” above nor drop 4” below your center-of-the-zone hold for your MPBR.

One way to determine is to set your bullet to impact 3” high with a center-hold at 100 yards. Then by shooting at the center of the target, move it ever further outward until the bullet drops to 3” below the center for a 6” circle, which is a bit tighter than the average zone for a small deer. That is the rough distance of your MPBR.

https://www.chuckhawks.com/mpbr_hunting.htm

If a rat has a 1” vital zone, then it’s 1/2” above or 1/2” below. That’s pretty tiny, so practice up!
Stay safe.

I ended up with a bunch of cci 22 shorts.
In my 452 id say 40yds max. If the lighting is good I can occasionally see them sailing downrange.

Past that in my rifle they start getting a little squirrelly.

Like the other posters have said as far as you can reliably hit vitals. Ibe taken much larger animals than squirrels at much greater range with a scoped .22, than I could reliably hit a squirrels front 1/2 with a iron sighted .22.
If your gun shoots them well, and your not horribly concerned with eating them, try the hollow point hypers. Ive found them to offer some real advantages in expansion and will shoot a bit flatter.

With .22 “Quiet” and a scoped Kimber Custom Classic on squirrels; 40 yards consistently, 60 yards occasionally. If you consider the bullet diameter as compared to the body size of a squirrel (or rat), they are getting struck with a .50 BMG round (or even an artillery round). I would agree that the limiting factor is seeing/ hitting the small creature and not the round itself.