Hunting with a .22mag.

Shot one with a G19 in the chest which caused him to run in circles. I had to use the mozambique drill on him to finish him off.

Hinting with a 22 Mag

Are you using Hollow points?

Some of those varmints are tough as heck! Nothing that a 80-90 grain gape maw 9mm going 1700 fps won't fix though.

I've hit deer at 50 in a pickup and watched them walk off while I call for a tow. Animals are tough. Vitals are vitals though, if you don't hit vitals, or CNS, results are unpredictable.

There is a .22 mag varmint load out there that has taken quite a few 'yotes for me while I was in Oklahoma. Also 20 # plus ground hogs here in Ohio. Never shot a coon with one.

This is using a Marlin bolt action MN25 .22 mag.

Yes tough is an understatement.

My father in law and I were walking his year old German shepard when she treed a coon.
Around here they are quite a nuisance and shot on sight.
I was not anticipating any hunting so I left my .22 mag rifle in my truck back at the house, all I had was my DOA Ruger SP101 with me loaded with Speer gold dot 135gr Jhp in. 357 mag.
I hit the coon about level with my shoulder on its way up the tree at about fifteen ft from me.
I hit it mid torso and knocked it out of the tree. It hit the ground but couldn't run as its back half was useless but still fighting as the dog jumped in.
I had my father in law hold back the dog and switched to some hard cast I carry as one of my reloaded since I didn't want to waste another expensive gold dot.
I shot the coon again from about four feet hit it through the back bone at the shoulders.
It folded up and was still.
We continued with our walk about twenty minutes or more. Turned around and headed for home. When we passed where I shot the coon the dog went over to sniff, and that coon lifted it's head and snarled at the dog.

Yup they are tough. I grew up using hounds on coons and used round nose 22LR for better penetration. You could be 10' away and they wouldn't penetrate the skull. You could pick them right out after they were skinned. Very rarely did a bullet kill it, had to knock it out and let the dogs take care of it.

Raccoons are tuff

I grew up hunting raccoons with hounds......I have seen many an instance where they were shot out of a tall tree, fell to the ground with a resounding THUMP, then proceeded to fight three or four hounds ( and sometimes run off). If you didn't have a good dog who knew how to kill the coon quickly, the dogs would all get bit and cut up. You couldn't just "shoot in amongst them" for fear of killing or harming your dogs. I have also seen them take dogs out into the water and drown them. They are tough and tenacious, and not a bit afraid of a fight.

They have a lot of fat, fur and a small kill zone for their size. Plus they are smart, mean and never quit.

I have a Ruger 6" nickled single six with dual cyl. Had this about 30 years..and never fired a mag. thru it. Last year installed mag. cyl. & bought CCI hollow points thinking I would try..never got around to it. Few nights ago, 4:00 A.M...waiting for cat to come back inside from doing it's duty..heard loud woman like scream outside..cat crouching on porch..Red Fox yapping..I was just going to scare away..rifles all locked up & besides, when I opened the door..it would be long gone. But I saw it coming closer to porch..yapping all the while..then I remembered the Ruger. I was still thinking of only scaring it away..but when I opened door..it actually advanced..eyes locked on mine..still screaming! It was just beyond the reach of porch light illumination..but that nickled front stood out nicely..I placed it on bridge of nose & squeezed...OUCH!..I had forgotten ear protection! Those mags. are loud! Fox did a slow motion slump sideways and never twitched. I kind of hated to have to shoot it..but when came forward...

Sounds like it may have had rabies. You did the right thing by yourself and your pet.

Lost all faith in the .22 Mag., having used it on various critters, (ground hogs, hare, rabid dogs, etc.) multiple head shots, heart shots, with never a clean kill. Sold all of mine. I think the problem is a lack of velocity. When shooting sub caliber bullets, you need velocity.

I notice Winchester is coming out with a .17 cal. rimfire at 3000 fps. I'll wait and see how that works out.

kerf

Shot a 'coon at 95 yds with my super 14" contender in .223 using a 50 gr Nosler BT reload. Put the bullet right through the middle-bullet was not the only exiting material! Said 'coon ran but only made it about 20' before piling up.

Yeah, they are TOUGH.

Around here we have a problem with rabid coons and I now carry a 44 using regular 44 spl silver tips. They do a good job on coons and coyotes. I walk with my bird dogs and do not want them to tangle with a rabid coon.

Animals appear tough, but they usually die from gunshots to the torso area. But stopping one quickly is another matter.

For coons, foxes and watermocs that come into the grand kids play area a 45 usually does the trick.

I have no love for those pesky pests.. kinda probably hate them. Yea, a good .44, .45 SWC through the brisket is way better than a .22, magnum or not. If I was using something smaller I'd go super frangible and fast.. or a SWC. blam blam!
They carry so many diseases it's not even funny and I think most are rabid.

Once I body shot a tree squirrel with a powerful .177 piston rifle and it was kinda crawling away. I did some gruesome things to it with a six foot steel fencepost that I won't elaborate upon.. some things, at times, are just freakishly tough and tenacious.