.22 LR VS Gophers.

[PapaG]

When I was a kid, maybe twelve or thirteen, dad got me an old Savage 23D with a 6X scope. I used an old Lyman 310 die set in a truline Jr. press to reload those hornet shells. They'd flat out cut ground squirrels in half out to my hundred or so yard range. If I remember right, Sisk 36 grain .223 hornet bullets were around three bucks a hundred and H240 (Hodgden's version of 2400) was $1.25/pound. Primers were .38/hundred. Sounds great but I only made seventy five cents/hr baling hay and mucking stalls.
As far as 22 lr goes, stingers, zappers, all the hyper velocity rounds go are fine but I've been having a ball with the CCI Velocitors..a 40 grain game point at 1435 fps.

 

[2ndtimer]

The past couple of summers I have shot quite a few gophers in Montana, and yes, they are ground squirrels, but everyone over there refers to them as gophers and they are universally despised by all the farmers. The .22 lr is okay and cheap to shoot. I used all manner of hollow points, and the CCI Stingers and Remington Yellow Jackets worked the best at close range, while the Winchester Power Point 40 gr hollow points seemed to work the best at longer ranges say out to 60 yards or so. Beyond 60 yards, I usually go for a .223 Remington with 40 gr V-Max or Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets. We shot plenty of them with 50 gr Nosler SHOTS bullets, as well as the Nosler 52 gr hollow point. The plastic tip 40 gr bullets definitely gave the most air time and I am sure the sea gulls appreciated the "pre-chewed" lunch we provided.
One thing I remember from shooting a few ground squirrels at close range with my 6" Colt Diamondback, they were no problem to hit, but even the hollow points did a terrible job of putting them down. Switching to a rifle was much more effective. I think the velocity loss with the barrel/cylinder gap on the revolver was just enough to not expand the hollow points reliably. Even my 5 1/2 inch Ruger 22/45 performed much better on the close range gophers. My youngest son actually got 6 in a row with it out the passenger window. Unfortunately, he also managed to shoot the passenger mirror on my Forester trying to catch up with a running rodent. Makes for a good story, though.

 

[Mr Bernoulli]

If they are developing an immunity to the 22 go for the 17 no small game is immune to that or you could go to the 22 mag i love my 17 though... not even fair what they can do...

 

[dirtykid]

I prefer the CCI stinger's or even the velocitors for "squirrels" Although i have shot a few right thru the upper-chest and then watched as they clung to the tree for a few minutes until adrenaline goes away and they finally let go,and either drop to the ground or fall into branches never to be found again,

 

[blarby]

My vote is in on the stingers.

Bulk pricing, excellent terminal results.

Plus, they look mean sitting in the box how could you go wrong with that ?

 

[ms6852]

I like to use the Aguila super maximum. It is hotter than the CCI stingers. Check out the link below.

http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm?contentID=productDetail&prodID=AU1B222297

 

[shiftyer1]

I also like cci, as a kid I think we used mini mags. We got 4 bits for the front feet of all the gophers we could get. I don't know if it was a county bounty or if old ben just didn't like gophers.