Caliber limits

[Vern Humphrey]

.22 LR

Best limited to small game, squirrels and rabbits. I have, when a boy, taken two deer with a .22 LR and treed mountain lions are regularly taken with a .22 LR. Still, nowadays, I stick with the small game limitation.

12 gauge

Just about anything from quail to bears. I've taken several deer with my Ithaca Model 37. Many people in bear country carry a 12 gauge for defense, although I never heard of anyone hunting grizzlies with it.

10mm

Probably limited to deer at close range. This points up the issue -- it's the range at which you can hit reliably, not the range at which the round can kill.

.243 win

I wouldn't choose the .243 for elk, but it will do the job -- in the hands of a skilled hunter and shooter.

.308.

Just about anything in North America -- although for Griz and buffalo, I'd like something a bit heavier.

 

[MCgunner]

.22 can't take raccoon????? Bwaaaaaa, ha, ha, ha! Damn, that's funny right there. I've taken coon at 50 yards with the .22 with a body shot and a CCI mini mag.

Agree with Vern except I don't hunt ungulates with a shotgun unless forced to by rules. That's a rifle's job.....or, handgun. Not that it won't do the job, just don't have to hunt anything, but birds with a shotgun down here normally.

 

[T.R.]

The largest animal I've taken was a Dakota bison. One shot from my .308 into skull at butt of the ear dropped it instantly. But a stout .243 bullet would've produced same results.

Shot placement and lethal results are intertwined.

TR

 

[LEVRLOVR]

22lr. Reliable on fox size stuff up to 50 yds or so.
I have killed cattlle, hogs, deer, dogs etc. with a .22lr 4" pistol but that does not make it a good choice for hunting those species.

10mm. Deer out to 50 yds or so and hogs a little closer.

12 gauge. Whatever you can think of on this continent even the big bears out to 75 yds. or so. Brenneke Black majic comes to mind as a heavy load.

.243 win. Any of the deer species even Moose if you limit your range to under 100yds. or so. Would not be my choice for anything that may eat me though.

I will add that these are under ideal conditions and the shooter must know his and the cartridges limitations.


125 lb. sow taken with a 10/22 at about 30 yds.

Body shot? I never would have found it.
Neck Shot? I never would have found it.
Broadside brain pan? May have resulted in bacon in the freezer but may not have.
Dull glowing eyeball shot? NOW THAT IS THE TICKET for hunting wild hogs with a .22lr.

It all comes down to the hunter knowing the limitations he has imposed on himself with the gear he has chosen.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Well said Art.

 

[Clipper]

.22 LR no good for coyote??! I wish you'd have a talk with the Michigan DNR...If you're shooting 'yotes at night, by law you must use a rimfire, or a shotgun shooting non-buck shot loads.

 

[OpelBlitz]

I've read plenty of stories of people hunting smaller doe with .30 Carbine from 75yd-100yd, dropping them instantly. I wouldn't want to do that from any farther though.

 

[saturno_v]

I have no personal experience but I heard that the most powerful 22 Long Rifle HP (Aguila Interceptor or CC Velocitor) out of a rifle are decent coyote medicine up to 100 yards or so.

I know of many people that used them very successfully.

On the other side, yotes can be incredibly tough and strong willed so bullet placement is the most important factor even when using appropriate (including too powerful for the task) centerfire cartridges.

My gunsmith's son blew a pass-through hole in the side of a coyote with a 257 Roberts you could almost literally put your arm through...heart and lungs gone, still the thing run away and had to be tracked down, the blood trail was huge.

 

[WTBguns10kOK]

There are no limits to the .22 mag, in the right poacher's hand, or so I've heard through the ages. Maybe I should get one for teotwaki....

 

[Todd1700]

22 LR, 12 gauge, 10mm, .243 win, and .308.

Well, there's a lot of variables. If you make the question simply "What can this cartridge kill?" then the upper end range on each of those listed goes way up.

If you change the question to "What's the biggest animal you would hunt with each?" then the upper range falls way back.

I've heard of poachers killing moose at night with a 22lr by shooting it multiple times in the ribs. Of course it didn't drop on the spot but they would come back and find it in daylight the next day. Eskimoes have killed Polar bears with a 22 hornet. I'd recomend neither however.

There is also a huge difference between head shots and body shots as well. A 22lr to the head at close range will kill most animals in North America. But that doesn't make it a feasble hunting option for those animals

Game size for .22LR ends about 5 pounds.

Wow, is that ever wrong. I've killed plenty of coons way over 5lbs with a 22lr and it was more than enough for the job. I also disagree about it's ability to kill a coyote. Under 100 yards it will pretty consistently kill a coyote even with body shots, although he may run a ways. Coyotes are not as big or tough as most people think. Most are about 25 to 30 lbs. A 22lr in the ribs/lungs under 100 yards = dead as a door nail.

A 12 gauge with a slug will kill any North American game animal. It is limited by two factors however, trajectory and accuracy. A smoothbore with rifled slugs is usually only accurate enough to be about a 50 to 60 yard gun at best. A rifled slug barrel with a saboted slug it shoots well can be a 125 yard gun.


10mm I have no experience with.

A 243 I would use for any medium size game animal up to and including mule deer and black bear.

A 308 with a bullet matched to the task at hand will kill anything in North America and most things on the planet. I would want a bigger gun for dangerous game where stopping a charge might save your life but that said the 308 would kill even those large dangerous animals. Just perhaps not before one of them also killed you. LOL! But for everything short of the big bears a man could use a 308 for everything else on our side of the pond and not be severely handicapped, if at all.

 

[floridaboy]

I'm getting up in years. I've seen times that if game critters came in our yard, they were soon converted into dinner. Things I've seen fall to one shot out of a .22LR: Deer, squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasants, dogs, cats, and the list goes on. As to .243: Deer, 1 in fact.
12 gauge: All of the above, plus others I'm certain
.308: None. Substitute 30/06 and the list is Deer, Black Bear, groundhogs.
1 bear, DRT. Never saw a groundhog need a second shot. Deer, I don't know how many fell to my Model 70. Over 50 for sure, never lost one. Never had to shoot one twice. All else being equal, shot placement rules.
I live in Florida now, and places to hunt are very limited. My experience is limited to Maryland and Virginia.

 

[dmazur]

I didn't see anything about the popular .44 Remington Magnum...

I think many limit themselves to 50 yds for deer-sized game w/ open sights, and 100 yds with a scope. (For a handgun)

I've read 100-150 yds is a reasonable limit for a scoped rifle. (And the 150 yds might be possible only with Hornady's pointed bullets.)

So this is kind of a "caliber limit" answer, with a qualifier that it depends what you are shooting it with.

 

[RumRunner]

.22LR works just fine on yotes and hogs out to 150 yards

i have used .22 shorts on squirrels to yotes at close range with the same results as a .223

smallest cartage i would use on deers would be .223. my .243 does the job just fine.

 

[Gungnir]

"What can this cartridge kill?" then the upper end range on each of those listed goes way up.

Yup the natives in AK have taken humpback whales with 223 Rem. Not recommended under normal circumstances.

Jimbo I think you're looking for the Holy Grail of hunting, everything is so circumstantial, if you're hunting Caribou with a 270 Winchester, and a Moose runs across your path and you have a tag, do you take a Pop at it with the Winny, or leave it since you don't have something bigger? Same goes for everything else.

Personally I'm a fan of bigger is better, good shot placement rules but since we're talking about living breathing and moving critters, a bigger caliber gives you more leeway, even if you can shoot to your rifles limits on the range, out in the field the target isn't at a fixed point with a fixed aspect. If you tag a buffalo with a 22LR in the optimum place (say in the eye and up through the brain-pan) sure you can take it out with the one round, but that's hoping for a lot, if you can do the same shot with a 45-70 and it moves a little well you'll likely take it out just as well, without necessarily the need for more followup shots.

I like my game to be happily eating grass and thinking about humping one second, and not breathing the next. Certainly makes me feel happier by not watching something go limping off, stumbling and then falling over twitching, and having to perform a "coup-de-gras" with my sidearm and have that big confused scared watery eye looking at me (I know I'm anthropomorphizing, so sue me).

That's not to say I shoot squirrels with 50 BMG, although I have blasted a couple with a 12 gauge with 00 Buck, wasn't pretty, "oh look here's a tail...", but I do tend to err on the side of bigger. Just because I could take a Deer with a 223 doesn't mean I will, and I do think that DF&G regs that specify Maximum calibers are totally stupid. However at the same time, I have shot 'yotes with a 22LR ball, 12 gauge and 338 Win Mag hunting round when they were being pests and it was the only gun I had available, but I wouldn't go and hunt them with a 22LR.