22 Magnum for Gray Squirrels

[Kels73]

Say, I notice there are a fair amount of you who hunt gray squirrel with a 22 magnum. What type of bullet do you use? My guess is that a body shot with a JHP will damage too much meat, but what about a JSP? Do you still have to limit yourself to head shots when using a JSP, or can you take a body shot without destroying a lot of meat? Then finally, what about FMJs? Will an FMJ kill a squirrel quickly, or is there too great a chance that the squirrel will get away before it dies?

Thanks,
Kels73

[torpedoman]

don't recall seeing any 22 mag fmj ammo the rem 33 gr  ammo should work for you but i would not use the mag on squirrels due to meat loss.

[mcwoodduck]

I have only shot a few.
A couple were head shots
For a while I was using the 34 grain JHP CCI maxi mags and the cleaned out the skull.  They were the most accurate out of my Marlin 882.
The one I shot that was running on the ground was right behind the rib cage and it made a nice neat hole in and pulled about 12" if guts out the other side.  He fliparound and died a couple min later. 
The FMJ rounds put holes in and out and they fall.

[Spanky]

Shoot 'em in the head if you can. Soft point ammo through the ribs won't tear up much but hollow points will shred 'em.



Spanky

[Drilling Man]

  Rib shots work great, even with FMJ's, just stay away from HP's...

  DM

[Kels73]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Now, I just have to find some non-hollow point ammo that my 22 WMR Sportster likes. So far, it's favorite ammo is Winchester Supreme 34 grain hollow points. Unfortunately, it doesn't like the Winchester 40 grain FMJs.

Back to the range!

Kels73   

[223fan]

Back when I used a 22 magnum I always used fmj's.

[Kels73]

223fan,

Which FMJs did you use?

Kels73

[Flynmoose]

I had some CCIs in truncated cone, I think. They were accurate enough
for pests and such.

[223fan]

It has been a long time but I beleive they were cci.I went over to midway's site they are cci Tmj.

[Kels73]

I just picked up a box of CCI TMJs at Wal-Mart. I'm going to try them next week. My hope is that my gun will like them better than it liked Winchester FMJs.

Thanks,
Kels73

[Kels73]

Well, I went to the range today with a box of CCI 40 gr TMJs, and my gun definitely liked them. Man did it like them! I think I found my squirrel load. And the best part is, they are only ten bucks at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also has the CCI 40 gr JHPs. I intend to pick a box of those up as well in the hope that they will have the same point of impact as the TMJs. Either way, I'll have fun finding out!

Thanks,
Kels73

[tacklebury]

Congrats   Always nice to find a stock ammo your gun will eat up.  Enjoy practicing.  I personally go the other way and use a Stevens Crackshot Single shot .22 and use CB shorts or std. shorts for squirrels most times as they are much quieter.  I can often shoot all 5 of my bag limit from one seated position, then just get up and go pick em up at the end.