.22 bouncing again

pj1

Well-Known Member
just been out with the .22 rimfire. chest shot a couple of rabbits and got ricochets through rabbit and up through the trees:scared:. had to stop using it last summer as the ground was so hard, so what are my options?. like the quietness of the .22 but boy those ricochets give me the willies. what are peoples thoughts on .17 m2 .17hmr and .22 wmr.

regards pj
 
Depends where you are and how the land lies. I shoot with excellent backstops and nowhere near humans so an odd .22 round can bounce and cause no harm. Once it's hit the ground or been through a bunny it can't have much energy left.

I like the .17HMR but is is loud and if you're on foot then you can end up shooting a lot less rabbits.
 
thanks apache. im in the south east so im never to far from buildings. some pieces of land are only a few fields totalling 30 acres and down to about 14 acres. im not one for taking shots that are risky in fact im probably to cautious. shots tonight were about 50 yards with about the same amount before the tree line. shooting slightly downhill onto a flat field
 
I own both .22 and 17HMR. I only use the .22 on one bit of very noise sensitive ground. The sound of the 17 is over exaggerated in my opinion. I have heard one fired inside a shop, and ok it was a crack but we are not anywhere close to C/F noise. Fire the .22 without a mod and it makes more noise than a 17 with the mod fitted. Try before you buy is the best advice. Might be worth inviting a guest to shoot some rabbits with you. that way you can experience the sound from the side and not from behind the rifle.

ATB,

Mark.
 
thanks backup. are you using .22 subsonics. i used a .17 tonight but was shooting towards a wall of conifer so it probably sounded louder than normal. i have been offered shooting on the south downs. chalk and lots of flint so want something that will not be so inclined to bounce. has anyone tried the cci segmented hollow points and the hornady .22 wmr v max. cant find much info on either
 
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Has to be HMR, .22 is to bouncy for me as well, hard ground and buildings/people are within ricochet range.
As for not carrying much energy after passing through a rabbit, shooting down from a farm track which is about 30 feet higher than the rabbit I had in my sights, behind the rabbit was 25 yards of grass and a lake 200 yards long, the shot drilled the rabbit through the shoulders, skipped at least twice across the lake veering off to the left, it finally hit a shipping container at 290 yards, the dent is still easily visible 3 years later.
I have not used the .22lr since that day, except for plinking with a very safe backdrop.

As a point of interest, I have shot a good few rabbits from the same piece of track with both the HMR, .223 and .22 hornet, I have never had a single ricochet from either, nothing has even disturbed the lake only a few yards further on.

Neil. :)

EDIT: I should have said that the rabbit was just on 60 yards away from me, that makes the container 350 yards from the muzzle.
 
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I agree regarding retained energy. A friend shot a crow, had a glancing,richochet that sent the bullet off at 90 deg' to the flight path and it hit a person standing 400 yards away in the thigh and exited through the abdomen.
That was a subsonic round. It says dangerous to 1.5k on the box, I would not let someone aim at me with a .22 in the same time zone.
I have .17 and.22, it is rare for me to use the 22 these days as I too have heard one too many zings go off into the wide blue yonder when I thought I had a great back stop.
I find it ironic that the Police give rimmies out to new entrants in preference to c.f when in the wrong/inexperienced hands I believe they are among the most dangerous rounds (just behind depleted uranium 50cal) that you can buy.
 
cci segmented hollow points

has anyone tried the cci segmented hollow points and the hornady .22 wmr v max. cant find much info on either

I have tried the cci segmented hollow points and found that they do seem to hit rabbits a lot harder than the normal CCI sub sonic hollow points. However I was trying them, like you, to see if they would be less ricochet prone and didn't really find them to be much better. To be fair to them, I only tried the one box and the ground at the time was quite dry and hard so a fairly tough test.

I would be interested to know how this compares with other peoples experiences of cci segmented hollow points though...
 
On the police giving out rimmies. Price alone will limit cf shooting. .22rf Happily blow of a box for the price of 4 cf rounds, there is virtually no safe backstop for a .22 unless every rabbit is standing in front of a verticle earth bank. But everybody starts somewhere and nearly every fac holder has said rifle.
Jim
 
I have to agree with this,
I find it ironic that the Police give rimmies out to new entrants in preference to c.f when in the wrong/inexperienced hands I believe they are among the most dangerous rounds (just behind depleted uranium 50cal) that you can buy.
............maybe they are playing devil's advocate?, if you get by without doing someone a mischief with the .22LR ????
 
17hmr in open field is near silent, 223 in open fields can be quiet too. if you got trees then both can be very loud.

22lr does bounce and even soft ground you can hit a stone. infact i once shot a rabbit which went right through and then bounced and killed the one behind it. - this was with eley match! haha

i shoot at night when no one is around anyway so the chances of hitting someone are slim in the country side. But there is never a dull moment with the 22lr
 
I know what you mean about ricochets, but they dont happen often enough for me to ditch the rifle.
once had one bounce of wet grass!
I tried the segmented CCI, didnt see much difference. have been trying for years to find a jacketed/hollow point or frangible subsonic round for the 22lr.

noise is a problem with the HMR, especially where I shoot. In an open field you wont hear as much being the shooter but everyone else will.
I use a PES overbarrell moderator designed for 22CF on all four of my rimfire calibres.
The WMR is the noisiest of them all by far, regardless of round. may as well be 223!
the HMR comes next but some way lower
the M2 is a cracking round, considerably cheaper than the HMR, still laser like trajectory out to 100, where it falls off is the next 50 -100 yards that the HMR has the advantage. just walk a bit closer!

the .22 is always going to be the stealth round of choice when dusk bunny bashing though. I tried CBLongs for short range stuff but mostly use Winsubs as they are quieter than RWS and Eley.
all I hear is a firing pin strike, the faintest of claps and the bullet strike.

I find the winchester subs are a bit softer and seem to ricochet less (difficult to tell the quantitative factor unless replicating the exact same shot though!)

I had a fox problem in my garden and was loathed to use anything that had ANY chance of a ricochet. I drilled into a winchester hollow point with a 2mm drill bit and forced in two no.6 shotgun pellets.
bit Heath Robinson but I tested them out on a turnip at 40 feet and they worked very well. mushroomed like a proper jacketed bullet and did not retain any energy on the other side.
I shot two foxes at about 25-30 feet. here is one I retrieved from the other side of the fox, it was visible in the hole it had created in the grass, had gone in less than 1". not really feasible for lots of shooting though!

IMG_33531.jpg
 
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I'm not too sure I have ever had a sub exit a rabbit (and we have scrawny rabbits!) but I don't much need to worry about ricochets. I would switch brands of ammo.~Muir
 
I've been using the CCI segmented subs a fair bit, and they do bounce less than the 'normal' ones. Ricochets do still happen though, but they seem higher pitched - smaller bits maybe?. I've heard a surprising number of zingers from HMR, never from the hornet though. Did hear one from a 156grainer in a 6.5, that sounded like a bloody aeroplane!

James
 
In situations where ricochets and noise can be a problem I tend to take the FAC rated air rifle. Mine is regulated at 30ft lbs and will drop rabbits out to 60 plus yards, I am inclined to leave the 22 at home when the ground is really hard, and the 17 is great for summer evening stalks but is noisy if you are near to houses. WMR far too noisy and I have never found segmented ammo an advantage,
 
thanks for all your comments

bewsher you say the mach2 is a cracking round. is it any quieter than the hmr. im not worried about noise disturbance for people more a fact of clearing the rabbits from the fields.

thanks for the comment about the cci segmented that saved me buying a couple of boxs and trying out

regards pj
 
mach2 is defintely quieter.
I have a sako quad with all four calibre so it is a direct comparison as it is the same gun and same mod on both HMR and M2,

difficult to compare and quantify noise without a dB meter but I would speculate that a moderated m2 is a lot lower than an HMR, its half the cartridge size.

it is flat to 100 but IIRC drops off very quickly after that.
and as I said it is much cheaper than HMR but.........................buy in bulk when you can as lost fo dealer dont or wont get it in!
 
I'm not too sure I have ever had a sub exit a rabbit (and we have scrawny rabbits!) but I don't much need to worry about ricochets. I would switch brands of ammo.~Muir

Hi muir
I use winchester subsonics and have before had 2 rabbits at 80 yards withone bullet. Through one and into next. I would say nearly all my rabbits shot have exit wounds. Weather that be chest or head shot. What brand of ammo do you use to get no exit hole

Regards pj
 
I use a daystate air ranger f a c air rifle 60 ft lbs with bisley magnums 17grain or daystate monster pellets 25grain out to 80mtrs ideal in built up areas .
 
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