It’s as far as you can count on your ability to hit them in the head. How good of a shot are you out in the field?

 

Yeh, you asked a loaded question and got the expected answer. Reliable head shots on a squirrel???.... 50 yards and less with a good rifle, good ammo and a scope, steady rest and skilled shooter. Offhand, maybe 25 to 35 yards or a bit more depending on the shooters ability to steady himself. Upper half Body shots out to 100 yards or a little more are possible from a steady rest. Lucky shots are possible beyond that. A 22 has enough energy to kill farther than you can reliably hit.

 

Ditto!

 

shaun, Nosecond and rc both gave good answers. I know this was a question directed at one's personal ability and where they feel comfortable at. BUT, You are going to get some folks that couldn't do well at an informal match at the Izzak Walton league telling you about their great shooting ability. I will give you my answer for me it is 50 yards for squirrels and I have 6.5x20 scopes on my hunting .22's and rarely ever take them off of 20.

A few years back a friend of a friend of a friend or so had an outdoor archery range where one walked through the woods and shot their arrows at animal targets it was fun. I asked him about allowing some walk through .22 shoots as it was in the woods and secluded, he thought it a good idea. we did it for awhile and it was fun also. squirrel targets at different ranges and head shots were a must for score. You could shoot anyway you liked except prone.

I think the farthest squirrel was 80 yards. Wind is just about always present whether you feel it or not and it would show on your targets. Everyone went through in a group. The guy that shot first on a target went last on the next target and so on. it wasn't timed but one was expected to shoot fairly quickly. Most decent bench shooters were very good to about 35 yards, after that most would hit a lot of crippling shots, in the face and lower jaw. ( which though it was a head shot deducted 1 pt from their score). Some were good to 50 yards. and I consider this the average maximum for a good field shooter. The targets at 60 gave one an extra bonus point but if not a good hit deducted two pts. The target at 70, two extra with a deduction of 3 and at 80 3 extra with a deduction of 4

If one wanted to win they never fired at the 70 and 80 yard targets unless they were behind and were going to lose anyway. 60 was shot at quite a bit it was called the Devil, easy to make a good hit and just as easy to put in a crippler. Everyone hated climbing a little hill and then having to go first. Experience, mine and others has shown me 50 yards is a good place to call a maximum. having hunted with a lot of shooters that ran the course I have a feeling that most will do better on the course than on a squirrel. The squirrel will cause a little adrenaline I think.

 

Thanks gents. for your replies.I am asking this question out of curiosity as opposed to needing to know, if you you know what I mean.

I am based in England and the squirrel hunting is a little different here.We tend to shoot from concealed positions waiting and watching squirrel feeders, so shots will be from a rested shooting position, as opposed to walking and stalking etc.

I will stay typically at 55-60 yards in this type of shooting.

Thanks all.

 

Shaun, You mentioned head shots. Are you eating the squirrels or just being sporting about the whole thing? What is your choice of ammo?

 

Hi Lerrab, both eating and for pest control.I am using subsonic hollow point ammo, typically Eley or SK Rifle Match

I am reasonably confident out to about 55 yards as with ten groups of five shots each,(at this range) all shots will be an inch or less group size. This is with SK Rifle Match with a CZ457.

 

I think that kind of shooting will do the job at your distances, but you know that.

I find it interesting that even for pest control you shoot them in the head. I assume you see that as a sporting chance. Good Show!

 

I find it interesting that even for pest control you shoot them in the head. I assume you see that as a sporting chance. Good Show!

I like that in this gentleman.
A few days ago I watched a squirrel hunting video from England, where the participants were shooting squirrel nests with shotguns.
They retrieved two squirrels that happened to fall out of the nest.
If I can find it again I'll post it in the hunting forum.

 

The maximum range is what you're safely comfortable and confident in shooting. I had 3 shots in excess of 60 yards using a Kimber K22 and Eley Edge during 1 hunt this year. All were dropped with the round hitting the point of aim, not just center mass. With that being said, I was confident in my equipment and shooting ability and would have probably not gotten a shot on those 3 heavily hunted and pressured squirrels. Had any of those squirrels been closer they would have probably seen or heard me and been on the move, at 60 yards I don't think they knew I was there, or they didn't care. They were calm and was sitting still feeding, giving me plenty of time to get into a good shooting position and anchored against a large tree for stability. Just a point of contention here that I have either missed or isn't in this thread is there's a lot of difference not only in shooting from a bench and hunting, but also in shooting on an incline... such as in a squirrel in a tree or a decline. You need to know your equipment well enough to correct the trajectory of your round to be able to allow for the amount of drop. A round has a flatter trajectory when shooting on an incline or decline and I have seen a lot of folks hold high on long shot when a squirrel is high up on limb and shoot right over the top of it. Just saying if you're squirrel hunting and shooting at squirrels high up in trees, then practice shooting into a target on the side of a hill and from an improvised rest. You'll gain confidence and do a lot better. Just my 2 cents worth. Doc

 

Really good point with regards to the squirrels being wary in areas much hunted.So it was nice being able to take the shots at 60 yards.

Equally excellent point with regards to shooting at angles and the flatter trajectory.
My Hawke range finder has a horizontal distance mode which should be used when shooting in an incline or decline.This mode apparently corrects for the angles and gives a trued and compensated 'horizontal' distance.

Thanks.

 

UK is a little different matter, grey squirrels are an invasive species there and are greatly displacing the red squirrel that is their indigenous species. Some hunt them for sport and eat them but the overall view of greys is eradication like with rabbits and foxes in Australia.

As far as as answering the OP, my usual limit would be around fifty yards or so. I did knock one off from 75 earlier this season, the bullet struck at the junction of the skull and neck a tad left of my aimpoint; that shot happened to be in an area where I knew the range fairly accurately and I was sitting firmly lodged against a large oak, so a reasonably solid shooting position. Shots like that don't happen often, they are most often below 35 yards.

I'm shooting a Kimber Hunter 22, using subsonic hollowpoints, currently a 2-7x scope and don't own anything like rangefinders or wind meters. Too complex and costly. May switch to 3-9x scope.

 

UK is a little different matter, grey squirrels are an invasive species there and are greatly displacing the red squirrel that is their indigenous species. Some hunt them for sport and eat them but the overall view of greys is eradication like with rabbits and foxes in Australia.

As far as as answering the OP, my usual limit would be around fifty yards or so. I did knock one off from 75 earlier this season, the bullet struck at the junction of the skull and neck a tad left of my aimpoint; that shot happened to be in an area where I knew the range fairly accurately and I was sitting firmly lodged against a large oak, so a reasonably solid shooting position. Shots like that don't happen often, they are most often below 35 yards.

I'm shooting a Kimber Hunter 22, using subsonic hollowpoints, currently a 2-7x scope and don't own anything like rangefinders or wind meters. Too complex and costly. May switch to 3-9x scope.

Thanks Phil, yes, greys are considered invasive and having displaced the indigenous red squirrels, so we have no bag limit or season.Typical hunting for greys is at feeding stations.

Nice rifles the Kimbers and good shot you made at 75 yards.

I also use a x2-x7 scope (a very nice Hawke Vantage I.R. 32mm A.O.) which is perfect for hunting, but a little under powered for me for target shooting, but love this scope so will not change it.

I have a Hawke OLED range finder.I resisted getting one for years, but now it is indispensable and simple and easy to use and read due to the orange OLED display.

Thanks mate.

 

I've been using RWS or CCI subsonic hollowpoints, with the RWS being the most accurate. When Eley changed from the 40 grainers to the 38's the accuracy went away from my Kimber with them, so I didn't keep buying them. The very best was from SK, so of course they discontinued them. I tried using some of the now discontinued Eley Edge last year and the accuracy was excellent, best I had ever tried in the little Hunter. If I could afford it I think that I would try a 4-12 scope and Eley Match EPS, but a scope that I'd like and that particular ammunition are quite expensive, and probably just an incremental improvement over what I'm used to anyway.

The Hawke 3-9x40 IR Rimfire Subsonic is an interesting scope for not too bad a price.

 

I've been using RWS or CCI subsonic hollowpoints, with the RWS being the most accurate. When Eley changed from the 40 grainers to the 38's the accuracy went away from my Kimber with them, so I didn't keep buying them. The very best was from SK, so of course they discontinued them. I tried using some of the now discontinued Eley Edge last year and the accuracy was excellent, best I had ever tried in the little Hunter. If I could afford it I think that I would try a 4-12 scope and Eley Match EPS, but a scope that I'd like and that particular ammunition are quite expensive, and probably just an incremental improvement over what I'm used to anyway.

The Hawke 3-9x40 IR Rimfire Subsonic is an interesting scope for not too bad a price.

Lots of shooters in the U.K. are / were astounded at Eley's decision to replace the 40 grain subs. with the new 38 grain.I think Eley lost a lot of customers with this decision as evidenced by you and many, may others.This is just bad management on the part of Eley sadly.

Yes, have also heard lots of good reports about the Hawke x3-x9 Rimfire Subsonice scope.

 

Depends on how long it will stand there. 100yds I can smack a 50cent piece pretty regularly.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Nice shooting.

 

My Annie 1710.
I would shoot to 60 yards on squirrels.
I keep a low mounted scope on it.
I zero in field for 32 yards.
When leaves are one I can shoot elevated holding dead to around 50 yards. At 60 yards aim top edge of head.
Now, shots that are longer and less angle one can shoot low if not carful.

I am for all (most) practical purposes done with 22 lr.

Will use only in off season for sporadic shooting to maintain shooting skill level.
And possibly use a little only during spring squirrel season.

 

I am for all (most) practical purposes done with 22 lr.

I don't understand this...are you not going to hunt with 22 lr anymore?

 

Just in case he doesn't drop back by this thread, Squirrel1 is using the .17 Mach 2.

 

Safari round!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Head shots

Rather do a rib shot instead of wasting the head. Brain, tongue, cheeks, better eating than the ribs. 12 ga works fine, besides a 22, just dig out all the pellets. My farm family put food on the table this way over three generations for a hundred years.

 

zeroed at 50 yards and most shots are under that. New England woods are not long shots.

 

:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t

 

Hi folks
What is your MAXIMUM hunting range with a .22LR? This is for squirrels, rabbits etc. using ONLY head shots.

You mentioned in one of your responses that you hunt from a steady rest. The answer then becomes easy. Set up a target from the same rest. Keep moving the target further away until you can't hit squirrel head size groups anymore. That's your max.

 

I can do that all day long with my Miroku built 1885 Winchester~!! 1/2 inch~!!

 

I use a older cz ultra lux and pop primers out of 12 gauge shells for practice so with good support I would take that shot at 100 yards. Don't know that I would at 50 with a 10/22. Its a matter of the Indian and the arrow being suited to each other and the situation. This however has basically been said.

 

My personal max is the distance I can see yonder squirrel and have a clean path for the slug. That presents more of a problem than you’d guess on Eastern grays in our scrub forest. To date I’ve never fired at one over 100yds cause I just didn’t see a clear path. Close, sometimes very close, but not quite.
Interesting that no one has brought up the lethality of our rimfires at extended distance.
Couple of years ago my precision rimfire club was running long range sight-in practice on steel 12oz size soda can silhouettes using an old truck hood for a target backer (to spot misses).
At 300 yds our 40gr standard velocity and match target loads were passing clean through that heavy steel hood!

 

Shooting a turkey wrapped in clothing @ 300 yards

From Sniper's Hide:

The wrapped around turkey looked like this: (photos did not reproduce)
My son was with me and it took use considerable time to find the right location. Safety was definitely an issue but also, in order to have any chance to hit the target with winds that strong we had to shoot within the wind. Even then, because of the constant shifting of the wind from 7 to 5 O'clock, I had doubts we could even pull it off. So instead of 300 yards, we actually started at 250 yards which allowed me to use my elevation knob zeroed at 200 yards and my mildots reticle and thus "less guessing".
As you can see the package is quite small at 250 yards!!!!!! The wrapped Turkey was a bit bigger then a human head, it wasn't a big turkey to start with - I actually bought the cheapest one ($12)
We positioned ourselves on top of the Jeep. My son used my 308 and the Leupold 6.5-20X to spot me (if we could do so) and I shot the 22LR.
Equipment was as follow:
Savage Mark II BTVS in 22 LR
Bushnell 3200 Tactical Scope - 10X Mildots
Ammunition was Wolf Match Target - 40 Gr Bullet - 1050 fps
Note that shooting in that position was not the most stable and 25-30 MPH wind actually WILL shake you around. I calculated the wind cycle to range from around 18 to 30 MPH. It was a quick wind cycle with periods of 18 MPH lasting only a 4-5 seconds at best. I decided to shoot at the lowest point of the wind cycle and simply use 0 windage as I was shooting in the wind.
My first round went slightly to the left missing the target by a couple of inches, my second round did the same on the right side and my third one actually hit the small turkey dead center. I was actually amazed!!!!!!
I was ready to shoot 50 rounds in those windy conditions to have some "Hope" to hit the target because, from what I was told, the 22LR is so unstable in the wind at long distance. Yet despite the atrocious conditions - using elementary ballistic information and field craft, shooting it in 18 to 30 MPH was factually quite easy. From a tactical viewpoint, every single shot would have hit a center mass target.
Inspecting the 250 yards target was quite revealing…the bullet had gone through the 3 layers as if it was nothing.
Encouraged by the results and the fact that we could hit the target, we placed the turkey at 300 yards. I spotted for my son and he took the shots. Again we were amazed that despite the wind we had 4 hits out of 10 rounds!!! If someone had told me he can shoot such a small target in those conditions, before we did so ourselves, I would have laughed!
Here was the result:
Note that the 300 yards round in the center seemed to have keyhole. The probability is that the bullet hit some of the sage brush that was moving around wildly in the wind because no other impacts showed signs of keyholing and we were somewhat shooting through the moving brushes.
Now the huge surprise was the following. After taking the shot at 250 yards I was quite happy to see that the bullet had penetrated the 3 layers of clothing but I would have never thought of actually checking the BACK OF THE TARGET.
After shooting the 300 yards and taking back the target to the Jeep, we realized that one round had gone through the whole turkey, the clothing layers in the front AND the layers in the back as well!!!!!!!!!! And this had to occur between 250 yards and 300 yards. This was MUCH MORE than I ever had anticipated for the standard velocity 22LR round!!!!!!!!!!
Not only that but because the clothing was wrapped around and folded/taped in the back, it was the equivalent of shooting through 3 layers of clothing in the front and 6 LAYERS of clothing in the back plus on layer of duct tape!

 

The shooter, in most cases, would be the limiting factor in max hunting range or in any type of shooting for that matter.

 

The . 22 LR is effective to 150 yd (140 m), though practical ranges tend to be less. After 150 yd, the ballistics of the round are such that it will be difficult to compensate for the large "drop". There are two considerations with re to range; Maximum effective range and Maximum accurate range, they are distinct. Max effective range would realistically be not much more than 100m, after that the energy drops such that it would need to be pretty well placed to take out the larger critters. Yes, reports of foxes out to 200+m abound... Maximum accurate range, depending on the rifle now more so than the cartridge, could be many hundreds of meters..... if by the accuracy you mean getting successive shots in a similar area...no reason why you cant plink to 1000m.... might need a 2000MoA base though !!!

 

I recall reading that a good range to zero for small game is 35 yards. Holdover is not much more for shots out to 75 or so.

 

Max hunting range ? When my 5 shot groups at targets exceed 1". Or a 1/2" radius. Further than that, try and get closer or pass up the shot.

Because I know on a live target, that accuracy is critical in collecting game vs. only wounding it.

 

I've made a few kills at and past a hundred yards but those shots were exceptions to the norm, happening in places where it was possible to see the squirrel clearly against the woods background and estimate the range with some accuracy. In places I hunt where I'm familiar with the trees and I can accurately know the distances, 75 yards is doable fairly often. In MOST areas, 50 yards is the practical limit if you're sitting or otherwise able to get a steady gun rest. If your stuck with an offhand shot it's going to depend on your individual skill as a shooter. I can kill them with an offhand shot up to about 25 yards but shake and wobble far too much to try any further. I simply cannot make a guaranteed kill shot any further; hit the squirrel "somewhere" sure but not a centered head shot or heart/lung strike which are instant death.

 

Shooting a Squirrel at 100 yards and finding it espically if theirs any cover is almost impossible.. 25 yard is hard enough with a 22lr..