22lr, 22 magnum or 17 hmr

PossumSlayer

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Went with 17 hmr, my buddy talked me into it... he said you'll love the canoe wound on a coyotes head😂
 

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PossumSlayer

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Good deal. Keep us updated on how it does.
Could only site it in to fifty yards (shot in my back yard) clover leafs😁 . That little rifle is a great shooter! I can't wait to dial the scope out to 100 yards, to bad it's gonna rain tomorrow or I'd try it out on a coyote and a few squirrels.
At 50 yards through 2 1x8s with a piece of 16 ga cold roll it went through all three. The exit through the metal looked about the size of a 9mm .
 

Tenntrapper

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Could only site it in to fifty yards (shot in my back yard) clover leafs😁 . That little rifle is a great shooter! I can't wait to dial the scope out to 100 yards, to bad it's gonna rain tomorrow or I'd try it out on a coyote and a few squirrels.
At 50 yards through 2 1x8s with a piece of 16 ga cold roll it went through all three. The exit through the metal looked about the size of a 9mm .
Sounds like it's doing a good job for you. Several years ago, I had a Marlin 17hmr. Used to shoot the wings off of dragonflies at about 30 yards...they seemed to like our back yard. I put a bunch of them afoot..lol
 

redgineer

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I used a Ruger American Rimfire in 22lr last fall. With CCI segmented hollowpoint subsonics, I headshot a squirrel at 70 yards. The bolt action coupled with a suppressor made it so quite that I was able to pick off the whole nest one by one. Just make a clean kill, or the sound of a struggling squirrel will send them into a panic.

The CCI segmented hollow points are devastating to small game. While pistol hunting with a Browning Buckmark, I shot a squirrel in the stomach, but the round segmented and exited through the liver, saving me from losing a wounded animal.

Too late for this now, but I was able to get 2k rounds of this ammo for a couple of hundred bucks a few years ago. That is the main benefit of hunting small game with 22lr, I have thousands of rounds stored up, and it is quiet and effective with the right ammunition and a well zeroed optic.
 

Hunter 257W

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For me the 22LR is the best for small game. That' what I, like so many hunters, started hunting with when I was a farm kid. My #1 game in the early years was groundhogs though and the 22LR will not reliably kill a groundhog no matter what ammo you use. Sure they'll die but very often they'll do it back in their hole. If a hunter don't care about the game suffering I guess it don't matter but even as a kid I wanted to kill game as quickly and humanely as possible. So I nagged my Father into buying me a bigger rifle. I wanted a heavy barrel 222 but got a bolt action 22 Magnum instead Well, it did hit hogs harder than the 22LR and shocked them a bit longer but guess what?? A LOT of them still made it back to their hole. It was a big disappointment to be honest.

On the flip side another negative with the 22 Magnum is that it is overpowered for edible small game and absolutely destroys rabbits or squirrels while a 22LR is about perfect for both and does just enough damage to kill without ruining meat.

I've never shot the 17 HMR but I have zero doubt you'd get the same performance in spite of higher velocity because the bullet is so tiny.

I can imagine that these two larger rimfires might give adequate performance on coyotes since they have no hole to retreat to like a groundhog and will at least stay above ground if they aren't stopped in their tracks.

Personally having both a 22 Hornet and 218 Bee the 22 Magnum is too in between to be useful in comparison. The Hornet outshines it in a big way for heavier varmints and the 22LR is far better for the little critters. So I'd go 22LR myself and get something bigger than the other two for most of the tasks hunters use them for.

As for availability I'm not really sure since I hardly ever go to gun shops or places where they sell ammo. Also my thoughts are heavily swayed by the fact that I load my own ammo and can shoot the 22 Hornet or 218 Bee about as cheap as the 22 Magnums or 17 HMR. On that thought I have a 32-20 I can shoot way cheaper than that and it hits a lot harder with very mild report and zero recoil.
 

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