.22 Mag

[Axlrod]

The OP isn’t talking about shooting something in the head at close range.

I was specifically talking about your post:
"It’s baffling to me that anyone would consider it for anything other than taking game in the most illegal and unethical manner possible."

I have seen it used many times in a LEGAL and ETHICAL manner taking game. And all shots were through the chest cavity, none were head shots. Just because your only first hand experience of the subject is intimate knowledge of the habits of poachers, doesn't mean everyone that uses a 22 mag is guilty of a crime.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I was specifically talking about your post:
"It’s baffling to me that anyone would consider it for anything other than taking game in the most illegal and unethical manner possible."

I have seen it used many times in a LEGAL and ETHICAL manner taking game. And all shots were through the chest cavity, none were head shots. Just because your only first hand experience of the subject is intimate knowledge of the habits of poachers, doesn't mean everyone that uses a 22 mag is guilty of a crime.

You are absolutely correct. I should be more open minded. I don’t have first hand knowledge of how effective a .22 Magnum is as a deer cartridge. For all I know, it could provide sufficient penetration and a wide enough wound channel to make clean kills on deer. I’ve never tried it because it is illegal where I hunt. The legality issue, however, also rules out .224 caliber centerfire rifles. So, while I know that a .223, .22-250, .22 ARC, .22 CM, etc., with a good bullet, are more than enough to kill deer, I’ve never done it personally.

I will also admit that I was an extreme skeptic when I first heard of the RokSlide thread about using .224 center fire cartridges for deer. I had the same prejudices against it that I have just shown against .22 Magnum. The only people I knew who used .224 center fire cartridges on deer were poachers. If you care to waste more of your life, you can go dig through my 24HourCampfire posts to see them. But I was eventually convinced by a large body of evidence.

The legality issue is simply a matter of jurisdiction. So, since it is legal in your jurisdiction, I would love to hear more about your experience using .22 Magnum as a deer cartridge. How many deer have you killed with it? What ranges? What sorts of wound channels do you see? What bullets work best? I’ll probably still be skeptical - and I will explain why below - but I will at least hear you out.

I’m also skeptical because I know people who use .22 Magnum, and the now obsolete .25 Stevens long, for wild turkeys. They specifically picked those cartridges because they provide sufficient penetration to reliably kill wild turkeys with body shots, but without excessive meat damage, at further ranges than a .22 LR. But, for all I know, modern .22 magnum bullets that aren’t just a hunk of lead can produce sufficient penetration and wound channels to do the job on deer. So, again, I shouldn’t have been so dismissive of the possibility that it would work.

 

[Undrcoverrednek]

.22 mag isn't known as the poacher's special for no reason. Plenty of VA deer back in the day neck shot that dropped on the spot....in the spotlight. Standard 40 grain jhp worked and no reason to believe it won't work now. If it's legal, give it a whirl and find out.

 

[Macintosh]

I have seen it used many times in a LEGAL and ETHICAL manner taking game. And all shots were through the chest cavity, none were head shots.

I'd be curious to hear your experience with regard to what ranges, what location of impact, and what the animal's reaction and wound channel was, as detailed as you are able. I'm not planning on trying, merely curious.

 

[Axlrod]

I'd be curious to hear your experience with regard to what ranges, what location of impact, and what the animal's reaction and wound channel was, as detailed as you are able. I'm not planning on trying, merely curious.

Not much useful info, i'm afraid. These were all Mountain lion kills at close range. We didn't open the chest cavity on any that I remember. We would skin them and take the backstraps. There were no bullet exits, and most seemed to expire as fast as being shot with a broadhead or a centerfire revolver (357, 41Mag, & 44 Mag).

Back in the early 80's a buddy bought a couple black & tan pups. His idea to train them (as he had no dogs that had ever chassed lions) was to cut a fresh track, and then follow the track until you jumped the cat. The first year we treed zero lions, and put on a LOT of steep snowy miles. So given we had little hope of ever shooting a lion, we stopped bringing a rifle and brought a borrowed Ruger Single Six in 22 Mag. Year two we started treeing some cats, and the Ruger worked well, so we each bought our own.

 

[Coopsdaddy]

Not legal and to small.
Just because it can be done don’t mean it’s a good idea.
You can kill a deer with a field point but thats not the right thing to do either.
You owe it to the game to do your best for a quick kill.

 

[WoodlandCritter]

Crazy the guys I've seen on here expounding the virtues of hunting with the lowest recoiling, cheapest cartridge possible and talking about how close minded and dogmatic people who say "you need at least 1400ftlbs to kill elk" are. Then come onto this thread and act as if the ignition method of a cartridge magically makes it "unethical" to hunt with. What happened to bullets not headstamps?

If you find a 22wmr loading that reliably produces a wound channel that will kill when made in an target zone that you can reliably hit within your maximum shooting distance, there is absolutely ZERO reason ethically speaking not to hunt with it where legal.

The hypocrisy is unreal...

 

[Machingeaneer]

If you find a 22wmr loading that reliably produces a wound channel that will kill when made in an target zone that you can reliably hit within your maximum shooting distance, there is absolutely ZERO reason ethically speaking
not to hunt with it where legal.

This is a big "if", I think if someone brought some evidence to the table the tune would change quick.

 

[Kyguy]

If you find a 22wmr loading that reliably produces a wound channel that will kill when made in an target zone that you can reliably hit within your maximum shooting distance, there is absolutely ZERO reason ethically speaking not to hunt with it where legal.

The hypocrisy is unreal...

There's not really any .22 Mag ammo that reliably produces anything resembling a wound channel. Watch the gel tests on the tube. The V-max loads disintegrate in gel pretty much on contact, and all of the 40gr or 50gr loads pencil through the gel for around 12" and don't expand.

I mean yeah, you can poke a hole through lungs and something will die eventually. Maybe a heart shot would be quicker. Doesn't mean that it's a good tool for the job.

There's a reason bow hunters don't use field points for hunting even though it could do the same thing.

The argument that it's the poacher's favorite round doesn't hold water for its performance. Poachers are shooting things in the head so that it's DRT, not in the vitals with a chance it may run.

 

[menhaden_man]