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ADVENTURE SPORTS OUTDOORS “The Voice of the American Sportsman”
January 2018
By John Simeone If you intend to Squirrel Hunt in the great state of Louisiana on public land you have to contend with the regulations on wildlife management areas concerning Wild Hogs. You can’t carry a center fire handgun to protect yourself or buckshot or slugs for your shotgun if its not modern firearm deer season. Understandably this is suppose to protect the deer from poachers. However a wild hog may be hunted with small game equipment. This includes all rimfires and with shot no larger than #2 lead. I don’t think I ever went squirrel hunting that I didn’t run into a wild hog. Although a boar seldom gets over 300 pounds it happens and a 200 pounder can cut you to pieces. This is why in these areas I carry a 22 Winchester Magnum. A head shot on a hog at the base of the ear even with a 22 long rifle will kill instantly. Some have even done it with an air rifle. To me the 22 magnum is the bare minimum, but when its all you can carry its better than nothing. You can take a shoulder shot with the 22 magnum and knock down a 200 pounder but be ready for a second shot.
Of course the 22 magnum was never intended for big game and is at it’s best on small game like Squirrels and Rabbits as far as edible game while Woodchucks, Foxes, and Coyotes cover the vermin list. It is certainly more powerful on edible game than needed but the trick is to choose your ammunition wisely and you can do just about anything within the spectrum of the 22 magnum. When I squirrel hunt with it I generally use a full metal jacket for the first round in the magazine. This acts about the same as a 22 long rifle round and will not spoil meat. If I encounter a hog either a FMJ or a hollow point will do the job if needed. I prefer Winchester standard 22 magnum rounds as the Hollow Point and FMJ shoot to the same point of aim. With the trend toward suppressors, subsonic ammo seems to be getting popular. Now you can get sub sonic 22 mag ammo and this can be no different than regular 22 long rifle rounds on edible
game. I suppose this is great for the individual that only owns a 22 magnum although in my minds eye I can see a rezero in order to accommodate the lower My vintage Marlin Model 25 in 22 WMR and new velocity. Vortex Crossfire II 3x9 scope I have tested the properties of just about all 22 long rifle at more than 50 yards and 25 yards is the ammo types while exploring the World reality rule. But there are creatures that Squirrel Rifle Match (Top Gun Challenge) warrant a little extra punch. which I invented at Fort Polk Louisiana. The While stationed at White Sands 22 magnum was also explored as many Missile Range in New Mexico I discovered wanted to know just what it would do. Jack Rabbit Shooting. It was nothing to When you increase the velocity of a 22 shoot 3 to 4 hundred Jack Rabbits in one long rifle round to 1500 fps you deal with day with my Remington Speedmaster and the law of diminishing returns as far as a Bushnell 4 power scope. At first I used accuracy due to the fact the bullet is not Standard Remington Long Rifle hollow jacketed like the 22 magnum. The hyper points that I use for Squirrel Hunting. velocity ammo seems to show this. Bottom Ruark would have said that wasn’t enough line you can’t make a 22 long rifle shoot like gun. I then tried CCI Stingers, the results a 22 magnum without the loss of bench rest on impact were good but the accuracy accuracy. The 22 magnum, however, is an was a lot to be desired. I then discovered inherently accurate round, good on small Remington Yellow Jackets that made game out to 200 yards. To be honest tree everything come together as it had the squirrels and rabbits are seldom engaged extra speed to really thump a big Jack, but
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This Gray Squirrel was not damaged when proper ammo is used for edible game.
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The little white spot on the shoulder shows the exit holeof a 22 magnum, a second shot was required.
