small game, pellets in a centefire

[bmortell]

red squirrels make a mess around my families houses and seem to multiply like mad, so i've been looking for a quiet way to get rid of them. I don't have a pellet gun and 22's seem to ricochet more than id like. so today I tried loading Crossman 14.3gr 22 cal pellets in a .222rem. pellets are loose in a fired case so I sized them and pellets make for a tight enough slip fit, pushed in flush against the table. just a primer gave 375 fps and similar sound to dry firing. 0.5 titegroup gave 550 fps and similar sound to a pump bb gun. 0.7 650fps. 1.0gr 830fps and sounds like maybe 22 short without a sonic crack. im a bit worried about pellet skirts on the heavier loads and slightly more noise than I wanted for around houses. I think around 600fps in 22cal is good enough for squirrels right? also they don't seem to push primers out so im not sure id need to drill the flash hole. all in all im really happy with the setup, its cheaper than buying .22 cb shorts which are 10 dollars a box now, and easy to make for anyone with a low capacity 22 cal rifle.

[MT Chambers]

Buy a good spring powered airgun and save the cost of primers and all the labour, they are more accurate and a lot of fun.

[Moleman-]

I tried this with a modified 223 case and couldn't get them to shoot very well. Just went back to the pellet gun or 12ga if they're too far away. Of course we don't have any houses by us though.

[jcren]

I have an old 22 cal pump up air rifle that shoots about 600 fps that has killed many squirrels.

[GhostHawk]

Chambers nailed it.

Any decent airgun will do the job cheaper, more accurately, quieter.

You can get a Crossman 1322 pistol kit for about 79$ with shoulder stock.
https://www.pyramydair.com/s/m/Crosman_P1322_With_Shoulder_Stock_Black/3608

Amazon has it for 82$ with ammo and shooting glasses and the shoulder stock.

I have a Beeman pistol that sells for 32$ but It is .177 and only 400 fps, IMO a bit light for squirrels.
A head should "should" at reasonable distance give a clean kill. But I have never tried it.

My old tried and true for decades has been a Sheridan Blue Streak. 3-4 pumps is deadly accurate, easy to make head shots on any varmints in range. And deadly accurate, fairly quiet.

But any of the spring/vortex guns with a surpressor will do as much with less pumping and less noise.

[Tripplebeards]

My 22 cal browning nitro piston air pistol shoots 600 fps. Pellets will not dispatch coons at point blank with it. 99% percent of the pellets won't penatrate the Hyde. It will kill squirrels and rabbits with head shots at 20 yards. I would suggest a 22 cal air rifle something a 1100 fps or greater. The same pellet( poly predator) that won't penatrate a coons Hyde with my pistol at point blank will do a pass through with a head shot on a coon at 25 yards using my walther talon nitro piston 22 mag air rifle.

[bmortell]

hmm, id have to disagree that "go buy an airgun" and "its cheaper" belong in the same sentence's unless you gotta go buy the .222 rifle to do it. I have over 1k small rifle primers that I don't use and borrowed a handful of pellets, so why spend $$$ when I can do the same thing for free. I can make enough to go hunting in a few minutes, I haven't done proper accuracy testing but I could hit where I wanted on a pop can at 10 yds. and there not louder than anything else per performance. I thought it was a great deal.

[3leggedturtle]

Been there done that with a 22 Hornet. It’s nice to see someone else get good results with just a little thinking outside the box!! I was using from a .25 grain to 1.0 grain of 2400. The skirts on the RWS pelet’s didnt “act up” until after I heard the super sonic crack. Enjoy it and have fun... Todd/3leg

[Te Hopo]

Sounds like fun, and something I definitely have to try in my .223

[Alferd Packer]

I love shooting anything including airguns but given the choice I'd rather pop a primer Sunday mainly cause I love reloading as much as shooting. I don't want to save the labor/delete the reloading fun. Thank you bmoretell!

[Alferd Packer]

Don't know where the word Sunday came from but anyday is what it should read.

[fastdadio]

While in the Army, out in the field at the Yakima Range, with too much time on my hands, I figured out that a .22 cal, hollow base pellet would perch perfectly atop a crimped 5.56mm blank cartridge. Held in place with a small bit of chewing gum and carefully chambered into an M-16 would hit exactly to point of aim from 15 yards on a full can of shaving cream. What I hadn't figured out, was how I was going to explain the report and resultant mess splattered all over under the camo netting and deuce and a half to one unamused SFC Chief of Smoke, or how I was going to get out of having to dig the latrine for the remaining duration of the field problem of which was several weeks in length.

[SSGOldfart]

We used a 22 pellet with primer only. To train troopers to shoot the m16. I could set up a short range in our building at 75 feet so the target had the same sight picture anybody who failed at the Range got to spend a few weeks in my training camp. I never had to drill the primer flash holes but a Mag. or benchrest primer worked the action on a m16 better then a small rifle primer did.Enjoy yourself with this combo and remember your back stop as these loads would go through a 2x4,

[Ramson222]

If you have a bunch of shot gun primers lying about. Drill and ream a few 223 primer pockets for them.

Make sure you measure at the widest part of the primer, I made a mistake the first time and had to buy a second reamer.

Resize a case and insert a pellet as far as it will go to the case neck. The heavy pellets work best. Next insert the primer.

I had JSB brand jumbo monsters at 25grains moving near 1000fps out of my ar15, if I remember correctly, which is about 22lr power. It was much quiter than a air rifle or ar15.

[JBinMN]

I want to thank everyone for the interesting conversation here.

NO, I am not being sarcastic, or making fun of anyone...

I am just entertained by reading the thoughts & comments of folks using a .223 round with its' size, on a red squirrel & its size.

Even with the powder & projectile load downloaded in power & weight.

Don't ask me why it struck me as amusing, I am told I have a "different" sense of humor. Please don't take it wrong and condemn me for my comment as well. It just struck me as a bit funny to read a conversation about doing it & have so many anecdotes on it as well...
:)

Maybe it is because of an experience I had a long time ago...

There was a time about 30+ years ago where my wife & I were out with a friend of ours, we called, "Bull" Orth, due to his large size & his showing us his 220 Swift scoped rifle. First rifle he had ever bought as a teen, he told us. We were out there in the country, just BSing & somehow the subject of that rifle & its' flat trajectory came up. Perhaps we were talking about shooting coyotes. It was about 30+ years ago & I don't recall the details of how the .220 Swift came up, but it did....
While standing there admiring the rifle, Bull asked if we wanted to see how well it shot. Not knowing exactly what he was intending, & thinking maybe a pine cone or an ear of corn on a cornstalk, we said , "Sure! Let er buck!".

Well, Bull, while we were looking at the rifle had spied a gray squirrel on a power line pole about 300 yds away. Since we were enthusiastic about seeing how it shot, but not knowing what the target would be we handed him the rifle without comment to him and his intended target.
You should know or guess what happened next...

He took a round out of his pocket, locked & loaded & said, "Look at the top of that telephone pole down yonder.", and as we looked he said, " and watch the squirrel.".

Well, by the time we had seen the squirrel and remarked that we had, he fired.

The squirrel disintegrated in a shower of meat & blood, etc...

Bull took the rifle out of his shoulder & said, "What do ya think of that? Pretty good shot, eh?".

My missus then commented, " You sure wasted a lot of meat for nothing." & I said, " Ya need to work on your elevation, Bull, if that was supposed to be a head shot.".

Bull quietly put away the rifle & not another word was spoken by him about it then or ever after.

Maybe now some of you might see why I thought the idea of using a .223 or something along those lines to shoot at a squirrel was amusing. And some might not.

But, I enjoyed typing out this post & telling that story anyway.

Perhaps I should not have told this & typed it out, but sometime, when you really think about it you will understand that it sounds about the same as taking a 12ga round & downloading it to hold rice, or dried peas & shoot at rats, or pigeons to avoid hitting & damaging the structure one is in. It just strikes me as a funny thing for someone to do... At least at ages that many of us are at now a days...

Don't get me wrong, I am not making fun of anyone... Whatever "floats your boat.".
It is your rifle, time & rodent issues, not mine, so do as ya like.

Just sayin'...
LOL
;)

Please continue...

[GhostHawk]

JBinMn I did that once, with a .243 win, and a varmint round of 30 grains of dupont 3031 under a hornady 60 gr boat tailed hollow point jacketed bullet.

Only 150 yards, Fox squirrel, old smart one that lived in a broken off tree with a hollow.

I hunted that bugger for 3 weeks and could never get a shot with my .22.
So I went back with the .243, sitting 100 plus yards out and waited.

I hit him in the neck, bottom of the ribs back was all pretty much intact, so half a squirrel gained.

It launched him at least 25 yards from his tree. Almost did not find him because of that.

Once, alone, never again.
Never told anyone till today.

Rifle worked a charm for blowing up crows, fox, etc.

[dnepr]

I have tried this with 22 cal pellets in a 22 hornet with just primers . Accuracy was never that great

[JBinMN]

Ghosthawk, Thanks for sharing your story!
:drinks:

You are not the only one who has done such things, as ya know, & Bull is/was not the only one either. All of us have done one thing or another & then waited a long while to tell the tale, so do not feel alone. You are not & that is for sure...

That story about Bull & the squirrel had not been told before today, either.

It is not my turn yet, or I would tell another. Another day, another topic.
;)

[RED BEAR]

i would think that 500 to 600 fps should do nicely. i have grey squirrels that get into my garage and tear the insulation out patch one hole and they tear another in the wood. had no idea they would do that. unfortunately i live on the edge of suburbs and even a pellet gun will get you a trip to jail as they are considered a gun in my county .

[Ramson222]

California Ground Squirrels have been destroying my barn for years. They eat the wiring, tear out insulation, dig holes and **** on anything they like. I usually use a air rifle, minimum for them is a 22cal pellet at 800fps, or a .22 CB. Lower powered airguns in the 600fps range or in .177 will not be humane unless a close head shot is taken.

I once had this well educated squirrel that kept using my tractor seat for a toilet / tactical look out. This super annoying varmint was always on the highest level of red alert and would not let anyone within 30 yards. There is a high probability that, it was some sort of commando in a former life. Judging by the way it could dig tunnels and disrupt enemy forces.

One day after cleaning squirrel poop, off of my tractor seat for the tenth time that week. I turned the tractor around so that the bucket was facing the barn entrance. Intent being that the bucket would make a nice backstop and catch any splatter.

Setting up prone (think urban sniper) about 50yrds in front of the barn, just like planned the squirrel stops in front of the tractor to jump up on to it. I squeeze the trigger lightly, the squirrel vanishes in a puff of red smoke, like the greatest magician of all time. In retrospect I guess the varmint won in the end. Three years have gone by and a few bits are still glued to the 20ft high ceiling. 60gr vmax @ 3000fps

[TCLouis]

I think you will find that the pellets will ricochet just as bad as the 22.

[dk17hmr]

209 primers and pellets work well. Modify a couple cases.