Questions for a Squirrel hunting rifle

[Thundarstick]

It's against regulations to hunt small game with any and all center fire cartridges here. Best check your game laws before taking to the woods with any centerfire no matter how anemic it is. I'd personally rather be hit with a falling 40 gr slug than a 100gr plus slug!

[Shawlerbrook]

22 Hornet ?

[john.k]

Seeing as a primer costs the same as a 22LR ,and the 22 is a lot easier to find ,shooting squirells with anything else doesnt make much sense.

[Texas by God]

Seeing as a primer costs the same as a 22LR ,and the 22 is a lot easier to find ,shooting squirells with anything else doesnt make much sense.

It might not make sense to you, but it gives me a sense of accomplishment to use MY loads to hunt.
I grew up shooting squirrels in 150 acres of pecan trees with .22s and shotguns. No closed season, no bag limit.
You might say that I got bored of the .22 rimfire for squirrels.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dverna]

Seeing as a primer costs the same as a 22LR ,and the 22 is a lot easier to find ,shooting squirells with anything else doesnt make much sense.

I agree with you.

[jdsingleshot]

Centerfires off limits for squirrels here in KY too. I like my two .25-20s for other small game. I make cases from .32-20 by starting the neck reduction with a simple die I made from a bolt, followed by the standard sizing die. So far it's worked every time.

[Te Hopo]

I'd go with the Martini .357 you already have.
My .357 is a Rossi single shot, and I love the ability to shoot 900fps 125gr FPs for small game and then 180XTPs to drop pigs and deer.
It was bought on a whim and surprisingly it's my most used rifle for hunting now, I often leave my rimfires and .223 at home now.

Funny thing, here in New Zealand a rimfire and .22Hornet is banned on public land to limit the poaching of native birds so a low powered centerfire makes sense here

[Rapier]

The 231 / HP-38 loads for the 38 Spl work the same in a 357 mag case as 231 does not work differently when used in either cartridge case length. A 110 or 125 SWC plain base cast would be the ticket. In the load testing I have done to 100 yards, the groups and crono readings were close enough to be interchangeable using the same loads with two cases separated then mixed.

[Finster101]

As noted earlier, the Lee 358-105 would be an excellent choice of bullet for this.

[Fishoot]

Notes from previous contributors mentioned Martini cadet rifles. I have become more than fond of them. I have them in .22lr 22 hornet, 218 Bee, 218 Mashburn Bee and the latest one in 32H&R Mag. All but the last have variable scopes. For squirrel shooting the various 22 calibers would be best I suppose. The one in the pictures was barreled with a new Marlin .32 caliber barrel. 405Grain clued me into that barrel deal and loaned me his .32H&R reamer. The receiver and sight were found on auction sites. I refinished a cadet stock I had from another project rifle. The fore end was made from wood savaged from unusable blanks bought years ago. The receiver was color cased with a mix of cow, deer and wood char. I made the char while it was out of stock at Brownell's. I may not need their char now... I bushed the firing pin hole and reduced the pin diameter with advice from John Taylor. This rifle would be a challenge for older eyes (like mine) but it should be fun; and might be good medicine for ground squirrels that pop out of their holes for a close-up look at me.

[john.k]

Id advise against color case on a Martini cadet .........these guns are made of a high carbon steel ,heat treated ,and quenching them to obtain the case colors is going to make the steel extremely hard and probably britlle from grain growth at the prolonged high temp .........One of the sub critical chemical coloring processes used by the Italians will probably be OK.

[Fishoot]

Id advise against color case on a Martini cadet .........these guns are made of a high carbon steel ,heat treated ,and quenching them to obtain the case colors is going to make the steel extremely hard and probably britlle from grain growth at the prolonged high temp .........One of the sub critical chemical coloring processes used by the Italians will probably be OK.

Thanks for the warning John.k. I looked for information on the cadet and color case hardening. I had actually done a little research before doing the work on the rifle in the post. I normalize the receivers taken from the quench at 375 degrees F. to take some of the stress from the metal. There are numerous references on the web concerning color case hardened martini cadets. I have accumulated 7 links to references to color cased cadets. There is no mention of failures to the receivers. I may ask the authors of those if they have experienced issues by color casing a cadet. I have another martini I color cased but its in one of the .22 centerfires (don't remember which caliber right now). Nonetheless, I will probably not color case the Model 12/15 I had planned to convert to .17 Fireball. I don't want to flirt with exploding firearms!

[john.k]

Im not suggesting the reciever might fail .......they are immensely strong........just the extremely annoying discovery of a hardening crack after the process...........The Italian replica makers have a subcritical colouring process ,which does not cause problems with the steel they use (4140?) ......Drawing the hardness after quench is good practice ,but I was under the impression that reheating ruined the colour effect.

[Fishoot]

john.k, Tempering at 375 to 400 degrees does not affect the colors. Not sure at what temperature that might happen but no problems so far.

[ulav8r]

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/2a...3c09b46cb5.jpg

According to that chart a color change starts at about 410 degrees.