Now that the statute of limitations has passed

[Scott Tschirhart]

How many of you have killed deer with a .22 lr before you knew you couldn't legally do that?

I did that a number of times as a kid.....don't think I even had a license in those days.

A .22 hollow point from a rifle will penetrate the heart from a side shot and it is just as deadly as anything else.

[ollogger]

Have used a 22 with deadly results, been at least 45 years ago




ollogger

[JimT]

I knew the law and did it with my Ruger Single Six 'cuz it was the only gun I had on me. My friend had wounded it in the back legs and ran out of ammo. I got up on it and shot it in the head as it tried to get away from me.

[octagon]

Last deer I killed with a 22 was a Axis deer with a knob on one side, brained him at about 11 or 12 feet. Not being native Texans, they're legal with a 22.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Have used a 22 with deadly results, been at least 45 years ago

ollogger

I don't really want to think that far back, but I suppose I was 14 or 15 and I'm fixing to be 59.

[44shooter]

Never done it. 22 LR is legal in NC now during gun Season though. The state in recent years got rid of caliber and barrel length restrictions. My guess is they want more deer taken especially does. Myself I started with a single shot 20 gauge for everything. I dint get a deer til I was a teen shooting a 25-06. I did start using 22 for squirrel an such in my teens too

[vancelw]

I was 12 before I knew it was illegal to fish with a .22

[Trailboss]

I had 5 brothers and Indian (feather) neighbors so started hunting with a bolt action 22 at age 6. Squirrels, cotton tails, coyote, wild dogs and deer were all fair game. In those days I purchased 22 shells individually from an open box at the local gas station. Bought my first pistol at age 11, a Savage 101 single shot 22. Killed lots of rabbits as I always had it with me. That pistol cost me $15 and came with a single box of Winchester ammo. No parental involvement needed in those days.

[gamekeeper]

Not shot any deer with a .22 but I knew a few gamekeepers who did. The law here is definitely on the side of the deer....

[GunnyMack]

Once, many moons ago. Twas Christmas Eve and about 2 foot of snow when a small buck that had been hit by a car was floundering. It was obvious that he wasn't going to survive the remainder of the winter.

[marlinman93]

Never killed a deer with .22LR, but accidentally killed an elk with my .22-250 once!
We were over East to hunt elk, and took our varmint rifles along to cull coyotes, and occasional rodents. We headed out one morning in my buddy's truck with rifles in the gun rack. Coming down a 4x4 trail when we saw an elk coming through the woods headed towards us. We grabbed our rifles from the rack, and I stepped over behind a tree to get a solid rest alongside a tree trunk. The elk was less than 50 yds. so I took a shot and he hunched up! Was sure I'd hit him hard, but he ran across in front of the truck and into the woods.
We knew there was a Y in the trail behind us, so we went back to it and headed up the left leg of the Y. Just got up a short ways when he came out with his head down, and I took a neck shot that dropped him for good. I opened the bolt to chamber another cartridge, and out drops a empty .22-250 case!
Both of my rifles were Remington 700 in 7 Mag, and .22-250, and I'd simply grabbed the wrong gun out of the rack. My buddy and I were amazed at the damage the first shot in the shoulder had done, and we were sure he would have succumbed to that shot alone. But glad he didn't suffer a slow death, and I could get the 2nd shot.

[AkRay]

A friend of mine told me that he and his friend, while traveling along the river when he was a teenager, saw a young bull moose on the riverbank. They went close to it and he shot it in the side with his .22 rifle "to scare it." Instead of being scared, the moose fell over dead so he and his friend jumped out of the boat, covered it with brush and then got out of there. They didn't take the moose because it was during the summer, out of season, and they were idiots. This guy went through the ice on his snowmachine a few years ago and didn't survive.

[BigSky56]

Here in Montana there is no caliber restrictions, rimfires are legal for any big game animals. My Dad has used a 22 savage HP for elk and deer till ammo dried up then used a 250 savage. My Grandpa would wing shoot grouse and pheasants with a 22 if he couldn't catch them on the ground. All of the family has whacked deer and elk at the round bale feeder over the years with some kind of rimfire generally the barn rifle which is a 22 mag. danny

[FLINT]

so, what is the statute of limitations?....... (how many years).....

[mickbr]

Ive used 22LR for headshooting hogs and 22WMR for broadside shooting them. Neither ideal but they will get the job done. 22LR penetrates up to 2" of pine, that beats a lot of animals skulls. It will still penetrate 1/2"of pine at 400 yards. Not that anyone would be landing shots at that range but its apparently an old army test for potential lethality. I ran some penetration tests of 22LR versus buckshot back in the 90's and it was beaten by heavier pellet sizes but it beat #4 buck on pine. I remember thinking even a single piece of 4 buck is not something I want to be hit with.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[wolfdog]

Finished a couple of deer that had been hit,by cars and killed quite a few feral hogs with 22lr.

[hfcable]

my father's uncle [my great uncle, who died before i was born ] killed 19 black bears, some rather large, with a 22 LR, single shot; most were killed [ probably ambushed ] with one shot, but one bear took exception to the process. it took multiple shots and nearly got him ! i think that was the last one he shot with a 22.

[cas]

Long long ago, I tried to shoot a small game animal with a .22 rimfire that it wouldn't have been square with the rules to do so. It was with my Savage 24, .22 mag on top, 20ga on the bottom. I snuck down an old logging road to within about 75-80 yards. Took a solid rest against a tree and fired. The critter ran off unharmed. Then I thought... "Man, that was kind of loud. And it kicked a lot!"

Lucky for said critter, 20ga #7 target loads out of a modified choke don't present much danger at 80 yards. So I guess, i didn't really DO anything wrong, I just tried to but the universe wouldn't let me/

[Carlsen Highway]

Where I live it's legal to shoot deer with anything at all, (although illegal to take a .22 cal onto public land.) The deer are all red deer, so I suppose like medium sized elk.
People shoot them with .22 sometimes, although now that the internet is here, people have read about people overseas not believing in shooting deer with a 22, and so they get uppity about it more than they used to.
I know a possum trapper who has shot over 200 red deer with a pump action browning .22.
A shot behind the ear will kill a deer outright up to 50 yards. A high neck shot will put him down. You can angle a .22 bullet forward through the ribs and that will kill him after a few yards. A liver shot will put him down, but then he needs a finisher.
Winchester power points is the answer to the next question.

Deer with a .22 is like what WDM Bell said about 7mm on elephant; it's a surgeons instrument.

[gamekeeper]

Where I live it's legal to shoot deer with anything at all, (although illegal to take a .22 cal onto public land.) The deer are all red deer, so I suppose like medium sized elk.
People shoot them with .22 sometimes, although now that the internet is here, people have read about people overseas not believing in shooting deer with a 22, and so they get uppity about it more than they used to.
I know a possum trapper who has shot over 200 red deer with a pump action browning .22.
A shot behind the ear will kill a deer outright up to 50 yards. A high neck shot will put him down. You can angle a .22 bullet forward through the ribs and that will kill him after a few yards. A liver shot will put him down, but then he needs a finisher.
Winchester power points is the answer to the next question.

Deer with a .22 is like what WDM Bell said about 7mm on elephant; it's a surgeons instrument.

Interesting, I past this on to my son who is hoping to move to NZ, he and his wife spent a year there and he managed to get a little hunting in. I have known a few people who have regularly taken Fallow and Roe deer with a .22 Lr, they were mostly gamekeepers who all have rimfires for Rabbits etc but UK gun laws and the British Deer Society make difficult to buy and use centerfire rifles without a lot of BS to go through first... Nowadays a lot of gamekeepers are prepared to put up with the BS but that just leads to more BS.

[Blaine]

If (when?) dire dystopia hits around here, my Single Six and some CB Longs will walk across the hwy to the woods on Ft Lewis and make some meat.

[JimT]

I have a friend who killed 15 or 16 Russian hogs with a pump action .22 Long Rifle. He said some of them took 8 or 10 shots. He was working on a farm where they were experimenting breeding Russians with domestic pigs to get leaner pork. Some of the Russians broke out and he had to hunt them down. All he had was the .22 and he did the job with it.

[Ray Newman]

No. But if I did and one of my grandfathers, my father, or one of the neighboring farmers found out about it, I would not be here responding to this thread.