Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Best Nutria rifle?

Thinking about busting out and getting a Savage A17 for a trip to Louisiana shooting Nutria and fishing. Or would a Marling bolt action be better?

Never seen a Nutria , but the 17HMR works great on groundhogs , pigeons, foxes and other critters . The A17 had some accuracy problems at first but they shoot well now. I have a hvy bbl Savage 17Hmr and a savage Bmag in 17wsm. Both would work great I would think.

Do you want an intact or exploded nutria? Might make a difference.

Somebody, maybe Mule Deer, posted awhile back that the A17 ammo was faster than the "regular" 17HMR ammo when fired in bolt action rifle. Our local Wal-Mart sells it for $50 for 200 rounds.

Quickly dead and we will retrieve them for the tail bounty. I like head shots but if a 17 HMR will quickly stop them with a chest hit that will be great too.

Looking at the Ruger American rimfire rifles, they look like they would be easy to load in the dark and rugged.

Saw a tv show a few years back where they were shooting them for the bounty. The host was also a chef of sorts and fixed up some for some fancy folks he had invited for dinner. A good time was being had by all 'til he told them what they were eating. Some of them took it in stride, but others were clearly a bit distressed.

I believe they were using a shotgun, a 10/22, and maybe an AR as well.

A real issue is that on a warm winter night a Nutria wiggling around in the water will draw alligators which makes recovery a bit tricky. No wiggle is best!

.177 pellets have killed many.........JS

Yep I'll bet the newer pellet guns pushing pellets at 1250 fps are good for head shots out to 50 yards or so.

how much is the bounty???

I found shooting beaver in the water with 22 LR that the water takes a lot of the energy out of the hit.

I suspect a nutria is somewhere between a muskrat and beaver and not such a hard head, but I would use something with more energy to float them up.

I repeat, .177 have taken many, seemingly having almost given up the ghost, even with body shots, a modest BSA Meteor, and at decent distances. 650-700 mv w/std wt. Often old Benjamin roundnose which fit well in the oversized British bore. Those hard thick pellets penetrated well......

Beaver, well they can take some killing.....a WELL Placed .22 will work, but if not perfect, they can take ALOT of lead, so I've heard....

Head shots no guarantee when in the water, flat on top, you can often fail to penetrate the skull......at least on large mature ones.

Beavers... they take a lot of lead for sure. I just use a 223 now.
Very low angle shot to hit right.

The coolest thing though...

Is when the 12ga buck shot skits op top of the water. You aim just a little ahead of the target to get the skipping action to "cut off the top"... Think of it in golf terms like a proper wedge use ;-)

i use a 17hmr for nutria and beavers here on the farm. a 20gr bullet kills them with little fuss.

Does the 17HMR have that earsplitting quality the 22 mag has?

Either will do fine. I am from SE Louisiana and have taken hundreds of nutria, mostly with a 22LR, but also with a 12 bore. A nutria moving fast is still pretty slow. The pelts are very nice if you want to have them processed, and in which case a head shot with your 17, or a 22, would be best.

Those things are a menace, take as many as you can!

Yes. A suppressed 22LR is the way to go. If not, most all match 22 is subsonic. Check out Eley and RWS for hollow points.

I can't get the allure of the .17 when they still make a .22 mag. miles

The Louisiana marsh is full of other boaters. I'd use a 17 HMR with plastic tips. They will likely come apart if they hit the water rather than the nutria. If not, they will shed a lot of their energy. you'll be offered moving head shots more than anything else.