Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires "Quiet" 22 ammo...

Id like to dispatch a few racoons at close range while deer hunting. Im considering taking a 22 cal Contender to my stand with me. Im not interested in a silencer/suppressor etc. Too much expense and paperwork. I would appreciate suggestions for the "quietest" 22 ammo. Thanks

The Aguila 60 gr load should work fine if it stabilizes out of your Contender(and it should as long as you are indeed shooting at "close range".Not going to be as quiet as the CB's but will be a lot more effective than the CB's.

Use CB caps. CCI makes them in both long and short versions. You can also sometimes find other brands. They are very quiet at about 700+ fps and 29 grains.

The quietest I've found are the Aguila Super Colibri 20 grain, but I'd never use them on a raccoon sized animal.

I haven't tried the 60 grain Aguilas but have heard good things about them. The CCI CB longs should work as well.

Piper

I bought a box of Remington sub-sonic, 1050 fps., 40 gr. rounds for similar purposes. Haven't had a need or an occasion to try them yet. Anyone else use them?

Yes definately these, I love watching the bullet through my scope as it sails toward an unsuspecting critter.

If the contender is a pistol, then it's going to be loud. You can't beat barrel length for quieting a load, and the cb caps are pretty quiet, the Aguila Super Colibri are very quiet, but they just might not have enough oomph.

IIRC it was the Rem Sub-sonic I bought and I thought they were WAY LOUDER than expected.

Wolf match extra is pretty damn quiet, imo.

I never thought remington sub-sonics were that quiet. CB longs are though.

Thanks for all the help!

Originally Posted by Klikitarik

Use CB caps. CCI makes them in both long and short versions. You can also sometimes find other brands. They are very quiet at about 700+ fps and 29 grains.

I completely agree. I've killed upwards of 30 raccoons with CCI (long) CB Caps over the years. They make little noise... about like a pellet rifle with 10 "pumps".

I found the best shot is a standard heart/lung shot through the ribs just behind the forearm. It doesn't give a "bang/flop" kill, but they don't get very far before dropping over. I tried head shots, but the target (brain) is too small and well protected by heavy bone for the relatively weak, somewhat inaccurate CB Caps to penetrate.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I use CCI shorts, quiter than a pellet gun by a long shot, and sure death to tree rats. My old Remington 511 puts them in little groups

I like the Colibri. My son and I shoot them in the backyard...we have a proper backstop. They are as quiet as a pellet rifle. It has a little pointed 20 grain bullet that sizzles out of the barrel at the dizzying velocity of 375 fps, and has a notable 6 ft/lb of muzzle energy! The recoil is tolerable.

Raccoons are not wimp animals (I've killed a couple), and will need more than pellet rifle performance.

And where some ammo discussed here is marginal, bullet placement would be critical beginning with a powerful-enough projectile.

The Colibri 'might' be powerful enough if you set the muzzle against the raccons forehead and squeezed the trigger. I know they are powerful enough to 'pop' balloons.

I tried a bunch of different loads earlier this year to find something quiet to shoot squirrels with and pests around the yard. They made a little less noise, but not enough to matter, and they wouldnt group at all.

They probably yaw and tumble as much as they spiral! They're still fun in the backyard.

CCI CB Shorts, or CCI SubSonic Long Rifle Hollow Points. If the latter are quiet enough, they kill stuff VERY dead.