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.

CCI shorts is what I use, wisper quiet

They went through both sides of my metal garage downspout at about 15 yards. Quieter than my RWS .177 springer out of my CZ 527 bolt action and accurate enough for backyard dispatching.

I was testing out some cci cb shorts when we lived out away from town. I was fairly suprised that a round with such a light pop would penetrate a 2X4 through the skinny side. I figure if it can make it through 1 1/2" of wood at 25 feet, it'll do just fine for small game.

I have killed a LOT of stuff with a CB short. That said, the CCI Subsonic LR HP is the killin'-est quiet bastid I've ever used.

That's pretty impressive...and surprising! I like em'.

Although they are louder than an air rifle the Remmington .22lr subsonics are quiet enough to shoot w/o hearing protection.
Accurate and a 38gr hollow point. What I plink with by the bunches.

Agreed on all counts. What these rimfire rounds have in spades over the air rifles which they equal in speed is bullet weight. 29 grains is several times what an air rifle pellet weighs and kills 30 pound animals quite easily at modest distances. The chest is the correct shot in my opinion. (I have yet to see a feral dog fail to tip over quickly after a chest shot. Head shots are, as someone correctly said, questionable, and won't guarantee much other than a likely head ache.)

CB longs are by far the quietest I used. They are even more quiet than the shorts for some reason. They sound about as loud as a pellet gun but does a whole lot more damage.

I'm going to have to do some 'penetration tests,' not to argue with anyone here - but for my own interest and satisfaction.

First time I ever heard about shooting 'ultra quiet' .22's was when I read about some freelancing duck hunters who would use an ocassional .22 Short to dispatch squirrels when floating for and jumping mallards from a canoe, and a bushytail would be in a tree near or overhanging the meandering river. They didn't want to spook the ducks.

Also I've put .22 CB's through a 1-inch plained board "that was supposed to be heavy enough" for a backstop.

For you fellows who think a CCI .22LR Subsonic is "quiet" enough, also give a good look at the CCI .22LR Std Vel load (40grn lead bullet at @1070fps, very similar to the Subsonic's velocity).

Plus the CCI .22LR Pistol Match and CCI Green Label loads also propel 40grn lead bullets at similar "standard" and "subsonic" speeds - @1050 to 1070fps.

In addition, the CCI .22LR SGB load (small game bullet) has a meplat on it's 40grn solid lead bullet nose, but has a MV of 1235-1255fps and resulting loader report.

Anything from CCI in a Short or Long that has a copper wash or jacket will be higher velocity and noisier, compared to the CB caps and the .22 Short Target round.

I haven't ever shot the Aguila Colibre or Super Colibre (advertised velocities are 375fps and 500fps respectively), but if those bullets are too short without enough bearing surface, accuracy will indeed suffer. However those who have shot them accurately and like their penetration -why fix what ain't broke? (I have shot the Aguila SSS 60grnr, an interesting load!)

The point was also made by another poster that a 29 grain lead bullet is considerably heavier than a typical pelletgun pellet - which is true! And indeed a huge advantage dispatching a 30# critter.

A longer .22 barrel (20inches or more) also helps to dampen noise.

Those keyhole out of my CZ 527 at 25 yards.



Yep, the Aquila that is very quiet out of my CZ rifle is damn loud out of a .22 revolver.

I've shot the super colibiri, at in the house range it was accurate enough. Then I shot some at the range at a 25 yd target. I could see the bullets flying, and their flight pas was that of a corkscrew, and needless to say the pattern at 25 yd was paper plate size and then some. If you're rifle shoots them accurately, great, as all you hear is the click of the hammer hitting the firing pin, and a wump when the bullet hits the target (from a 20+" barrel). But I'd expect minimal penetration and hence terminal performance.

Recommended rifling twist to stabilize the Aguila SSS round is 1-9inches, versus the average 1-16 most manufacturers use for the standard .22LR.

I mentioned I haven't shot any Colibre's or Super Colibre's, but RimfireCentral.com offers a very informative forum for the rimfire purist or enthusiast.

According to RFC the the Colibre is primer-powered only (for @375fps), whereas the Super Colibre has just enough powder in it to boost velocity to it's advertised 500fps.

Disgressing a little; Many .22 shooters want to shoot the CCI Stinger but find they can't "accurately" because that 32grain bullet is too short - quite literally, and doesn't have enough bearing surface along the bullet sides to allow the bullet to "sleep" or stabilize before exiting the muzzle. The Stinger does not have a reputation for being a universally accurate round. Most guns either shoot the Stinger well or they don't do well with it at all.

I bet that's also a frequent problem with many Colibre/Super Colibre firt timers or experimenters. And it seems the Colibre/Super Colibre cone-shaped bullet is [25grains?] making it a pretty short bullet too (if I remember correctly).

Wouldn't a barrel "faster" than 1-in-16 be better for shooting Colibre's/Super Colibre's?

The fast twist barrel should exacerbate the problems with the clibre/super colibre.

If you wanted a purpose built colibre gun I'd say a 1-20 or maybe 1-24 twist and a custom reamed chamber to the dimensions of the bullet.

I read and had to prove to myself the super colibri can bounce back at ya from a green limb. I did and it did. Off a 1.5 inch thick mesquite limb 20 feet away and bounced back 3 foot beside me hitting a wall.

I've been shooting the new Remington 22 LR "CBee" HP-it's their Yellowjacket bullet at about 750 FPS.

VERY accurate out of my guns,much more so than CCI CB Longs.

Give them a try,they're pretty reasonably priced.

WB.

A "new" Remington CBee? If so, I'm a happy camper.........

LET'S TALK MUZZLE VEL.,BULLET WEIGHT, AND ENERGY

I know for a fact someone uses the CB Long to shoot tree rats and he's used a bunch of brands. The quietest by far out of his rifle (a semi auto) with a scope is


THE CB LONG !!!!!!!!!!

It doesn't have enough poop to work the action and is a bit of a pain to load singularly rounds. He key holes rounds at 50' and has shot out to 100' effectively.

The CB Long has a muzzle vel. of 710 fps and energy of 32# with a 29 grain bullet. IT IS QUIETER THAN MANY PELLET RIFLES.....

I would not engage anything the size of a raccoon with any of the CB type backyard ammo. Try either SK Subsonic Hollow Points or RWS Subsonic Hollow Points. They are expensive but noticeably more quite than high velocity ammo and somewhat quiter than standard velocity ammo. Superbly accurate and very deadly when properly placed.

I don't know what you carry for deer hunting but...why not load up some subsonic loads for that rifle and use them on the racoons? At close range the sight/scope will be close enough for racoon and a rifle bullet loaded to 500fps has way more energy than a .22, unless of course your using a .22 as a deer gun.

for example, .308 150gr FP bullet and 8.0gr Trail Boss powder.
or 7-30Waters 140gr SP and 8.0gr Trail Boss. These are in the 700fps range. I actually use Trail Boss to load my subsonic ammo to ~1000fps for use with a suppressor. These loads were my starting loads.

This has the advantage of not carrying another gun. Just make sure you pay attention to what ammo you load in the rifle. Could be very disappointing to shoot a subsonic round at a deer 100 yards away when you thought you had a full power load in the chamber.