Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Favorite 22LR Ammo

For hunting critters , what's yours ? Anyone use Remington Sub Sonic ? Opinions of the Sub Sonic for hunting ?

Mike

If they shoot good, shoot em. I have never owned a 22 that wuld shoot any Remington rimfire ammo worth a dam, now CCI shorts and longs is a different story.

Many a bushtail has met his maker with CCI longs in my back yard at ranges up to about 40/43 yards.

I normally use Wolf Match Target for hunting gray squirrels. It is very accurate in my Kimber Hunter and with head shots, it is plenty enough. I have a Browning A-Bolt .22 that shoots Remington Sub Sonic quite well. I killed a lot of squirrels with that combination. CCI Standard Velocity and Mini-Mags are almost never a bad choice in any .22 firearm.

Man we think alike on a lot...I always used Match Ammo on squirrels...back in the day, usually CCI gree tag or Remington Pistol Match...It shot better in my rifle,and was a skosh more quiet...I used to shoot them behind the shoulder cause head shots often caused them to kick when they hit the leaves, making more noise,behind the shoulder was DRT.
Nowadays for ground squirrels here in MT. which we shoot by the thousands and don't eat, I favor CCI Mini-mag Hollow points...gun likes them best, and the HPs doink 'em pretty hard..
Ingwe

Another vote for the Mini-Mags. I have some Wolf Match and PMC match that shoot the best on both of my .22's, but the Mini-Mags shoot better on average than anything else I have tried.

CCI Velociter and the mini mags get my vote. My Ruger 10/22 with a 20" Green Moutain barrel spits the Velociter into 1 hole at 50 yards. Haven't tried them on grey yet.

Ken

Two of my rifles really like Rem Sub-Sonics. They are accurate, effective on head or shoulder shots, and used to be pretty cheap.

Tried some Winchester Sub-Sonics yesterday, and got .5 inch five shot groups at 50 yards. These bullets have a wicked large hollow point. I'll be giving them a try in the squirrel woods this fall.

Wolf match seem to work in every rifle I've tried them in.

Steve

So Steve, I'm guessing we're splitting that case you ordered ? Got the same results with my Cooper.

Pugs,

Yup!

Steve

CCI LR sub-sonic HP's work great in my Weatherby MK XX11 and Sako Finnfire. Have shot bunches of ground squirrels with this combo. Kills them with any kind of decent bullet placement.
Virgil B.

For me it's a 10 year old batch of Federal Gold Ultra Match. I'm down to 18 boxes and the thought of running out brings tears to my eyes. My primary squirrel rifle is a custom Martini 12/15 that shoots this stuff into 3/8" groups/50 yds. My M2 Springfield orders Eley Tenex off the menu. The lot I have of that stuff is very accurate in that gun, but not so hot in the Martini.

I prefer match ammo for squirrels because I believe in bullet placement being more important than high velocity. Of course if the Hi Vel stuff shot better than the match stuff in my rifles, that's what I would use. I can't remember ever losing a squirrel that was hit in the chest with a low vel .22 bullet. I bought into the high velocity/hollow point arguement as a kid, but as I got older I came to find that the slow stuff kills just fine too. A lot quieter also- maybe a consideration if additional targets are desired.

I've got an old mossberg us44 and it hates the high velocity LR's, but the lr standard vels work very nice. Right now it's tuned up to shoot CCI CB's and when it comes to those rounds it is hell on earth and very quite. At 30 yrds I can knock a spent shotgun shell primer straight out of the shell. I know that distance isn't much, but I figure my job is to close the gap and the gun will do the rest.

I've used Remington sub sonic HPs for the last couple years and they've performed great on squirrels.

CCI Mini-Mags shoot the best from my Kimber and my Green Mountain Barreled 10-22. My 22 pistols like the Winchester Dyna-Points the best . I use the 17 HMR for most of my squirrel hunting these days . My Anschutz and Cooper 17 HMR are the tops when it comes to killing squirrels.

The CCi stingers shoot best in my Ruger 10/22,Blazer 22 lr's come in a close second.

I've got a 1022, a Marlin 60, an Anshutz, and a old Ruger Standard pistol (that's the one that preceded the MK I) and they all prefer different shells. I have found that the standard velocity shells seem to be a mite more accurate. I have also found that hollow point/solid point does not make any difference in dead squirrels or cotton tails.

I do a lot of shooting with sub-sonic ammo and this is my favorite sub-sonic hunting ammo:

lapua

I've shot Remington Sub-sonics on grouse (head shots only) and rabbits. They've done just fine on either one. They're as accurate as Remington Target or Federal standard velocity out of my Anschutz 64 or Remington 541 and have fewer fliers than the Remington Target. They also used to be pretty inexpensive.

I bought a carton of the Winchester sub-sonics but haven't had a chance to get out to the range and see how they do.

My three primary .22LR squirrel hunting rifles absolutely love both the Eley High Velocity Hollowpoint AND the Eley Sub Sonic Hollowpoint. Unfortunately Eley can't seem to produce enough ammo to feed the U.S. market and they are only available in small runs which dry up so quickly if you aren't paying extremely close attention you miss out.

CCI Velociters are surprisingly accurate and my current favorite.

I like CCI Mini mags too.

For bulk ammo I shoot a lot of "Golden Bullet" Remington or did. It has a high percentage of misfires in several of our rifles and pistols.

My left hand CZ452 shoots the following:

PMC Zapper 10 rounds into 1.25 inches at 55 yards.
CCI Pistol Match into .75 inch at 55 yards for 5 rounds.
Blazer 10 shots at 55 yards one inch.
Eley Match 10 shots at 55 yards 5/8th inch.
Winchester 333 6 shots at 55 yards 1/2 inch.
CCI Stinger 55 yards 5 shots 3 inches.
Federal Match 55 yards 6 rounds in 1/2 inch plus one round to one inch.
OLD Lapua Match with copper case...7 in 3/4 of an inch plus 2 rounds to open group to one inch.

These groups were all from a rest with a 3-9 Leupold AO Rimfire
scope. No wind and flags were used. All groups were from last year...October 2008.

I hunted with the Winchester 333 because it is a Hollow Point. Most were head shots.

Dew

CCI Velocitors. Rips up ground squirrels better than anything else I've used. With iron sights, I get one inch, or less, five shot groups at 50 yds with my Model 39 Marlin. Since I never know when I'll run into a coyote, I like the heavier, more powerful loads.
I haven't used any of the hypervelocity loads as they don't shoot nearly as well. Was saving them for jack rabbits, but, after seeing what the Velocitors do, I shot them up. E

i used remington subsonics(green box with subsonic printed in yellow) when i had a .22lr
performed great on various birds such as crows and magpies.
and even though i didn't had a supressor there wasn't much noise to talk about, very handy when i used it around our vacation house.

+1

i've got two primary squirrel rifles and they both have a slightly different preference in loads...

my old 581 remington shoots lights out with either the 36 hp or 40 solid rem golden bullet round...

my remington 552 will only function reliably with the mini mag... and the hp style is the more accurate...

if i had to pick one load it would be the mini mag hollow point... it shoots darned well in both rifles...

the winchester power point is a good load in every rifle that i've tried it, as well...

I use the sub sonics on tree rats. Still have one brick left.

I like the Mini Mags in my Model 63 Kit gun when hiking or camping. Accurate and they kill well.

For hunting squirrels, my Remington 521T does ok with the Mini Mags, but my Marlin 39 likes the Remington Subsonic rounds.
My Ruger 10/22 does not show a decided preference, so I shoot Federal bulk pack or Remington bulk pack in it.

Depends on where I'm hunting, what time of season, the distance involved and which rifle. The two I have used with the best accuracy and success on live game would be I guess SK Subsonic and CCI Minimag HP's. Match ammo works well too, have killed quite a few with several different brands, Wolf, Eley, SK, CCI, etc.

Winchester 333/555 is my bulk ammo choice out of my 10/22.
But I like Mini-mags in both flavors for hunting limbchicken
esp that 40 gr RN bullet. It smacks em w/o damaging the meat

I buy WINCHESTER Supper Speed by the case. I have had the least amount of feeding problems with auto loaders than any other. The second is Remington HIVEL another vary good ammo. For all rifles (except my target rifle) It is the best I have used since the 1950's.

Another vote for the Winchester 333s. Some of the bullet lead in these loads has smeared down and puts a thin coat of lead at the front 1/16 or so of the case, but if you inspect the entire box first and set aside these for other use, the groups hover around .39 to .48 at 50 yards from my Winchester 75 Sporter. The're hell on squirrels too.

Wayne

For killin stuff, my rifles usually shoot either CCI Mini-mag or Win Power Points well. For targets and eating, Wolf MT is hard to beat if you can get past the strong sulphur smell.

Reminton Viper
or
Aguila "Super Maximum Hypervelocity"
OR
CCI "Quick Shok"

Every gun has it's own preferance though. My one 10/22's "match chamber" won't accept anything but the truncated Remington Viper bullets, and does well with them.


The Mark III prefers the Aquilla stuff.


And my daughters gun likes CCI's (Quick Shok, or mini-mag).