Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires .22LR vs. .22 Mag. shotshells for snakes

I carry a M63 S&W revolver in the summer, with a couple of CCI shotshells up top, for rattlesnakes. It kills them, although you need to be quite close to the snake for them to be effective. I use the .22 rather than a 9mm or .45 shotshell, mostly because they are quieter.

From experience, is the .22 Mag more effective, much louder, etc. than a .22 LR, and is it worth getting one for the purpose I have stated? I have been looking at a Charter Arms Pathfinder Target, with a 4" barrel, for possible use, if it is really worth the effort and expense to do so. Te .22 Mag. may be a marginal improvement in the role of self defense, also.

thanks.

I think that the CCI .22 Magnum shot cartridges are noticeably more effective at killing snakes than the .22 shot cartridges. The revolvers that I carry most often when I am out and about in the same area as poisonous snakes are the Rossi 515 in .22 Magnum and the Rossi 720 in .44 Special loaded with 2 CCI snake-shot cartridges. When I go to my MIL's ranches during months when snakes are active, I generally carry the 515 when I poke around the yard and I seldom come away without having shot 2 or 3 prairie rattlers from around the house or the sheds near the house.

I've got a S&W 48 with 8 in barrel. Carried it many miles with 3 CCI shot and 3 HP's. Killed a lot rattle snakes with it. Hasbeen

Bighorn: I have killed several Rattlesnakes with my Smith & Wesson Model 63 (my 4" version - none yet with my 2" Model 63!) in 22 L.R. and I have killed a few Rattlesnakes with my Smith & Wesson Model 651 (same as the Model 63 but in caliber 22 Magnum!) which is also a 4" barrel and I find it takes about "half" as many shots with the 22 Magnum to render a Rattler dead!
Thats about 3 shots with the 22 Magnum shotshells as compared to 5 or 6 shots with my Model 63 in 22 L.R.
I say search out one of the rare and somewhat expensive Model 651's - invest in it and use it sparingly and you won't loose any money you invest in it.
Best of luck with whichever you choose.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I do the same. I have a Model 63 for target practice but carry the 651 for most any other rimfire revolver uses. The .22 Mag shotshell seems to work about as well as the .38 special shot cartridges from my snubby.

Dancing Bear: Oohh oohh do you have a 2" Model 651 or do you consider the 4" barreled 651 a "snubby"?
Or am I confused and you have a 38 snubby?
TIA
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Sorry, I do not have a 2" 651. Both the 651 and 63 are 4".

The snubby I referred to is a .38 Special, an Airweight Bodyguard, a 38-2 with a 1 7/8" barrel.

.22 mag shotshells are much harder to find than all the other shotshell cartridges combined, due to the idiot ammo hoarders over the last few years. If your considering buying a Charter Arms .22 mag for a hiking / snake gun, the .44 Bulldog is the way to go. And you can buy CCI .44 shot-shells just about anywhere. MUCH more effective on snakes too. Works great on the big rattlesnakes we have here at the Ranch.

There is plenty of .22 Magnum CCI shot ammo available here, but I wholeheartedly agree that the .44 CCI shot cartridges are noticeably more effective on snakes than either the .22 LRs or .22 Mags.

Part of my reasons for using the .22 Mag shotshells are that I already own .45ACP's and 9mm's, for which I have shotshells, but they are semiautos, and may or may not be friendly to this kind of ammo. With a revolver, I can simply rotate a cylinder from shotshell to bullet, if the need arises, quickly.

Nearly all of the rattlers in my neck of the woods are of the Prairie subspecies- generally get to 2' or so in length, probably not as well-armored as the big Southern rattlers.
If I end up getting the Charter Arms Pathfinder, part of the reason is that dimensionally it is nearly identical to my S&W M63, for which I have several holsters, and hopefully will be able to use them. My M63 is very concealable.

I would take out a poisonous snake around the house. Otherwise, I would be just walking around shooting snakes all day. Are the said snakes CHASING you people, that you have to shoot in self defense???? lmao

And this is from someone who has actually BEEN hit by snakes.

5 years ago, my Lab dog Heidi was bitten by a rattler, on a Saturday evening, in our front yard. Being that it was a weekend, we took her to the emergency Vet facility near us. Unless you have had your 13 year old dog treated for rattlesnake bite, you are in for a long, expensive recovery if it ever happens to you.
It is enough to make you fairly zealous about ridding your neighborhood of rattlers, not just for your dog, but your neighbors' as well. Yeah, I know they do other, beneficial things as well. So do Bullsnakes, Racers, and other nonpoisonous species. More power to them.

As poisonous snakes go, I shoot 'em all if they're around the homestead and outbuildings and will shoot them if I happen to come across them when I'm afield. The only one that ever got too close was a small one that floated within a couple of feet of me when I was wading while fly fishing in the Green River in southwestern Wyoming.

Rattlesnakes don't get a pass here at the Ranch. Non-poisonous snake do.

Sasaha & Abby: "I" HAVE been bitten by a rattlesnake!
I went through untold misery for a very long time - missed one whole Hunting season (August 22 day of bite and was unable to get a shoe on my afflicted foot until December 1st of that year let alone a boot!)!
Shoot'em!
I can't imagine a small child surviving what I went through?
Shoot'em.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Slightly off-topic, but...

A few years back, I bought a couple boxes of Rio 12ga #12 loads for about $5 a box. Got some Speer .38 shot capsules and loaded them up using the data supplied by Speer and shot liberated from a few of those Rios. Using #12, the same "dust" shot as crimped .22s, really gives you a cloud of projectiles.

Mike Venturino did an article or two on this years ago. He used his industry connections to score some loose #12, but I've got a lifetime supply now, as well as some serious shotgun snake medicine if conditions permit.

Well, I decided to buy the Charter Arms Target Pathfinder, .22 Mag., with a 4" bbl. Today I patterned a shotshell load from the gun, at a target 10' away. This gun throws a perfectly even pattern, about 8" in diameter, at that distance- a cloud of shot no rattler's head is going to get through. For info, the CCI shotshell holds 52 grains worth of #12 shot. Just out of curiosity, I checked the specs on some CCI 9mm shotshell loads I had laying around- these contain 53 grains of #12 shot, albeit at higher velocity out of the muzzle, but shot volume-wise, nearly identical to the .22 Mag.

The 22 mag has more pellets and size. I like those for snakes 2 yards or less.

Try using an empty 12oz soda can. Interesting to see the difference in the number of hits moving back 2 yards each time and comparing the cans.
I tired this with a smoothboore savage 22 rifle. Inside 3 yards was tight pattern. After 5 the spacing was 1"+.

The 38 special loads work the best from my experience.

I agree 22 mag has more pellets and power but get close not too close though.

I've shot rattlers with a .22lr shot shell and all it seemed to do was piss them off and I had to get close enough to them to make me "uncomfortable".

Now when I'm out and about in the high desert and am packing a .22lr pistol it is loaded with conventional 40g solids. But then again if I have a.22lr pisotl on my hip that must mean I have a CZ double in 20 gauge in my hands hunting birds. In my opinion those .22 shot shells are great on butterflies and not much else.

I have the ability to run across rattlers whenever I'm outdoors so now, if it's a handgun, its a .40 S&W with 180g loads. Both the 20 gauge and the 40 make heads and body parts disappear.