Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Most impressive thing you've done with a rimfire?

huntsman22, I liked the vid where you dropped the bovine in the corral like a sack of cement.

Moosemike: I think one of the most impressive things I have done with a rimfire (at least I thought so at the time) was a one shot DRT kill on a big Boar Badger as it emerged from its den and stared at me while I touched one off with my Ruger 77/17 V/T (in caliber 17 HMR) with Weaver V-16 scope.
I knew it was a long shot but did not have time to laser range the suspicious Varmint as he was just laying half in and half out of his burrow.
At full 16 power I aimed right between his eyes and hit him right in the Adams Apple!
That Badger never even twitched after my shot.
We did take my camera and Leica laser rangefinder out to him and lasered back to my VarmintMobile where I had shot from and the Leica read 172 yards!
Since that shot many years ago I have come to expect amazing things from this rimfire dynamo (the 17 HMR).
But the most amazing thing I have seen done with a rimfire was a shot my long time friend, the late Ron Kesselring, made with his CZ heavy barrel Rifle in 17 HMR.
The shot was taken from inside his Suburban which was filled with four Varmint Hunters total and each Hunter had a window and window bag to aid in Ground Squirrel Hunting.
I had spotted a Weasel darting in and out of a stone pile at the far end of an Alfalfa field and Ron wanted to take a shot at it.
He asked me to laser it once he spotted it himself and the Leica laser rangefinder (which I had purchased at Ron's gunshop!) read 242 yards to the rockpile!
Ron quickly killed that Weasel with ONE SHOT!
That my friends is a tough thing to do as Weasels are about 1 1/2" wide and are virtually always moving.
He had to wait for that critter to stop moving for an instant and still have the ability to squeeze of the shot while maintaining holdover at that amazing distance - all the while 3 other Varmint Hunters are wiggling around and twitching and laughing and cajoling.
Simply put, that was one of them most amazing shots on any game animal or Varmint, I have ever witnessed.
Long live the 17 HMR.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I'm happy to see we got the .17 HMR into this!

Nothing impressive, as I have always popped critters inside of 100 w .22 lr.
Past that I ran centerfires.
Did have an AMT Lightning w WW Supermax that iron sighted put a mag under a dime at 25 yds (benched).
Did that w 2 mags.
I shot chucks in the head with it.
Had a 648 Smith 6" that put 'em under 2" offhand at 50. Was my IHMSA FP rig for a while.
Sidearm for chuckin w .243 win.

No chucks anymore. Houses built on some of the old hunting grounds too.
Old farmers gone, new folks too urban.

That sucks. But now my eyes do too. I got a Ruger 8" MK2 22/45 to mess with. Trying to decide on optic.

Not me, but my son. Shooting stationary clay pigeons at 100 yards, with a Stoeger 22 Luger . He let's off 3 or 4 quick rounds. Killed a mouse running across the range, at 100. I couldn't even see the damn thing.

Oh my!

Not terribly impressive, really, but venison made with a 5mm Rem rimfire mag. One shot behind the shoulder.

It ranks as impressive in my book!

When I was in High School, buddy was driving his pickup through a plowed field chasing jackrabbits at about 20 mph. Three buddies in the back all with semi-auto rifles couldn't hit the last rabbit we were chasing and all ran their guns empty.
Buddy driving says to me "shoot that SOB!" So I'm riding shotgun on the passenger side, and I stick my Colt Scout .22 SA Revolver out the window one handed and with the first shot drop the rabbit dead at 30 yards with the truck bouncing across the freshly plowed field at 20 mph

Not me, but my daughter's boyfriend was on the 2016 Olympic shooting team. 10m air pistol and 50m .22 pistol. I'm impressed.

A buddy and I were on the top of a rock dam at a flyash pond. There was a yellow pipe about 2" - 3" diameter sticking up out of the dam about 1/2 way down, guessing, just shy of 200 yards away. With an open sighted Winchester 94/22 Classic I wrung it something like 3 for 3 offhand. Figured I better stop there before my luck ran out.

I miss going there to shoot. Same company still owns it but they are a whole bunch more serious about their no hunting and no trespassing signs. It's the same place where I killed my first buck back in '85.

As a kid in the early '60s I killed my first moose with a 22lr poked out the window of the house. IIRC it was a Winchester 69A with a Leupold 3x. It was legal then.

A few years later we had gotten back to the spot we had launched the canoe and my father handed me the Savage 24 (not sure which letter, but likely the C) in 22lr/20. It was loaded and we always shot the 22 rather than trying to save it. With the stock jammed inside a lifejacket I hit a branch sticking out over the river at well over 100 yards. Popped it off enough to bend it over at a sharp angle. Siblings said no way, but my father pointed out it was the most likely target and they had to give the hit to me...

Walking down a marshy creek checking traps when a grebe got up right in front of me and took off. My shot hit him right between the wing butts and killed him instantly... Ruger MK II

Trapping in college in central CA I took a professor and his very young son with me when I checked my traps one day. Had a grey fox in a leg hold and just as we got there he pulled free. By his second bounce I had pulled the same Ruger MK II from the holster, slapped in the magazine, loaded the chamber and shot from the hip. Bullet entered the skull dead center in the foramen. I carefully unloaded the pistol and acted like that was normal. A little later that afternoon, working up through the brush along a small river I stepped over a hummock and spotted a beaver sitting on the bank no more than 15 feet away. I carefully and quietly loaded the pistol and calmly proceeded to empty the frigging magazine without cutting a hair! Beaver swam casually away going, "really????"

Oh yeah, the moose was one shot at the base of the ear.

Just proves you can kill anything with a .22

Can't believe I had forgotten this. In '65 I traded a Nylon 66 (Senaca Green) for a Ruger .22 during my first semester at college. Decided to hitchhike home one weekend with the Ruger in my back pocket. Got rides until about 17 miles from home. Was standing on the side of the road with thumb out when a black cadillac pulled over. I hoped in . Guy looked like a preacher, black suit, white shirt, black tie.

We hadn't gone more than a mile when he reached in his pocket and pulled out a .38 snubnose, put it next to my head and told me he would need some gas money. I leaned forward and reached as though for my wallet and pulled out the Ruger pointing it at him,. He said looks like a standoff. He pulled over and I rolled out the door and he sped away. I walked the last 17 miles home.

My Nephew ranged a pair of Blue Grouse @ about 55 yard --- said if I could hit one in the head; he would clean it. One shot from my S&W 34 revolver -- right thru the eye. I acted like I did it all the time.

That was a while back, but last Summer I was shooting Richardson's Ground Squirrels with a very accurate 10-22 and one popped its head out of a burrow @ 214 yards. There was a full value 10-12 MPH breeze. Only his head was showing. Got it first shot. The headshot caused him to do the jumping jack routine or I would have never known that I hit it.

When I was 16 or 17 I was rabbit hunting with a bud that is now pretty well known for game calls. He had a 20 gauge and I was shooting a Remington 552 with a Weaver V-6 scope. He had shot a rabbit and stuck the empty shell on a twig of a tree "just because".

As we walked on, I said something about how accurate my rifle was. He said, "I'll bet a Coke you can't hit that shotgun shell".

I said, "well let's see", and from about 75 paces I took aim, and offhand proceeded to knock the shell off the twig. We walked back to find it and I hadn't just hit the shell; the slug had taken out the primer without touching the base. "Any questions?", I asked.

He better would have paid up after that!

Back in the very early 60's a buddy and I were running our beagles on cottontails. He was carrying a High Standard .22LR which he would shoot to encourage the hounds. While trying to get ahead of the dogs he flushed a pheasant which he proceeded to take out of the air with one shot. Uncertain whether he was legally allowed to carry the pistol for this purpose (this is Canada remember). Not that it matters anymore as he has now passed on to the Happy Hunting Grounds.
My buddy was probably the best all around shot with all types of firearms that I knew. I always took it as a matter of skill and not luck. Another time we were out hunting and a jack rabbit jumped out in front of us. Before I could even find the rabbit in my scope he shot and hit the rabbit in the back of the head, centred between the ears. I never questioned his ability.

Jim