Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires rat shot in 22lr (& .22 mag, 9mm, 357, etc.etc).

i know how the old win. type worked with the crimped top of the cartridge case.

but cci and others makes it with the plastic bubble to hold the shot charge.

so, does the shot charge unfold? after it is shot out of the barrel with the plastic cover?

does the cover flip over, fall off of the charge, fall to the ground? hmmm.

saw some in lgs, and wondered how does the shot eject from the plastic carrier?

FWIW, the CCI .22 LR rat shot cartridges that I have on hand all have the crimped brass end. However, all of the CCI shot shells that I have (and have used) in .38/.357, .40 S&W and .45 auto have the plastic caps on the end. I have never found the remains of one of the plastic cups, but to be honest, I have never spent any time looking. I use them almost exclusively to shoot snakes in the yard, and I am always more interested in the condition of the snake(s) than the empty cases.

well me too. i can easily understand how the "hull" of a crimped shell works. makes good sense.

was in wally world this am, they had quite a bit of cci shotshells in several calibers (but not .44 mag).

all encased in the plastic bubble. maybe the lead penetrates the bubble and escapes?

or maybe it flips over and the lead pellets continues forward?

it was just a nagging question on this really hot day.

some of us are possessed about knowing things.

I have been using 22 long and 22 mag shotshells CCi in my revolver.,. they are deadly on rats and mice... but I don't know how they work.. I will leave that up to the more anal to worry about.. I just care that they do the job.

Gus: I do not "know" how the shot exits the thin plastic shot capsule?
I do know that for the last 30 - 35 years it does disperse somehow, and will kill Rattlesnakes - it usually takes 3 - 4 head shots from a 22 L.R. revolver or 2 - 3 head shots from a 22 Magnum revolver.
Buy them and set up a thin cardboard "backboard" starting at say 3 yards then 5 yards then at 7 yards and see at what range the shot appears to have left the capsule.
That might work to help give some insight on your question?
Anyway they work's - I just don't know the answer to your inquiry.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

i try to minimize my anal inquiries, but sometimes curiosity just gets the best of me. i ask the wal-mart sales clerk, but she didn't understand the question.

certainly i can manage to live without knowing exactly, and for sure.

it is getting time of the autumnal equinox, the weather will be cooling, and the mice will be moving in from the gardens and fields as per std. procedure.

victor traps are my first line of defense. but we all need appropriate backup sooner or later.

i guess i could do some practical experimenting if i'd get off my lazy butt, and brave the heat wave.

anyways, as a minor detail, the walmart i usually visit is often sold out, today all kinds available up through .357 mag.

(my wife says she has no interest in how to fix a car, her interest is in driving a car). i'm beginning to understand her better now after some of these posts.

Its always been said the plastic capsule breaks apart as it leaves the barrel. Having been squeezed by the bore & when its released it flies apart. Thinking I read this in an old Speer manual.

FWIW, in 38, 44, & 45, empty capsules are available for reloading your own. The finer the shot the better.

I would guess (and this is only a guess) that the rifling scores the plastic as it travels down the bore and the pressure of the shot pushing against the plastic ruptures the case as it leaves the muzzle.

Anecdotal rat shot story: when hunting rats in a barn at night with a light and a Ruger .22 revolver loaded with the "old fashioned" type of rat shot, a buddy managed to drill a load down through the top of his shoe. Even after hours of surgery 30 years ago, I suspect that today there's still a couple of those tiny BB's floating around inside his right foot.

'preciate the insights. it makes perfectly good sense that the rifling perforates and allows the plastic capsule to blow apart under pressure.

i knew there were at least a few would have a perspective that would help the overall understanding. i guess they switched to plastic bubbles as a cost saving measure.

actually i hardly ever carry the stuff. i can hit up close pretty darn ok with my mark2, ss std. pistol. usually cci mini-mags, but at that distance it don't much matter.

and further if the first shot fired needs to weigh a solid 40 grains, then it's right there.

A while back I had a box of Remington .22 rat shot. Box list the size shot as #11s.

there's a demand and a need for rat-shot. i own some.

but basically, for the field i don't ever have it as the first round.

feral dogs can be quite cantankerous until the first shot has been fired.

victor traps is what we use as the first line of defense. my mtn feist was aggressive.

Earlier this summer, we had a bunch of those wood boring bumble-bee's around the barn. I took my old trapping pistol and was shooting them with the CCI ratshot. I wont tell how bad my shooting was, but suffice to say, it was bad. A day or two later, I happen to run across some of the Federal ratshot that has the crimped brass, and bought a box. Once I started shooting them, my skills seemed to improve dramatically. Hmmmm...... so I tried the CCI's again and the results was the same as before.

I'm not gonna say what the problem was, cause I dont know. I do know that the kill ratio was a whole lot better with the crimped ratshot.

I always carry the rat shot as the first round then alternate with a bullet of whatever type. My thought is a snake is most likely what I'll be shooting. Should it be a dog or some other vermin a load of snake shot to the eyes should be a fairly good deterrent to buy me time to get another shot.

I have used the CCI capsule version in .22, .38/.357 and .44 spcl in a 44 mag, have not had a problem with any of it. Have dispatched snakes, mice and one bat after I had evicted it from the house.

I have wondered how it works but was never curious enough to test, ask or look it up on the net. The theory about the rifling scoring the capsule sounds good enough to me. As long as it keeps working, I don't really care.

Quite logical, actually. The shot capsule stuff will hold the shot charge together to produce a more useful pattern at somewhat longer distances than the older crimped style ammo does. The shot out of a crimped cartridge will scatter to a fare-thee-well, as evidenced by your increased ability to hit flying insects.

This might answer some of your questions Gus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxphDh9ydII

yep. new products coming out all of the time.

sounds like the plastic bubble just falls away leaving the lead to fly forward.

I've encountered the same thing shooting them at camp from the S&W 63. While the trap works well on them a whole lot more fun to shoot them.