Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires My life with CBs

I've got an old Remington Model 24 gallery gun, short only. It's pretty tired, and the springs are about shot, especially the magazine spring that's crimped for five rounds only, but it still shoots pretty good. I kinda like it for playing around, when the eyes work. No easy way to scope the old thing.

I might have to try a box of CBs in it, just for giggles, it's not 100% even with HVHPs, maybe CBs are what it needs.

My body count isn't anywhere near yours, but numerous squirrels have taken the dirt nap in my backyard, courtesy of my Remmy 511 and CB shorts & longs....Quieter then my air rifles...

I run the CCI CB longs in my beat up Marlin 39A "Garden Gun", with a view towards avoiding the dread Carbon / Lead ring induced in a L.R. by the Shorts variety.

That said,....the Shorts always seem to have the accuracy edge over the longs. What I've taken to doing with the Longs is raising the muzzle to 90* after loading, and maybe settling that miniscule pinch of powder more uniformly over the priming.
That trick's results seem plenty accurate enough to deal with the big ole Ground Squirrels here........very effective in terms of lethality pronto, too.

My 28" Winder Musket remains in it's original .22 Short chambering in a slower twist barrel. The CB shorts will just flat BUGHOLE outta' that one.

SHHhhhhhhhh quiet, too.

GTC

Excellent story Dan. I don't usually enjoy long postings, but this one is simultaneously informative and humorous.

Thanks!

GREAT POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How did I miss this one? I have been shooting the longs in an old Mossberg 44d and I am really impressed with their power, low volume and accuracy. The only thing I don't like is how they feed and I have to constantly tune the rifle to keep it shooting them good. Gonna have to bed it just so it won't be so finnicky. I have tried the shorts but they seem a bit louder. Dumped a feral cat a while back with them and must admit, it was more exciting than any big game hunting.

Digital Dan,

Thank you for your post. You have reminded us that a properly used decent .22 rifle and CB shorts can provide more fun than anyone should have without proper adult supervision!

DD,

Great post; you're a very gifted story teller!

I'm DEFINATELY going to HAVE to go out and get some CB shorts!!!!!!!!

A family affair, which illustrates the benefit of quiet. Same shot placement, the little one seemed rather indignant...briefly.



Different skull, same results. 2x8s in background for scale:



What CBs look like after taking a skull trip:

Dan;

great post, and i always keep a gun around of some sort sighted for CB's. i also have a fetish for assorted contender carbines ranging from the .17 calibers up to 45/70, and most everything in between.

my current "short shooter" dedicated to Cb's is a Marlin boltgun topped off with a 2x7 leupy. Havent had it very long really, bought it at a gunshow for a giveaway price because someone had broke the safety lever off ($7 to fix as i recall) so i drug it home & keep it stuffed with Cb shorts. it was even one of the snazzy "ducks unlimited" editions with the shiny little brass medallion in the stock.

Accuracy with the remmy CB's is somewhat ho-hum, need to feed it some other brands to see what flavor it likes.

as a kid, i did a LOT of squirrel hunting in the riverbottoms by sitting right under a big mulberry tree with my Marlin 39-M mountie stuffed with CB's or short, depening on what was in teh ammo caniet at the time.....the quiet CB's didnt spook the squirels in the area, and i pop them out of the tree & let them lay where they fell, over the course of a few hours i'd bag several, then pick up the whole lot.

Regards;

Gerald

Boy, I love CB caps as well.

They are fierce on all pests.

..man Dan your signature says it all.... "I am..........disturbed."

But you are one great hunter... Do you carry a backup handgun just in case one of the CBs bounces of one of those larger kritters and it gets pissed off....

Bob

RJM, no pistol, see part about tight laces on the tennis shoes.

Part of this deal is knowing when to NOT shoot and I've exercised that option many times. Usually patience will mend the problems and I get to see hogs break dance and all that, but not always.

Other things I do as a matter of habit:

-I have an exit plan in mind before pulling the trigger. (Have not had to exercise that yet, see next item)
-I do NOT leave anything to chance with the larger hogs.
-Will not take a hurried shot under any circumstance without certain knowledge it will succeed.

That means firing from a rest for starters. ("I think I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree.") Spray and pray is an odd concept with a single shot, don't you think? I do know how to reload quickly, for the record.

One of my "learning moments" occurred late one day about 6 moths ago when a half dozen very small pigs ran up to me for reasons I'll not ever fathom. Weighed about 15# each, cute as they get and they approached from my back trail in something resembling an airport reunion.

All the leetle peegs were milling around my feet and it was sorta one of those Disney moments ya know, one with nature, all that crap. Was facing the back trail when there came a limb crack at me 3 o'clock and about 30'. Then a low grunt. Biggest sow I've seen...ever...anywhere, and she was a little skeptical about the goodness in my heart. That was one of those "don't shoot" moments. No rest, wrong aspect on the sow, all of it wrong as a football bat. The piglets started to follow me as I tippy toed away from the sow down the back trail. She grunted again as the whirling herd squealed and squeaked, ran off to her and that was that. It was a bit disconcerting, but hey, stuff happens to mice and men.

Disturbed Dan

Hey Dan, have you tried the tool that Komitadjie over on RFC sells? The one where you trim the nose of the bullet off to basically turn it into FP/SWC style bullet? They say the effect on small game is impressive, that it adds quite a bit of shock to the impact. He only charges about $15, I ordered a couple just to try out. You can get it in Short, Long, or LR versions. I got a short and a LR, should be here later this week.

No, haven't done that. Sort of thinking the trade of penetration for shock is not in my best interests so far as shooting pigs is concerned. Might be a good ploy for small game but there isn't much horsepower to sacrifice in this David v. Goliath exercise.

But would you really be trading? That is what I am trying to figure out in this deal. I tend to look at it as you would would with pistol rounds for hunting. The round nose and SWC are your deep penetrators in handgun rounds, it is not really untill you get into soft points and hollow points that you start trading expansion for penetration. Of course, the fly in the ointment to this line of thinking is that most SWC handgun bullets are hard cast to make them non-expanding, versus on the .22 CB where the bullet is soft lead. You're going to make me go shoot some in a penetration test when my tool gets here just so I can see how much real difference there is.

Of course pigs aren't the kind of vermin I have running around my neighborhood so it is really a moot point for me, mainly acedemic. I just want to know. Actually, what I need is something that limits penetration, pass-throughs are a real concern for my type of varmit control, which is why my tool of choice is a .22 air rifle employed much the same way you use CB's.

Do let us know what you find out with that adventure! Don't know if this helps perspective or not, but the HVHP shorts will NOT penetrate hog necks thru and thru. Little more expansion, fragmentation, velocity, they stop on the bone. Badda bing.

Main points I see in your comparison with pistol bullets: 1) agree with the assessment of RN penetration. Whether or not a harder alloy is necessary depends a lot on velocity I'm thinking. CCI CB shorts run around BHN 7-8. 2) You have a LOT more power to fool around with when using pistols, be it a .25 ACP or a .454. Given larger calibers and heavier bullets there will be penetration advantage over CBs almost without regard to bullet form.

Shot a hog several years ago with a .44 caliber 300 grain paper patch bullet of pure lead. Quartering shot that wiped out the right shoulder, a bunch of ribs, vertebrae, left hip and then to rest under the skin on the offside ham. Total penetration as measured in a straight line was ~24". It's represents a power luxury not present with CBs.

Great story! My experience with CBs goes back to my teenager days and a Rem 572BDL pump. Dad had put up a super tall TV antenna on the roof and it was a favorite resting stop for all kinds of feathered friends. Many a blackbird said hello to the little CB slug!

MtnHtr

Bump for Lee, to make this thread easy for him to find and read.

Hell, this thread oughta' have a sticky on it.

GTC

I tried shooting a grown beaver in the head years ago with a 4" S&W kit gun. The beaver was about 10-12 ft away at the other end of a trap chain and the bullet simply knocked a piece of hide off the skull right between the blinkers and from his body language REALLY POed the beaver, this is not a good idea BTW and I really thought he was going to attack, which they will do on occassion. Next round in the cylinder was a Super X LR which calmed the situation.
This ended my playing with the CB which *IMO* is useless. This may have been the CCI LR cased version.
Now I suppose its possible that with perfect angles it might make a hole. But other than wading out to the beaver (another bad idea) there was no way to get a better angle. I would never trust one for a similar application.

If we read Forsythe's "The Sporting Rifle and Its Projectiles" 1862 we will find the following passage.
"The prime object of a shot fired at any animal of chase, be it the bashful sort that fly from you, or the audacious sort that fly at you, is, if possible, to kill or disable that animal on the spot."

From what I have heard hogs sometimes "fly" at people if this occurs there is no careful head shot, you need a "stopper".

Dan