Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 22 Hi-Power For Deer

In light of a couple of recent posts concerning the suitability of the 22 Hi-Power for deer, I decided to take my H out this year since I had never hunted deer with it before. Here is my story for what it�s worth.

Stalked up on a 4-point mulie laying in a little draw and when I got to within about 60 yards he heard me and stood up offering a good broadside shot so I put the bead low behind the left front shoulder through the Lyman 1A and plunked him. He humped up, ran about 20 yards and went down. I watched him for a minute and when he didn�t move I started to get up and walk over to him. At which point he saw me, jumped up and ran to the top of a sharp ridge about 120 yards away. He stood there with his head down facing away from me. Since he was about two steps from going out of sight I waited and after about five minutes and he finally turned and offered a broadside shot of his left side, so I held just behind the front shoulder about halfway up and plunked him again.

At the shot he dropped off the opposite side of the ridge he was on into a deep wooded draw. I ran over to where he was standing and saw him trotting away down the draw about a half-mile away. As I watched him he came out of the draw up onto a little bench and lay down.

He had laid down in a place where I could sneak up to within about 20 yards and when I finally got there I put the bead on his neck and whistled. He didn�t move so I walked over to him and he was dead. During the subsequent gutting and skinning operations I saw that both shots had hit exactly where aimed, the first low behind the right front shoulder that should have taken out the heart, and the second a lung shot just behind the opposite shoulder halfway up. The first shot did not hit a rib. The second one did. Both shots penetrated the chest cavity, but did not hit the opposite side. There was no damage to the heart and little if any lung damage that I could see. There was a little blood pooled in the chest cavity, so I guess he finally bled to death. I looked and looked in the lungs and chest cavity to try to recover a bullet but didn�t find one. I was shooting 71-grain factory Norma ammo.

If this deer had been in a heavily wooded area as opposed to the open country where he was, I almost certainly would have lost him. He left absolutely no blood trail that I could find, not even where he had stood for five minutes where I fired the second shot. He traveled over half a mile from where he was first hit.

It is possible that some good hand loads might make some difference, but in deference to the animal my 22 Hi-Power is being retired from deer hunting. In my opinion the factory Norma�s certainly were not adequate for this 225 lb (field dressed) mule deer. Others mileage may vary.

An interesting post script�While looking for blood where this deer had stood for about 5-minutes prior to me firing the second shot I found this old expended 30-30 round. About 4-feet from it lay a thumb scraper the plains Indians used to flesh hides. Apparently this has been a good place to hunt for at least a couple of thousand years.

Good story, and interesting info. Amazing that the bullet didn't penetrate better, it's definitely advertised as a hunting round and not just target shooting.
Norma 5.6x52R

I've heard good things about the 60gr Partition shooting well from the 22HP, and I think that's what I'd use if I went out.

Good job on the hunt, and VERY good job on getting in range, in being persistent, and in tracking him down.

griz, Thats a pretty heavy animal,1/3 again bigger than the average whitetail. I think on whitetail size and smaller animals the 22 hi-power is fine. Maybe on those bigger animals you got to step up to the 250-3000!! Good job anyway being persistant in getting that deer. Don

Are the 22H.P. and the 5.6X52R exactly the same or is one seated lower than the other?

Was looking at a Velmet 12 ga over 22H.P. the other day and thought it would be a pretty neat walkin around my lot gun. Shotgun for the birds and squirrels and the H.P. in case a coyote bolts.

Very good report griz, thanks for taking time to post! Now I know I'll get some flack for this but, that is the reason I don't deer hunt with my .250, perfering instead to use my .300. Just seems to put them down faster and leaves a blood trail if they do run in the thickets I hunt.

Joe, I believe they are exactly the same thing. The 5.6x52R shoots fine in my 22HP at least.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/5-6x52r.htm


Edit: I do here that there is one common difference in 22HP rifles versus 5.6x52R rifles: the twist. The 5.6x52R rifles' twist will stabilize the Hornady .227 70gr bullets, the 22HP very often will not.

Thanks, thats what I figured but wanted to get a second opinion.

Nice deer, I used a 22hp "H" for a 90-100lb buck this season, neck shot 50-55yrds, droped him, I shot a doe 2 years ago almost same shot, neck with my 250 both droped , and never moved! I had a rest both times, and used a scope, for Michigan whitetails I think the 22Hp is fine but would not want to chance it on a large buck, unless I had a nice neck shot! glad you got your buck, and nice shooting with the "H"!
JOHN

Griz, I haven't used my 22 HP on deer for exactly the reasons you discovered. It just seems like it's pushing the "lets see how small a gun we can kill a deer with" envelope. For the sake of the animal, I prefer to have confidence that the cartridge I'm hunting with will make a swift and clean kill. Thanks for giving it a try and posting the results.

Griz,
Thanks for that posting. I am ALWAYS interested in cartridge performance.
Beyond that though, I would say that you did a great job making that all work out as good as it did, Congrats..!

That is a fine looking H and the 22H.P. is a classic, as you know. Our deer here are a "little" smaller, and as Calhoun has mentioned, the 60gr. Partition might just be the ticket. I would be willing to load some up, and perhaps you could send that ol' Savage out here so that I could do some field testing with it and such a load on these smaller Eastern Whitetails, then I would submit a well written report on my findings, and you could decide then wheather that gun is something you still wish to hunt with...Lol
Yeah right..!

Hey, seriously.., nice follow up on recovering that deer..!

Scott

I think light calibers will kill reliably if the bullets are smacked into the spine or neck. At 50-60 yds. that is what I attempt. A .22 bullet in the lungs isn't going to slow a big healthy deer down too much. Of course, a .30 caliber bullet through the lungs without hitting the heart too will allow the animal to run a hell of a long way.

Nice job persevering with the wounded deer. All's well that end's well.

You have experienced what most of us older gents have experienced with the 22 calibers, they kill very well and fast, but sooner or later they fail, thats just the way it is, like it or not..You have taken the right approach, why risk it..retire the gun and get yourself a Savage 250-3000, 300 or 308.

I have shot a lot of deer with the 222, 223 and 22-250, used them to cull in Africa. If you keep the range close and place your shots they are impressive, but ocassionally the will give you a heck of a tracking job.

I shot a deer between the shoulder blades as he fed on a sotol plot at about 150 yards on a mountain side and he hit the dirt. I took my 22 pistol and went to gut him..He jumped up and took off and I emptied my 22 auto into him as he went over the hill..I went back to the house and got a horse, a dog, and a 30-30 and went back and found him about 100 yards from where I shot him with the 22...the 22-250 bullet had exploded on the spine and knocked him out, no bullet penetration into the body cavity. What killed him was two 22 HP's in the lungs. It was a bad shot placement for a 22 in the first place, but a larger caliber would have worked.

My brother used the 22 Hi-Power with great success but he did have a couple of experiences as you had, and then he lost two bucks at once..He tried to trade me out of my 25-35 but no success so he swapped the Hi Power off for a nice 30-30 SRC and loved it...It was more dependable..

Folks that use light calibers for big game sooner or later will experience failures such as yours, you cannot convience most of them of that, but they figure it out sooner or later, I know I did and like most I learned it the hard way..

It seems their is some intrigue, mochesmo, etc in shooting game with light calibers and it is suppose to make you a great and powerful hunter..I guess thats just the way it is.

atkinson, I came to that same conclusion about 30 years ago when I shot the best whitetail I've ever seen with a .22-250. He was about a 100 yards away, I was laying down shooting over a pack and put the bullet right behind the shoulder. After the shot I watched him run for a mile or so across the rolling prairie of central Montana. I spent the rest of the day scouring the country side and never found a trace of him. I have no doubt that I hit him right. I've always assumed that little bullet just failed to penetrate. Up to that point I had killed a fair number of deer and antelope with that rifle. I never used it again on anything larger than a coyote.

calhoun whats the twist rate for sav 99s
for euorpian guns 5.6x52 norm

Savage 22HP's were 1 in 12" twist, I believe most European 5.6x52R's were 1 in 10".

As with 250's, some 22HP's may handle the Hornady's while others don't.