There are many opportunities around the place for shooting small game. From the deck to the back side of the garden is about 150 yards and a big threat to the veggies are the cottontails coming out of the woods. We also have the challenge of hawks eating the chickens....

They are all easy to kill..22 long rifle is plenty of power but at at that range it is kinda hard to hit them....even though my nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away I do not like shooing into the trees with a .22....you can hear the lead 40 grain bullets whining through the air or bouncing around the barn yard....

This fancy Ruger is good for close to (or better than) .5 MOA...fancy trigger..3.5/10x Leupold...about as good as a .22 auto gets...drops 6-8 inches at 100 yards....easy to miss at 150 yards...

This Savage heavy barrel 17 HMR cost 200 bucks...crispy crisp 2 lb Accu-trigger...3x9 Leupold...throws 17 gr bullets into a silly tight groups....surely better than .5 MOA is still air....it is the easiest rifle I have ever shot to hit small targets within a couple of hundred yards.........

Given the ease of hitting small targets within a couple of hundred yards...this round...17 HMR gets my vote...

Byron

with. I haven't had much luck shooting well with it and need to dedicate some time soon.

Does yours show any preference for specific ammo?

and my experience says the bb-diameter .17 doesn't kill as well at longer ranges

The game targeted is limited to cottontails and chicken hawks....very little is required to kill them...an air gun will get the job done.....

The advantage is the .17 HRM shoots much flatter and is easier to hit with....

If I remember correctly Keith shot tough jackrabbits with solid brass bullets out of a Swift or something at some crazy velocity and the jacks did not even indicate they had be hit....

Byron

I remember shooting a 22 lr one time and a 222 Rem side by side at a tin can balanced on a limb of a tree maybe 25 yeards away....the 222 made me think I missed so got the 22 long rifle and shot the can off the limb nice as you please....went down there and there were two holes inch apart....the 222 wnet at such igh velocity it never moved the can and it was too close for bullet expansion....can you image the 220 swift at 4000 fps...whooeee.....

after i shot the sow. Didn't realize what had happened until I walked the 150 yards or so over the meadow and couldn't find the younglings. Looked closer and realized the longish grass was carpeted with fragments of them. Have also picked up just the wings of a crow connected by a gristle string, out of the scattered feathers. 40gr from a early HB Ruger 77; Norma factory ammo. 12 power scope.

I try to remember everything and fail miserably....still....I recall reading an article by Keith probably 40 years ago in one of his experiments with high velocity....

I think he was using lathe turned solid brass bullets....jacketed bullets of the day would not hold together...anyway....shot some jackrabbits...they did not react to being shot...continued eating until they just kinda fell over from slow internal bleeding....or maybe...it just could have been some kind of a dream....

Byron

There was an article I read some years back. It was about a test one army doctor did on condemned mules in the Phillipines prior to WWII. He had Winchester send him a supply of solid copper 22 Swift bullets, already loaded. He didn't chonograph the loads, rather would put an old steel WWI helmet on the head of a mule and shoot it with the loaded Swift's. The report said the bullet went through the helmet and exited the back side. He noticed a number of holes in the helmet along with bullet holes. Upon investigation it was found they were bone fragments from the mules head. Wish I could remember the name of the writer. It was about high velocity injuries and the effects of very high velocity on certain targets. May have been writing by P.O. Ackley when he was working with his 17 caliber rifles in his books. He did like the 17 caliber as a varmit round, it was even used for culling operations on open range mustangs back in the day. One hit and dead mustang, according to him. Good Luck.

I was out deer huting and a bit overgunned BUT as I sat and saw no deer I saw about 20-25 ruffed grouse pelting out of trees behind me and flying and landing about 20 yards away and walking across the top f the snow...well one landed about 20 yards...and I put the cross hairs on his head and neck...but just as I pulled the trigger for the srugical removal...the damned bird jumpoed and all I could find was a beak separated by a few tail faithers and a red mist in between....210 Noslers will really make a mess at close range....