22 hollow point or soild?

[Slipped Cork]

I been using h/p on squirrel for yrs.Do you think solid point would be as effective on the kill and not tearing up the meat as bad? I could try some s/p and see for myself and probally will I was just curious.

[luvjign]

Daddy used to do pretty good using .22 shorts (solid point - no hollow point). But, I've seen squirrels finally give it up even after being shot in the gut with a CCI mini-mag. But, like you say, it's not much left. I think it's more about where the bullet hits than how much damage the bullet makes.

Just my 2¢...

[Barnacle Bill]

Daddy used to do pretty good using .22 shorts (solid point - no hollow point). But, I've seen squirrels finally give it up even after being shot in the gut with a CCI mini-mag. But, like you say, it's not much left. I think it's more about where the bullet hits than how much damage the bullet makes.

Just my 2¢...

Thats all I ever used back in by squirrel hunting days.

[scoremaster]

i love sq hunting and hunt almost always with a 22 rifle just to put a twist on your question with an answer i have tried all types of shells flats, round , pointed , hollow, regular speed and hyper. but the best i ever shot was eley subsonic in a hollow point guess the slow speed and soft lead get the shock needed and have shot them in the ribs and have lost very little if any meat. so i would suggest any subsonic hollow point .
good luck season comes in in 5 days here in maryland .

Scott

[CrappiePappy]

was done with a 22LR Hollow Point shell. But, I used a scope and tried mainly to make head shots :p (as long as the squirrel had tree behind him).

I have used a shotgun, but prefer a scoped rifle .... why ?? .... simply because, when they're shot with one well placed round, they're dead when they hit the ground -- when shot with a shotgun, you don't know how many pellets went in or how many found a vital mark. I had an experience that makes my point :
A buddy and I were squirrel hunting w/shotguns, and he shot one out of the top of a very tall tree. When it landed, it fell on solid rock ... and I'm guessing it to have been a 50-60ft fall. It wasn't moving a muscle, and I'm thinking that ... if the shot didn't kill it, the fall surely did (or at least finished the job) :D
WRONG !!! ... when I went to pick it up, it bit me Luckily I was wearing fairly heavy gloves, and the bite was minor. After a few well placed gun butt taps to the head, the drama was over.
I've also noticed, when cleaning a shotgun shot squirrel ... that many of the pellets barely made it thru the hide. Never had to pick any 22 lead out of the meat (or my mouth) :p

.... cp

[Slipped Cork]

Thanks for the replies all. Im going to give the solid points a try and hope they work better.

[joneugene]

IF you can find them try CCI mini-mag solid head I can't always find them but thay work real good on tree rats

[J White]

A vote for target grade stuff and head shot here.
Don't matter much what kinda bullet when you pop his
lil' noggin a good one

[GrouseFly]

Well I have went down both these roads...I started out with a little lock 410 Winchester that I still have, in a full choke. Graduated to a 20 guage Wing Master and then went crazy as a loon with a 3" Mossberg Magnum. You know how you do when you are in high school and feeling your oats, THE BIGGER THE BETTER!!! After that I started collecting 22's and never looked back. One of the worst tongue lashin's I ever got was over a limit of fox squirrels and a box of yellow jacket hollow points. My dad was raised in a good country home but they was brought up not to waste anything, NOT EVEN THE HEAD!!! So when I showed up in camp with that limit of fox squirrels missing the better part of all the heads he went a little NUTTTS!!! So after that it was solids, like dad said, if you can shoot you can kill them just as dead!!! I never was much on body shots. I was always a EYE MAN...lol..or a occasional neck shot if I could not see it's eyes...lol. SO MY VOTE IS FOR SOLIDS...and save their tails for jigs and spinners...lol..REMEMBER, DON'T WASTE ANYTHING!!!!!!

[rango]

I been using h/p on squirrel for yrs.Do you think solid point would be as effective on the kill and not tearing up the meat as bad? I could try some s/p and see for myself and probally will I was just curious.

what you should do is get a half dozen different brands of cartridges and try different ones to see which brand shoots the best in your rifle. i have two rifles i squirrel hunt with. a ruger 77/22 and a cz varmit rifle. the ruger likes eley orange and the cz likes cci green tag competetion. standard velocity sp cartridges work fine for me. i dont like the high velocity stuff because the mfg standards arent as strict and you will get a lot of fliers, which wont be good on a small target like a squirrel, gettin you a bad hit or a miss. if you got your rifle sighted in correctly, you shouldnt have a problem making head or chest shots. any gut shot animal is gonna give you problems, wether its a squirrel or a elk. I think rws makes a standard velocity hp. i bought a brick once and got good service out of em, but went back to the sp's because they are more readily available, plus i sold the rifle that shot em the best.