Rats. .177 Or .22

[paulk73 151]

I know the .177 v .22 debate has been done to death in general. but was wondering what peoples favourite cal was in regards to shooting rats??. I used to use .22 for all my hunting, but have changed over to 177 in last 18 months. I found this cal more than ample to do the job on rats as long as a good clean head shot is taken. I had a recent trip out on the rats, I checked zero before dark on my hw 100kt and everything was fine. I put on the ns 50. shot the first rat of the night and it was a runner. I wasnt happy and put it down as my own fault. bit of buck fever. I took the second shot and I knew something wasnt quite right. the second rat tried to exit in the same direction as the first but stopped after a few yards. and I shot again and it was despatched. as I went for a look I noticed that both shots where quite a bit off my intended ain point. I re zeroed the rifle and continued my night taking 40 or so clean shot rats. my question really is would a .22 rifle have taken the rats down cleanly big the bigger cal?? I also found the runner at the bottom of a pile of bales straight after looking at the second rat, and it was despatched.

[jocky 198]

i always use 22 for rats and roost shooting pigeons , i find the 177 just goes thrue the rats, and they run off to die.but all ways use 177 for rabbits

[mark williams 7,550]

Any of the calibres - shot in the head means DEAD.

 

 

atb

Edited May 5, 2014 by mark williams

[villaman 9,983]

.22 or .25 will do the job better imo

[porkycrook 466]

For rats anything is ok, 177, 20, 22, 25, stick or boot.

[Hookey 0]

I shot rats with a .22 and occasionally got a body shot, with super h point rws' they dropped instantly

Haven't tried with .177 but that is my preferential cal normally

Certainly the pellet will make a difference, no points unless you can garauntee a head shot and even some I'd still want to be using h

[Tom Spruce 1]

I only use .177 never bothered with the .22. A few weeks ago i had 16 rats in an hour down the farm, % of thoses were body shots! they didn't move an inch. but the head shot one's tended to do more squeeling and rolling. strange....

[RemyBolt 420]

I go .22 all the way for ratting. The larger surface area makes head shots more likely to hit the brain....in my opinion.

[paulk73 151]

ive been fine up until now with the .177. just didnt like the 2 runners. didnt seem fair.

[jamesS410 106]

I go .22 all the way for ratting. The larger surface area makes head shots more likely to hit the brain....in my opinion.

You do realise .22 is only 1mm greater in diameter than a .177 so there's only a 0.5mm difference between touching the brain or not between the two calibres. I know every little helps but I can't help but think the that the greater energy transfer capabilities of the .22 may be more of a significant difference. Out of choice I would go for the .22 for close up ratting but I only have a .177 and if you put the pellet in the right place, as has been said above, they ain't going any where. ☺

[paulk73 151]

I know this mate. ive had probs before or since. I checked zero before I started, but it must of crept off zero a little whilst attaching the ns 50. this has put my pellet wide of the brain/kill zone. so I was wondering if the energy transfer of the .22 would of killed it out right in the same situation??.

[RemyBolt 420]

 

I go .22 all the way for ratting. The larger surface area makes head shots more likely to hit the brain....in my opinion.

You do realise .22 is only 1mm greater in diameter than a .177 so there's only a 0.5mm difference between touching the brain or not between the two calibre's

 

Yeah I know this. I also recognise the energy transfer and the internal vacuum damage as well as the principle of leak-points in regard to taking down bigger game. I'm a bit of a nerd at heart haha. But I like to have that extra bit of certainty....maybe I'm just trying to justify it a little more and my reasoning and logic isn't quite as logical as most people's.

 

I've put both .177 and .22 straight through a rats head. Neither one managed to make the rat more dead than the other haha. In both cases, the rat was dead.

 

If you have a .177, I wouldn't go out of my way to get a .22 just for ratting.

[eggs 4]

So what calibre to choose ... hmmm ?

 

A dead rat is a good rat

 

As long as we hit and kill the bu##ers its all good

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

Hit them in the right place and it won't matter what calibre. .25 is probably best though, as it transfers its energy better. I've hit the with hollowpoint bullets and they've still tried to crawl away, so shoot them in the head if you can and don't worry too much about the calibre. Just my opinion.

[Daz 7 563]

My Rapid TTR 1 in .25 cal Firing JSB Kings @ 25.4 gr just smashes Rats weather head or heart & lung shots