22 LR rifle vs pistol velocity

[tiger955]

Anybody ever chronyed 22 LR ammo in a pistol and a rifle to see the velocity difference?
A few years ago I used to do a lot of coon hunting and trapping for furs and usually carried my old Marlin 25 with a 22 inch barrel. I always used Remington "golden bullets" and usually dropped any coon with one shot. One evening I went for a walk on the back 40 and took my roommates Mark II just for kicks. A big old coon ran out of the corn and up a tree and it took 7 shots to bring him down, and he hit the ground mad! Finally a shot between the eyes at point blank range stopped him.
When I skinned him I found several bullets just under the hide that never penetrated including one right behind the ear. I have hit many there with the rifle that dropped them dead. I never hunted with that pistol after that figuring the short barrel was causing a serious drop in power.
Shooting my new Mark III at 100 yds bullets don't seem to drop much, which leads me to wonder, is the power down that much in a pistol? or was that coon wearing furry body armor?

 

[AzRebel]

I'd guess the drop in velocity to be around 300 fps or so, depending on the ammo and barrel length of each. .22 LR ammo generally hits top velocity with around an 18" barrel.

As far as performance on 'coons, I've killed several in traps using a rifle loaded with CB shorts. My .22 pistol with LR ammo drops them very dead, very dependably.

You're failure to get a clean kill was either from poor placement, or bad ammo for your pistol. With Rem GB's, I'd guess that the ammo you had wasn't performing well in the handgun (taking into consideration that you indicated the shots were good). We have some pretty big ol' coons around here in places and mini-mags or velocitors in a handgun work great on 'em.

Daryl

 

[gunslinger9729]

I just read an article in shooting times about the difference between 22s in pistols and rifles. It said that to get the preformance of your 22 rifle in a 22 revolver like a Single Six you should use the 22mag cylinder and shoot those. Since the slugs that the 22lr and the 22mag are the same then the 22mag out of the shorter barrel will match the balistics of the 22lr out of the longer rifle barrel. I hope this helps you Tiger.

 

[RedLabel]

You guys must have some pretty wimpy racoons :lol: . The ones I've got around here all take 3 or 4 shots whether out of my 10/22 or my Single Six. One shot will start the process but gee whiz they die hard and even though they are nasty creatures I can't stand to see them suffer

 

[Ewalker]

I dispatch coyotes in traps with a .22 pistol or a .22 rifle 1 shot in heart or lung yote thrashs around for a few seconds then lays down like going to sleep and it is over. But I have noticed that .22 ammo dose,nt seem as dependable or as hard hitting as it was 10- 15 years ago. I used to shoot jack rabbit with .22 hollow piont any where in the body and it was dead , now they will dye but they will hope off sometimes not even acting if it was hit. Coons can be pretty tough to kill sometimes.

 

[flatgate]

I've "dispatched" a lot of Marmots/Rockchucks with a Ruger .22 LR chambered Single-Six over the years (I worked at a ski area that was virtually overrun by the damn things.) It used to take several hits to "put 'em down" until I began using Paco Kelly's trick...

Paco's Acurizer.

It sure works for me. I've also dispatched large skunks with no problem.

flatgate

 

[gunslinger9729]

Pacos stuff looks real good I think I will have to order some soon.

 

[Ewalker]

Flatgate the "dispatch" is hold over from another site where ya pretty much gotta watch what you say . I Kill coyote in traps. Ah that feels nice to be able to say that.

 

[CraigC]

For regular high velocity loads with 36-40gr bullets, it ain't much. Maybe 150fps at the absolute most. Such loads reach their peak velocity in 14" of barrel so the difference is not as vast as you might think. What load were you using in the pistol? The GB hollowpoint is an excellent game bullet with a nice, wide hollow cavity that expands reliably. Other bulk HP's like the Federal are dismal, as they are only dimpled.

The .22Mag handgun gives you a lot more than .22LR rifle performance. You get a full 40gr and a true jacketed bullet. Usually running along at 1600fps. Far more effective on game and shoots mighty flat.

 

[louiethelump]

I am not meaning to be ignorant here, and certainly not judgemental in asking this; but ask from sincere curiosity:

Why do you guys shoot raccoons? Are you using the hides? Are they being eaten? Are they causing some sort of problem where they need to be gotten rid of? What is the purpose of killing them? I see raccoons around all over, and they never seem to be hurting anything so I am wondering........

Thanks

Louie :?:

 

[1RugerFan_33]

^^^^

Ask your question around here, especially farm country :wink:

Really, I s'pose one might not know. So...

They get into EVERYTHING...garbage cans, bird feeders, chicken coops...you name it. I only know 'cause back in the 70's/80's my Dad hunted them bigtime. Tear everything to Hell, to eat.

You can eat them (not my favorite, but when I was lil', I didn't have a choice :wink: ) , and those pelts bring good money, or they did, dunno these days...Russia is a big market for coon pelts. The biggest coon my Dad ever shot, the pelt brought just under $50, IIRC, back in the day (Prices were really good/high for prime stuff, then).

 

[louiethelump]

You mean those two fatties I saw climbing out that dumpster at 3:00 AM this morning when I went to check that office building (I am at work at a hospital) would have brought 100 bucks skinned out????????????


NO WONDER they were "picken em up and puttem down" when they heard me coming!!!

Thanks

I live at the edge of the forest in the woods and I don't see them in my yard at all probably because of my dogs in the yard.....

 

[Ewalker]

Bottom fell out of the fur market last year.Those 50 coons might bring you 8-10 Might being key work maybe $4 a piece.

 

[gunslinger9729]

Even without having much of market now they still are a major pest animal out here in the country. They are also a major carrier of rabies they can pass that along to your dogs if you arent careful.

 

[ArmedinAZ]

Had a chance to shoot some LR through the chronos at work this past week. Out of a 20" rifle the average velocity was right at 1200 fps. Out of a revolver with a 6" barrel the average was 825 fps so almost 400 fps loss. This was the Federal 40 gr. lead bullet BTW. Hope this helps .

Jeff

 

[gunslinger9729]

Yes there is a lot of loss between the rifle and the pistol when both are shooting 22lr, but what I read was that if you shoot 22 magnum through a pistol chambered for it with the 6" barrel you will get velocity comparable to a 22lr shot out of the 20" rifle. That is the numbers I would like to see compared since you can get both 22lr and 22 magnum with the same bullet weights.