I need a VERY quiet 22lr to shoot on the edges of town at some stray cats. They need to be pretty fast but QUIET. Any help???

Stay away from the faster shells and use a rifle with a longer barrel. That is about as good as you can get without using a silencer which is an expensive option, or depending on where you live not an option at all.

Unless you use subsonic rounds they will all make crack when they break the sound barrier.

For quiet cat control I like to use a bow with blunt tips. Best thing I have used on something that size is my .17HMR, it's not very quiet though.

I say a nice full size rifle with 40 grn target loads should work well. Shorts would be better yet if you can get them to shoot well. I haven't had very good luck them myself in the accuracy department.

I could offer you some other advice, but we can't talk about it here for legal reasons.[]

Paul

I have found CCI 22 short Hollow points do the trick. I use them succesfully on feral cats and limb rats on the bird feeder. 35 in 3 months...amazing

PS....I always try for a head shot....don't want them running off......

What you need is a box of Aguila Super Colbri .22 shells, avalible at Cabela's. They have a 20 Gr. bullet with no gun powder the priming compound is enough to fire the bullet out at about 500 fps. very quiet and very effective. You need a head shot on a feral cat.

Leave teh gun at home, go to the Co-Op and get some Temic. Put some food and Temic aout and start picking up the strays. Any animal thatingests temic usually dies within a few feet of the container. Quick and Quite

I have always like CCI CB shorts. They even marketthem as low noise pest control.

http://www.cci-ammunition.com/default.asp?menu=1&s1=3&pg=18&prod_id= 2

Like spencer says the cci CB rounds make no more noise than a pellet rifle.Even the CB long doesn't make any noise.

About the best of these low noise rounds is the Winchester Low Noise .22 CB Short. I made a little jig to cut an X in the tip of the bullet - ran a .22 chamber reamer into a short section of an old .22 barrel and then used a 3/32 slitter saw to make the X. You insert a CB short and cut the X with a thin bladed knife. I shoot them in the ribs the they usually run about 50 yards. Very effective and no louder than an air rifle. BTW, I hate cats.

This is what I would suggest also, they make little noise. I have also heard of people who reload using a 223 with a mag primer and .22 cal airgun pellet seated in the case. Never tried that but it sounded pretty easy and is supposed to be really quite also.