Can you hit a squirrel at 40+ yards with a .22?
 

I have hunted for nearly 30 years now. Mostly shotgun for small game but moved to deer almost 20 years ago and hardly go after small game anymore. I picked up a Remington 597 22 from my brother a month back and have the fever now. :) Anyway, the gun is sighted in at 25 yards and will hit about the same at 50 yards. It is dead on from a gun vise and will shoot a tight group. Problem is shooting off hand at squirrels. So, how far can you reliably hit a squirrel off hand? Is it me or do I expect too much out of myself with a small bullet on a small animal?

I killed a pretty big gray squirrel last year at about 30 yards with a beeman pellet gun with a 4 power scope, perfect lung shot. A 22 caliber rifle would have been a piece of cake! :happy0001:

I shot onethe other day at about 25 yards with a Ruger Mark II. Would be no problem with my 10/22 at all. Heck, my 10/22 drives tacks at 100 yards.

Shoot yeah i could hit 1 at 40 yards wit ta 22!Have killed um at 80 with my 17 HMR.

Git real steady when u go to shoot 1.like lean up against a tree,that helps.

I have a scoped Marlin that can bust 2" Daisy Shatterblast discs all day from 60 yards without trying.

offhand ? I want to see that.

even the 22 shorts will make it 100 yards accurately:fighting0007:.. definitely a 22lr would kill..i aint sure the power behind a 22short at 100 yards, but i'd imagine it would at least knock it out til ya got there.

use a tree to stabilize against...

I don't have a scope on my .22 probably would help, but that and my turkey gun are my last holdouts for no scopes! ha.

With open sights, I think I can. With a scope, 150yd. I can hit 1/5 squirrels with my bow at 46yd.

With my 22 I usually don't like going more than 25-30 but I have hit them out that far before. My prefered weapon for longer shots on squirrels is the 17.