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Smoothbore 22?

Luddite

Aluminum
Joined
Feb 19, 2007
Location
Michigan
My dear Dad is bothered by squirrrels. He wants to shoot them with .22 birdshot and just sting them without injuring them. He asked if there is such a thing as a .22 smoothbore or .22 shotgun. I don't know about such things. I think I read on this forum somewhere about .22 shells with only the primer charge to propel the shot. Am I correct? Can anyone offer advice about what he needs. He wants to be sure the power lines or phone lines aren't damaged. He is in a residential neighborhood. Thanks in advance for any help.

Luddite
 
My next door neighbour was having problems with bunnies in the garden, some imaginative work with a cheap, farm electric fence unit persuaded them to stay away.

She had cable a couple of inches above the ground and in places where they would put their noses and feet to get to her plants.

It's an isolated house, so she doesn't have the problem your dad may have of neighbours calling the cops (OMG! - He's Got a Gun!:willy_nilly:), and heaven forbid, of them showing up in dog shooting mode.

If your dad wants to sting the little critters, an airsoft with the orange painted muzzle will be a lot easier to explain if shit does land.

Decades ago, one neighbour complained that another had shot her window out - it would have required shot with the properties of a boomerang, as the window was the other side of the house to where he was - but it still took a lot to convince the cops. more recently another neighbour had his shotgun confiscated after he was reported for shooting pigeons off his own house roof with an airgun - no logic, but there you are.
 
Please keep in mind that :

Cops deeply resent anyone with legal training.

Truly intelligent candidates are rejected for police work; they might get bored and quit (case went to a supreme court, and the guy lost).

Many people have learned that the best way to get 911 to respond is simply to exaggerate/lie to the 911 operator.

Cops love to act stupid, since stupidity tends to escalate a situation into disorderly conduct.


I suspect the corrolary to "every Harley part is a hundred bucks" is "every court case is ten thousand bucks".




So...

Combine one 'stupid' cop with a cranky old guy, and add ten thousand dollars.

Regret at your leisure.
 
How about a paintball gun? The impact will smart, but at least he will know which ones he has already hit before :D Should be no damage to anything else except for the color it leaves behind.
 
Biometrics,

Thanks. That sounds like the best advice. I don't think he'll spend the money, so all is safe for the neighbors and him.

Luddite
 
You can pick up a single shot (or even a repeater) paint ball gun used in good working condition on Ebay or Craigs list cheap...
 
Regarding "cops can't be too smart, else they would get bored", here is the lawsuit;

Sample column 2

'Dumb cop' rule really smarts (09/11/00)

A federal court has determined that in New London, Connecticut, the police were justified in denying employment to an applicant who was too smart to be a policeman.

Yep, he was too smart for the New London police force.

The Atlanta Mobile Register writes "Police throughout the country should be enraged, because the policy at issue in this case feeds the unfortunate stereotype of the "dumb cop." For that matter, the citizens of New London, Conn., should be enraged, too, because it is their police department that is ensuring that the officers who serve the public are of only average intelligence. The policy is inane.

"The case began when Robert Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, applied for the New London police force. When he took the entrance exam, he scored 33 points - which indicates an IQ of about 125. But the department only considers candidates who score between 20 and 27, with 20 representing an IQ of about 100, which is supposed to be average.

"The department's theory is that those who score too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after receiving costly training.

"Mr. Jordan sued, saying that he was the victim of illegal discrimination. Two federal courts have now refused to uphold his claim, though, saying that because the same standards were applied to all applicants, no illegal discrimination occurred. The courts also ruled that even though the policy might be unwise - we would say flat-out stupid - it was at least arguably a rational way to reduce expensive job turnover."
 
.22 rimfire "birdshot" (actually I think it's #12) will either kill (red) or wound (gray) squirrels at ~ 10 yards in my experience.

Plus, in a residential setting, the "crack" of a 22 rimfire will no doubt attract attention from the police (for good reason -- some people think a .22 RF is just a pop gun and let their kids run wild with them when in reality they are deadly weapons at over 100 yards).

If he just wants to "sting" the squirrels to chase them off, I'd recommend a BB gun (watch their eyes lest you blind them).

If he wants to do away with them, another option would be a box trap, a piece of string and a local pond.
 
Buy your dad an airsoft rifle and a couple of big bottles of pellets. A really good airsoft gun will propel a plastic pellet with enough speed to get a squirrel's notice, without endangering the neighborhood. However, that doesn't relieve the shooter from paying attention to the impact zone behind the target.

Both of you need to understand that a firearm should never be pointed at anything you don't want to destroy. .22 RF firearms are dangerous and will kill a person. .22 RF shot shells are not likely to kill a person, but that is not the way to bet, especially at close range. Don't shoot at critters with lethal weapons, either, unless the plan is to kill.

There are no primer powered .22 RF shot shells on the market that I know about, however cartridges with solid bullets are common. They will kill a squirrel or rabbit. They are relatively quiet from a long gun and many people use them in the city, but there is still a report that can be heard several yards away.
 
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CCI makes .22 shotshells. They have a tranlucent plastic cap on the fornt to hold the #12 shot. They are made for use in rifled barrels, but in fact, the rifling spreads them rather quickly. A solid hit at 15 feet on a red squirrel will NOT, in my experience, kill a squirrel. Winchester also used to make a .22 shotshell full of #12 shot with a crimped end. THese were made specifically for Routledge-bored .22 shotguns, for use with Mo-Skeet-O skeet. Orvis also use to sell a ritz cracker thrower once the tiny Mo-Skeet-O skeet were no longer available. The Routledge-bored guns five a much better pattern, but are still insuffieicnt to kill squirrels.
 
There are 22 smoothbores; most are very old Winchester's.

The legalities of the intended purpose need pursued bigtime. Many municipalties regulate airguns more than firearms.
 
Mossberg made a series of targo shotguns that were a 22, some had a rifled barrel extention. You could also look in 22 CB ammo. Check your local ordinances before discharging a firearm within city limits.
 
As has been suggested I would get either an Air Soft rifle or Paint Marker rather then using .22 shot, or even a BB gun.

Of the two personally I would go with the airsoft, I have used an airsoft rifle for squirrel harassment on a number of occasions and it works quite well and it is very safe, there is no report, it leaves no mess, and is very cheep to shoot.
 
HOLD IT! There's been a lot of good suggestions regarding air rifles, etc.....but you need to know one thing:

Shooting at, or damaging a telecommunications cable is a federal offense.....period. I have over forty years in the phone business and believe me, they have NO sense of humor in this regard. They can and will prosecute as it's considered a domestic terrorist act.

The reason is simple.....if you knock someone's phone out, intentional or not, and that someone needs to call for an ambulance, police, etc. and has no service.......well, it won't be the phone company that gets nailed. It'll be you.

Other posters have already mentioned the problem of discharging a firearm within an occupied (residential) area. You're really taking a chance. All you need is one jackass neighbor to claim you bounced a round off his house, etc.

I'd wait til the squirrels were on the ground and make sure my fence was an adequate backstop, then pop 'em with a quiet air rifle. Then SSS...shoot, shovel, shut up!
 
I can't believe we live in fear of the police, the very people that are to "Protect and serve" us. It just sucks that we continue to allow this crap.


I wouldn't personally kill and animal that is just "doing what it's supossed to", it seems petty to take the life of a squirrel.(Thier harmless) I am by no means trying to bash anyone here, but maybe look at it in a different light. Animals have just as much right to live as we do, maybe we are invading them. And i'm NO activist by any means, seems like logic to me.
 
My wife spreads bone meal in her garden to deter squirrels and plants her bulbs under a layer of chicken wire. If you need an accuracy challenge join a club that shoots .22 competitive rifle with peep sights in prone position.
 
"They can and will prosecute as it's considered a domestic terrorist act."

More damage is done to the precious phone cables by those nasty rodents than any
other source combined. Maybe the phone co. can prosecute the squirrels to solve
the problem instead of harassing their customers.

Like most utilities, their policy is 'screw you' until they need something from you.
Then it's "comply or we swear out a complaint."

There's a tree growing next to the phone pole (that provides the subscriber drops
for several houses including mine) in my neighbor's yard. Every time they come to
work there they gripe and bitch about it. I tell them it's NOT ON MY PROPERTY
so I can't cut it down. Take it up with the owner.

Then I suggest they just go cut the damn thing down anytime they want. The
reply? You got it, "oh, we don't do that. You have to pay to have it done."
 








 
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