CCI Quiet Ammo For Critter Control

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Blue Grass

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I've got a critter problem. Skunks, racoons, and possoms populations are getting out of control in my neighborhood. They live in the woods behind my property so my neighbors have asked me to (safely) start reducing the number of pests. I'm thinking of using a CZ-452 Ultra Lux rifle (26.7" barrel) w/Bushnell White Tail 6.5-20x50 scope. I just scored a case of CCI .22lr Quiet ammo.It shoots a 40gr LRN bullet at 710 fps. Anyone have any experince using this ammo on critters? Will it put down a large coon at 50 yrds? Thanks for the input.
 
I would strive for head shots on the coons. The round should be pretty quiet out of your long barreled CZ. I would do some shooting to see how it does in your rifle before attempting 50 yd shots.
 
Wanting to do the same as you I took some Remington subsonic to the range, at 50 yards they shot about 3 to 4 inches lower than standard 22. On a coon definitely a head shot or get a coonhound and he will do the rest when it hits the ground:)
 
I have been a big fan of the various sub-sonic .22 loads for a number of years now. Lots of fun, drop and wind drift come into play pretty quickly! Not to mention that most of these are NOT match grade ammo; small variations in primer compound and power (if any powder!) are noticeable.

Ditto on 22-rimfire's remarks.

I would set up targets at 10 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards... you get the point.
Know what you can do with the ammo before going out hunting.
 
A great deal depends on where your house is. If you're in town, shooting the local fauna will very likely be illegal. Best to check that and your local hunting regs, first. You'll never reduce the population of any of those wee beasts with a wood lot out back anyway. Certainly not without removing the food and lodging sources.
All that aside, you really do not want to shoot Pepe(M. Le Pew) anywhere but the head. Even then the chances of him, um, enhancing the neighbourhood's essence, are high.
CCI .22lr Quiet ammo has 40 ft-lbs. of energy at 50 yards. Be ok for head shots. Hit any of 'em anywhere else and they crawl off to die a slow painful death, quite likely under your neighbour's garage or front porch.
 
Even if not in town, shooting them when they aren't in the act of causing damage to your property may be illegal
 
Be aware, things shot in the head often, if not usually, get very energetic after being shot there, and often put on a good show. The "shot" may be the least of your worries if youre looking for stealth.

While not as much fun as "hunting", "catch them alive" traps work very well (skunks can be interesting), and may be your best bet.

If you want to wander into the NFA realm, a good suppressor is a good investment, and with the right caliber, one shot body shots are the norm. Even supersonic, its sounds like a nail gun going off if you keep things fairly close, and you dont need earplugs.
 
I have an older long barreled .22 (I think it's ~26-27") and I have pretty good luck with the reduced rounds in that. I haven't tried the .22 quiet, but I have used the CCI .22 subsonic, which appears to be pretty much a regular .22lr with the charge tweaked just enough to stay barely under the sound barrier. This round in my gun is about equivalent to one of those "lady finger" mini firecrackers. You might consider comparing those with the quiets if you are concerned about drop or energy at the target. I have experimented with several hundred rounds of reduced power ammo, down to primer only CB caps, and luckily I have never had anything get stuck in the barrel, but you need to verify that the round left the gun each time to be safe. I usually see/hear the impact downrange, so that is the easiest way to tell.
 
"Be VERY careful with low velocity ammo in that rifle. The round may never leave the barrel."
You probably won't be getting 710 fps with that long barrel. At 50 yards you won't have much to work with energy wise so body shots won't do a good job. We use that type ammo on the trapline and normally use headshots. Even at 10' body shots take quite a while to kill-you're basically making a pinhole through the critter.
Accuracy is a big factor with some of the quiet ammo and will depend on your specific rifle. I only use a 5.5" barrel pistol and only 2 ammo choices are accurate enough to suit me: Remington C-Bee and CCI Quiet.
 
I shot a box of this the other day and I really don't think its that much quieter than normal .22LR. It is strong enough to set off a can of tannerite at 50yds though :D
 
I shot a box of this the other day and I really don't think its that much quieter than normal .22LR.
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My experience too.

I've shot a lot of subsonic .22 LR way back when I did some target shooting out of .22 rifles and also did not find it much quieter than regular .22 LR.

Maybe a .22 pellet gun would be a better choice.

Like someone said though, make sure using ANY kind of gun where you are at is legal before you do it.
 
I think you and the neighbors should all chip in and buy the largest Hav a Hart trap you can get, and forget about trying to make much difference in the population by shooting.

It will work 24/7 whereas you'll be lucky to get a shot or two per week
 
The two drawer file cabinet sitting next to me is my temporary gun rest.

The food bowl is exactly 89' from the muzzle of my .17HMR.

There is a baby monitor next to the food bowl. I can tell you what the animal is just by listening to him eat. Pop open the window, check my zero, crawl back to bed.

Coons are tough. Lost more than one on standard velocity .22s. You want them dead or they'll crawl away and die. And, yes, you can exterminate the destructive varmints effectively. I've probably eradicated over two hundred possums, coons, and feral cats.
 
Ultra Lux barrel is 28.5".
Be VERY careful with low velocity ammo in that rifle. The round may never leave the barrel.
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This.

I have the CZ Ultra Lux (yes, a 28" tube) and that exact issue occurred twice in mine with the CCI "Quiet" .22 ammo. I won't use it in that rifle and I'd avoid using any in yours. The long barrel does, however, seem to subdue the noise and blast of most other non-hyper (i.e., standard) velocity .22 ammo.

So you might want to try several of the standard velocity loads first, testing for noise, and then pick the least "blasty" one, assuming its also accurate, which shouldn't be an issue at all with your UL. Mine shoots most average-grade .22 loads like a laser.

FWIW, out of my other .22 rifles, like my ancient Ruger All-Weather 77/22, the CCI Quiet ammo worked fine. Decent accuracy too.

Good luck thinning out the critters from your veld ... ;)

 
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I would look into standard instead of quiet on that long barrel. I find that it doesn't crack on my 20". You'll probably need the power for 50 yards on a coon.
 
I am a serial killer of coons.
The BB gun quiet ammo to get is CCI CB shorts.
The 29 gr bullet moves at 700 fps and has 0.45 gr of powder behind it.
The CCI "quiet" ammo has more than 0.45 gr powder and is not BB gun quiet.
The brain shot is a must.

A half dozen times I have seen two coons ~~ 15 pounds each together. I cannot get close enough with the rainbow trajectory of the CB shorts. But I try to lob on in on the brain. The one I shoot break dance off the scene and the other goes up a tree. Even if the tree is 75 feet high, as long as there is no tree canopy escape route, I can shoot the second coon out of the tree. The fall kills the coon.
I have never found the first coon in this repeating story.

But for a few dozen, it has been one coon, and I am close enough to get a brain shot. The animal break dances, but stays in a 15 foot area for 15 seconds and then is dead. Gotta hit the brain.

Unless a coon is trapped up in a tree, body shots will just make him smarter next time.
 
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