What kind of bolt action 22 to buy?
 

I need to pop a cap in a woodchuck who decimated my blueberry bushes, and then had the unmitigated temerity to eat my strawberry plants.

Also there is a bunny who has issues and needs to be released from his current round of incarnation.

My friend has dozens of chucks in his field and I thouhgt I could get enough skins to make a nice fur coat for elfin bedwe'er. He's a 2T. Probably will be 3T by the time he needs a fur coat again.

Any thoughts on a decent, accurate but inexpensive rifle. I'm thinking bolt action, peep sights, but may spring for a scope.

Marlin makes Many different models , blued , stainless , wood stock and synthetic stock.
http://www.marlinfirearms.com/
.22( adaquite ) .22mag( OH so adaquite ) or .17( varmit WHACKER ) are all good choices . A .17 cal shoots WAY flat at 100 yards , there are MANY different bullet choices varmit wackers included ( see Horady and Speer web sites )

They also have a .410 lever action , winchester has one as well , Both of these look INTRESTING .

better yet why not get one of these ,

http://wildwestguns.com/Bushwacker/Bushwacker2.jpg

http://wildwestguns.com/ look for the bush wacker!!!!!

.457magor .50 Alaskan , choped down lever action with a laser !!!!! :eek: :eek:

Talk about a varment whacker !!!!! Hell a bear wacker !!!!!!!

Ruger Bolt Action

I have heard many rave reviews of the ability of the .17 to take down the wiliest of varmints. I have not test fired any of these myself, but I did have the opportunity to watch a little old man shoot holes in pennies from 100 yds with one of these to give to his grandchildren.

Ruger 10/22 Autoloader

If you wanna make it a really fun and memorable occasion.. give one of these a whirl out in that field your buddy owns...

Oh, dammit. I want one.

Foot³ ... if you want foot/3 to start harvesting his own pelts, you might consider The Davy Crickett.

Made with pride, here in Pennsylvania. :)

I'm not a big fan of wounding critters so I'd think about a bigger round.

Agreed, but Ruger's 77/22 Hornet rotary-magazine centerfire bolt action rifles will more than do it. I've got a couple of these and the centerfire 22 puts 'em away. :greenface

Hey wolf, that Davy Crickett, the trigger pull length isn't really 11 1/2 inches is it?

All the proofreading in the world just doesn't catch stuff like that, does it?

I emailed them to ask ...

marlin makes the best autoloader 22 in the business, and the bolt actions are nice too.

There's one from a Czech company called CZ that's very very sweet as well. Has a set trigger for target shooting...push the trigger forward to set it, then it's about a pound or so to set it off. Not for novices, but really nice.

the .17 is really cool. marlin also makes the best guns chambered for that round. only thing i'm concerned about is the fact that the bullet's so light -- if you live in a windy climate, you might be limited. The ppl that bought em from our shop didn't seem to have a problem, but none of them were the kind of shooters that would notice things like that.

i love small caliber shooting. i wanna go shoot cans. dang work.

Of course you could take care Charlie Chuck and the Wascal Wabbit from your easy chair. ;)

I think Bruce and Bullit's submission wins the prize. Sadly, my toddler won't be wearing a woodchuck fur coat to playgroup; my neighbor beat me to the punch and dropped a bomb in the chuck's hole and killed him that way.

Maybe some rabbit mittens though...
:)

Damn, sorry Bullit, I didn't see your link. :o

Bruce, I think this would be more appropriate for capping woodchucks. And anything else for that matter. :love:

Brian

happy post #1300 kitsune.

but i have to say that your solution seems very unsporting. it wouldn't be hard at all to blast the shit right out of the little critters if they're locked up in the cage. :shotgun: :rattat:

it wouldn't be hard at all to blast the shit right out of the little critters if they're locked up in the cage.

I suppose so, yeah. Just offering my suggestion, as it seemed a bit silly to both go through all the procedure and purchase something as expensive as a gun just to remove two small annoyances from a lawn. The cage is cheaper, easier, and (something this thread might not have much interest in) more humane. I've had success in removing damn near every type of critter of from the backyard with the right bait and one of the trap-and-release cages. To prevent them from coming back, sprinkling cayenne pepper or fox urine will work nicely.

But what do you do with them, dump them on someone else? Or do you own hundreds of acres to relocate them too. If you don't own the land you're inflicting someone else with your problem.......and missing out on a tasty treat. :lol:

But what do you do with them, dump them on someone else?

You know that asshole neighbor with the really beautiful lawn that everyone envies?

Dumping them off on other people's property [that don't deserve it] is a big "no-no", and releasing them in county/state parks might also be depending on your local laws even if it is an indigenous animal. We've never had any issue releasing critters in open country, in some of the smaller local preserves, etc.

I've never been one to kill an animal if it is merely being an annoyance and nearly every area I've ever lived in won't permit the discharge of a firearm within county lines unless on a designated range or for self defense, anyways. Poison usually ends up removing the target, but it also ends up in the mouths of other animals, usually the neighbor's cats, strays, etc, so I've become very used to using these traps.

If you don't know where to release, call animal control and they'll tell you -- they do it all the time.

Don't let any of my hunt'n buddies know, but we regularly catch and release the squirrels around our place. At one point there were about 11 of them, and they'd all run around together. You could see the plague floating around them with the naked eye. Relocated them to a private fishing/camping lake near here that has lots of huge cottonwoods and tall grass. Just have one around now, not from the original gang. He bugs you for pecans when you go out in the yard.

Felt bad about taming him that way, but what the hell, he's never going to leave the neighborhood anyway, and if he did it would just be to go to the next one over.

Herstal Five-Seven just incase the varmit is wearing vest. I can't remebr the assualt rifle version if he's got mates.

Where I live animal control is not so sentimental. They would laugh and suggest a "five cent solution".

This critter was too wiley for a havahart trap. It ignored the trap completely despite being baited with all of it's favorites.

Besides, I agree with lookout. It's rather like shooting fish in a barrell. ;)

Anyway, he has gone to woodchuck "camp"