Pest Control around the property

[JWFilips]

Well, I worked up a load last summer using my 8 mm GEW 98 with it's 29.5 inch barrel using a 130 gr flat nose NOE bullet and 3 gr Red Dot.
I did this for the very question I asked! It is very quiet ( cap gun like or at least I can say it doesn't sound rifle like)
The only reason I canned that project it is hard to sight in Ground Hogs with target sights ( aperture front and receiver rear) It is just not a quick rifle to shoot I missed 2 at 20 yards clean. I probably should test were it hits at close distances!
Now you guys got me thinking about my .358 Win I can easily work up so light loads & heavy bullets and at least it is scope sighted which I like better on critters!

 

[fiver]

might want to try a wad-cutter from your 38's.

 

[Bret4207]

Yup, what Fiver said. A solid WC and a bit of Bullseye. DRT! I'd check for position sensitivity, even with BE, in a case that large though.

 

[Ian]

Or use Titegroup, which won't have any appreciable position sensitivity.

 

[KeithB]

Maybe it's lack of knowledge on my part but I would worry about ricochets from arrows/bolts more than I would worry about pellets/soft lead bullets. Many of you guys have way more experience than me so like I said maybe I just don't have the background to evaluate the comparison. I do know that when I took a college archery class (easy credit, as was ping pong) I saw a whole lot of arrows bouncing off all kinds of things, slithering through the grass to pop up yards downrange, etc.

Of course if you don't miss it doesn't matter does it?

 

[Tom]

Maybe it's lack of knowledge on my part but I would worry about ricochets from arrows/bolts more than I would worry about pellets/soft lead bullets. Many of you guys have way more experience than me so like I said maybe I just don't have the background to evaluate the comparison. I do know that when I took a college archery class (easy credit, as was ping pong) I saw a whole lot of arrows bouncing off all kinds of things, slithering through the grass to pop up yards downrange, etc.

Of course if you don't miss it doesn't matter does it?

Ten or twenty years ago, there was an incident in the Portland Oregon area where a guy was practicing in his back yard and an arrow deflected off of the target and went through a knot hole in his fence. It struck and killed a woman walking on the sidewalk. Bizarre accident, but it happens.

 

[fiver]

I was just reading of an incident in Europe where a bunch of guys had surrounded a duck pond.
a couple of birds come in and done a touch and go.
the guy that had them swoop through his decoys rose up and shot the pair of them as they broke into the blue sky [like 20 witnesses to the fact]
another guy on the other side of the pond watching the whole thing from his blind caught two pellets in his left eye and had to have them removed.
he tried to sue the other hunter and was denied in court.

the analysis was the shot had bounced off one of the birds and down into the guys eye.

 

[Jeff H]

Zwickey Judo heads are a wonder for such a thing as mitigating arrow loss, but I personally still wouldn't take a chance. A week ago, I was watching my brother's 12-yo grandson, who wouldn't be placated with free WiFi and his choice of a laptop or tablet - had to be outside shooting.

We set a 8" x 16" polar log upright at fifteen yards and made attempts at knocking it over with hits on the top four inches or so with 20# and 45# recurves. One of mine, from the 45#, caught the top edge of the log and went end over end (the arrow) about 30' into the air and 30+ yards down range to strike an old, rotten silver maple about 18' up before falling to the ground. It's a mile to the nearest house in that direction, but still. Made me rethink just how "safe" I could be with the Judo Heads.

Regarding shot bouncing off a bird (Fiver), once, as a kid, I came around the short end of the barn with my Savage 24V in hand and spied a rabbit at the other end sitting in the grass. Sent him a dose of $2/box Ted Williams #6 shot from Sears and got a good ten percent of it back. Never touched the rabbit. My first thought was that was one tough bunny! Upon closer investigation, the plow in the weeds behind him had several little gray splatters on it.

 

[Bret4207]

I used to use the Judo heads back when I was into bow hunting. Shot a lot of stumbs and stumps with them. Always figured I;d see a partridge and thump him, but it never happened.

 

[RBHarter]

There was a bow hunter a few years ago that died in his stand . The back track went back over 150 yd . It licked half dozen branches before deflecting around 80° and was 18' up , 4" portrudeing from his shoulder . Lots of penetration in a 300-350 gr 26-32" long at under 300 fps . My set up is 405 gr , 34" , I've never chronographed it but probably 190-200 fps will lob 175 yd reliably over flat ground . The little 25# 58" recurve will cast they same arrow 105yd slightly over drawn at 40° elevation .

 

[Bret4207]

When I was a strapping young feller I had a Bear 55# "76'er". We had a billboard (grandfathered in when the APA came in and outlawed anything useful) at the far end of our road frontage, probably 2-250 yds from our yard. Ol' Robinhood Jr was out in the yard shooting the bow one day and Mom says, "Can you hit the sign from here?" I took the challenge, elevated the bow what I thought was about right and let her fly. Mind you, right on the other side of the sign was a state highway! The cedar arrow flew true and I whacked the sign about dead center in the "back". I was using blunt in those days, but had I over shot I could have stuck it trough the windshield of a car. That was the 70's, we didn't think about stuff like we do now.

 

[Winelover]

Personally, I wouldn't worry, too much, over deflection of an arrow. By their very nature, groundhogs are on the ground. Most likely on soft ground versus cement. Your bow will be at lot higher elevation than the target................you'll be essentially shooting down hill. A miss would dig into that relatively soft ground. Besides, you are responsible for clear target lanes, before pulling the trigger on any implement of destruction.

 

[L Ross]

Wow, quite the litany of responses. JW, I have actually used the Quiet 22, and I approve their use. At 10-15 yards even the CCI CB short will work with a proper head shot. The Quiet 22 with their 40 gr. bullet is just more of a good thing. For more impact, flatten the noses with a swipe from a file or use Paco Kelley's Accu'riser tool. (My favorite). Ground hogs out in the fields or on the edges of my woods are safe as can be. Under my black smith shop, under my wood piles, or God forbid, eating in our garden get shot, period.

 

[JWFilips]

Over the past 3 days I have done some testing of The CCI quiets. I have fired them into a sogging wet newspaper type catalog that is 3 1/2 inches thick at 20 yards. I decided to cut the noses with an X from a jewelers saw about 1/8" deep. These penetrated the full catalog and a card board backer and lodged into a white pine board 1/2 " deep. The expansion on these were negligible The x closed up to make it a normal round nose!
I then did the next batch by flattening the nose on a sanding wheel. I then cut the x with the jewels saw and use a knife blade to flare open the cuts!
These penetrated the same media ...hit the pine board & dented it 1/8 inch and bounced back into the media. The wound channel was nasty!
Here is the recovered slug

 

[Pistolero]

That there looks like one of them danged Evil Black Talon things.......



Seriously, that looks pretty good. And that sounds like plenty of penetration. Figuring out the rainbow
trajectory at non-std distances will probably be the main trick. How accurately do they shoot at any distance? I always wondered
of the low spin rate due to low velocity would cause poor stability.