Thread: 22lr vs goat

Most of the goats I’ve shot were taken with an old semi auto .22 marlin 49DL. I’ve also shot a handful with a 22mag, 223, and 22-250. I don’t recall having used any heavier calibers but that’s beside the point really, anything from a 243 up is guaranteed to skittle goats with authority.

Small game hunting author Brad Parkes did a lot of recreational goat hunting with a .22, often in the pursuit of trophy billies. He was a big advocate of using solids rather than hollow points, with the theory being that maximum penetration was required given that goats are at the upper limit of what a .22 can handle. I never did test his theory because I just used whatever ammo I had lying around, which was normally Winchester power points.

Brian Burdon (another author) was at one point a professional goat culler in Northland and he had good success with a fully suppressed ruger .22 running subsonics. I think the reason he got away with using such a light caliber was because he was shooting them pretty much at point blank range (par for the course when you are culling goats bailed by dogs in dense Northland rainforest). He also successfully used a 22mag, 222, .30M1 and a 7.62x39. He was a big fan of the BRNO semi auto .22mag, and also of a mini 14 which he re-chambered to .222!

My own opinion is that the .22 is too light for goats. Sure, it’ll do the job on yearlings and nannies without a lot of fuss at close range but mid-to-large billies are a different kettle of fish, particularly in more open country where it’s harder to stalk in close. My pick would be a 223 or 7.62x39, both mild calibers which aren’t too excessive at close range but still have plenty of punch for those 200yd shots. A 243 is a good option too especially if long shots are common. My 2c anyway!