Thread: 22lr vs goat

Originally Posted by anthony

Hi guys im pretty new to hunting i have been invited to shoot some goats. i have a savage mk2 22lr it shoots around 1.5 inch at a hundred yards with supersonic winchester power points will this be fine or if not i have a old shotgun that i could probably shoot some buck shot through. Whats your opinions ?

IF you intend to shoot at 100y/m, definitely do not use a 22. Firstly, it loses about 35~45% energy, secondly there is so much drop and inherent inaccuracy you cannot guarantee good shot placement.

If you intend to shoot goats at 100, I would say a 223 is minimum.

Someone suggested SKS, the problems with SKS are that:
1. unless you do some (basic) modding, stock SKS is not accurate, I hear 3 to 4 MOA is common.
2. you will be shooting open sight, which is hard to do a headshoot at 100 even for a good shooter. Or spend money on a SKS mount to put on a scope.

by the time you do the mods and added a decent scope mount, it is not cheap anymore.

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!

Wouldn't say a 223 is minimum you could use my 222 and 22 hornet will handle them within 100m quite easily furtherest kill with the 222 on a goat has been 373m measured with a range finder

I've shot a few goats over the years. Yes a .22lr will kill them with a good shooter behind the rifle...but there are far better choices to be made.

If it's a home kill situation I wouldn't hesitate to use a .22lr, but for hunting I'd recommend a centre fire.

These conversations are like asking if a Suzuki swift is a good vehicle to tow a horse float with.

Originally Posted by northdude

Wouldn't say a 223 is minimum you could use my 222 and 22 hornet will handle them within 100m quite easily furtherest kill with the 222 on a goat has been 373m measured with a range finder

Yeah, I agree these 2 calibres are far more accurate/consistent than 22LR at 100m. I am sure there are other calibres that are also smaller than 223 but will do the job, for example Ruger 204.

My two cents - these other calibres are more of the 4th or 5th gun candidates. For those who want to graduate from 22LR, get a 223 as the second rifle is the better all-around choice (and the third rifle should be a 7mm08/308 or larger). Also because 223 is so widespread you have far wider choice of rifles including the very cheap (balkai and norinco for example) and the very mainstream, it is much easier to physically fondle several different mainstream 223 offerings in your local shop. These other ~22 centrefires are all very good calibres, but I think you need to be somewhat experienced to know exactly why you buying one.