Thread: Selection of caliber for new shooter(s)

Originally Posted by longshot

Beyond 75 takes a bit of practice and skill, but it is achievable. Having a rangefinder and a ballistic reticle makes it fairly easy once you know where the drop is (thats where the practice comes in). You can suppress a .22 to the point that someone standing 25m away wouldn't know you have squeezed the trigger unless they were listening, but you can't silence a .17 anywhere near as effectively.

If you are out shooting rabbits with a suppressed .22 you will usually see more rabbits within 100m then you will see inside of 200m once you start letting off a few rounds of .17.
.22 is also about 80% cheaper than the .17.

As someone who has both calibres I can say that while the .17 is a great little caliber, it doesn't come out of the safe anywhere near as much as the .22 and when it does, the .22 usually comes with it to hold it's hand.

Yeah nah. I have a suppressed 22 that is click only with subs. I have a rangefinder and a ballistic reticle - I can shoot it accurate out to 100m. I find that beyond 50m you get diminishing effectiveness on lethality of the subs.

I also have a 17hmr, it doesn't need any ballistics drop up to about 120m. My son headshot a bunny at 180m with it. We are regularly taking bunnies beyond a 100m. It has a DPT can (22 mag setup), and while it removes the boom the supersonic crack remains which does not seem to impact how many bunnies we come across. Yes the ammo is more expensive, but one shot and you're done. It remains absolutely lethal at whatever range we shoot at but just enough such that we can recover the meat.

So now our 22s (got 3 of them) remain in the safe most of the time.

edit: that said I would still start off with a 22, starting you kids shooting at 25m then move them out to 50m. When it comes to plinking at the range you can't beat a 22 as a training platform. And the drop becomes quite useful as a training aid for when they move up in calibres.