a 'which caliber is best for' thread

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Tom Bri

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I have an infestation of varmints, and I need your opinions on which caliber would be best to get rid of them.

I have two rifles, in .223 and .50 (black powder), but because they are both single shot they just won't be right for these varmints.

So I want to use one of my handguns. I have 2 .22s, both with ten round mags. But only 3 mags total between them.

A Makarov with 8 round mags, a bunch of them.

A .45, with 7 or 8 round mags, a bunch of mags.

I can see advantages and disadvantages for each. Actually, the BP .50 would be best, because the wide bullet would be easier to hit with, but with the slow moving bullet I think they would evade the bullet and then move around so much and disappear from sight before I can get it reloaded.

The .223 is both a very narrow, pointed bullet, and single shot, so it is out. Also, I think the scope would only make it harder to shoot, not easier. Wait! Maybe I could turn the scope around backwards...

Well, anyway. The .22s also have small diameter bullets, but I can point shoot really fast, so that is a wash.

The Makarov has somewhat wider bullets than the .22s, but I think the snappy recoil would make followup shots tough.

The .45 shoots great, has 8 quick rounds, and I have a bunch of mags. But I don't reload, so chasing down hundreds of these varmints will get costly. Good training though....

So I just can't decide.

Oh, the varmints are fleas. I took some clients to tour a house today and after a couple of minutes one of the guys goes running out slapping himself yelling 'FLEAS FLEAS'. So we all boiled out of there slapping and pinching and rolling up pants to pick them off of legs and etc. I had some bug spray in the car so I went around spraying everyone. Don't know if OFF works on fleas.

Filthy house. They decided not to buy it. I found them a nice place with an acre 20 miles out of town that they want. So a happy ending to that story.

But the rest of the day I had crawling sensations all over my body. Psycho-somatic (I hope), as I can't actually see any fleas. But I got to wondering, what caliber for fleas. And so...

Over to you.
 
Pellet gun. Mine is single shot. Too slow. And again, which caliber? .177 or .22?

And it isn't my house anyway, unless some of the monsters got carried home with me (shudder).
 
I'm a little confused here, you said you have a varmint problem then you said the varmints are fleas. Did you mean the varmints have fleas??

If you have a rodent problem then a .22 pistol will work fine if you are a good enough shot.

If the fleas are that bad I would call a professional exterminator to get rid of the rodents and the bugs. You can get very ill from both so they are nothing to mess with.
 
Pellet gun. Mine is single shot. Too slow. And again, which caliber? .177 or .22?
Click to expand...

heh.. You know, I assumed this was a joke at first, and I hope rightfully so. I'm starting to wonder here if you're actually serious though.. which is scary. :eek:
 
Well, I WOULD like to shoot them. But I won't. It is a joke, on all of the 'what caliber for X' threads, which always seem to come down to the same three or four answers.

I did shoot an insect a few years ago, and not something nasty like a flea. A butterfly landed on the ground in front of me when I was out plinking with my Ruger Mark 1 .22. So I thought why not, I would never hit it, and I shot from the hip. Cut it in half. I was pretty mad at myself and still ashamed.

We used to shoot at wasps and bumble bees too a long time ago. That was fun with a fear factor. Old Daisy BB guns were just about the right caliber for bumble bees. Wasps react quite violently to having their nests shot. Shoot and run, creep back, shoot and run again.
 
The house has fleas. We got them all over ourselves when we went to see the house. I called the agent selling the house and suggested bug bombs, not guns.

I see some pretty nasty houses, but that was a first.
 
Funny you should mention the butterfly thing. I was doing some night shooting with the savage mark II loaded up with CBs maybe about 2 months ago, when I saw this large green Luna moth fluttering around. It landed smack dab in the middle of a tree right in my light, though pretty far out there. Far enough anyway that it was fairly miniscule in the scope, and I knew the gun wasn't sighted in perfectly. I said the same thing as you, "ahh why not, no way I'll ever hit the thing anyway". Took the shot, quick and sloppy, and low and behold it immediately started spiraling down the ground. So, I too can say I really did shoot a bug. :eek:
 
Not at all. I don't even hunt. Were talking about a bug though... if you're saying I should question the ethics of shooting at a moth, then anyone whos ever used a bug zapper or insect poison is mass genocidal.
 
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I have two rifles, in .223 and .50 (black powder),
Click to expand...

Don't forget the SKS. And the air rifles.

The toy store in Loves Park has one of them Gatling gun things made out of 2 Ruger 10/22s, each with 30 round mags.

Filthy house. They decided not to buy it.
Click to expand...

Bug bomb -- can you (the realtor) charge the seller to cover that?

heh.. You know, I assumed this was a joke at first, and I hope rightfully so. I'm starting to wonder here if you're actually serious though.. which is scary
Click to expand...

(I know him, in the real world. It's a joke. Nobody seems to grok subtle humor, in the Internet. :banghead:)

Pellet gun. Mine is single shot. Too slow. And again, which caliber? .177 or .22?
Click to expand...

A Baikal Drozd. Spray and pray fullauto BB shooting fun.

blackdrozd.jpg
 
Boy are you in luck!

From the tradition of the Velo Dog...guess what?

FleaMaster is officially opened for bidness . Located in gun friendly community of Canine , Colorado.

They gots your Automatic Revolvers, they work each time you trips the trigger.
They got your Ultimate Manual Semi-Autos, they only work on days that end in "Y".

See, they thought about the various jurisdictions when they did the line.
Drop Test? Yep, they did for CA too, passed with flying colors. Dropped that sucker and it did not go off...then again ain't nobody found the thing being so small and all....

Ladies like 'em, especially the 3 pc set, one pendant and a pair of earrings.
Real Fashionable, and go with most outfits...

Do they kill fleas? Heck fire and Darn it they do.

Each Fleamaster comes with a Free Six pack of Flea Bombs.
Most folks set off a bomb then go out to play with the Fleamasters, ladies do this Chocolate Hen Party thing showing off earrings and pendants...

Guys do go out for Pizza and Beer and - careful, that Anchovy might be Loaded. No go ahead on, thought you dropped your Fleamaster in the Pizza...

Get back, Fleas deader than a doorknob...

;)
 
Hi Tecumesh. About the butterfly thing, note that I was ashamed to have done it. It was stupid at the time, and I knew it. A mental/moral slip up.

On the other hand, it was just a bug.
 
Ok the butterfly thing is funny. I too shot at a butterfly while shooting skeet a few years ago. I thought i would never hit it.I was right i missed it, I dont know if butterflys can hear but i know the shot went all around him. He was lucky that day lol.
 
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