22 or 357?

[Dead Eye]

Whatever you use you better be good enough not to blow a hole through the old ladies table. They get upset about things like that.

 

[dfrosch]

Wife made it she can clean it up!

In that case, overkill is under rated.

 

[Iowa Fox]

CCI Quiets with a Dead Air Mask. Put the stadia on its eyeball.

 

[Lefty2506]

Depends entirely on your surrounding environment and how much damage you care to do to what ever is behind the intended target. Personally, I use a 223 pretty much exclusively to dispatch them in my yard. I do live on the edge of town, but my neighbors don't mind. I've worked up a load that uses around 8 grains of green dot behind a 40 or 50 gr vmax. It runs around 2000 fps, sounds about like a 22 mag rimfire, but gives me 1/2 moa accuracy. The projectiles still expand well enough at that speed that when they exit, the do so in pieces. I've taken that load out west and used it on prairie dogs as well. Works great out to about 175 yds. Starts dropping pretty fast after that. I've probably made hits out to about 225 yds with it, but past that 175 number, it does tend to do more wounding than killing. Inside of 100 yds on a ground hog, its bang flop, pause, kick kick kick....

Now, if you need to open a door or window and THEN take the shot, I think you're probably looking more at a 12 ga. I've done it with a 22rf, but I made sure to use an auto because I know it would take more than one hit on a running target. That one still made it to its den, but I put enough holes in it that it never came out again.

 

[timeout]

Depends entirely on your surrounding environment and how much damage you care to do to what ever is behind the intended target. Personally, I use a 223 pretty much exclusively to dispatch them in my yard. I do live on the edge of town, but my neighbors don't mind. I've worked up a load that uses around 8 grains of green dot behind a 40 or 50 gr vmax. It runs around 2000 fps, sounds about like a 22 mag rimfire, but gives me 1/2 moa accuracy. The projectiles still expand well enough at that speed that when they exit, the do so in pieces. I've taken that load out west and used it on prairie dogs as well. Works great out to about 175 yds. Starts dropping pretty fast after that. I've probably made hits out to about 225 yds with it, but past that 175 number, it does tend to do more wounding than killing. Inside of 100 yds on a ground hog, its bang flop, pause, kick kick kick....

Now, if you need to open a door or window and THEN take the shot, I think you're probably looking more at a 12 ga. I've done it with a 22rf, but I made sure to use an auto because I know it would take more than one hit on a running target. That one still made it to its den, but I put enough holes in it that it never came out again.

I like the part where you stated that your neighbors dont mind. It us almost maddening the crazies that can't mind their own business anymore. Saw a post on the local County scanner Facebook page last week where a woman called the police because a man was standing on the sidewalk with a bow shooting at a target in his own yard. It's not the same world it was even 10 years ago, let alone in the 50's and 60's when I grew up.

 

[Bottom Fodder]

Living in the city you never know what you can “ harvest” with a pellet pistol with the neighbors not knowing