CCI 22 LR Shotshells for Pest Control...

Pest control can be a concern, especially out in rural areas and farm country.  Of course, my wife's favorite pests are the ones that slither... er, not really.  Then there are those pesky little critters like mice and rats that can chew through wood, plastic, wiring harnesses on tractors and vehicles, and build nests that can cause all kinds of problems.  I even remember a Chevy Caprice catching fire under the hood one spring back in the 1980s after a mouse nest ignited on the exhaust manifold.

Sure, you can use poison and traps to deal with pests, but they have their drawbacks.  You have to be careful with poison such as d-CON if you have small children, cats, or dogs around.  Mouse traps and rat traps work well, but sometimes you need a more immediate solution.  While I did see a black snake get caught in a rat trap years ago, dealing with pesky snakes is another concern, especially if you live out west where they rattle.  That's when you may want to consider some .22 long rifle shotshells.  Specifically, CCI 22 LR Shotshell for Pest Control.

Over the years, I've tried .22 long rifle shotshells from Winchester and Federal, but I've had the best results with CCI and the little blue, transparent tips that let you see the shot inside are pretty cool too.

CCI uses #12 lead shot, as do the other .22 LR shotshell offerings, but you can see that apparently size #12 is a little bit relative as there is a distinct difference in the size of the lead shot in the picture.

This ammunition is definitely a close-range solution.  You can see from the eight-inch Shoot-N-C targets... there is pretty good coverage of pellets at 2.5m (about seven to eight feet), but out at 5m there are only six shot pellets hitting within the center three-inch ring.  At 10m (about thirty feet), the shot pattern is spread out so much, it's pretty much useless.  I've shot these from both rifles and pistols... barrel length seems to have little effect on how tight the shot pattern is.

As far as lethality, I've used this type of .22 cartridge to kill mice, rats, snakes, and even bats in the rafters of barns.  CCI claims 1000 feet per second velocity.  While that's comparable to traditional .22 long rifle cartridges, these don't have the power to cycle most semi-auto pistols and rifles... and CCI doesn't recommend their use in semi-auto firearms although I've used them in Ruger Mark II and III pistols, Ruger 10/22s, and Marlin 60s loading one round at a time and hand cycling for ejection.

You don't have to worry about over penetration as the #12 shot dented, but did not penetrate the tin can at a distance of about six feet.  Safety glasses or other eye-protection is definitely recommended as those little pellets and can really ricochet around if you have hard floors or other surfaces around like you might find in a barn.  I'd also mention that for larger pests or snakes, CCI also has shotshell offerings in several center-fire cartridges too.

One final word of caution... if you're using these shotshells, DO NOT carry any regular .22 long rifle ammunition with you... it could hurt your backside.  Many years ago, I joined up with a posse (friends and cousins) to hunt down the bats in the barn rafters during the early morning hours before dawn.

One of our posse brought regular .22 lead round-nose cartridges instead of shotshells... and after shooting bats in the rafters for an hour or so... the sun began to rise... and there were little streams of daylight coming down through .22 size holes in the roof.  While I was not at fault, let's just say that butt-whupping was an equal-opportunity... spread the wealth... kind of proposition in our family.

So if you've got some pests to get rid of and they're not related to your spouse... try some CCI 22LR Shotshells for Pest Control...