I’m no expert in this category, but I believe you should make the most ethical, lethal shot available on a squirrel or don’t take the shot at all. Back in my early years of hunting with a shotgun you just put the front sight bead on the squirrel and pulled the trigger. Well with a 22, or 17, shot placement is more important. One you want to effect a kill as quickly as possible, and two you want to preserve the meat.
I find that my favorite place to shoot a squirrel is in the head (bean, noggin, control center, etc…). This usually means dead on impact. Now ammo type usually won’t play a role here. Using hollowpoints will be effective, as will a solid lead tip. A hit to the head will pretty much guarantee you a squirrel for the pot. This is why I focus so much on group size at the range. I would say a squirrels head is around the size of a plum, knowing that I need my group size at 50 yards to be under the one inch mark. That puts me well within that “plum” sized head area.
The only other available area is the vitals (heart, lungs, etc.). Again this is another plum sized area. When shooting in the vitals I think that ammo type has a little more to do with how quickly the kill is effected. The only time I will take body shots, is if I am shooting a rifle that is sighted in for hollowpoints, be it subsonic hp or high velocity hp. The added expansion, coupled with hydraulic shock will be enough to take said squirrel out. That’s not to say that it can’t be done with solid lead tipped ammo like SK Standard Plus or Wolf Match Target, but I have seen my share of crawl offs using this technique. If I’m shooting solids I will pass on a body shot and wait for a head shot to open up, or not take the shot at all.
I have rifles doped for both hollowpoint and solid, as 22 rimfires are a game of what ammo does your rifle like. The majority of my rifles are doped for some type of hollowpoint ammo. I’m currently experimenting with a sizing die that changes a solid tip to an Eley EPS tipped ammo. I hope to have some data on those through the 2013-2014 season. Hopefully this knowledge can help you in making a choice of what type of ammo you will shoot in your rifle.
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