Alphecca

Pest control. Small pests.

.22 LR is too noisy...it might attract attention. .22 short has a minimal noise signature, and is much less noticable. Colibri is just that much quieter still.

It's been years since I've popped a critter in my back yard (rodent control), but at the time I used a pellet gun. As the area around my house has built up the incidence of wild fauna has diminished considerably. Sigh.

CB caps or BB caps do the same thing at much lower cost.

I've shot them since I learned about them in the early 60's. Good for indoor shooting and pest control. A well placed, close in shot will dispatch a racoon. Very quiet in rifle length barrels, disappointingly loud in handguns.

With this low powered ammo you don't need a bb gun to shoot in the house. None of it will function a self loader. Some gives trouble functioning in some repeaters and must be used single shot. Almost ideal for a TC Contender with a .22LR barrel.

Zimmer Patrone, cartridges for shooting in the house. For indoor varmint hunting, perhaps. I'll bet they would stop a mouse or small rat. I suppose they would be lethal if you fired one up your nose. I used to make .45 ACP indoor ammo with wax bullets and no powder; the primer alone would put a paraffin slug through an aluminum can. But I had to enlarge the primer hole in the casing, then worry that I would accidently reload one of the drilled cases for real.

I have used them several times when I give a handgun class. A very, very few times I had someone who was very nervous about recoil so I just had them shoot a few rounds of the sub-sonic stuff then shorts then regular LR. It worked.

It's mostly for shooting rats that the cat has cornered in the oak tree.

Out of a six-inch High Standard Supermatic and inside the fenced yard that's about 100 feet from the anal neighbor it sounds like somebody politely clapped their hands.

Actually, the original subsonic loads were developed to take advantage of the noise suppressors originally made for .22 pistols. The suppressor won't work with standard ammo as the bullet is going past the speed of sound, so you get the supersonic crack.

People who used suppressed .22 pistols in urban environments (can you say Mossad? or KGB?) found that the subsonic loads penetrated almost as deeply as a standard load yet were very quiet.

Yeah, you can use them against cats and other urban vermin. For more... conventional use, I use the Remington subsonic in my Marlin autoloader as a squirrel round. I find them very accurate, and not as noisy in the fall woods.

How's that for a little history that ties together Nazi hunting and squirrel hunting?

I like Colibri's because they are "fun".

Aguila makes several 'out of the box' .22s
60gr SubSonic Snipers 22short brass & elongated lead.
30gr SuperMax 1750fps
http://www.AguilaAmmo.com/rimfire.htm
http://www.22ammo.com/aguila.html

personally, the most rational explanation for
using them is for training. You can talk/hear
indoors and demonstrate the lesson with less
distraction. I've not read anything about their
"accuracy"... I shoot mine in a revolver or bolt rifle. With the rifle, it sounds like I'm dry-firing. I see them at Cabela's.

Don't confuse subsonic .22s with Colibri. Subsonics have gun powder in them and can be lethal. Colibri don't have gun powder and will serve for most of what an airgun might. There are two varieties of Colibri .22s, one with about 350 fps and the other with about 500. Great for indoor target practice! Unfortunately I've found a high percentage of bad shells per box. Still, could be a fluke--give them a try.

Jeff,

These are great for indoor shooting. I have a 14 yard range set up in my house for airgun shooting. A buddy of these introduced me to the Aguila's about a year ago. We screwed around with them and realized that a cardboard box backed with phone books would work as a trap for them.

The landlord had issues, so it was back to airguns, but if you own your own house, these would be great for screwing around when there is snow on the ground and you can't make it to the range.

Regards,

Benjamin

Well, here in the San Francisco Bay Area where in many jurisdictions (including mine) it's unlawful to fire even a pellet gun in your backyard, I find Colibris very handy. Why? Because out of my 24"-barreled super-cheap Ranger single-shot boltie, it's much QUIETER than ANY of my airguns. And it's still lethal on rats, squirrels and even skunks if you do your part with a head shot.

Not that I've done anything like that, of course. ;)