I'd certainly be choosing a .22 as a meat-getter. I like them because the ammo is readily available, you can carry plenty of it, and it is relatively quiet. I also use a supressor quite a bit.... along with subsonic cartridges.
Although I don't recommend the .22 for anything much bigger than a rabbit, I have bagged a number of feral goats and pigs with one. More recently I dropped a large red deer with a single shot (using 'Peters' standard hollow). Mostly I use Winchester subsonic hollows.
Semi-autos are good because you can keep on pumping lead..... but it is probably better to make the first shot do the job. And it is certainly more economical on ammo to fire just once. Just one shot attracts less attention too.... and that is something to consider.
I enjoyed using a little Browning semi-auto for a while, but the tube magazine was not as convenient as a box magazine..... and I felt that there was a danger that I might not have emptied the magazine completely after using the rifle.
My current favorite semi-auto is a Gevarm. This fires from an open bolt position and is very rugged and reliable. One drawback with this is that leaf litter can find its way into the cavity created by the open bolt...but apart from that they seem to be terriffic. The striker leaves a great deep chisel mark right across the back of the cartridge case so unless the ammo has no priming material at all, it will generally fire. Ejection is simple..... the case is blown out and that's that.... no fiddly extractors etc. It seems to cope well with both subsonic loads and high velocity cartridges.
My brother has a nice 10-22, and he seems to think that it is a good thing. I guess one of these would be fairly near the top of my list if I needed another rifle.
I've come to appreciate telescopic sights. Dang.... I've found that when the gun is sighted in, all you have to do is hold the crosshairs on what you want to shoot and squeeze the trigger !! It is magic !! For years I used just open sights because of their reliability and simplicity. But for making every shot count .... especially in darker conditions, a scope really does improve things.
If I were looking for a reliable rifle, one thing I'd be considering is the sturdiness of the sights. Some are much more easily knocked than others. I sometimes have made a light center punch mark on the barrel in line with the middle of the sights (front and rear) so that I have a quick check for correct alignment.
Another thing I do with open sights is to sometimes apply some white chalk or 'white out' paint to the foresight so I can see it easier in the bush or dark conditions.
The big thing with any sort of bow or rifle shooting is to place the shot in the right spot. If you can be sure you know where the brain cavity is on a big animal, that is a heck of a good place to put your bullet. The one deer I've got with a .22, and many of the goats, fell after being shot this way. However I've had a harder job getting pigs with head shots. Maybe their brain cavity is well protected with thick bone, or maybe I misjudge its location..... but now if I only have my .22 when I see a hog I want, I am more likely to try to land the bullet into the heart/lung area..... and I have certainly had success doing this, although most of the pigs obtained this way were under sixty pounds. Like I said earlier, a bigger caliber should be used for big animals like pigs and deer whenever practical.
The .22 that I've probably bagged the most game with is a bolt action, five shot box magazine Anschutz. My dad screwed the barrel for a silencer, and he replaced the dodgy rear sight with a sturdy home-made vee sight.
Just recently an old buddy sent me some pictures he'd scanned. Some of these were taken on a hunting trip we took together back around 1974. He was really quick with his camera when a knarly old pig appeared in front of us. The gun shown is the Anschutz .22. We got the pig and carried it out, but as I recall it was some of the worst pork I've ever tried to eat. Great picture though.
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