The Rimfire Report: An Examination of CCI 22 Shot Shell (Rat Shot)

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and all of its great guns, history, shooting sports, and, of course, ammunition! This week, we’re checking out a favorite of mine - CCI 22 Shot Shell. This miniaturized shotgun shell is primarily intended for close quarters pest control and over the years has been colloquially referred to as Rat Shot, Snake Shot, Bird Shot, or even Dust Shot. What you call this stuff is likely regionally tied to its most common use in your neck of the woods. Today, we’ll take a closer examination of the CCI 22 Shot Shell in the hopes of giving this underrated and often overlooked cartridge some extra love.

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: Remington Standard V .22LR - First Look
• The Rimfire Report: .22LR Firearms Found in Video Games
• The Rimfire Report: Franklin’s Binary-Equipped F22 Pistol - First Look

The Rimfire Report: An Examination of CCI 22 Shot Shell (Rat Shot)

Rimfire Shotshell, 22 LR, 12 Shot

Product Link: https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfire/cci/rimfire-shotshell/6-39.html

Product Overview

Use your favorite rimfire rifle or pistol like a shotgun to exterminate close-range pests. The payload of fine pellets in our rimfire shotshell offerings is pushed by consistent propellant and reliable CCI® priming for patterns you can count on every time.

• Rimfire shotshells
• Consistent patterns
• Easier hits on close-range pests

Specs

• Caliber: 22 LR
• Shot Size: #12
• Muzzle Velocity: 1000
• Grain Weight: 31
• Bullet Style: Shotshell
• Package Quantity: 20
• Usage: Varmint
• Price on CCI: $11.99 per box = $0.60 per round

A Break from Tradition

Typically, when we do these ammunition tests, I like to start out with a healthy 50-round sample of velocity data to give everyone an idea of whether or not the ammunition is consistent as well as living up to the velocity claims on the box. While I’m almost certain my old ProChrono chronograph might have been able to get some good velocity readings for us, my Garmin wasn’t up to the task, it seems. I wasted an entire 20-round box of ammo just trying to get velocity data to no avail. If anyone out there has any advice on how to get the Garmin Xero to read rat-shot, I’d be interested to hear your advice!

Cartridge Breakdown

In lieu of our velocity data, I’ll instead give you guys a more detailed look at what is actually inside each of these exorbitantly expensive rimfire cartridges. While old 22 caliber rat shot often featured a very long crimped brass case, CCI’s modern 22 shot shells feature a slightly longer than normal nickel plated rimfire case along with a translucent blue polymer tip, which helps both to distinguish the cartridge from other rimfire rounds, and also helps the rounds feed in virtually any 22LR firearm.

The polymer tip is quite tough but can be cracked if not handled properly. I used my EDC Benchmade Bugout to score the tip at the base near the case mouth and then carefully tore it off to empty out the 31 grains of #12 shot. Even if your eyesight is starting to fade, you’ll notice that not all of the shot is exactly uniform in size. In fact, the randomness in the size and shape of the shot inside of one of these cartridges reminds me more of a duplex 12 gauge load, which may or may not help the pint-sized CCI Shot Shells in the lethality department. #12 shot should be about 0.05” in diameter, which is about the size of some of the larger pieces you see in these photos.

Behind the shot are two small yellow wads in the shape of discs. I had to use a small pick to pry these out, so they are in smaller pieces, but most people don’t actually know these two discs are inside since they disintegrate on their way down the barrel. These tiny dics, just like any other wadding, help to push the 31 grains of mostly #12 shot down the barrel up to that 1,000 fps velocity. After the wadding, you have a couple of grains of pistol powder, followed by CCI's spun primed brass base.

Accuracy/Patterning

Like any other shotgun/ammo combination, if you’re going to seriously use this ammo for pest control around the barn, property, homestead, or for airport pest control, you’ll first want to pattern the ammo out of the gun you intend to use it in. Over the years, I’ve used rat shot in everything from compact 22LR pistols to PRS-style rifles - mostly out of morbid curiosity, but also because sometimes that was what I was working on when I saw a rat or mouse crawling around the shop. Because this ammo is so comparatively expensive and I have access to a limited supply at the moment (I use this stuff for pest control), we’ll be comparing two guns in what I think best demonstrates how these unique 22 caliber shotshells are intended to be used.

Henry Golden Boy Lever Action - Patterning

A lot of the shots I’ve taken on rats, mice, and pest birds over the years have often not gone much beyond 10 yards when outdoors, but I wanted to give this scenario a bit more realism so I instead chose to use the inside of my shop and took the longest shot I could take while using a rifle - 7-yards. At this distance, the Henry Golden Boy lever action with its rifled barrel gave us a huge spread of almost a foot wide. This is similar to what I’ve seen from pistols like my MKIV 22/45. As seen in the photos below, a majority of the 31 grains of shot is spread pretty uniformly throughout a 5 square inch box near the point of aim. I’d say about 75-80% of the shot landed within this square, while the remainder filled up the rest of the foot-wide pattern. This can still be pretty effective on mice with good shot placement, but I’ve often found that at this distance, shots on rats are disabling at best and often wounding at worst - needing follow-up shots. That is, until I acquired a Henry Smoothbore Garden Gun.

Henry Smoothbore Garden Gun - Patterning

Most of you have probably heard the term garden gun before if you’re a consistent reader of this series. As their name implies, garden guns have and always were intended to be used as pest control guns, specifically with 22 rat shot cartridges. Historically, these 22 caliber shot shells were probably closer to what we see here from Jeff of the TAOFLADERMAUS channel, as he tests some 40-year-old 22 caliber shotshells that have surprising performance.

While trying to get velocity data from these shots and to get a rough pattern by taking quick follow up shots with the garden gun, we got some nice consistent hits all loosely aimed at the center of this used 6” sight-in target. A few pieces of shot landed outside of this 6” area, but again a majority of the shot is more or less is in a predictable area. These tiny shot shells lack actual wads with shot cups, so the shot is more or less just tumbling down the barrel, 1700s blunderbuss style.

Real-world testing on some uninvited guests living underneath the house also proves the increase in consistency, lethality, and, most importantly, the rounds' inability to penetrate typical interior walls, or remain lethal after bouncing off of other surfaces it can't penetrate. If you’re serious about mice, rats, or bird pest control around livestock, barns, large garages, or shops, you’ll want to invest in a good smoothbore 22-caliber firearm like the Henry Garden Gun. We’ll be taking a closer look at that gun, too, in a future article.

Final Thoughts

Despite trying its best to mimic other shotgun cartridges in intent, 22 rat shot has an immense and intentional power gap between it and even the most anemic of shotgun cartridges. It’s because of this that the cartridge is great for impromptu pest control in areas where there is a high likelihood that you’ll damage something, or someone, should your shot ricochet or overpenetrate your intended target. At this same distance of about 7 yards, even though the #12 shot is going 1,000 feet per second out of a rifle barrel, it has so little abiltiy to penetrate that even just a few layers of cardboard is enough to completely stop all of the shot - which is why this test was able to be done safely inside of my shop with just a stack of cardboard as my backstop.

At $0.60 a round, CCI Shot Shell is still an expensive alternative to other cartridges, or even other, more practical passive pest control methods that don’t require a firearm or for you to be constantly on the lookout for the pests themselves. However, in those cases where you do need the practicality and flexibility of engagement that this round offers, especially in indoor environments, there really aren’t that many other options on the market. CCI’s offering is about as consistent as it gets for close-quarters pest control.