Satisfied without all the other calibers

rpenmanparker said:

I am an indoor range pistol shooter. I shoot .22LR for grins and 9mm for doing serious damage. I see all the rest, the .380, 357 magnum, .40 caliber, 10 mm, .45 ACP, etc., etc. but for what. I never carry. What difference does stopping power make. Besides I hit what I aim at. If I did carry, 9mm would serve me fine. We aren’t talking Cape buffalo here. Extra money in my pocket.

So now the important question: what’s wrong with me?

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I see your line of thinking. All my semi-auto pistols are 9mm. Part of my decision making process was that it be 9mm. I reload 9mm so it makes things easy for me. When I bought a single action revolver I chose 45 Colt. Again because I reload 45 Colt my next single action I'll likely prefer 45 Colt. Does not mean I won't change my mind on something but I follow your logic. The fun part is we have so many choices and none are wrong, or right for that matter they are what we want them to be.

-jeff

Don't like revolvers?
Thinks 38spl/357mag suck?

Your like bigfoot, I've heard a species like you existed but I've never seen one in the wild.

rpenmanparker said:

i can't think of a revolver without remembering that "faster than a speeding bullet" intro scene at the beginning of the old '50s Superman TV show.

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You seriously need to broaden your frame of reference.

I can certainly appreciate folks who want to simplify their lives, and 9mm seems like a good all around gun...maybe the best. I'll always have a 9mm.

If I was simplifying down to two calibers, I probably wouldn't have .22 as one of them, though. Why not? Answer: 2013, when the ammo scare happened. Before that time, the idea was that .22 lr ammo was a good all around cartridge for survival, mostly because the ammo would be cheap and easier to find than other calibers. That wasn't the case, however. Yeah, 9mm disappeared, too, but with the availability advantage gone, not much reason to want .22 over other more powerful cartridges.

I'd probably opt for a .357 revolver instead of a .22 lr. Or maybe a .38 Special, but only because I have so many of them> .357 would shoot .38 Special, too.

I agree; I am trying to downsize things as I get older. A few 9s for HD/SD and my 19 and 66 in case semis become somehow illegal, especially in a "military caliber", like in a lot of countries.

Jim NE said:

If I was simplifying down to two calibers, I probably wouldn't have .22 as one of them, though. Why not? Answer: 2013, when the ammo scare happened. Before that time, the idea was that .22 lr ammo was a good all around cartridge for survival, mostly because the ammo would be cheap and easier to find than other calibers.

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As long as you always keep a few thousand rounds on hand, why would a shortage make that much of a difference? Shooting for fun is one thing but as far as "need", one bulk pack will last a long time and many a small game season.

CraigC said:

As long as you always keep a few thousand rounds on hand, why would a shortage make that much of a difference? Shooting for fun is one thing but as far as "need", one bulk pack will last a long time and many a small game season.

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That's true. Even during the height of the so called "ammo scare" I had enough .22 rimfire ammo on hand to last me the rest of my life. Of course I'm pretty old, so that might not be as long as it is for some people. But my point is, during the "ammo scare" I just backed off on plinking with my .22s, and waited for the shortage to end.
Oh, BTW I consider myself to be one of the reasons for the shortage. I'm a bit of a hoarder, always have been.

Nothing wrong with you at all. If you're going to pick only two, those are the two to pick. If you want to expand it to four, I'd add .380 and .38 Special. Six? Then .357 Magnum .45 ACP. Want to have some fun with mouseguns? .25 ACP and .32 ACP. Cool Commie guns? 9mm Makarov and 7.62x25. And that's how I ended up where I am today.

I'm too much of a collector (or "hoarder") to limit myself. When I see a beautiful and/or historic gun, I want to own it. But you're right: For all practical purposes (unless you're an Alaskan guide), then .22 and 9mm will cover it.

rpenmanparker said:

I am an indoor range pistol shooter. I shoot .22LR for grins and 9mm for doing serious damage. I see all the rest, the .380, 357 magnum, .40 caliber, 10 mm, .45 ACP, etc., etc. but for what. I never carry. What difference does stopping power make. Besides I hit what I aim at. If I did carry, 9mm would serve me fine. We aren’t talking Cape buffalo here. Extra money in my pocket.

So now the important question: what’s wrong with me?

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The important answer is, nothing.

Most people who carry a semi auto carry a 9mm. The vast majority of professionals choose to carry 9mm. People who shoot a lot (especially if they shoot factory ammo) tend to shoot 9mm. There is little to no 'need' for anything else unless it's just a matter of personal preference, a like of variety, or maybe hunting/animal defense.

Jim NE said:

If I was simplifying down to two calibers, I probably wouldn't have .22 as one of them, though. Why not? Answer: 2013, when the ammo scare happened. Before that time, the idea was that .22 lr ammo was a good all around cartridge for survival, mostly because the ammo would be cheap and easier to find than other calibers. That wasn't the case, however. Yeah, 9mm disappeared, too, but with the availability advantage gone, not much reason to want .22 over other more powerful cartridges.

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If you are concerned with 'survival' or being prepared, and you are also worried about ammo being unavailable (overpriced) for six months or a year (or even two), you're doing it wrong...because you should already have the ammo you would need for that period of time, even if it meant reducing your shooting volume a bit (not entirely of course)

Before the shortage, I was shooting 2000-3000rds of .22LR every month. Once I could no longer buy ammo, I seriously cut back on my shooting. I still have the case I had before the shortage and have got by on what I could find. I was never without ammo.

When the .22 ammo drought happened, I simply chose to scale back my shooting, get rid of my 10/22, and concentrate on reloading as much 9mm as possible on my budget.
My reasoning was this: if one caliber dried up, it might happen to reloading components for my other (9mm). A lot of guys I shot with crowed about how they could simply reload their way out of a drought, but what happens when those production lines stop? Casting bullets is all well and good, but where do you get hold of primers and powder if no one's making them anymore?
I seriously looked into acquiring a small bore flintlock on the premise if the balloon really went up, I could at least reasonably be able to make home brew black powder if worse comes to worst.
I'm still on the fence about that and getting hold of one of those all-in-one .22 reloading tools that appeared.
Fortunately, the panic subsided, it at least the hoarders quit their game, and I can find rimfire ammo again, but since I only have 2 weapons that chamber it, one a single shot, I once again have a comfortable stash.

RedlegRick said:

When the .22 ammo drought happened, I simply chose to scale back my shooting, get rid of my 10/22, and concentrate on reloading as much 9mm as possible on my budget.
My reasoning was this: if one caliber dried up, it might happen to reloading components for my other (9mm). A lot of guys I shot with crowed about how they could simply reload their way out of a drought, but what happens when those production lines stop? Casting bullets is all well and good, but where do you get hold of primers and powder if no one's making them anymore?
I seriously looked into acquiring a small bore flintlock on the premise if the balloon really went up, I could at least reasonably be able to make home brew black powder if worse comes to worst.
I'm still on the fence about that and getting hold of one of those all-in-one .22 reloading tools that appeared.
Fortunately, the panic subsided, it at least the hoarders quit their game, and I can find rimfire ammo again, but since I only have 2 weapons that chamber it, one a single shot, I once again have a comfortable stash.

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I have to think that having ammo and components (to include primers and powder) on hand would be a better use of resources than a flintlock and planning on making your own black powder

Warp said:

I have to think that having ammo and components (to include primers and powder) on hand would be a better use of resources than a flintlock and planning on making your own black powder

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I agree wholeheartedly with that, but no matter how much you lay in, it would always be a finite resource. Besides, it gives me an excuse to someday add a smokepole to my small collection. I have no illusions about my prowess at chemistry regarding homemade blackpowder, but it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

I had already stocked up on .22s well before the shortage occurred. I had been buying some every time I went to the gun store or whenever I found it on sale. Then at a gun show I found Wolf Match Target (all of my .22s shoot well with it), at a really great price and bought all that the dealer had (I believe it was 10 bricks). Not that I was thinking of stockpiling at the time; just that it was too good of a deal to pass up. I also cut back on my .22 shooting during the shortage and have since replaced the ammo I used during this time.

I don't own a 9mm because I try to avoid calibers that tend to only upset four-legged critters. I hike and fish in bear and wolf country. 10mm and .45 Colt for me.

Kinda funny - throwing rocks at 22LR because supply dried up in the post-sandy hook drama....

Is it that easy to forget guys standing in line at Walmart like it was Black Friday to get 9mm or 223rem? Finding Varget or H110 was like Christmas morning.

The .22LR pricing market changed dramatically, but nothing was readily on hand, whether it was ammo or components. The only one I never had trouble finding ammo or components to feed during that time was .17HMR.

Like others, I was sitting on enough inventory to keep me shooting happily for the rest of my life.

What's wrong with you? You have more hairs on your left arm than your right arm. If you don't believe me,
count them.

That said, 9mm is a very efficient round.

With the right circumstances any cartridge can dry up or be in short supply. I think 22lr was just a huge shock being that its always been so available in bulk for very little $$$. It was kind of a shock and people went nuts. 40s&w seemed to be one of the few readily available rounds in my area during the shortages but that doesn't mean it'll never be hard to find.

I've always bought a little of this, little of that every week or every other week for 20 years now so that shortages haven't had any effect on me personally thus far. Instead of shooting 22lr so much during the droubt I swapped to 5.56/223 and 7.62x39mm but other than that I just kept on keeping on.

That's a positive of having multi calibers. If one is drying up at the moment, shooting something else keeps the withdrawal away. That and stocking up on whatever cartridge you choose.

Warp said:

If you are concerned with 'survival' or being prepared, and you are also worried about ammo being unavailable (overpriced) for six months or a year (or even two), you're doing it wrong...because you should already have the ammo you would need for that period of time, even if it meant reducing your shooting volume a bit (not entirely of course)

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I would agree. I never had much less than 2000 rounds of .22 ammo during the 2013 drought, as I recall, and all of it was purchased before the panic. And I certainly had at least 10,000 rounds for all the calibers I had combined, which I acquired in the same way.

My point is that .22 ammo wasn't as shortage resistant or economical as some people claimed it would be, and this was during a period of relatively mild social unrest. Without that advantage, there isn't a whole lot that makes .22 more attractive to me than other more powerful rounds. I have a few .22lr weapons that I like, so I'll keep a supply of ammo for them, but if I didn't have any .22's before the panic, I wouldn't have gone out and bought any afterwards. The .22 lr ammo does have the advantage that it's small and lightweight, but 100 rounds of 9mm or .32 H&R mag doesn't weigh all that much, either.

TN Outlaw said:

That's a positive of having multi calibers. If one is drying up at the moment, shooting something else keeps the withdrawal away. That and stocking up on whatever cartridge you choose.

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I agree. Like I said earlier, I can appreciate the OP wanting to simplify, but there are advantages to having a wide range of calibers. Like you, the caliber that was easiest to find around here (for some reason) during 2013 was .40 S&W. I'm not counting on that next time, though (if there is a next time.) You would also see some slightly more obscure or obsolete stuff like Tokarev. Since I have always kind of hoarded ( in a gradual unobtrusive way) I didn't have any shortages, but I watched with interest during the 2013 panic.

rpenmanparker said:

Let me know when to start buying.

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That would be now...