.22 caliber effectiveness

[Aaryq]

Howdy, Folks. I was doing some thinking (scary, huh?) today and thought of a different question. We all know that the .22 caliber cartridge isn't the ideal weapon for home defense. A lot of us have seen the ballistics of a .22 compared to varous other rounds. Would there be a signifigant difference between 1 round and say...10 or 20 rounds? When I was at the range with my Marlin 99 and I emptied all 9 rounds into the target with a pretty tight group. What do you think?

 

[Leanwolf]

Put it this way. If you put nine or ten rounds of high speed hollow point .22 L.R. bullets into the bandit's neck and face, even if you don't kill him, he's definitely going to be thinking seriously about taking up a different profession!

L.W.

 

[NailGun]

I am under the opinion that 10 rounds from a .22lr would most likely cause an acute IDLH* exposure to lead. 20 rounds would likely cause fatal levels of lead contamination.

NailGun.

*Immediately Dangerous to Life & Health.

 

[nitestocker]

i ve heard of people killing deer and cows with 22s if you no what i meen and it just takes one well plased shot. and profesenal killers use a 22 alot its quiet very accurate and you can pull the trigger 10 times and not leave your target

 

[Mannlicher]

Put it this way. If you put nine or ten rounds of high speed hollow point .22 L.R. bullets into the bandit's neck and face, even if you don't kill him, he's definitely going to be thinking seriously about taking up a different profession!

L.W.

the trick of course, is getting the bad guy to just stand still while you shoot.......

Yeah, a .22 can ruin your day, but it won't do so in a reliable manner, nor will it stop your attacker instantly.
Personally, I want a little more on my side.

 

[Geronimo45]

The more holes, the more damage done to internals. If the holes are made in the right spots, they ought to do the job pretty well, no matter what caliber.

 

[MilsurpShooter]

Home defense, adrenaline going, dark.. Sorry but it's not the ideal scenario for shot placement. While I'd grab my .22 if I could get ahold of nothing else I'd definately want something that had a little more kick

 

[Travis McGee]

Nine shots from a .22 to the torso more or less equals a blast of buckshot. Nothing to sneeze at. Plus, I've known target shooters who can rapid-fire .22s into a coin sized target at 50 feet. I have no doubt those guys can make easy head shots at standard distances with a good .22 pistol.

 

[MD_Willington]

Yes, deer can be taken with a .22... personally I would not do it though.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

For more than a few situations, .22 LR can be a defensive round. A frail old lady (or man for that matter) can handle a 9 shot .22 revolver without getting hurt in the process of shooting it, as an example. H&R made 2" models and I think even S&W does still.

A 10/22 can be tricked out in many ways and, fitted with a hi cap mag, wouldn't be something that I would trifle with. With CCI stingers it would be fairly close to being shot with plain jane hardball .380 out of a pistol in terms of energy. Plus, the range of effective aimed fire from a .22 rifle of any type against a target is probably at least 2x that of most pistols --maybe 100 yds.

No, I don't advocate .22 as a 1st choice but it beats a whistle and a club.


Just looked it up--CCI Stinger .22 actually exceeds ME of .380 Blazer

 

[CWL]

.22lr can and have killed lots of people. There have been many discussions about this.

The biggest problem about .22lr fatalities is that the bullets tend to cause death due to eventual bleed-out; they are not good for immediate stops due to CNS damage (although it does happen) or massive destruction of tissue/organs.

Bleed-out allows BGs to 'return the favor' and do lots of damage to you in the minutes it takes for incapacitation to occur.

All handgun rounds are considered inadequate for SD, so why choose the smallest caliber?

 

[Avenger29]

A 10/22 can be tricked out in many ways and, fitted with a hi cap mag, wouldn't be something that I would trifle with. With CCI stingers it would be fairly close to being shot with plain jane hardball .380 out of a pistol in terms of energy. Plus, the range of effective aimed fire from a .22 rifle of any type against a target is probably at least 2x that of most pistols --maybe 100 yds.

First of all, finding reliable high-cap mags can be tricky. Many 10/22's do not like the commonly available Butler Creek series, and Ram-line mags are crap. Those are the two high-caps I see available in most gunshops. There is another company whose name escapes me at the moment that makes polymer and aluminum magazines, but they are rather pricey (around $30 for the polymer, $60 for the aluminum). However, the mags are adjustable for feeding and can be disassembled for cleaning, and are top-quality mags.

If a .22 is your only thing at hand, sure, use it. But you could sell it for a 12 gauge shotgun (Mossberg Maverick at $170) or a Hi-point Carbine ($200), and have more reliable stoppers.

I keep the .22's loaded, but sitting above the .22's are far more powerful choices.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

As said, .22 or 10/22 is not my first choice for defense. The 10/22 is a very reliable firearm--mags can be an issue.

I don't know if the folks at Ramline aren't living right these days or what but I have had 0 problems with the 2 mags that I've had for 20 years. In fairness, they don't get beat up a heck of a lot either but have 1000's of flawless feeds on each. So, I guess find some that work or stick with a 10 rounder.

Yes, get the shotgun--but for &%#@* KEEP the 10/22 as well. You won't get crap for one on a trade anyway.

 

[bogie]

IMHO, the biggest thing about a defensive gun is HAVING it... And remember - it still good if you wound, and the guy runs, or even if you miss (while not hitting anything expensive...), and the guy runs.

Defensive.

I'm surprised that there aren't more .32s out there...

I also prefer centerfire - less chance of misfires.

 

[Titan6]

.22 for SD huh?

Well I guess it is better than a spear, unless you are at point blank range and then I would take the spear.

Would you shoot a decent sized wild boar with one say 150lbs?

So why shoot a 180lb man? Certainly your attacker is likely to be better armed than you...

 

[rangerruck]

something is better than nothing. I just am re-reading the story of 'hellhouse' the battle for Falujah. it is intense. In the early part of the story, , It tells of the first Sgt., coming through a doorway, when he gets hit by an AK, in the leg. he doesnt fall, but the jihadi keeps coming at him, he pulls out his 9mm and starts firing. he blows his whole mag, before the Stain in front of him actually drops. Makes me rethink my carry weapon.

now according to those in the know, 22's have killed more people than any other single caliber ever invented. A lot of these , I am sure were not on purpose or in combat, but they will obviously kill , though I suspect moslty not right away.

 

[jhunter]

If I were to enter your home without permission, and you started shooting me with a freaking pellet gun, trust me, I am out of there. If its a .22, I will for sure be out, and stand a good chance of losing my life. I choose to use a 40 or 45 for home defense because I want to be certain they do not come back. If you hit someone in the chest/head just once with a 22, they will face a huge chance of death. If you hit them 10-20, my life savings is on the death option. I do not agree with the statements that a 22 is worthless as home defense. It may not be the best, but I would take it over nothing, thats for sure. With enough ammo, you can kill anything with it.

For all you folks that do not agree, let someone shoot you in the eye with a 22 and then come back and let me know how it went for ya..

 

[Tinmancr]

hmm .22

I personally think that 22 is fine for home defense thieves aren't commandos
if you shoot one he's gonna be messed up no matter what you use.
Also the accuracy thing is a big deal in my opinion 10 .22 in 2 inches is better than 3 9s or 380s
I would pick stinger or other good hyper velocity solid or plated they will go through a 20 inch monitor make a hole in excess of an inch and crack it extensively
So go for the head with solids or neck "if you want to watch them bleed out"
Another thing if you are a less than violent person you can disarm without dismembering.

 

[Jubjub]

Let me with the inevitable buckshot comparison.

One round of 12 gauge #1 buckshot contains 16 pellets that weigh about 40 grains and are .30 caliber, a rough approximation of an expanded .22 hollow point. A 20 gauge #3 buck load is 20 pellets that weigh 23 grains and are .25 caliber. So one shot with about any common shotgun loaded with buck would be about the same as emptying a .22 rifle.

If I had to shoot someone I would much rather be able say that I shot once or twice, rather than I shot ten times, reloaded, and shot ten more times.

That said, if a .22 was all that was available, I wouldn't feel total despair. As a kid, I watched my uncle drop hogs at butchering time with a carefully placed .22 round. My first coyote went down cleanly with one Mini-Mag from a single shot Remmy.

 

[CajunBass]

I keep hearing about the bad guy who soaks up 22 bullets like Bounty paper towels soak up grape juice, then beat the person who shot them to death with a feather duster, called for a pizza, watched a DVD, took a bath, then drove home before noticing they'd been shot.

I just have to wonder how many times this actually happens. Oh, I'm sure it HAS happened, I just suspect, and I have absolutely nothing to base it on other than a plain old SWAG, that most people upon hearing gunshots, and maybe being hit, are going to want to beat the H out of Dodge RFN! I doubt many stick-up men, break-in artists, or run of the mill burglars are all that interested in being the test bed for "How many 22's can you take before you get really hurt?"

I'm going to grab my Colt Commander, but if all I had was a Ruger 22, I sure wouldn't feel unarmmed.

 

[Sistema1927]

I don't want to be shot with a .22...

...or a .32...


...or a .38...


...or a .45.

After a fun day of cowboy shooting a couple of us were playing around with pocket pistols. I was shooting my new, old S&W 4th model DA (from 1897) in .32 S&W. Tiny little 78 grain lead bullets on top of 1.2 grains of W231, but they were smacking the steel target at 10 yards with a pretty satisfying clang. Much less powerful than what I carry as a CCW, but I certainly wouldn't want to be on the other end of it.

 

[floridaboy]

I agree that a .22 is not an ideal hd weapon. That said, I have actually seen an accidental shooting with a .22 revolver. The guy got hit about 3-4" below the belly-button with a winchester T22 short. It went in, nicked his spleen and an artery, deflected around the abdomen and ended up under the skin on his rib cage. While he did not drop drt, all he wanted was a good surgeon and very good pain-killers. He lived, but spent over a week in the University of Virginia hospital. I worked with both he and the guy who accidentally shot him, and I was just a few feet away when it happened. I don't see T22's catalogued anymore, but the current load shown is a 29gr at 1010 from a pistol. Not impressive on paper, but I don't want to stop one!

 

[ARKIESTEEL]

The man down at the packing house kills cows and hogs with a .22. I have killed yotes with them clean with one shot. I wouldnt be too scared to have a decent shooting .22 in my hands if I needed to defend myself, would not be my first pick but would be ok if all else failed.

 

[22LongRifle]

22lr drop deer VERY WELL out to 35 yards, been doing it for the past twenty years.

Have no problems using my 10/22 with hi-cap mags and MINI MAGs. Neither do my daughters or wife.

Would I WANT something else, yea, but if it's in my hands when that door opens, its on.

Jerry

 

[Titan6]

Capping a hog in the head at the meat house is one thing, running around in the woods with black wild boar on your way to the tree stand in near zero visibility is another. 5.56 won't even reliably drop a larger one, sometimes they just ignore it and keep going.

Sure a .22 will kill you just as dead as any other bullet it just takes a little longer. When I lived in Virginia about 15 years ago we had a road rage case where the guy shot his attacker 17 times center of mass and the guy lived for over a week in the hospital. Get somone hopped up on drugs or adrenaline and good luck to you in stopping them; not that it won't work but I have never ever heard of anyone in a gun fight wanting a smaller sized bullet ever....