.22 caliber effectiveness

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My Ruger MkIII has a lightened trigger and is dead reliable. I'm fairly certain I could put all 10 rounds into a torso-sized target within 3 seconds. Now if that doesn't stop the BG, I'd be much more confident at taking him on hand-to-hand with him suffering from a number of bullet holes, no matter how small. With that being said, I'd never use a .22 as my primary self defense weapon.
 
I'll take a .22 if it's all that's available to me, but ideally I'd like something centerfire due to reliability concerns. Not that my .22lr guns are unreliable.. but the ammunition is a different story.


In fact, my Walther G22 would be an ideal home defense weapon if it were a 9mm carbine instead of .22lr.
 
I carry my P22 while outside working around El Rancho De Kevin, but carry more gun for CCW, as in Kimber TAC CUS II. But, since .22 is "THE" assasan round world wide, and has been forever, it IS effective if well placed. Now since this thread is about SD seemingly, I'd not opt for my P22 as a CCW SD gun alone, no way. I say at least a .380 if not .38spl+p+ or .357 for my personal choice.
 
I'll never understand this .22lr bashing that always happens. I'll take it any day over a .25 or .32.

Check this story out, it happened a few months ago about 20 miles from me. I thought about getting a brick of .22 for the guy.
http://www.startribune.com/467/story/839249.html

How about the ballistics?
22LR%2037gr%20HP%20Wound%20Profile.jpg

10.4 inches and expanding to .377, a lot of 9mm, .40 and .45 hollow points with gobs of 'energy' only penetrate that much.

How about RNL?
22LR%2040gr%20RNL.jpg

14.3" and tumbling. It's going to make a mess out of something.

Given these are out of rifles, but it's still 'just a .22.'
 
Titan: I'd take a 55 grain .223 over a 110 grain 9mm any day of the week......

edited for spelling/typo
 
22 as my"choice" for HD. No! Will it work? Probably. Does it shoot farther than say a 40 or 45 yes but if it is home defense you are within what 5 to 7 yds MAX.
Plus most home invasions are not done by commandos[ as some have stated but they are indeed carried out by wacked out tweekers. In many LEO cases the multiple shot or empty magazine to stop the threat stories are not because the guy was huge and a 9mm would not do the job, but rather they were stoned out of thier cord and felt no pain.

In this case no handgun is adequate as some have stated! I believe the ultimate HD weapon is the 12ga w/ slugs or buckshot at extreme close range. My 12ga has a full 28 barrel and mod choke. I don't want a spray gun. I want to throw bodies to the ground.

22 only if everything else in the house is empty or broke.
 
Expect a 99% degradation of performance when under extreme stress. That's been my experience in combat -- and all the data I read about real-life deadly encounters amongst civilians bears it out. In police shootouts, it's not uncommon for the cop to get only one hit out of a full magazine.

I would choose a weapon that makes the most out of that one hit.
 
.22 is much better than .32ACP and .25ACP. .32 may actually be the worst SD round that I know of, but it is still better than no gun at all (but I would really start looking hard for a pointy stick).

Also 5.56 in a rifle is better than just about any HG in .40 and under in power, and much, much better than the .22LR but still is not a good stopper in 55gr as I would like it to be. You can shoot right through a good sized boar in the chest cavity with one a couple of times and it will keep coming. Not so with 30-30 or 7.62X39 or bigger. These things will drop one with one or two shots reliably from just about any sized 7mm rifle or larger.

When faced with something dangerous you want to be sure to send your very best and unless .22 is all you have it is not a good first choice. When hunting bunnies...
 
I know somebody on THR posted some pellet gun ballistic tests I looked at the other day. Some of the .177 pellets were penetrating 6 inches. I was pretty impressed. If you get shot in the throat or eye or even the right spot in the chest you could for sure die fairly fast.
 
.22 is much better than .32ACP and .25ACP. .32 may actually be the worst SD round that I know of, but it is still better than no gun at all
Click to expand...
It's just as easy to walk out of the gunstore with a more potent weapon as it is to walk out with a .22.

Most people wind up in life-threatening situations because they planned to get into life-threatening situations. If all one has is a .22 when the chips are down, it's probably because he set himself up that way.
 
As far a knockdown power of a well placed shot -

My friend does on the farm butchering. He uses CCI stingers. From 15 to 25 feet he fires from a rifle, aiming about 1" above between the eyes. It takes down all size cattle or hogs. It does not necessarily kill but knocks their feet right out from under them and at a minimum puts them in a serious daze, so he can walk over an slit the throat for them to bleed out.
 
Another thought I had on this is I have fired 100's if not 1000's of .22 for ever "self defense" type round I fired. My old .22 comes to my shoulder and gets on target pretty quick and without much thought
 
FWIW the .22LR rifle is the weapon of choice for cattle theives and poachers in the area of my pop's ranch. Extraordinarilly quiet, accurate, and dirt cheap. Believe me you, if a .22LR can take down a 1000 lb steer, it can make short work of a human sizaed target. Easily. It's all about shot placement.
 
22 as my"choice" for HD. No! Will it work? Probably. Does it shoot farther than say a 40 or 45 yes but if it is home defense you are within what 5 to 7 yds MAX.
Plus most home invasions are not done by commandos[ as some have stated but they are indeed carried out by wacked out tweekers. In many LEO cases the multiple shot or empty magazine to stop the threat stories are not because the guy was huge and a 9mm would not do the job, but rather they were stoned out of thier cord and felt no pain.

In this case no handgun is adequate as some have stated! I believe the ultimate HD weapon is the 12ga w/ slugs or buckshot at extreme close range. My 12ga has a full 28 barrel and mod choke. I don't want a spray gun. I want to throw bodies to the ground.

22 only if everything else in the house is empty or broke.
Click to expand...


Uhm. See pattern size data:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-129627338.html
 
I had to go back and read the guestion.

“Would there be a significant difference between 1 round
and say...10 or 20 rounds?”

Yes maybe 10 or 20 times more significant.

Tinker2
 
.22 is much better than .32ACP and .25ACP. .32 may actually be the worst SD round that I know of, but it is still better than no gun at all (but I would really start looking hard for a pointy stick).
Click to expand...

Huh?? :confused:

Admittedly, none of those three is a stellar SD choice, but what is there about .32 that makes it worse than either .22 or .25?

.32, 60 grain at ~950 fps.

.25, 45 grain at ~815 fps.

.22, 40 grain at ~800 fps.

(All velocities from short barreled self-defense weapons.)

How can a bullet that weighs 50% more traveling 100 to 150 fps faster and having a larger cross section be worse?
 
If I didn't screw up the calculation, the 40gr .22 has +41% sectional density compared to the 60gr .32.

Although the .32 has better energy, I could see the .22 being a better penetrator, which is perhaps the deciding factor for rounds this anemic on human-sized targets.
 
I feel that from a handgun the .32APC and the .38S&W are the minimums. The .22lr autos are netorious for reliability, I'd choose a quality .25 first. I don't want to be shot with anything, but shoot me with a .22 rather than a .32...........Essex
 
I stand corrected truly the .32ACP by Golden Loki is the pinacle of munitions development. It should be adopted by the US military and police departments world wide. This will be at great cost savings to the US tax payer and more enviornmentally friendly as well. Everyone should carry a weapon in this caliber. Hopefully I will be able to find a carbine in ths caliber as I can also use it to down deer, elk, cattle and polar bear.
 
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