I am totally new to firearms. So, many things the experienced guys here have, ah, experienced, I have not.If you were selecting a .22 for self defense, pistol or revolver, what would you opt for? Of utmost importance would be reliability (this has me thinking revolver), and durability- so often 22 autos are made out of aluminum or zinc pot metal and aren't going to be around in 30 years let alone 50...
I heard tell that when gun laws went south in Africa, everyone bought up ruger 22s (among other things) because they'll last and last without factory support.
Now if, due to illness and injuries, you were reduced to something with literally no recoil, but still were going to CCW, what would you select and why?
Two I am considering- LCR 22, bersa 22....thoughts?
DefiantDad said:A few weeks (?) ago, I started shooting a 22LR pistol as part of my 9mm pistol practicing. That experience led me to totally throw out any notion of using a 22LR for a life or death situation. The caliber might be fun to shoot, but it is prone to jam, and it is fairly dirty, throwing out a "death cloud of lead" and all manner of spit up brass chunks, which I have not experienced with other pistol rounds. I can only imagine this can get worse as you end up with guns that are hardly (able to be) cleaned, lower quality ammo, etc.
First of all.....I wouldn't.
But if I did, I would use my 1911 conversion kit with 15 rd magazines, and probably load it with Stingers, and try to dump as many of them to center of mass in as short a time as possible. Some quibble over solid vs hp, etc, I don't think the difference is significant enough to worry about it.
Come on, the .25 ACP don`t even have half the muzzle energy of the .22 LR fired from the same length barrel.If you think the .22 ain't reliable enough and think you need more reliability, get a .25. Just think of it as a centerfire .22 designed for small autos. Even cheap crap ones seem to work, like the Ravens, but I'd get a better one from Taurus, perhaps. They're available in .25ACP. Not cheap to feed, but reliable.
Regarding cleaning, no the Ruger 22 was a super dirty rental; that's sort of the point when it comes to a survival firearm. So, I basically considered that a real world test of the 22LR theory.
You are not incorrect, but perhaps did not realize that my scenario (briefly mentioned earlier) was describing the 22LR as the "go to caliber" by End Of The World Survivalists, who frequently cite the 22LR as the best caliber when everything has gone downhill and there are very little supplies to clean guns (forget Hoppes and CLP) and perhaps even very little time to do any cleaning. And probably no choice in ammo, such as CCI.DefiantDad writes:
How do you figure this? There's a reason cops and soldiers are expected to know how to clean their weapons, and to do so between firing sessions. There is no reason a citizen carrying a firearm for personal protection should have to include "shoots well when a super-dirty rental" in their performance criteria. Street cops almost never have to fire extended-string sessions in defensive situations, and lawfully-armed citizens never do. Not like soldiers might have to.
And I second that anyone carrying a .22LR, particularly a semi-automatic, should be stoking it with real CCI MiniMag 40-grain copper-plated rounds. When I say I've fired tens of thousands of rounds of .22LR without a misfire, these are what I've been talking about. In fact, I've never had one with any brand or power level, but I have had functional failures with non-MiniMag stuff.
I don't carry a .22LR for defense simply because I have other choices available. But, I wouldn't be trembling in my boots if that was what I had, and I'll never disparage anyone else who carries one as part of an overall-well-executed plan.
Come on, the .25 ACP don`t even have half the muzzle energy of the .22 LR fired from the same length barrel.
Thank you, saved me the effort of explaining. Points also go to the lowly .25acp over the .22lr because:Actually, they're dead even out of short barrels. I have done A LOT of chronographing with multiple guns and multiple loads of each cartridge with barrel lengths of 2"-3", and ME is for either is 60-85 FPE.
You are not incorrect, but perhaps did not realize that my scenario (briefly mentioned earlier) was describing the 22LR as the "go to caliber" by End Of The World Survivalists, who frequently cite the 22LR as the best caliber when everything has gone downhill and there are very little supplies to clean guns (forget Hoppes and CLP) and perhaps even very little time to do any cleaning. And probably no choice in ammo, such as CCI.
My conclusion based on my experience was that the survivalists are wrong in this matter, that the 22LR is probably the worst choice in survival ammo, due to unreliability.