22 Long Rifle usage and reputation during the years.....

[saturno_v]

Nowadays the venerable 22 LR is mainly viewed and used as a plinking/practicing/target round or to kill/hunt the smallest of pests. Too weak for any serious hunting (not to mention illegal in most places) or self defence.
My question is, was it always that way?? Were millions of 22 LR rifles and carbines produced during the decades always considered just plinking/target tools? I remember many models of 22 LR pistols and revolvers in the past that I suspect were not intended only for paper punching.....especially the small pistols and wheel guns.
Any thoughts on the subjects especially from the more senior experienced forum members?
Why some "survival rifles" are chambered in 22 LR if it iis just a target round?

 

[Kendahl]

Greg Ellifritz (www.activeresponsetraining.net) has several articles about a ninety-year-old man who lives by himself on a mountain in Tennessee. The old guy carries one or two 8-shot .22LR snubbies in his front pockets. He figures that eight to sixteen shots quickly delivered are enough to ruin a bad guy's day.

 

[jmr40]

Revolvers in 22 caliber were used for protection and crime more often in the past than today. They fell out of favor because they proved to be less effective than larger calibers. But years ago the guns and ammo were cheap. Think "Saturday Night Specials".

Why some "survival rifles" are chambered in 22 LR if it iis just a target round?

Survival means different things to many people. In a true long term survival situation shooting small game for food with a 22 is a far more likely scenario than taking large game or for protection from other humans. And in a pinch a 22 will take deer size game. At the time the worlds record grizzly was taken in Canada back in the 1950's with a 22. Not by a hunter, but a young indian girl picking blue berries who was cornered by the bear She placed the muzzle between it's eyes and pulled the trigger.

While not ideal for human protection, just having a gun would deter most attackers in a survival situation. Remember, without prompt medical attention a very minor wound could lead to a slow painful death.

A centerfire rifle or shotgun could be more effective, but think of the ammo logistics. A box of 500 rounds of 22's is about the same size and weight as a box of 25 shot shells. If I were forced to live off the land with no re-supply for an extended time a 22 rifle would be my pick.

 

[hdwhit]

My question is, was it always that way?

Not if what my grandparents told me about growing up is to be believed.

My grandmother told me about being taught to shoot by her father (to get her away from his second wife who did not like her) and how she became very proficient so that when food was short, she was the one sent out with the 22 and three or four rounds and expected to return with more than one dead animal. From what my great aunts and great uncles said at family reunions, she harvested a lot of rabbit, opossum and raccoon with a 22.

 

[chicharrones]

Regarding .22 "survival" guns. I still like this old article by Paco Kelly on leverguns.com.

"Ralph 'Woods' Johnson . . . carried a small cut down Winchester bolt action chambered for 22 WRF..a round in power between the high speed 22 rim fire and the 22 rim fire magnum. Of course the rim fire magnum wasn’t to be around for another 10 to 12 years. He didn’t reload, he had the rifle, and a five inch S&W revolver for the same round which was always on his waist." - http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/survival.htm

 

[hdwhit]

Any thoughts on the subjects especially from the more senior experienced forum members?

I don't know if I count as a "senior experienced" member, but I have been shooting and reloading for 40+ years. And while it was always understood around my parent's house and my grandparent's house growing up that the 22 was for target practice and small game, I was also taught that the round was to be treated with no less respect as to its lethality than my grandfather's 45.

During my lifetime as a shooter, I have witnessed two trends that I think go hand in hand. The first has been a degree of "gentrification" wherein the cost, appearance and specifications of the gun and its associated ammunition replaced the functionality of the gun and what the operator could achieve with it. The second has been the replacement of marksmanship with devastating power; the notion that if the shooter has a powerful enough round, point of aim, shot placement or any other fundamentals didn't matter. In the face of such developments, the 22 comes to be seen as a "wimpy" round not suitable for use by "real" shooters.

 

[Jim Watson]

a five inch S&W revolver for the same round

I have racked my brain and cannot think of a Smith & Wesson in .22 WRF. Colt, yes, Smith, not that I can find.

 

[caribou]

Not just a ''target round'' its a very very good small game hunting round.

More small game is hunted, numbers wize than big game (1 deer, 19 Rabbits, 20 squirrels, etc, per year and such)

As a year round hunter/Gather'r I would take the .22lr if I could have only one gun.

Most gun owning folks now days are not Hunters, but target shooters. Limits in range and nosie making have moved this from an excellent small game hunting round into a more target shooting round, but the animals havent changed, only our society.

 

[chicharrones]

I have racked my brain and cannot think of a Smith & Wesson in .22 WRF. Colt, yes, Smith, not that I can find.

Since the Winchester rifle had a cut down barrel, maybe the same was done to the revolver? Or maybe a poor memory or a typo by Mr. Kelly?

 

[patmccoy]

I might qualify as "senior" at 71. Still have the 22 I got when I was 9. The only shooting done with it then, and for many years, was learning to shoot, sighting in, and small game hunting. I have shot about 3000 rabbits and squirrels with it. As I aged, it became more of a target shooting gun, mostly because I could afford to buy meat instead of having to hunt for it.

 

[Blkhrt13]

Near as a can tell with google the model 48 was chambered in the wrf for a little while.

 

[Danoobie]

How about the woman Indian trapper who killed a record Grizzly, back in the 50s, with a single shot
22? She didn't set out to hunt grizz, but when she was cornered, she knew right where to shoot,
and her beat-up single shot rifle didn't miss. Obviously an extreme case, but who would even
consider that, now?

 

[illinoisburt]

I think the usefulness of 22 rimfires historically needs a little bit of context. Today we focus on deer or other larger animals, but for a long time putting meals on the table was the serious hunting. Deer were nowhere near as numerous as today. Far and away the majority of hunting was for small game for the cookpot. In that role rimfire rifles (and shotguns) were and still are very important and useful hunting tools.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

My dad told me that when he was a kid my Grandfather would give him 4 or 5 rounds of ammo for hunting with his single shot 22 rifle. He knew that when he returned home he had best had something to eat for every round he had fired. But my dad always had a backup plan. He would go down to the local store and buy an extra 4 or 5 rounds of ammo for a penny. That way if he missed he had a replacement round. If I remember right, he said he was 10 or 11yo around that time.

 

[chicharrones]

Even in the 1970s for recreational shooting, we didn't have more than a 50 round box of .22LR ammo to expend. I don't recall anyone in my family buying .22 ammo by the brick when I was a kid. Most of our plinking was with BB guns. A Red Ryder comes to mind.

I noticed the trend was still prevalent in a very small town I stopped to get gas at about 10 years ago or so. The gas station was more of a general store. They had one unopened brick of Fiocchi .22LR ammo and I took it to the counter to purchase. The guy at the counter had a partial conniption that I needed so much ammo, but he sold it to me anyway. I didn't realize for several hours later that this ammo was likely meant to be sold to the locals 50 at a time, not 500.

 

[P5 Guy]

A couple of small game animals are a meal, a large game animal is many meals and one may not get to eat it all before it spoils. If we are talking survival only I'll take a 22LR and some little critters over a deer rifle if I'm just providing for myself or a couple of others.

 

[Sunray]

"...just a target round..." The .22, in all its flavours, has probably killed more game than any other cartridge. A purely target cartridge it ain't.
The "millions of 22 LR rifles and carbines" were small game and varmint rifles. Few of 'em were target rifles.
"...illegal in most places..." Only for large game.
The .22 WRF is a different critter than a .22 LR. More like a .22 Long, but the bullet is flat based and internally lubed. It's also a .224" bullet vs .222".

 

[GRIZ22]

Not the lr but the short. I read a first hand account by a Union officer in the Civil War that carried a S&W No. 1 in each pocket and suggested the same to his subordinate officers. They probably saw their saber as their primary weapon.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

"Nowadays the venerable 22 LR is mainly viewed and used as a plinking/practicing/target round or to kill/hunt the smallest of pests. Too weak for any serious hunting (not to mention illegal in most places) or self defence."

Back in the 1950s and 1960s Dad would take me to the country to visit relatives still living on farms. Every farm had at least one .22 rifle, used with .22 shorts or longs for pests or very small game at close range, .22 long rifle for rabbit size game or fox size predators.

Most places .22 rimfire is illegal for big game hunting only. It is probably the most common small game and pest control round world-wide. I was told deer were decimated on the mountain during the Depression by subsistance hunting, a lot of them taken by brain shots with a .22 rifle. In the 1950s 1960s I rarely saw a deer but now they are not uncommon. Less need these days for survival hunting.

"... just a target round."

1887 J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. matched the .22 Long casing up to the 40 grain .22 Extra Long bullet to create the .22 Long Rifle ... for hunting rifles. After it was discovered this produced a really accurate ballistic combo then it became popular as a target round and still is.

.22 LR 40 gr roundnose bullet penetrates 12 inches in ballistic gel formulated to mimic resistence of flesh. It does a flip in mid-penetration, much like .38 Spl 158gr LRN and .30 Carbine 110gr FMJ in gel, ending up stopping base first in the gel block. .22 hollowpoint creates a larger temporary cavity, slightly less penetration, does not flip.

Uncle Ed took me and my .22 Marlin squirrel hunting with his dog Henry and his 12ga shotgun. Once I bagged 8 squirrels and fired a total of 10 rounds. The largest animal I killed with .22 LR was a rabid skunk (the rabid skunk is identifiable as they stagger, foam at the mouth, and don't retreat into the woods).

I know I have shot more .22 LR in target practice (and in a few match seasons at the gun club) but I still think of my .22 Marlin as a hunting rifle.

 

[22250Rem]

It's so versatile and yet relatively inexpensive and there are so many variations of it that the appeal is universal. Here's a few; take your pick....

 

[Demi-human]

Often and Legendary.

 

[JohnBiltz]

From what I understand deer was mostly gone in the 1920s and 30s. Today there are more deer than when Columbus sailed.

If you are survival hunting shooting deer is a waste. Its going to go bad quickly if its at all warm outside, remember no refrigeration. Rabbits and squirrels are what you are going to live on. Shooting them is not necessarily the best way to get them either. Snares will work for you while you are sleeping. Some wire and a log leaned against a tree can catch so many squirrels its illegal to use in most places in the US.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Over the years hunters have turned to more powerful cartridges for hunting. There are scores of hunters here in Louisiana that use 7mm Remington Magnum and 300 Winchester Magnum for hunting whitetail deer. I think that for some of them it is an effort to make up for lack of skill. The average deer taken down here is from a distance of less then 100 yards. With a more powerful cartridge, shot placement is not as critical .
And then there are those that think more is better.
The 22LR is a cartridge that most of us cut our teeth on. A lot of men my age grew up spending time in the woods with BB and pellet guns. As we advanced in age and skills the 22LR took the place of our BB and pellet guns.
My dad gave me my first 22 rifle in 1975, I was 12 years old. I still have that Winchester 9422 XTR.
I will always have a good 22 rifle for small game hunting and if push comes to shove, it can be used for much bigger things.
Just go out and buy a good safe and fill it up with 22s. Filling up the safe can be almost as much fun as shooting.

 

[toivo]

I was told deer were decimated on the mountain during the Depression by subsistance hunting, a lot of them taken by brain shots with a .22.

My father told me that he and his brother poached deer wih a single-shot .22 to feed the family during the Depression. There were ten kids, so I imagine that they could eat up a deer fairly quickly.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

The only thing I want to point out that isn't necessarily correct doesn't really concern .22 rimfirea.

A deer carcass won't go bad before you can eat it, even with no refrigeration. You just have to be quick about getting a fire going and slicing the deer up to make jerky. Just a little tip for anyone that might have to someday shoot a deer, in warm weather, for survival.

Edit: And don't forget to keep flies off of it while you're starting that fire and slicing meat.