My wife wants a .22 WMR pistol for self-defense. Now what?

Mastro ..... dang .... never realized you were a gal .... good news! It is great to have you ladies all along here ... better balance and altogether ....... well, what's the difference .. we are all shooters.

Nuff said. Kudos.

 

Well, we do get around... I think it'd be great if we had more female shooters joining these boards. I could have been better prepared before I made my first purchase -- a 442 S&W -- and pointed in the right direction sooner. Jeeezz, don't know why people would rely on a target gun for self defense...

 

Hmmm .... well better a gun than no gun but yeah .. hardly a 1º choice!! A buddy of mine at an old club used one of those for compo's .. shot damn well .. but hey - that was not SD!!

IIRC, if you still have it .. they can fetch quite good prices.

 

I agree it's better than harsh language.... Still, I'll keep my 9mm handy over a Ruger Mark II or another .22 gun any day...

 

I've got one of those Taurus 941 snubbies in .22 mag (the ultralight model). It is loud, the trigger is heavy, and the cylinder is a bit sticky when it gets hot (after 100 rounds, say), but it gives you 8 rounds and it is very accurate. Recoil is pretty much a non-issue.

 

RE1973:

Yes, it was. Massad Ayoob did a write-up of a Taurus 8-shot .22 Magnum with a two-inch barrel in one of his annual Complete Book of Handguns magazines.

 

Kel-Tec is coming out with a new semi-automatic handgun for the .22 magnum round. It is called the PMR-30 and as its name suggests it hols 30 rounds. It weighs 19 ounces with a full magazine and has fiber optic sights, green in front, red in back. It should be released during the second quarter of 2010.

 

If you can convince your wife to go against her desires, you're a better man than I am, Charlie Brown.

But one tack you can take when discussing the .22 Magnum for self defense is to say, "That's what my first wife used, rest her soul."

If you have a .38 Special or .357, take her shooting and let her fire some powder-puff wadcutter loads and see if that doesn't convert her.

 

The OP hasn't signed into this site in almost two years. Digging up this old thread does nothing for him.

But yeah. The PMR-30 should fit the bill perfectly.

 

My wife is 66 years old, petite, and this is what she prefers.

J.

 

Taurus makes some decent .22 mag revolvers as does S&W I think.

 

Around the house...

...any good round is going to cause hearing loss...I bought my son a Mini-14 but it's put away in my closet...he's got a Ruger .45 he's shot well since he was 12...but recently I found a trade on a new Ruger 10-22...with two 30-round clips taped back to back...that gun with hollow points and that many rounds will stop any man...if you were to get a folding stock and keep it folded...you'd have a no-recoil weapon that, while loud, wouldn't destroy her hearing if she had to use it in the house...light, short, easy for her to move room to room or keep out of sight at a central location...if she wants a .22WMR, I'd spend the money to get a Smith...some Taurus revolvers are perfect...some are not...personally, I've been well protected as a youngun and a few times during my life with a High Standard 9-shot .22 revolver with CCI Stinger HP in it....placement is important...comes in 2 3/8" and 4" for small hands and very reliable...used for around $125-175.

...all that being said, I've handed two non-shooting women(one very petite) my Ruger P97 .45 with ball in it...and they've hit well with it and enjoyed it...first gun either has ever shot...recoil is felt mostly between the ears...especially if someone were in her home bent on mischief...

 

.22 Mag autoloader

There are already pictures of the new Kel-Tec .22 Magnum autoloader on the net. Supposed to introduced at the SHOT Show in January.

 

Heres the thread I started about the Kel-Tec, including links to pictures in the first post..
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=487481&highlight=pmr-30

rc

 

Small hands? Get her a S&W Model 10 Round butt .38 Special with a 2" to 4" barrel. Install one of the grips from Hogue or Pacmyre (sp). 140 grain to 158 grain HP of your choice. Managable recoil and you would play hell getting my wife's M-10 Round butt from her...

 

Get her one. Just make sure she practices enough to be deadly accurate with it. Kel-tec has announced the release of the pmr-30 in 22 magnum. Reliability is an unknown. I would further reiterate what others have said and recommend a revolver in 22 magnum. A Smith model 651 or 650 would be good. A Taurus 941 is also good provided she can put up with a harder double action trigger pull. A lot of the old timers in law enforcement thought highly of the 22 magnum, so don't let the caliber wars dissuade you too badly if it is what she really wants and is comfortable with.

 

Judge Vinny 4 Judge pistol

If it was me I get something that when she pulled the trigger you know and intruder would most probably be dead dead dead.
A 22 I would be afraid would make some crack heads more powerful. For the house I think I would go with a shotgun. Handbag gun a judge pistol. WIth 410 buck shot.

A great many people get weapons for self defense but when a weapon is needed they really don't know how to act. Not saying I would know what I would do myself never been placed in a situation.

Prayers that no one has to find out what they would do. Or have to do.

 

Back from the dead, it's this thread. Again.

 

How about a .32 ACP?
A locked breech pistol chambered for that should have minuscule recoil, plus its a larger hole and centerfire primed.
http://www.keltecweapons.com/our-guns/pistols/p-32/

EDIT

Oh shoot :banghead:

 

JMOfartO:

IF your bride is comfortable with the 22 rimfire, then buy her a Firestorm FS22...

Same pistol as the Bersa Thunder 380, but in the 22cal. round.. Same excellent grip, a reputation for reliability, and it's a "ladies favorite", and has been for years..

I have one and every time my neighbor's grown daughter shoots it she wants to buy it from me....

Load the sucker up with jhp CCI Stingers, and for'ge'aboutit.



Best Wishes,

Jesse

 

I don't want to bring this too far off topic. mods; delete if necessary
whats with everyone recommending Stingers for self defence?
I think a heavy bullet would be much better for a .22 defence load such as CCI Velocitors or Aguila Interceptors.

 

gfm:

The reason I recommend CCI Stingers for personal protection in a self defense gun, FOR THOSE who are determined, or for whatever reason on another, to use a 22cal. round is because I've used them for decades and always been satisfied with them..

Back before I decided killing a critter I didn't NEED to kill wasn't fun anymore, I dispatched many a tree rat with Stingers... I've seen what a Stinger jhp can do to the little fellers, and I'm sure the results would be equally impressive when shot into the human body..

A 22 is just a 22, and I don't recommend them for anyone for personal protection.. My wife and I prefer the Ruger LCP.. But IF a person is determined to place their faith in the lowly 22rimfire round, then my experience tells me the CCI Stinger is a good choice.

I'm sure the CCI Velocitors or Anguila Interceptors are fine choices too, perhaps even better than the Stingers, don't know...

But Stingers are available most places that sell ammo, and since I've never been disappointed in their performance I just like 'em..

Just personal preference.

Best Wishes,

Jesse

 

I agree with regard to defensive use against humans and any other creature larger than a rodent (not counting ROUSes--rodents of unusual size--but I don't think they exist ).

They're easier to shoot, making some people far more effective as shooters, and you can pack up to 10 of them in some DA revolvers.

Not at all, in my opinion. Larger creatures such as humans require far more penetration for a load to be effective enough for defensive purposes. While a Stinger may blow small creatures apart, such a small amount of energy, relatively speaking, would have little effect on humans. It would be far more effective to use that energy to instead penetrate more deeply in order to have a greater chance of inflicting lethal wounds on humans.

With the right loads, a .22 can easily kill a person with good shot placement, and some people are better shots with it. With varmint loads such as the CCI Stinger, it would be best to stick to squirrels and rats and such.

I presume that your experience does not include shooting humans. Mine doesn't either so far, but different loads behave very differently in terminal ballistics tests, at the very least, and there should be an analogous difference when shooting living things.

Unlike the Stinger, these loads can meet and often exceed the minimum penetration standard used by most people as well as law enforcement, which is 12" in calibrated ballistic gelatin (although CCI Velocitors use hollow-point bullets, out of a pistol there is not enough velocity for them to expand, so they penetrate deeply).

They are a superior load against small critters, no doubt, but don't underestimate what .22 LR can do against larger creatures when using loads designed for that purpose (and further improvement is possible, in my opinion).

 

I just saw one of those Kel-tecs at my local shop. It weighs nearly nothing empty. The trigger is surprisingly good for a $325 gun. I'd like to shoot it. I think .22wmr would be suitable for Zombie stopping.