FMJMIKE
Member
The guy that invented the .22lr isn't a saint!!!! He should be.............
Opinions on the 22lr
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DarkCharisma
Member
I love .22lr--I wouldn't go as far to say it's the best round ever, but since I can take co-workers, siblings, parents, etc. out shooting for less then the cost of an average night at the movies, it's a winner.
It's perfect for teaching non-gunners how fun shooting can be. (Which I am trying to do a LOT more lately.)
It's perfect for learning proper shooting skills.
It's perfect for building proper marksmanship techniques.
It's cheap enough that shooting can be a spontaneous thing. Throw the Ruger or Marlin in the truck, and go out to the boonies, and plink away for hours without spending more then $30 bucks, gas included.
I would feel fairly confident using a .22lr in a defensive situation, even--But the bigger centerfires will ALWAYS get picked before the .22lr!
It's perfect for teaching non-gunners how fun shooting can be. (Which I am trying to do a LOT more lately.)
It's perfect for learning proper shooting skills.
It's perfect for building proper marksmanship techniques.
It's cheap enough that shooting can be a spontaneous thing. Throw the Ruger or Marlin in the truck, and go out to the boonies, and plink away for hours without spending more then $30 bucks, gas included.
I would feel fairly confident using a .22lr in a defensive situation, even--But the bigger centerfires will ALWAYS get picked before the .22lr!
You also have to look at basic accuracy. How many times have we gone to the range, had the AR, Rem 700, and other CF target shooters look at our CZ, Savage, Marlin, Anschutz or whatever and laugh, and then we out shoot them with out really trying because we know how to shoot it, we shoot it a lot, and we know that within 50 yards, and a good rifle, there is not many CF's that can out shoot us. I purposely was "whining" about my 3/8 inch groups (50 yards) to the guy with the custom 700 308 who could not get better than 1" at the same distance. Then the custom black powder guys showed up and made us all look like crappy shooters.
It happens a lot, us rimfire guys love to do it.
It happens a lot, us rimfire guys love to do it.
mr.trooper
Member
The .22 rim fire is the cartridge of the real world.
Deus Machina
Member
I do prefermy centerfires, but from a purely un-economic standpoint.
Overall, best cartridge ever made. Cheap, some can be pinpoint accurate, and it can humanely take any animal of a size that will feed a single person.
It can take deer, but I would hardly trust it too, from the shooter's standpoint.
But from pure economy and usefulness, I consider its inventor as Prometheus, having stolen fire from the gods.
Overall, best cartridge ever made. Cheap, some can be pinpoint accurate, and it can humanely take any animal of a size that will feed a single person.
It can take deer, but I would hardly trust it too, from the shooter's standpoint.
But from pure economy and usefulness, I consider its inventor as Prometheus, having stolen fire from the gods.
This is sooo ironic...
I wrote a somewhat similar post more than a year ago asking advice about the usefulness of getting a 22 LR plinker.
I had experience with 22's when I was very young using the ones in my father's gun collection, then he died and for various reasons I didn't touch any of these guns since I was 15 (the collection is still with my mother in Italy).
Long story short, later I moved in the US and I started slowly to build my own gun collection here beginning with centerfire.
Until last year I was of the same opinion as the original poster.....why getting a 22?? They do not make a big bang, they do not kick your shoulder, they must be boring etc...
I thought the only real advantage was the fact that ammo was incredibly cheap...I asked myself, why spending $150-200 dollar for a 22 rifle when i can get all the Mosins I want for $79????
How wrong I was!!!
Then I started using a Ruger 10/22 of a friend of mine and things started changing fast..I was having so much fun and making myself a much better shooter....you can learn all the aspects of shooting, all the tricks about sighting, shooting positions, scope use, etc.. very inexpensively.
And nowdays there are 22 LR ammo that are very good at dispatching varmints up to coyotes (the Aguila Interceptor or the CCI Velocitor for example)
So I got myself a Remington 597 last month for Christmas (new at Joe's Sporting Goods for $139 included with a Simmons 3-9X 40 scope) and it always comes with me at the range since then....
50 rounds of Winchester or Remington high velocity 22 LR for 1.49 at Wally World....even less for Federal....you just cannot beat that...
I will not go as far as saying that if I was limited to only one rifle I would pick a 22......the 30-06 is always on my heart for that
Now I cannot wait to get a 22 LR pistol...
I think at least one rimfire should be in anyone's safe...yes I did changed my mind about the caliber and I'm not ashamed of it...I'm a 22 convert!!!
This is the baby..I think it looks very nice with the extended 30 rounder..... a rimfire assault rifle!!!
I wrote a somewhat similar post more than a year ago asking advice about the usefulness of getting a 22 LR plinker.
I had experience with 22's when I was very young using the ones in my father's gun collection, then he died and for various reasons I didn't touch any of these guns since I was 15 (the collection is still with my mother in Italy).
Long story short, later I moved in the US and I started slowly to build my own gun collection here beginning with centerfire.
Until last year I was of the same opinion as the original poster.....why getting a 22?? They do not make a big bang, they do not kick your shoulder, they must be boring etc...
I thought the only real advantage was the fact that ammo was incredibly cheap...I asked myself, why spending $150-200 dollar for a 22 rifle when i can get all the Mosins I want for $79????
How wrong I was!!!
Then I started using a Ruger 10/22 of a friend of mine and things started changing fast..I was having so much fun and making myself a much better shooter....you can learn all the aspects of shooting, all the tricks about sighting, shooting positions, scope use, etc.. very inexpensively.
And nowdays there are 22 LR ammo that are very good at dispatching varmints up to coyotes (the Aguila Interceptor or the CCI Velocitor for example)
So I got myself a Remington 597 last month for Christmas (new at Joe's Sporting Goods for $139 included with a Simmons 3-9X 40 scope) and it always comes with me at the range since then....
50 rounds of Winchester or Remington high velocity 22 LR for 1.49 at Wally World....even less for Federal....you just cannot beat that...
I will not go as far as saying that if I was limited to only one rifle I would pick a 22......the 30-06 is always on my heart for that
Now I cannot wait to get a 22 LR pistol...
I think at least one rimfire should be in anyone's safe...yes I did changed my mind about the caliber and I'm not ashamed of it...I'm a 22 convert!!!
This is the baby..I think it looks very nice with the extended 30 rounder..... a rimfire assault rifle!!!
Doc_Jude
Member
.22lr is one of the most useful rounds ever. Great for training, really great for small game hunting, and if I pull out my .22 pistol and shoot someone four or five times, they'll know it! Not lethal but a good deterrent.
br549arkie
Member
It's surprising how big a animal the lowly .22 will kill when it's put in the right place.When I was a kid I used to help my grandpa butcher hogs and cattle.A little .22 short in the right place and they'd drop like a headshot with a 30-06.
mr.trooper
Member
Doc_Jude said:
Thats a dangerous assumption to make, and it flies in the face of gelatin testing. If you take the BRASS FETCHER gelatin test, cut the penetration depths in HALF, an overlay it on a human torso, it looks like this:
4-5 shots to the torso with modern .22 ammo looks pretty darn deadly to me.
C-grunt
Member
A while back I was investigating a shooting where a guy took a .22 through the head. Entered the bridge of the nose right between his eyes, destroyed his sinuses and left eye, then exited his ear and took a groove out of his left shoulder (graze).
Now the trajectory of the round did not hit anything to vital but the guy nearly died from blood loss. Not to mention nearly drowning in all the blood pouring into his nasal cavity.
A .22lr is definitely a deadly round. Not my first choice by far, but will surely do more than piss someone off.
Now the trajectory of the round did not hit anything to vital but the guy nearly died from blood loss. Not to mention nearly drowning in all the blood pouring into his nasal cavity.
A .22lr is definitely a deadly round. Not my first choice by far, but will surely do more than piss someone off.
U.S.SFC_RET
Member
I feel like I am beating a dead horse. Self cleaning and accurate. Deadly and to the point. Very good round.
Hostile Amish
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Shooting 1,000 rounds of .22 will not hurt your wallet. 1,000 rounds of anything else will.
ok I have to chime in. Last week, 5 of us went to the range to zero some rifles. so take 5 guys and 3 to 4 guns a peace. we started out on the bigger stuff. 300 savage, 308 savage, 30-30, and several others. So of course we started with the bigger rounds. two hours later it turned in to a plinking contest, using you guessed it 22lr. the bigger guns were fun but the 22lr were a blast. Simple cheap and fun. isnt that what shooting is about? having some fun.
JFrame
Member
Gotta kibbitz in yet again, especially given Saturno V's experience above.
My first gun was a J-frame .38 snubbie. Fortunately, I had a good friend who was an experienced shooter, and he sold me his S&W 63 kit gun (he had a spare) next.
To this day, 27 years later, that 63 kit gun remains arguably my favorite gun. It is on the short list of guns I would choose from if I could only keep one. It is more accurate than I can shoot, inherently reliable, fits great in my hands with the custom grips, and think nothing of pouring hundreds of rounds through it at any given range session.
.22s are keepers!
My first gun was a J-frame .38 snubbie. Fortunately, I had a good friend who was an experienced shooter, and he sold me his S&W 63 kit gun (he had a spare) next.
To this day, 27 years later, that 63 kit gun remains arguably my favorite gun. It is on the short list of guns I would choose from if I could only keep one. It is more accurate than I can shoot, inherently reliable, fits great in my hands with the custom grips, and think nothing of pouring hundreds of rounds through it at any given range session.
.22s are keepers!
mr.trooper
Member
all of the previously mentioned reasons are wonderful...
But the reason i like .22LR is because it kills most things that need killing, without bringing other peoples noses into your business. you can shoot varmints or plink cans without the cops showing up.
But the reason i like .22LR is because it kills most things that need killing, without bringing other peoples noses into your business. you can shoot varmints or plink cans without the cops showing up.
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LTR shooter
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The best shooter at my range (besides myself
kidding) is avid 22lr rifle shooter. Consider the 22 is used at highest level of international competition - The Olympic Games - and only the best shooters in the World qualify. I was "seduced" with the desire for more power ending up with a 444 Marlin and .308 in rifles and the 44 mag in a handgun. These days I have come full circle and only have the one 44 mag handgun and own more 22lr firearms than anything else.
Carl Levitian
member
I started out with a.22 when I was a kid, and spent many thousands of rounds plinking in the woods. Then I grew up and went on to bigger guns.
I served in the army, was a police officer for a while. Now I'm an old retired guy on social security. I like to go to the range with my better half at least once a week, more often in warmer weather twice a week. For the past several years the only guns I shhot are .22's. I still have a .38 revolver for close defense in the house, but all my other guns are .22's. I sold off my center fire guns when I quit hunting over 20 years ago, and came to the reliazation that I'm not going to be storming any beach heads, defending my home against invading Chinese paratroopers, or 250 pound crack addicts that look like Conan the barbarian. What I am is a retired guy in his 60's, with a retired wife in her 60's, and we just love to shoot. The better half still has her K22 revolver her dad gave her for high school graduation, and I still have the old Ruger standard model I bought just out of high school for 39'95. We have a few .22 rifles, and they fill all our shooting needs. Niether of us have an interest in all the tactical stuff they fill the pages of gun magazines with. But if it came down to it, the .22 will put meat in the pot in a bad situation, or let us make things very unpleasent for an intuder.
I just may give the old model 60 to one of the kids, because I doubt Maryland is ever going to pass a CCW law. If I'm in the house, my Remington speedmaster or the better halfs K22 that is on her nightstand will do what needs to be done.
I love the .22, and for most of my life it's been my main caliber. For target, plinking, and the very off chance of a home invader, it will do. It's just gravy on the potatoes that on our fixed income social security, we can afford a box or two a week of the Federal 550 round bulk pack. Easy to shoot, easy on the arthritis, easy on the wallet, and gets the job done. Whats not to love?
I served in the army, was a police officer for a while. Now I'm an old retired guy on social security. I like to go to the range with my better half at least once a week, more often in warmer weather twice a week. For the past several years the only guns I shhot are .22's. I still have a .38 revolver for close defense in the house, but all my other guns are .22's. I sold off my center fire guns when I quit hunting over 20 years ago, and came to the reliazation that I'm not going to be storming any beach heads, defending my home against invading Chinese paratroopers, or 250 pound crack addicts that look like Conan the barbarian. What I am is a retired guy in his 60's, with a retired wife in her 60's, and we just love to shoot. The better half still has her K22 revolver her dad gave her for high school graduation, and I still have the old Ruger standard model I bought just out of high school for 39'95. We have a few .22 rifles, and they fill all our shooting needs. Niether of us have an interest in all the tactical stuff they fill the pages of gun magazines with. But if it came down to it, the .22 will put meat in the pot in a bad situation, or let us make things very unpleasent for an intuder.
I just may give the old model 60 to one of the kids, because I doubt Maryland is ever going to pass a CCW law. If I'm in the house, my Remington speedmaster or the better halfs K22 that is on her nightstand will do what needs to be done.
I love the .22, and for most of my life it's been my main caliber. For target, plinking, and the very off chance of a home invader, it will do. It's just gravy on the potatoes that on our fixed income social security, we can afford a box or two a week of the Federal 550 round bulk pack. Easy to shoot, easy on the arthritis, easy on the wallet, and gets the job done. Whats not to love?
helz_mcfugly
Member
Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow
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Maybe not the greatest caliber ever, but the .22 long rifle cartridge is the best thing since sliced bread - extremely deadly with precision hits.
.22 Mag is about the only thing better, really.
.22 Mag is about the only thing better, really.
gvnwst
Member
Well, as others have stated, you can take a=lmost anything on the planet, short of dangerous game, safely, if you can place the shot. I mean, it seems like the place that kills my brothers beef cows always uses a .22.....
It is the best cartridge ever, light, super accurate, super cheap, and it is EASY to have a reliable and cheap gun. My savage MKII shoots as well as my match grade AR at 50yd! And it cost 1/20th as much, minus scope.
MCgunner
Member
Has been said, and I believe it (lots of outlaws out there) that the .22 has felled more deer than any other caliber. From 50 yards in, a head shot will do the trick. You can carry LOTS of ammo on you, too. Great survival caliber. I think four well places rounds on a human will be quite deadly. I've seen big hogs drop dead instantly with a well placed shot to the top of the head, same for steers. When I was a kid, it was the utility rifle of choice for me and the grown ups. We broke out the centerfires for deer season, the shotguns during dove season. .22s took care of everything else. I started really appreciating shotguns when I got into waterfowl hunting, but that's another subject.
We broke out the centerfires for deer season, the shotguns during dove season. .22s took care of everything else. I started really appreciating shotguns when I got into waterfowl hunting, but that's another subject.gdcpony
Member
Here is what a .22 is great for:
On a side note:
Lets lay off the .22's killing people for this thread please. I know all too well they can. My mother made the assumption they couldn't and died for it. Shot herself in the abdomen thinking to get attention and hit an artery.
I always said if someone wants to kill themselves you should give them the gun and get it over with. I bought my parents that 10/22 five years earlier. My dad keeps it as a reminder.
Not you guys' fault to bring it up, but it's a sore subject here.
On a side note:
Lets lay off the .22's killing people for this thread please. I know all too well they can. My mother made the assumption they couldn't and died for it. Shot herself in the abdomen thinking to get attention and hit an artery.
I always said if someone wants to kill themselves you should give them the gun and get it over with. I bought my parents that 10/22 five years earlier. My dad keeps it as a reminder.
Not you guys' fault to bring it up, but it's a sore subject here.
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