What's The Big Deal With .22LR?

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To each their own. With pre panic prices the .22s were one of my favorites, but I refuse to get raped paying $50+ for a box of ammo that was $10 1 year ago.
 
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The .22 LR is a man's cartridge, that's why children are started on it, because it requires not only accuracy to be effective, it requires that the shooter figure out how to get pretty close to the target.

I'm fine with people who don't like it.

What's the big deal with .22 LR? It's been the most popular, most produced, and most sold commercial round for many decades. It is a big deal.

John
 
The "big deal" with .22LR is that its always been a popular cartridge, then throw in all the new shooters out there and all the new .22 clones out there (.22 versions of the full sized ARs, AKs, and many others). You get higher demand, much higher demand than anyone expected. Simple supply and demand issue, but there is still some realistic pricing out there.
As for the cartridge itself, I own several .22 firearms that I enjoy shooting as does my son. Its still an inexpensive round compared to my other calibers, so that means more range time for the two of us which is invaluable to me. I'll be keeping my .22's and handing them down.
 
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I have a couple .22 rifles, and have shot .22 conversion kits on handguns before, but honestly I've never really seen the appeal/fun factor that most seem to.

I've only ever bought one box of 500 and most of it is still there.

It doesn't have recoil or ballistics similar to any centerfire round, so to me it has limited value as a practice tool.

The final nail in the coffin is that it is no longer cheap: basically .10 off the shelf around here; my 9mm jacketed loads run .14, and .223 run me .20, so with the cost advantage minimized I would have even less motivation to shoot it.

So rest assured I'm not one of the guys hoarding the .22lr.
 
Keep your damned 22 rimfire. I am loading lots of 38 and Hornet. I like both. One 50 round box of long rifle for the Bobcat inmy pocket and I am good to go. The good old 10 22 does not get much of a workout anymore though.
 
ny - so you don't see the advantage in having a round that costs 30%-50% less than your centerfire reloads, that you don't have to spend any time making, that gives you trigger time?

k.

Standard velocity .22LR fired at 100 yards from an accurate rifle has similar ballistics and challenges to shooting .308 at 600 yards, and the barrels just basically don't wear out. They save wear and tear on 'serious' rifles/pistols, have little to no recoil for those who are new/sensitive to recoil, and save you money. I wouldn't be without mine.
 
sixgunner455 said:
ny - so you don't see the advantage in having a round that costs 30%-50% less than your centerfire reloads, that you don't have to spend any time making, that gives you trigger time?

k.

Standard velocity .22LR fired at 100 yards from an accurate rifle has similar ballistics and challenges to shooting .308 at 600 yards, and the barrels just basically don't wear out. They save wear and tear on 'serious' rifles/pistols, have little to no recoil for those who are new/sensitive to recoil, and save you money. I wouldn't be without mine.
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I see what you're saying but imo a .22LR can't be compared to a .308. It has about 15 times the recoil, if not more, and seeing things at 100 yards is a lot easier than 600 yards. At 500 yards the .308 has more velocity then a .22LR at point blank range and 9 times the energy. After seeing those stats I'll just hit them with my car or use a bow.
 
I made four special trips to my local WM at 7AM when they stock their ammo just to see if I could buy any .22LR. The first trip... nothing. The second trip they had one box of 100 available. The following day they had none at all. The last trip they got in about 150 boxes of 50... limit three boxes each.

I did this just to satisfy my curiosity. And I'm done with it. When, and only when, I'm going to WM for other shopping then I'll be at the sports counter at 7AM to buy whatever I can. Otherwise, others can fiddle around and make special trips, waste their time and fuel money. Not me.:)
 
I like to keep it around as a fun plinking round. When my non-gun buddies come into town, we sometimes hit the range. It would be really expensive to feed three shooters shooting JUST centerfire. I have no problem covering some of the expense, but anything over $100 and I'm tapped out.

In short, we'll run through a few magazines with my AR, blast away some 9mm, maybe touch off some hot .357 and finish with a few magazines of .45apc through my 1911s.

Then it's black powder fed home-cast bullets and a brick of .22. 3 semi-auto rifles, a bolt action, a semi-pistol, and a junky revolver and we can shoot for the better part of a couple hours before we get bored/cold.
 
Fiv3r said:
I like to keep it around as a fun plinking round. When my non-gun buddies come into town, we sometimes hit the range. It would be really expensive to feed three shooters shooting JUST centerfire. I have no problem covering some of the expense, but anything over $100 and I'm tapped out.

In short, we'll run through a few magazines with my AR, blast away some 9mm, maybe touch off some hot .357 and finish with a few magazines of .45apc through my 1911s.

Then it's black powder fed home-cast bullets and a brick of .22. 3 semi-auto rifles, a bolt action, a semi-pistol, and a junky revolver and we can shoot for the better part of a couple hours before we get bored/cold.
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You're a better friend then me lol. I would let them try out a couple of my decent guns at their expense and that's about it. Even then I would be hesitant because I've heard of more then a few cases of "whoops, I dropped it."
 
I'm not comparing the .308 to the .22LR! :D What a riot of a thread that would be.

A .308 has 15x or more the recoil > precisely. I shoot a .22 for practice that doesn't make me tired. A .308 kicking me 100 or more times in a day gets old. 100 rounds from a .22LR is a pleasant afternoon of focusing on marksmanship basics.

A .22 has a similar amount of drop at 100 yards to what the .308 does at longer ranges, and has a similar amount of susceptibility to the wind at 100 yards as the .308 does at longer ranges. Thus, it is good for practice for those who like to shoot larger calibers at longer ranges.

I'm not talking about energy or killing things with the .22 at 100 yards. I'm talking about target shooting, which is what most people do with most of their guns most of the time anyway. A .22LR gets you practice with sights and trigger pull - marksmanship basics - at a fraction of the cost of the larger calibers. That is the big deal, to me. I would not be near the marksman that I am without it.
 
TheGoldenSaber said:
For me, the big attraction to .22s before the crisis was they were really cheap to practice with. Now that they're not I'm thinking about just eliminating them all together. If there's ever a SHTF situation that would be about the last gun I would grab. What say you?
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The big attraction of 22lr, for me, is that it is just plain fun to shoot.
We take a lever action and a bolt action to the range and shoot for several hours at a time.
I love driving golf balls out until I can't hit them any more, clay pigeons are good fun too. We shoot things like match box cars, little green Army men, all sorts of weird stuff.
Ever go target shopping at Good Will? I do.

It annoys me when I can't find 22lr at the store.
I like to pack something to grill for lunch (our range is in a state park) and bring the whole family. When you have three people shooting for several hours you can go through plenty of bullets.
Before things got silly we went shooting at least twice a month, now that you can't find the ammo easily we hardly go shooting.
That was some good, wholesome family fun. I bet Phil would agree with me.


I don't "practice" with them, no value for SHTF, wouldn't try to barter with them...just simple fun at the range.
For the price of 22lr I truly don't have any other form of entertainment that comes close to a day plinking with my 22 rifles.


Squirrel hunting is a nice bonus.
 
Other than they're cheaper to shoot, there's a higher percentage of people who owns a rimfire vs centerfire. From a small child to a senior citizen will feel more comfortable shooting a rimfire cartridge.
 
ny - so you don't see the advantage in having a round that costs 30%-50% less than your centerfire reloads, that you don't have to spend any time making, that gives you trigger time?
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For my needs, which is USPSA, not really... there are a number of factors that go into this:

-The gun is different,from a little to a lot depending
-Can't reload with it as the mags are totally different
-Obviously the recoil is way different
-Still have to go to the range to shoot it.

If I want to practice a slow trigger press, I can do that at home in dryfire... In my case the limiting factor for live fire is time, and .10 vs .14 doesn't really matter to me given the live fire time constraints I have. When I make a range trip I would much rather shoot the real gun and ammo.
 
Yes what is the big deal about 22s everybody old enough to shoot was around in 2008 there's no good excuse that you couldn't have bought a case of ammo when it was cheap before Sandy Hook.
And NY32182
2 of your excuses are of your own creation.
Conversions are avaliable making the gun controls all the same.
And I don't know how many USPSA guys make this statement about their open guns
"It recoils like a 22 with my new comp"
 
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Which two would that be?

Though it doesn't matter to me, because unless there is a way to make the recoil and cycle timing the same as my match gun, I will still prefer to shoot my actual load when I am able to live fire anyway.
 
Yes what is the big deal about 22s everybody old enough to shoot was around in 2008 there's no good excuse that you couldn't have bought a case of ammo when it was cheap before Sandy Hook.
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I don't remember 22 being a problem in 2008. Maybe it was and I just didn't have any issues because I had a few bricks and nothing that shot 25 rounds in 15 seconds. I know there were a lot of calibers that were short but it seems like 9mm and 22 were okay. Of course age has faded my memories some.
 
If you like .22s that's fine, but you don't have to force it on people. I've never shot a centerfire gun, especially pistol, that felt like a .22LR. I agree that it's better to practice with what you're going to use. At some point it's like riding a bike. I've been shooting for many years so I don't need to learn fundamentals. If you handed me any gun right now I would feel confident that I could hold my own against anybody.

I pretty much went the other direction actually. I learned the fundamentals with a 9mm and I'm glad I did. It's like going into a cold pool; you can splash with your feet or just jump in and do it. Bruce lee used to shadow box with weights so that when he fought with just his fists he was much faster and stronger. Shoot .44 Magnum for a while and then go back to 9mm or .40 and suddenly it's nothing.

I wish I would have bought up .22LR back then, but at the time it didn't seem like a big deal. What's done is done. I disagree with everyone saying the prices will go back down. When was the last time you've ever seen ammo go down? Or anything for that matter? Gas was $1.80 when Obama took office. As long as people are willing to pay that they have no reason to lower it.
 
When was the last time you've ever seen ammo go down?
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About the past 6 months. .223 was a dollar a round in March and now it's $.35. Virtually every ammo has gone down in price since earlier this year.

I expect .22LR to follow. Back to pre-stupid prices? Probably not but darned close.
 
If you like .22s that's fine, but you don't have to force it on people.
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? What are you talking about?

Nobody is forcing anything on anybody. We're having a discussion, that you started, about why people like them/use them/think highly of them, and why others don't think much of them. Feel free to disagree, and spend your money how you like!
 
About a month ago I went to WalMart at 7:00 AM for 10 days straight before they got in a supply of 22 rimfire. The had received 4-500 round bricks of Federal and 10-225 round Remington bulk packs. The good thing was that they didn't break down the Federals and I was able to get 3 full bricks at $24.80 each.

My local has only been getting it in about once every three weeks, give or take a day or two.
 
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