why is 22lr so stinkin popular?

[WestKentucky]

I understand NOW why its a big deal but what I don't understand is how it got to be so popular. It is underpowered for many purposes, and really doesn't surpass the 22 short for potmeat which is its primary use. Back in the old days somebody did something right to make the 22 lr shine very brightly for it to have basically eclipsed the other small game/target practice cartridges. 22 short should be cheaper to produce by using less material per shell, 22 magnum is quite enough up to coyote sized critter and would cost only slightly more to manufacture, so why did the 22lr get so big that it is sold quite often in 300+ round packages rather than the standard packaging of 50 pistol shells, or 20 rifle shells. Why is it the king of the smallbore?

 

[rcmodel]

Because it is the culmination of RF cartridge development starting with the First .22 Rimfire Short invented by S&W in 1857.

The short won't decisively kill bigger small game like jack-rabbits, fox, and coyotes.
The .22 WRM is too destructive for edible small game like Cotten-tails & squirrels.

But more importantly I think, is gun designers of the late 1800's focused on it and designed guns around it the likes of which we well never see designed again.

Such as Brownings line of .22 pumps and classic .22 Auto.

Sheer design genius of the time and in production longer then about any other firearm you can name.

Other manufactures picked up on as fast as they could get something in production.

The rest is history.

rc

 

[WestKentucky]

I wondered if Brownings awesome 22 auto rifle was a key player in the rapid growth of the round. I just wish more guns were made bottom-eject as brass is easy to locate...which can be a pain in centerfire rounds.

I guess this also coincides with the western movement of the nation and the weight/size of other rounds would be a burden in the wagons and packs on the horses and oxen. It also would be one of the only self contained cartridges which could be made relativle waterproof by storing it in a jar or a tallowed sack. So weapon size was right, ammo size was right, timing was right...it was a grand slam in a game full of base hits and foul balls. Too bad the nice pumps and autos would have been too expensive for westward settlers who likely carried things like a high-wall rifle for game and a big-bore strictly for defense against bears and native peoples.

 

[rcmodel]

Most of the western bound settlers carried a black powder percussion shotgun or a military rifle they absconded with before or after the civil war.

If they carried anything

Certainly no High-wall Winchesters that weren't invented until after the westward movement was long over.

The .22 LR didn't come into use until long after the west was settled.

The first railroad and telegraph lines were coast to coast, and the Indian wars were over well before the first Browning .22 LR pump was invented.

No, the .22 LR came into what it is now in the late 1800, early 1900's.

Too late to look up all the accurate dates of western movement.
But packing .22's in mason jars wasn't part of the plan!

rc

 

[BCRider]

Then, as now, rimfire was cheap. So boy's got rimfire rifles for birthdays and Christmas so they could buy the cheap ammo to shoot.

I doubt you can lay this popularity at any one rifle. After all, look at all the boys rifles that came out back then which were cheap single shots or repeaters. The market was flooded with the things. And we're talking back in the late 1890's and on through into the 1920's.

So all in all by the time Browning introduced the semi auto .22 in 1914 there was already a massive popular .22 base of rifles out there. On top of this if the story in Wikipedia can be believed it looks like the Browning SA-22 was not even imported into the US until the mid 50's. If that's the case then it sure didn't form a big brick in the wall of rimfire growth.

 

[Deus Machina]

It's probably a combination of things.
It's the most powerful of the too-cheap-to-be-worth-reloading rounds. Meaning that when everything else went centerfire, it was still work keeping.
If it wasn't that you could make a gun in .22LR with almost no change in size or materials as you could a .22 Short or Long, one of those would have stayed more popular.

 

[bhk]

The .22 long rifle also became the darling of the target shooting world in and around the 1920s. Some very sophisticated target rifles (Winchester 52, Stevens 44 1/2, Winchester High Walls, Springfield 1922, Martini, etc.) proved themselves to be remarkably accurate at 50 and 100 yards, something the .22 short and long could not achieve. Matches at Camp Perry even included .22 matches at 200 yards during that period.

The long rifle cartridge remains the top cartridge used on the world of competitive target shooting (collegiate, regional, national, international, and olympic levels).

 

[aarondhgraham]

Why?,,,

Because it's cheap.

Aarond

.

 

[Rusty59]

^^^^
Beat me to it

 

[il.bill]

Because it's cheap.

Aarond

.

I think you might mean: "Because it was cheap".

 

[HankB]

The .22lr is cheap to manufacture, and cheap to buy. (Aside from the currently distorted market, which, IMHO, is NOT accurately addressed by the industry spokespeople who simply say "supply and demand.")

A few points in the OP -

It is underpowered for many purposes,

Many cartridges are - so what? You match the cartridge to the game.

. . . really doesn't surpass the 22 short for potmeat which is its primary use.

Nope - its heavier bullet at higher velocity is significantly more powerful than the short, and the primary use is probably paper punching, where it will normally be more accurate, and at longer range.

22 magnum is quite enough up to coyote sized critter and would cost only slightly more to manufacture

Nope - the jacketed bullet used in .22 magnums is enough to increase the cost significantly over the heeled lead bullet used in .22lr. And in some instances, the louder report of the .22 magnum is a disadvantage.

 

[g.willikers]

Judging from the price of competition grade .22lr ammo, there must be something else, other than price, to explain the popularity.
As a side note, Remington markets Ely ammo.
Prices vary from merely impressive to shocking.

 

[fallout mike]

Well you can go shoot all day for $25. No other explanation needed.

 

[BCRider]

Judging from the price of competition grade .22lr ammo, there must be something else, other than price at work, to explain the popularity.
As a side note, Remington markets Ely ammo.
Prices vary from merely impressive to shocking.

If match ammo were sold in center fire calibers you can bet that comparable quality loads done to the same levels of consistency and control would bankrupt all but the richest. Just read about what goes into making match grade ammo loads starting with selecting the brass and imagine trying to do that on a big production line for center fire.

 

[RussB]

The majority of people shoot to have fun. The 22lr is a fun cartridge

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Most kids learn to shoot with a .22. Some become experts.

 

[Zach S]

I think you might mean: "Because it was cheap".

Agreed. I was shooting for a few years before I had interest in .22lr, and it was purely the price point.

I used to order about 5000 rounds at a time from Cabelas. The dry box they sent with it was nowhere near as sturdy as a surplus ammo can. I cant recall the price, but I didnt have to hope for an overtime shift to get it.

 

[Shooter973]

22lr0

The wide spread sales and use of the Ruger 10/22 has to have some impact on 22 ammo sales. Everyone you see at the range or out rabbit huntting has a 10/22. I believe they may be the biggest sellers on the market. And being semi autos they really consume the ammo at a more rapid rate than a bolt action,lever action or pump does. Lots of Marlin semi~autos kicking around to.
Then there are ALL the 22 handguns that we never had before also. The market for 22 's just exploded in the last 20~3o years. And with populations growth thrown in, that seems to explain the 22 shortage, some what.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

Each 22LR round is dinner for up to four people. That tops the list in popularity for me. That's the criteria I use to measure how I set up my arms/caliber choices. Its all about the meat. I also have considered the meat I might have to "harvest" for other reasons such as self defense, etc. ...

Woody

 

[DeepSouth]

All things considered I like 22 short more than 22 lr. I would tend to think it'd be slightly cheaper to mass produce 22 shorts. I'd be perfectly fine if we could swap the availability of shorts vs lr.

Either way the battle was fought long ago and the 22 lr won, so it's to late now.

 

[Bullet Bob]

Because it's fun. To have one is to love it.

 

[Slamfire]

Based on my readings, we live in a time of plenty. Around the turn of the last century, we were a rural county and people were broke. One Uncle of mine, in the 1930's, he did not wear shoes in the summer, the family could not afford to be buying kids new shoes every year. He also said, they had no money, basically bartered for things. When he was not working in the fields, if he had a nickel, and a ride to town, as a kid, he would spend all day Saturday in the Movie theater watching Tom Mix movies.

So, given the poverty, lack of hard currency, even 22 LR rimfire rounds were expensive, but they were a lot cheaper than centerfire rounds. A 22Lr will knock dead small game very well, and people back then ate the small game they shot. They needed the protein. It would also kill a pig. Farmers did not eat as much meat as we do today because farm animals represented money, but if you had a pig to slaughter, instead of sell, a 22LR to the head would work.

At the time, because of the cost difference between 22 shorts, 22 longs, and 22 long rifles, you find the ads of the period advertising that the rim fire rifle shot all three types of ammunition. Hard to believe, but a couple pennies difference in the price of a box of ammunition, and people bought the shorts.


I don't know the age of the Stevens M11 Junior, but I think it would date from the 1900's up to 1920.















This is a low end kid's rifle, nothing fancy but you would be glad to have it, and the ammunition that went with it. Notice, simple operation, pull the hammer back and thumb the breech block down: no metal buttplate, no fancy sights, very simple construction, so it sold for very little. But little is a relative thing, and I am certain this rifle was all the owner could afford at the time.

Literally hundred's of thousands of these cheap rifles were in use because the rifle and the ammunition were the least cost item that would get the job done.

 

[Potatohead]

Cuz it's so cheap and plentiful!

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

They're like diapers...

we start out life in them and if granted enough time... end up back in 'em.

Really though, for me, it's where I started in shooting and as I grow older, I find renewed satisfaction in the simplicity and slightly lessened expectations of a .22LR.

Cheap? That's just nice. It's the 100-200 rounds dropped in a jacket pocket and a full morning or afternoon of shooting that really returns me to what I enjoyed in the first place.

Todd.

 

[LT.Diver]

It WAS dirt cheap, easy to find, easy to shoot, not too loud, no recoil, very accurate, powerful enough, chambered in a gazillion guns, and fun. What's not to like?