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Thread: Does practice with a 22 pistol improve your defensive shooting skill?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
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    shooting is shooting the more you do the better you get even using a cap and ball pistol is still shooting. it all comes down to sight alignment and trigger control. which is only learned by doing.

  2. #22
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    Practice shooting as you would in any situation. Any caliber will help you, remember, sight picture. Trigger pull and follow threw. If you are using a revolver practice shooting double action. Learn to shoot with either hand right barricade and left barricade. Learn to point and fire. The average shooter needs to find point of fire from draw, most if pointing at left shoulder will hit center mass.
    Pray you never have to use a weapon but if you do know how to use it well. You or your families life might depend upon it.

  3. #23
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    If I were going to practice defensive shooting with any gun,
    I would get a holster that allowed me not to fumble the gun.
    (watch the video)

    Also one I could place the gun into without having to holster it half way.
    Also not almost drop the gun. ( sloppy holster work )

    As for the subject matter? (been beat to death)

    Does it help ? it's subjective, I say leave it to the individual.
    Good for a new shooter for a little getting use to a handgun.
    Then get off it and practice with the gun of your choice.
    The one you will use to defend your life.

    I can't get passed the sloppy holster work.
    Hate is like drinking poison and hoping the other man dies.

    *Cohesiveness* *Leadership* *a common cause***

    ***In a gunfight your expected to be an active participant in your own rescue***

    The effective range of an excuse is ZERO Meters

  4. #24
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Nothing else to add really but to echo that quality trigger time helps. Same with dry firing and dry manipulation drills.

  5. #25
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    Tom W.'s Avatar
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    Yes, it helps. In a defensive situation you probably won't even hear the firearm going off, but with all that you must be aware of you may not even notice the recoil.

    You will notice the ringing in your ears after the situation is settled.
    Tom
    μολὼν λαβέ


    Did I ever mention that I hate to trim brass?

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom W. View Post
    Yes, it helps. In a defensive situation you probably won't even hear the firearm going off, but with all that you must be aware of you may not even notice the recoil.

    You will notice the ringing in your ears after the situation is settled.
    This was my experience, 10:30 P.M. with low artificial lighting in a strip mall rear alley. I did see my muzzle flashes when I returned fire after being hit. 2 hits out of five fired, 26 feet apart.
    I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.

  7. #27
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    While it doesn't hurt, 38 specials for a caster are still cheaper than 22.
    [The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze

  8. #28
    Boolit Master bigboredad's Avatar
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    I don't see how it could hurt. I think I would certainly help with multiple targets having to transition find the sights and a proper trigger pull in my opinion is best practiced with live ammo especially if practicing with a auto. As many others have stated trigger time is very important proper trigger time. Having to rack a slide for every trigger pull makes it hard to practice multiple targets. Of course just like the post above this is mph ymmv

    Sent from my SM-T377V using Tapatalk

  9. #29
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    I spent my youth shooting a Crosman 1377 pellet pistol. Many thousands of rounds. Switching to a centerfire pistol was pretty easy after that. If you are confident that you can put rounds on target you then can concentrate on the situation at hand.

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by MT Gianni View Post
    While it doesn't hurt, 38 specials for a caster are still cheaper than 22.
    IDK about that. A few years ago yes, but 22's are back to 5 cents or less a pop. Primer and powder is 5 cents per.

  11. #31
    Boolit Grand Master tazman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by str8wal View Post
    IDK about that. A few years ago yes, but 22's are back to 5 cents or less a pop. Primer and powder is 5 cents per.
    True. In addition you have the cost of the lead involved unless you get it free. The time it takes to cast, lube, and assemble ammo is not negligible.
    I will grant that a 22lr is not the same as a 38 special or 9mm if nothing else due to the bang and recoil involved. Time with the larger cartridge would be valuable as well. You need to be familiar with the gun you will use.

  12. #32
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    Lead at $1 lb, 125 gr bullets =18 lbs per 1000. $18. Red Dot powder 8 lbs for $145=$18 lb. 3 gr load= 100 rds =$6. Primers 5k for $120 inc shipping = $24 per K. total is $48 per 1000 rds shot. Yes you have time, lube and tooling. You also have a product with recoil, noise and a lot more uses than 22 lr. You can also drop to a 105 gr lee and cut lead costs down, round balls and surplus powder. if you scrounge lead your costs can be next to nothing.
    [The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze

  13. #33
    Boolit Grand Master tazman's Avatar
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    Lead at $1.25 + shipping. 2.2 cents per.
    Bullseye Powder $148 + shipping or $170 + tax at the LGS. 1.2 cent per.
    Primers $155 per 5k. 3.1 cents per.
    Assume your brass is free. Assume your time and effort is worthless. Assume your Lube is made from stuff you didn't buy but had lying around.
    6.4 cents per shot. $64 dollars per thousand shots.
    Prices current at Midway except for the lead.

    I don't know where you buy your supplies, but it doesn't reflect the costs that I have to pay. Plus I didn't add in the shipping costs or tax in my calculations so the actual costs would be higher.
    Last edited by tazman; 05-27-2018 at 01:12 PM.

  14. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by MT Gianni View Post
    Lead at $1 lb, 125 gr bullets =18 lbs per 1000. $18. Red Dot powder 8 lbs for $145=$18 lb. 3 gr load= 100 rds =$6. Primers 5k for $120 inc shipping = $24 per K. total is $48 per 1000 rds shot.
    Don't know where you do your shopping, but I can't come close to that pricing around here. Good for you tho.

    Just saw a 222 count box of 22's for $9.22, that's about 4 cents a pop. Splitting hairs unless you take your time into consideration, then 22's are waay cheaper.
    Last edited by str8wal; 05-27-2018 at 12:23 PM.

  15. #35
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    A little different spin on it:

    At the height of my Highpower Rifle competition, my training and .308 ammo use pretty much followed this schedule:

    1. I was shooting military surplus pull-down FMJ's for the 200 and 300 yard stages where they were accurate enough, and saving the Sierra Matchkings for 600 yard slow fire. I was shooting on average one match every other weekend.

    2. 2-3 weeknights per week, I was shooting the equivalent of a full match, running the course dry-fire with dummy rounds.

    3. On weekends alternate to the actual matches, I was practicing with an equivalent stock/sights .22 and mid-grade target ammo (good enough for feedback, if not the Olympics) on alternate weekends.

    Considering that my rifle shooting had at that point effectively become a part time job, the .22 took TIME away from the loading bench and let me spend it actually shooting with "disposable" brass. In that light, it doubled my range time. Considering that sight picture is sight picture, trigger control is trigger control, and that recoil almost doesn't even register in your brain when you're that trained up and focused on the shot, I would say that YES, time on a .22 will unquestionably improve your skills. The trick is to train your brain to treat each shot as if it's a dry-fire with no recoil - even if it happens to be a live .416 Rigby. .22 helps with that kind of re-wiring.

    Key to this is that you still have to occasionally shoot the big gun so that it isn't totally alien when the need for it comes, but a 25/75 split between it and the .22 is not unreasonable. At least where factory ammo is involved, the .22 pays for itself pretty quick at that rate.
    WWJMBD?

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  16. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigslug View Post
    A little different spin on it:

    At the height of my Highpower Rifle competition, my training and .308 ammo use pretty much followed this schedule:

    1. I was shooting military surplus pull-down FMJ's for the 200 and 300 yard stages where they were accurate enough, and saving the Sierra Matchkings for 600 yard slow fire. I was shooting on average one match every other weekend.

    2. 2-3 weeknights per week, I was shooting the equivalent of a full match, running the course dry-fire with dummy rounds.

    3. On weekends alternate to the actual matches, I was practicing with an equivalent stock/sights .22 and mid-grade target ammo (good enough for feedback, if not the Olympics) on alternate weekends.

    Considering that my rifle shooting had at that point effectively become a part time job, the .22 took TIME away from the loading bench and let me spend it actually shooting with "disposable" brass. In that light, it doubled my range time. Considering that sight picture is sight picture, trigger control is trigger control, and that recoil almost doesn't even register in your brain when you're that trained up and focused on the shot, I would say that YES, time on a .22 will unquestionably improve your skills. The trick is to train your brain to treat each shot as if it's a dry-fire with no recoil - even if it happens to be a live .416 Rigby. .22 helps with that kind of re-wiring.

    Key to this is that you still have to occasionally shoot the big gun so that it isn't totally alien when the need for it comes, but a 25/75 split between it and the .22 is not unreasonable. At least where factory ammo is involved, the .22 pays for itself pretty quick at that rate.
    Amen!

  17. #37
    Boolit Master Rodfac's Avatar
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    Practice doesn't make perfect....perfect practice does.
    Truer words were never spoken! A .22 will teach you: proper grip and maintenance of same shot to shot, trigger control (the supprise "break"), sight alignment (level on top, and an equal amount of white light on each side), sight picture (aligned sights centered on the target...AND...accepting the wobble area that your physique and grip will settle on.

    Recovery from recoil and re-establishing the above with a heavier caliber will come with practice.

    We've all seen the gun range morons who can empty a magazine (or more rarely, a cylinder) in a couple of seconds from 3 yards and act like they're some sort of "pistolero" of note by keeping just a few of the resulting mess in a hand's size group...aside from making noise, they accomplish nothing but do establish their minimal credentials.

    Rod

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