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Thread: .22 for Self Defense?

  1. #41
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    Yes, I know the .22 can be lethal - many years ago my next-door neighbor killed his wife and then committed suicide with one. But my nickel's worth is that I'd want to be carrying a cartridge at least as big as the goblins are likely to be using. If Jawon the Carjacker is holding a 9mm, I'd want to disable him, not just annoy him. My first line of defense however is that my retirement BOL is far enough from the urban jungles that I'll probably never have to carry. That said, the bedside gun is a $400 Beretta 92. A bit big for carry, but if things get that bad out here, I won't be concealing it. I've shot SIL's 1911, and loved it. If I could afford a good one, I'd have one.
    Last edited by uscra112; 10-15-2021 at 03:13 PM.
    Cognitive Dissident

  2. #42
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    For close up & personal use you cannot beat a .22. If you are trying to shoot someone across the street, mabe not so wise. I never have and hope to never have to use a gun for personal defense.

    But as said..........ANY gun is better than no gun at all.

  3. #43
    Boolit Master Murphy's Avatar
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    Back about 1985, I was a rookie cop working nights. We got a call to a shooting at a local Git-N-Go joint. Long story short, the gun was a Ruger Single Six, unsure what ammunition was used. The distance the shooting took place was approximately 20 feet. The bullet hit the cheek bone and ricocheted off, never was recovered. The victim was taken by one of the police the units. He was walking on his own and recovered with no ill effects. Hummm, I'm no expert but I decided right then and there, a .22 LR is not your best bet as a defense handgun. Sure, it beats nothing. If one has options? Go UP in both caliber and power.

    Murphy
    If I should depart this life while defending those who cannot defend themselves, then I have died the most honorable of deaths. Marc R. Murphy '2006'.

  4. #44
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    two MAJOR problems.

    They changed the priming compound to a spray on thing that doesnt work correctly, sure they can get the right amount, but the right amount is sprayed over 80% of the interior surface of the cartridge, instead of being 90-100% INSIDE the rim like th eold method did.

    And for some reason ammo companies dont mind major defects in rim fire ammunition. ammo needing 3 even 5 hammer hits to set off is FINE in their opinion.

  5. #45
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    It is too bad no one ever came up with a low recoiling centerfire in .30 caliber that would work in a small autoloader. More killing effectiveness than a .22, more reliable than a RF, and half the recoil of 9mm manly guns.
    Don Verna


  6. #46
    Boolit Master
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    The .32acp kinda fills that role.

  7. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by charlie b View Post
    The .32acp kinda fills that role.
    Note...use of purple font...LOL.
    Don Verna


  8. #48
    Boolit Grand Master GhostHawk's Avatar
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    Have to admit my little Italian .32acp is my primary choice these days.
    Low recoil, low muzzle blast, light weight.

    While it does weigh and bulk more than either of my bond arms revolvers in .22mag.

    It has the advantage of 12 shots vs 5 and a quick reload.

    Ya got to love the .32's, purple text or not.
    I truly believe we need to get back to basics.

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  9. #49
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    I worked as a criminal investigator for years. Investigated a fair number of shootings. Suicides, homicides, robberies, etc. A number of them involved .22s. Sometimes .22s worked (eventually). Sometimes they didn't. Lots of anecdotal stories out there. Very few of those stories are based in facts instead of tall tales.

    Part of my job as a criminal investigator was attending autopsies, and I participated them pretty regularly. Very, very rarely was a .22 actually lethal by itself. One in particular I recall the victim was ambushed, shot in the face/neck area with a .22 rifle, with the bullet lodging against his spine. It actually did not do any substantial damage. He fought with his ambusher, but ended up being stabbed repeatedly and died from internal bleeding. His lungs filled with blood. Getting shot at point blank with a .22 rifle did not really slow the guy down. He ended up walking blocks down the street before he collapsed at another address.

    With the exception of CNS shots, where the bullet actually reaches something vital to the CNS system, .22 rimfire wounds are rarely fatal.

    Would I use a .22 to defend myself? Absolutely, if that is all that was all that was available. Do I think it is a good choice as a primary weapon? No.

    Too many people rely on "Hope" as their strategy. Hopefully the bad guys will be scared by the mere sight of a gun. Hopefully they will be incompetent. Hopefully I don't have to shoot this underpowered gun. etc, etc.

    To each their own.

  10. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mackay Sagebrush View Post
    I worked as a criminal investigator for years. Investigated a fair number of shootings. Suicides, homicides, robberies, etc. A number of them involved .22s. Sometimes .22s worked (eventually). Sometimes they didn't. Lots of anecdotal stories out there. Very few of those stories are based in facts instead of tall tales.

    Part of my job as a criminal investigator was attending autopsies, and I participated them pretty regularly. Very, very rarely was a .22 actually lethal by itself. One in particular I recall the victim was ambushed, shot in the face/neck area with a .22 rifle, with the bullet lodging against his spine. It actually did not do any substantial damage. He fought with his ambusher, but ended up being stabbed repeatedly and died from internal bleeding. His lungs filled with blood. Getting shot at point blank with a .22 rifle did not really slow the guy down. He ended up walking blocks down the street before he collapsed at another address.

    With the exception of CNS shots, where the bullet actually reaches something vital to the CNS system, .22 rimfire wounds are rarely fatal.

    Would I use a .22 to defend myself? Absolutely, if that is all that was all that was available. Do I think it is a good choice as a primary weapon? No.

    Too many people rely on "Hope" as their strategy. Hopefully the bad guys will be scared by the mere sight of a gun. Hopefully they will be incompetent. Hopefully I don't have to shoot this underpowered gun. etc, etc.

    To each their own.
    Thank you for sharing your observations and conclusions based on experience.
    Don Verna


  11. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mackay Sagebrush View Post
    I worked as a criminal investigator for years. Investigated a fair number of shootings. Suicides, homicides, robberies, etc. A number of them involved .22s. Sometimes .22s worked (eventually). Sometimes they didn't. Lots of anecdotal stories out there. Very few of those stories are based in facts instead of tall tales.

    Part of my job as a criminal investigator was attending autopsies, and I participated them pretty regularly. Very, very rarely was a .22 actually lethal by itself. One in particular I recall the victim was ambushed, shot in the face/neck area with a .22 rifle, with the bullet lodging against his spine. It actually did not do any substantial damage. He fought with his ambusher, but ended up being stabbed repeatedly and died from internal bleeding. His lungs filled with blood. Getting shot at point blank with a .22 rifle did not really slow the guy down. He ended up walking blocks down the street before he collapsed at another address.

    With the exception of CNS shots, where the bullet actually reaches something vital to the CNS system, .22 rimfire wounds are rarely fatal.

    Would I use a .22 to defend myself? Absolutely, if that is all that was all that was available. Do I think it is a good choice as a primary weapon? No.

    Too many people rely on "Hope" as their strategy. Hopefully the bad guys will be scared by the mere sight of a gun. Hopefully they will be incompetent. Hopefully I don't have to shoot this underpowered gun. etc, etc.

    To each their own.
    Hopefully i have to much ammo on me, hence the overloaded radio flyer i pull behind every day

    Hopefully there isnt much blood spray, i just got these shoes you know

    Hopefully there isnt to much over penetration. 40 inches in ballistics gel seems about right for a meth head right/.

  12. #52
    Boolit Grand Master FergusonTO35's Avatar
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    Biggest problem I see with using a .22 handgun for self defense is that most .22 ammo is not optimized for short barrels. Some .22 LR loads are about like CB caps when fired from a short barrel. For example, one brick of Remington Thunderjams that happened to be very accurate and sure functioning in my rifles totally stumbled out of the gate in my Ruger Wrangler. You could actually see the bullets in flight like a pellet gun. I chronograph my .22's and so far the Aguila Interceptor 40 grain is the best I have found. It clocks a very consistent 1000 fps out of my little Ruger LCP II and so far has been centerfire reliable and as accurate as anything else. Winchester Power Point and CCI Mini Mag 40 grain work well too, although not as fast.
    Currently casting and loading: .32 Auto, .380 Auto, .38 Special, 9X19, .357 Magnum, .257 Roberts, 6.5 Creedmoor, .30 WCF, .308 WCF, .45-70.

  13. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by Texas by God View Post
    Call me crazy( and many folks do)- but I'd rather have my Nylon 66 loaded with CCI MiniMag hollow points in my hands than any handgun if bullets are flying in anger.

    Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
    Hard to argue with that!

  14. #54
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    Here's an interesting tale that I've told before, but members come and go and maybe you haven't heard it. Back in my misguided youth I was a LEO stationed in Santa Cruz, County, CA. The Coast Range Mountains separate that county and Santa Clara County where San Jose is located. One evening I had occasion to visit Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, although I can no longer remember precisely why. Probably following up on a traffic accident.

    In the ER was a Hispanic male lying on a gurney. Clipped to the side of the gurney was an x-ray showing the individual's skull. He had an observable .22 sized hole between his eyes, and the x-ray showed a path of travel through his brain front to back. Near the back of the skull the slug had split into two parts, one continuing on and lodging against the inner rear of the skull, and the other part diverging downward and stopping near the base of the skull. Being metal, the fragments showed up very brightly in the picture. The victim was shaking uncontrollably, and no one had any doubt that he would eventually expire.

    So how did this happen? Turned out that he was involved in the San Jose drug trade. Some fellow Hispanics believed that he had ripped them off when he was provided some merchandise to sell, but never returned with the money. So they kidnapped him and drove up into the mountains onto Old San Jose Rd. which runs along the crest of the mountains, and had him get out of the car. Then one of them shot him right between the eyes at close range with a .22 handgun. The victim fell over backward and tumbled down about a 35 ft. embankment. The perpetrators drove away, believing him to be dead or dying.

    After awhile the victim climbed back up the embankment where he was picked up by a passing motorist and taken to Dominican Hospital. The Sheriff's Dept. investigators interviewed the victim in the ER and he told them exactly who had shot him, named names, and even provided some address information. Not too long afterward the victim did, in fact die.

    The Sheriff's Dept. went over to San Jose and rounded up the perpetrators, and they were convicted of murder based on the victim's dying declaration.

    So...is there a moral to the story? It might be, in keeping with this thread's subject material, that a .22 can be effective...eventually.

    DG

  15. #55
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    Any gun is better than no gun.
    Correct. If a .22 was all that I had, I would make do. However, I do take great pains in making sure that a .22 won't be all that I have for self defense.

  16. #56
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    my little Italian .32acp is my primary choice...It has the advantage of 12 shots vs 5 and a quick reload.
    If you are counting on 12 shots and a quick reload, then you might want a bigger gun that needs only one or two shots and no reloads.

  17. #57
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    There was a time, of course, when being gutshot with a .22 meant a long and painful death due to peritonitis.
    Cognitive Dissident

  18. #58
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    I have a .22LR at the front door for dealing with the aggressive chipmunks and squirrels that I must face. But if something even scarier were to come onto the property, I have other guns not 20 ft away. I must be weird to think that way.

    I had to drive to the big city yesterday for a pre-OP appointment. I don't know what I was thinking, but left the Ruger .22 pistol at home. Strapped on the compact 9mm and slipped a spare magazine in the front pocket. Was a waste of time anyway...no chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes or bad guys confronted me.
    Don Verna


  19. #59
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    What the bad guy doesn't understand is a 22lr will get you a trip to the hospital. On the other hand, he can take 25 rnds from 3 LE's before he's DOWN.
    Whatever!

  20. #60
    Boolit Master rondog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pettypace View Post
    If you're gonna carry a .22 for self defense, should it be loaded with HP's or solids?

    Assuming equal reliability, I'd go with solids. If the HP's expand, I'd bet they under-penetrate. The solids should go well beyond 12" with a "tumble" in the middle.
    My opinion as well. Hollowpoints are for varmints, small game, and plinking at water-filled soda cans. For social use, I want those little bullets to boogie as far as they can.

    That said, my spook chasers are an M1 carbine and a 10mm M1911A1.

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