22LR for self defense

.22

.22 for SD. Accuracy under pressure. Ability to take down a full grown man.
Remember the Reagan shooting in 1981? It was mentioned earlier. The gun involved was a .22. John Hinckley - a lousy shot, he missed Reagan with all six shots he fired. But three of those rapid fire shots did hit people. All three people were immediately and completely incapacitated - one bullet each.
Reagan - hit by a bullet that ricocheted off his limo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoZeZprXnDg


About that urban myth mentioned in one of the early posts - do .22s misfire?
I will not shoot Remington .22 SV in my pistols because of the high rate of failures to fire - good pin strikes, no bang.
Pete
 
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i regularly carry a naa mini with 60gr aguila sss. they are moving fairly slow coming out of that 1 1/8" barrel, but ive fired several boxes thru it and never had a misfire and its fairly accurate.
 
I'm curiuous how many of you have actually had a 22 rimfire cartridge, misfire? I keep hearing these stories, about how bad they are, but I have been shooting for over 40 years, and have never had one misfire, or had any friends tell me that they have had a misfire. I'm beginning to think this is more of an urban myth, than anyting else.

EarlFH
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You sure you have been shooting for 40+ years? I have been shooting only about 5 years and have had maybe 10-15 .22 rounds that failed to fire. Granted I shoot alot of rimfire but to say its an urban legend is absurd
 
It's not a powerhouse by any means, but I'm a firm believer that the presence of gun will stop most threats, the shots will stop most of the ones that the sight of the gun alone won't stop. Most likely, the guy you're shooting at won't be trying to deduce what kind of gun he's being shot at with, more likely he'll be trying to get out of the way.
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+1. . . Also

I'm curiuous how many of you have actually had a 22 rimfire cartridge, misfire? I keep hearing these stories, about how bad they are, but I have been shooting for over 40 years, and have never had one misfire, or had any friends tell me that they have had a misfire. I'm beginning to think this is more of an urban myth, than anyting else. I'm not interested in hearsay, but only actual hands on experience. I've had plenty of misfires shooting old military cartridges, but never a 22 rimfire.

EarlFH
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In boxes of 300 Winchester Wildcat, out of my P22, I probably have between 1 and 3 fail, on average. Granted, the P22 does not have the strongest hammer.

I don't remember ever having any of my bolt rifles every fail to fire a chambered round though.

And I have never had any problems with CCI Mini Mags out of any of my guns.
 
22 rimfire misfires

Earlier this year, I asked a Remington representative about the high rate of misfires my friend and I were having in our pistols (Taurus revolver, two Ruger SP101 revolvers, Walther 22 and two Ruger Mark II and a Ruger Mark III pistols). We sometimes had 10% failure rates.

He said that in 2009 they had some problems with their production lines, but that they had been resolved.

I have pictures of rimfire cartridges with as many as seven firing pin strikes (all around the rim) on rounds that still failed to fire.

With some Remington rimfire cartridges purchased this year, we are still getting higher failure rates than other manufacturers' products.

Remington centerfire ammunition has performed well for me, but their 22 long rifle products have been a disappointment.

Lost Sheep
 
Not my primary defense gun but I am confident that it would suffice in the aforementioned roles.
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Hmm. The .22 is sufficient for some defensive rolls, but not others? From what I've read (true accounts) attacks on those taking out the gargage can be just as violent and deadly as in the home or on the street.
 
A working 41 with two magazines is a formidable weapon.
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darkgael-Thanks for reminding us about the Pres. Regan shooting and how effective the 3 rounds were that hit people.
I had forgotten that.
Makes a pretty strong case.
 
"Earlier this year, I asked a Remington representative about the high rate of misfires my friend and I were having in our pistols..."


Which is the reason I simply won't use Remington ammunition in a defensive handgun, rimfire OR center fire.

I'm hard pressed to use Remington ammunition even for plinking.

Of all of the major "quality" manufacturers, in my experience and opinion, Remington is by far the worst.
 
.22lr has a small diameter and high velocity (1,100 ft/s) which gives it pretty decent penetration. On brassfetcher.com you'll find it will penetrate ballistics gel about 10-13 inches, more Than enough to kill. 22 has no problem penetrating the human skull, so if your confident in your shooting abilities go for it.

-In a stressful situation you will lose a good amount of your motor skills, but if you know how to shoot in high intensity situations training will take over and .22lr will do the job.

-i would not recommend this caliber to a inexperienced shooter.

(its about the shooter not the gun, one well placed bullet is all it takes.)
 
Mike Irwin

Of all of the major "quality" manufacturers, in my experience and opinion, Remington is by far the worst.
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I was so happy to get rid of that 550 box of Rem's (shooting, kind of), only to discover I had another one.:confused::mad::barf:
 
Another brand of 22lr?

you mean someone other than CCI manufacturers 22lr? I'm being facetious, I learned that when it comes to dependability CCI (Mini-Mags, Velocitors, Standard Velocity, etc) is highly dependable. True, it's a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for. Or put another way, the headaches you receive are inversely proportional to what you pay.;)
 
I don't know what to say since that target was Remington Eley! Well, that ammo works perfectly in my 41 and so does CCI Standard Velocity and Federal Gold Match. All three types work fine.
 
I have a box of high velocity 1600 fsp .22 lr that i'm very confident would easily penetrate in a self defense situation
 
you mean someone other than CCI manufacturers 22lr? I'm being facetious, I learned that when it comes to dependability CCI (Mini-Mags, Velocitors, Standard Velocity, etc) is highly dependable. True, it's a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for. Or put another way, the headaches you receive are inversely proportional to what you pay.
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i had 2 new boxes(same lot number) of cci .22mag that were just trash, some would not fire even after 3 primer strikes. i was even questioning my gun "because 2 boxes of bad cci cant happen right?".

i even wrote a email to them, the response was pretty much "tough crap", heck, even remington sent me a discount coupon for a new box of ammo when i complained of a 40% ftf rate in a box of thunder bolts.
 
My wife is just learning how to shoot, so for the time being, a .22LR is the best I can do for her at this time. Perhaps once she gets a little more confidence, we can move up the food chain a little bit, but better than nothing at all
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That's exactly what my wife did. She shot and carried a Bersa Firestorm 22 for years. When SHE was ready, she moved up to a Glock 19.
 
.22lr has a small diameter and high velocity (1,100 ft/s) which gives it pretty decent penetration. On brassfetcher.com you'll find it will penetrate ballistics gel about 10-13 inches, more Than enough to kill. 22 has no problem penetrating the human skull, so if your confident in your shooting abilities go for it.
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Yeah, but Brassfetcher's results were from a rifle (Ruger 10/22 w/18.5 inch barrel). The velocity tails off pretty severely when shot from short barrels commonly used for .22lr handguns, especially the pocket ones.
 
Don't rely on a .22 for SD, but keep various BUG's throughout the home for emergency. One of these BUG's is a nice Ruger Target 22 auto. Wife knows that with this small caliber weapon, penetration is minimal and you must immediately unload the entire magazine of CCI 40-gr. Velociters (into the upper chest) for any chance of survival.

Anyone know of a better penetrating load than Velociters in 22 Long Rifle?
 
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