Does the military use .22LR at all?

I bet there are a few military trainers still in service somewhere. My M44 Mossberg was marked to the Naval Weapons Support Center in Crane Indiana. One of about 3500 in inventory that were renumbered and parked in the 1970s. I think I hae a .22 headspace guage somewhere around here still in the military contractor packaging too.

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My Guard unit (CT) had some .22 conversion kits in the armory for the M-16s. We used them once. There is also a yearly rifle match at the Coast Guard Academy that CT NG guys go to. The match uses service rifles with the .22 conversions.

Way back when, I shot .22 bolt action rifles while on my high school rifle team, we used rifles belonging to the NG unit in the Ansonia armory. They also had a range in the basement.

Every armory I was assigned to had a range inside (Waterbury, Naugatuck, New Haven, and the above mentioned Ansonia armories- the Danbury one had one also though I wasn't assigned to that one). Most of them were decomissioned when I joined, but obvious there was a need for a range capable of handling .22 cal shooting at one time.

I know 1st Mar Div had a rimfire rifle team back in the 70s. They used Marine Corps rifles.
 
I have 1 ".30 caliber" ammo can marked
500 cartridges
caliber .22 long rifle
tracer M861 cartons
lot no.

so there was tracer ammo used also, the can is undated but looks fairly recent
 
wow, this was one of my first posts ever! Thanks for the input though ken22250.

Since joining the the military I have not used or seen a single round of .22lr during training btw.
 
I enlisted in 2005. Did two years active duty and then went the Guard/college. and am at ten years of service and some change.

With the exception of the ROTC rifle team, I have not used a single .22 LR firearm in any official capacity while in the Army. I've been in either Cav or Infantry units the whole time. We used Eley Match ammo in college.

I've seen a bunch of military trainers in .22 LR, mainly European arms. It doesn't make much sense to use a .22 LR conversion for a weapon that's already shooting 5.56mm, indoor range use aside.

In the Infantry Museum at Ft. Benning, there is a integrally suppressed Hi-Standard pistol in one of the exhibits concerning Vietnam, I've read that SOG and LRRP teams used them often.
 
Buddy of mine in the Rangers during the 1980's said he was trained with Colt Woodsman pistols, for sentries, guard dogs, quiet work.
 
It doesn't make much sense to use a .22 LR conversion for a weapon that's already shooting 5.56mm
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1/4 or less the price...
The military and federal LE agencies in general do not use rimfire. They prefer to practice with "duty" ammunition identical to what is used in the field. Not their money, so an easy decision. Of course, we occasionally get a post here about a military unit burning through excess ammunition as fast as possible at the end of the fiscal year so they get the same allotment the next year. No reason to worry about practice cost if you are doing full auto mag dumps until the barrel melts just to use up your allotment.
 
I am former Navy and the weapons familiarization when I was in was a 1911 converted to .22LR. .22LR was also common for target shooting in the NROTC units I observed (as in unit purchased and funded, not individual weapons).

The Navy is often slow to adopt small arms trends though.
 
The Navy is often slow to adopt small arms trends though.
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Like the Air Force, the Navy doesn't rely as much on the use of small arms like the Army and Marines do.

I went to high school in south Florida and, at the time, we had an NRA sanctioned rifle team that competed with other area highs schools. (Imagine that now! We actually practiced on school grounds.) Our practice ammo was military surplus Peters that was distributed through the DCM.
 
Good three year jump, but still worth talking about.
I never saw .22 LR used while I spent four years in the military.

What I can contribute to this is that a good 40 grain round in something like
a well set up 10/22 is very deadly.

I know that we all want something that can be nasty like a 5.56 or above but
the 22LR is awesome under 100 yards.
I shot a lot of 5.56 while in the service and nobody offered me a rimfire to shoot.
The M79 that I loved was another great weapon but nobody had rimfire that
I knew of.
 
When I was in Cuba, the Marine Barracks had .22 High Standard pistols for the shooting team (And M-1's). There was a lot of white box .38 ammo in the bunkers, but I don't know who made it. All kinds of weird stuff popped up through special services. I had old square back browning shotguns guys took deer hunting on weekends down there.
 
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