NAA 22 Short ballistics?

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I have a 22 short NAA mini revolver. I bought it more as a novelty but I admit that at the gym I do carry it (I can't hide anything bigger that I own).

Any way today I have been thinking if its really any good or if it would just make someone mad. I decided to shoot it over a chronograph. I am averaging about 730 FPS (give or take) with a 29 grain .22 caliber round nose HV bullet. So if I was to shoot something with it what would it do? Would it break the skin? Would be be potentially lethal? I know its probably the weakest round you can commonly buy.

Im talking for near point blank range.
 
So I was looking online and could not find any ballistic gel tests. I did read that Robert Kennedy may have been killed with a 22 short but also readying it was a 22 long.
 
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Any gun is better than none, I suppose, but I have serious doubts about using a 30 grain bullet at 750 fps for defense.

A .38 spcl 158gr. Round nose at 750 fps will bounce off of a human skull more often than not unless at an ideal angle, ask Jim Cirillo.

I doubt that .22 short will make it through the kind of muscles you might find in a gym....and into vitals. Muscle is dense

At the risk of sounding cliche'd,

Yea...a 30 grain bullet at 750 fps is more likely to further tick off some roid raging muscle head than stop them. I predict a complete lack of penetration and mild, shallow, non life threatening, non incapacitating wounds. Those are .22 caliber pellet gun ballistics.

Yes, it's lethal under perfect circumstances...but those are hard to come by in a SD shooting. If a body shot won't incapacitate, and the round doesn't have the penetration to get to the CNS, the gun is pretty much for show.

I feel the phrase "shot placement" is problematic to apply here. A revolver the size of your thumb ain't exactly precise.

If you do happen to end up shooting someone in the base of the skull with a contact shot to get the job done,
It might be tough explaining that one off as SD.

Take a piece of wet leather and drape it over a raw pot roast, shoot it, and compare the penetration to some of the pecs you see at the gym! Or shoot at a 1/4" thick plastic cutting board as a surrogate skull to see if it has the penetration to make a stopping CNS hit.
 
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I'll take a 29 gr bullet a 730 fps over my fists and a sweaty towel, any day. ;)

You need to put holes in people to stop them, and that load will do more than most people give it credit for.
 
Actually, I think a towel used correctly could be a better weapon against an unarmed attacker than a 22 short revolver.
I've had .22lr out of a Taurus pt22 bounce off a raccoons skull. I also know from experience that a boiler room shot with a .22 rifle on a coyote is likely to have no visible effect for quiet some time before it dies.
I'd get a bigger gun and find a way to conceal it rather than relying on a gallery round handicapped by a minuscule barrel to get the job done.

You need to do more than just make holes to stop someone. You need to make them either bleed out (could take a long time, big arteries and veins are deep, and big holes bleed more) or make a CNS hit (instantaneous but you have to get to through tissue and bone first)

The .22 short doesn't have the penetration to reliably do either even with ideal hits. Even a .22lr is marginal at actually stopping people.
 
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I do know from first hand experience that a HV .22 short will penetrate ONE sidewall of a truck tire.

It wasn't fired from an NAA, though; It was a Beretta 950BS with a 4" barrel.
 
I've deleted a post about the 22S for being technically and tactically incorrect. I saw no reason to divert the conversation to what would be a litany of corrections.

If you have experience with the gun to answer the OP, please do - otherwise spare us wild speculations and mistaken info.
 
I think just the gun being in your face will put a subject into a different thought processes. They wont know if its a 22S or 45acp, they just know they dont want to get shot. A 22S to the eye socket will do the job plus once the gun goes off everyone will hear it and it may or may not generate help. In the end any gun is better than no gun, I have the NAA 22mag & 22LR guns but no 22S yet, I want to add one to my collection to be the smallest gun I own.:D
 
I read that taking a 22LR pulling the bullet and replacing it with a 22 caliber lead ball allows the round to fit and have decent velocity. But then you are only looking at 15 grains and if you ever use it the cops may not like you using altered ammo.
 
Try shooting a soda can with that 22 short (not CB) and see what you think. They shoot a 2-lite bottle of water and see what you think. It should give you some reference points.
 
I also have one and with the remington HV bullets it will completely penetrate a water filled 1 gallon milk jug. I am not sure how it would do on flesh but I know I would not want to be shot with it.
 
I fired a few shorts out of the LR cylinder for my magnum frame NAA. No, I don't want to get shot with it. It has been said by others elsewhere: shoot a phonebook or piece of wood with a .22 short. Now stab it with a Philips screwdriver of the same diameter. How does your stabbing compare wrt penetration?
 
I wouldn't want to get shot with a .22 Short out of an NAA, but I'd have to wonder if it's worth the hassle to carry it at the gym.

If you're going to go up against someone with that, you're going to have to get really close. And if someone strolls in and starts shooting the place up with a proper weapon, the odds of you being able to get close enough are pretty slim.

If it floats you boat, go for it, but I wouldn't waste my time with it.
 
These ballistics are not pellet gun ballistics Which are (in my country) 550ft/sec with a .22 16 gr pellet. The stopping power of the 22 in question is I agree very low. However I calculate it would penetrate about 13" of ballistic Gel if there was no bullet expansion. According to my notes a .22 16.5gr pellet needs 245ft/sec to penetrate skin and.355 round nose 113gr bullet needs 190ft/sec.

An alternative penetration formula give 11.8". Still good enough to make your eyes water:D
 
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addendum: 29 grain + 730 ft/sec makes 34 ft/lbs (or 46 joules), which is less than half the power even a .22lr out of even a short barrel yields...
 
I fired my NAA .22Short and a friend's NAA .22WMR (with the shortest barrel) into telephone books.
The 22Short penetrated just as deeply as the .22WMR.
Surprised the hell outta me.
 
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