What does the Military Use 22 Rimfire Ammo for?

J

Jamie Young

New member
I've seen 22lr USGI ammo at AmmoMan and I was curious what the Present day US Military uses this for? Do we use anything other than .223,.308, 50Cal and 22lr in the Military? I've also heard claims some Marine snipers have used 22Mag?
 
22lr

I believe that the US Air Farce uses .22lr conversion kits in their M16's to train airmen to shoot!

Also the US Army Marksmanship unit at Ft Benning competes in smallbore competition throughout the world and in the Olympics and probably uses a lot of.22 lr.

I also remember shooting at the Base R & G club where we could rent Ruger MKII pistols.

Also some Jr Rotc and college level ROTC units still have rifle teams. PC hasn't infected every school yet.


Geoff Ross

PS I do remember being taught instinctive shooting in Basic Training using Red Ryder BB guns sans sights. Also we went through an ambush course where we were given a BB gun and a face shield and had to sniff out our DI's who were waiting for us with BB guns. That was fun!
 
Don't shoot your Eye out kid! What about 22lr sniping? I've heard it is still used by the Chechens and the Soviets used it during WWII?
 
I'm in the AF, and have never even seen 22lr in a miltary armory. When we shoot we use the 5.56 ammo, or the 9mm, depending on the weapon we are shooting. I've never even heard of the US miltary using 22lr, but other countries such as Romania have.

Hudge
 
I'm also in the Air Force, just went over 15 years in April, and when I went through Basic in 1986, the M16's we used were converted to .22LR. However, ever since then, when I had to requalify with the M16, they were all 5.56mm. Go figure...
 
USAF 22lr

I went thru basic training at Lackland in Dec,81 and we used 22's for marksmanship training. AF did use 22's then. Don't know about now.:)
 
Many years ago in a far and distant land, there were H&R .22LR Silenced Auto-loaders being used by the military. I'll bet there are some in a government warehouse in storage, somewhere right now.
Clem
 
As a firearms instructor in the AF, I can answer this question. We do not any longer use .22 for anything at all. Other branches of the military might, but I know of no bases currently using 22's.

It was done in an attempt to save money, and like everything in the military the modification kits were total crap. Constantly jamming and troubles abound. Yet they kept using then for many years. Today the kits are available on-line for dirt cheap.

I can say with a smile that I never had the opportunity to use these pieces of garbage.
 
Training, recreation, competition. Training with .22 bout gone, recreation and competition funding getting scarce. AMU still funded but guard and reserve units are hurtin. ROTC units dwindling. Maby that's why it is showing up on the surplus market.

Sam
 
USMC sniper schools were using 22LR Rem 40X's for introductory training in scoped rifle usage. Also eliminating range pests at Quantico:) There might be some of those suppressed High Standards floating around still, but I don't know anything about their whereabouts. A suppressed 22LR rifle would be great for less than lethal removal of agitators in riot control situations. The Israelis have been doing this. I know the idea has been toyed with by the US military, don't think it got anywhere. Plus you have all those smallbore and pistol shooters on the service teams. Semper Fidelis...Ken M
 
When I was in (ancient history) we had a ton of .22's in the armory and 2 tons :D stored in a bay in the bomb dump. All were for competition (except for what I used for trading purposes..guess the statue of limitations ran out on that :D). Between the pistol team and the small bore team we burned quite a few of them, but all that the USAF bought was commercial ammo..........mostly Remington and Federal.
 
When I went through boot camp at Great Lakes in '75, our entire firearms training consisted of five rounds through a Mossberg .22 bolt action at an indoor range. That is if you don't count lugging around a demilled 03A3 all day.
Understand the Navy even dropped the marksmanship (??) program some years later but they are bringing it back.
 
Speaking of the Navy, I have a coworker who was in the Navy in the early '70s and he was never taught marksmanship and never touched a gun until the '90s. Modernly I guess "gun" to the USN means either the 5" on a destroyer or the 20mm Phalanx system.
 
I saw something many years ago that I am still curious about. A gentleman showed me a full auto .22 that, according to him, was used by spec. forces in Vietnam. I dont know if that was true, but I do know it shot fast(maybe 800 rpm +) , and it had no markings on it whatsoever. Spooky:eek: ;) . Anyone ever heard of anything like this? The amount of ammo you could carry, low recoil, and the cyclic rate would, IMO, make an awesome weapon.

m16
 
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Mike, the weapon in question,if my memory serves me correctly, looked somewhere along the lines of an AR 7, but its been a long time.

m16
 
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