why the 22

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As far as SD, Hartman Turnbow used a 22 LR rifle with a 16 round capacity to defend himself and his family against racist night riders.

Hicap mag used in SD and a 22 LR - never would have thought it. :D
 
you really cant do more then target shoot and garden pest control.
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Best re learn what you know there. I killed a full grown deerwith my 22 at age 10, dad was upset but it was done. Killed many critters with that 22, still killing with it. Keep one in the truck, wouldnt feel under gunned with it at all.

Super accuratre, 30 rounds of fmj. It will put a hurting on ya.
 
Most of the good shooters on here would agree it takes THOUSANDS of rounds to become proficient with either a shotgun, pistol, or rifle.
I bet a good many of the posters here shoot thousands of rounds every year and some surely have for decades. When you factor the price difference for 22s and even 9mm it really adds up. Sure die hard shooters won't care about the price, but someone just starting out doesn't want to spend $500+ on ammunition a year.

I have depended on 22lr weapons in the past for defense. THere are some places where anything else is very complicated. A semi-auto with double strike capability or a revolver never worried me much.
 
Really, you only need 3 firearms: one pistol - 9mm..... one rifle - .308;..... and one shotgun - 12 gauge. These three formats take care of just about anything you want to do with a firearm.

Anything else is just for kicks and giggles.:D
 
Really, you only need 3 firearms: one pistol - 9mm..... one rifle - .308;..... and one shotgun - 12 gauge
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I'd say .357 instead of 9mm - but - I do tend to agree w/that.
I'd even go so far as to say you only need the 12 ga or the .357.

Here is what bugs me. Why does everyone pass off the 22 rimfire as the ideal starter caliber for everyone?
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Not everyone....
I for one don't.
 
You mean that not everyone owns a 22 caliber something or other?? I would have never guessed that. I even have different formats. Pistols & rifles, 22 mag-22LR- long-short & .22 pellet. I couldn't imagine not having a 22 something.
 
Ive been told more people are killed by 22s than anything else. I personally know more peoples been shot by 22s than anything else (and some shot themselves.) Its easy for me to believe people don't give it enough respect.
 
.22s are used in more crimes, and kill more people than any other caliber. This includes law enforcement officers.

They're cheap, quiet, easy to use. They're tiny, but that doesn't mean they can't kill.

Something I have head it attributed to, though, is that something about the way the .22 round is made is dirtier and leads to higher infection rates which can kill people? Something like that.
 
Well, I just handed down a Colt Targetsman to my nephew, which was bought new by my father. Anybody that thinks the 22cal cartridge is only for beginners, think again. In the hands of a skilled shooter, the 22 rimfire is a very effective small game round.

If memory serves me correct, Robert Kennedy was killed with a 22cal handgun.
 
The merits of the .22 have been well listed in this thread: learning trigger control with little to no recoil, etc. but .22s are not all just range toys. Two hunting seasons back I dropped 3 25+/- pound piglets out of a sow-less pack of them. 3 pigs on the run, 1 Stinger each, not one of them took another step. On one of them the round hit just behind the rib cage through and through and took a good bit of gut out the exit hole with it. Another took it in the shoulder. Shattered the bones on both shoulders and broke up under the skin on the off side. The 3rd pig took it in the chest and that little Stinger turned his insides to jelly. So the .22 is a great starter caliber, great target round and when it comes down to it- it can straight up do work with the right ammo.

At one point I owned so many .22s I could barely shut my safe. I'm down to under 10 now but they still outnumber all the other calibers in my fleet. If I were to pick one rifle to take to the swamp and live off the land it would likely be a .22 rifle.
 
Here is what bugs me. Why does everyone pass off the 22 rimfire as the ideal starter caliber for everyone?
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Because it's cheap to shoot, has low noise and low recoil. This makes it a nearly ideal caliber for training purposes.

its not considered more then 'its better then a stick' when it comes to self defense.
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After you've learned to shoot with a 22, THEN get something that's more effective for self defense. It takes quite a bit of shooting to learn to do it well. The difference in cost between 22 and, say, 45 ACP for a few hundred rounds will pay for the 22 gun used to learn on.

So why limit someone to that one caliber no matter what?
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I can't think of a single reason. Who said you had to?
 
Have not tread all the post so forgive me of ground already covered...

The .22 is a great starter round cause it lets a beginner concentrate on good basic fundamentals of shooting while eliminating some of the hoops such as recoil a person often concentrates on rather then concentrating on the actual shooting fundamentals.

Far as that goes, many seasoned shooters often spend the rest of their shooting careers shooting the .22 on a regular bases practicing basic, muscle memory shooting fundamentals.
 
While I don't disagree with anything those in favor of .22's have said, the bottom line is 22's are sort of boring. When someone buys their very first pistol, they want to know that they are shooting the real McCoy.

So, here's what I recommend to first-time pistol buyers: Go out and buy the .380, 9mm, or .45 that you've dreamed about in preferably in a full sized gun (no micro guns). While I like .40, it's beyond a "little stretch" to think its for beginners. Shoot and enjoy it. Then, when you really want to hone your skills, go shopping for a .22, or a .22 kit for your full-sized gun.
 
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22's aren't boring. Shoot steel with them. It's great fun and a skill builder.
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Most first time gun owners aren't going to be shooting steel. They are going to go down to their local indoor range where there is nothing but paper hanging from a clip to shoot.

Also, shooting steel really doesn't do much to help newbie shooters - you really need to be shooting paper so that someone more skilled can see your mistakes and correct them depending on what your pattern looks like. I know you already know all of this - just making my case, so bear with me.

I remember when I was 16-21. The LAST thing I wanted for my first real handgun was a .22. After years of only being able to shoot .177 and .22 caliber pellets, I wanted a "real" gun; and to me, the .22 was just a higher powered pellet gun. There was nothing you could say or do to convince me otherwise.

I purchased my first .22 handgun sometime between 25 and 28. Then I purchased one or two more. The best thing about .22's is that they are (were) dirt cheap to shoot. I'm sure I could have benefited by doing more training with a .22. Sometimes I will put a few magazines through my Ruger Mark II, but for the most part I much prefer shooting 9mm to just about anything else, especially from my X-Five. At this point, someone would have to lay out some pretty interesting drills for me to do with the Mark II for me to get interested in shooting it more.
 
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Skans said:
While I don't disagree with anything those in favor of .22's have said, the bottom line is 22's are sort of boring.
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That is only true of you find noise and recoil exciting.

I don't.
 
Today I say the .22 because that is what the NRA and the Boy Scouts mandate for new shooters in the rifle program. (Well, technically they mandate rimfire, but I'm not buying .17 HMR for the rifle merit badge kids)

No felt recoil, little noise, cheap, plentiful(at least pre-Newtown), and available in a variety of easy to use, accurate, cheap and plentiful rifle and pistol platforms.

Also, when I went to college and started having to buy my own ammunition, and ammunition for assorted lady friends, I realized the value of my humble Ruger Mk II 22/45.

For what it cost for one box of .38 Spl range fodder, the girlfriend and I could chase around RC and Diet Coke cans behind the fraternity house all afternoon.
 
That is only true of you find noise and recoil exciting.

I don't.
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If quiet and tame is important to you when shooting for fun then why not just shoot pellet guns....or airsoft? Cheaper, quieter and even less recoil.
 
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