There are those who scoff at the diminutive .22 rimfire cartridge. They do so at leisure and highlight their ignorance.
Long before I was a cop, or a soldier, I was a hunter. I have seen a lot of game taken with the .22 rimfire.. While I wouldn't want to go into combat with a .22, nor even patrol the streets with one, I understand the utility of the little cartridge. Certainly, there are better cartridges for almost every use, it's hard to dismiss the .22 for all-around honors.
The .22 is easy to shoot well. It's accurate, inexpensive and generally lightweight. You can carry a bunch of them in your pocket. While it's not the best at every task, it's damned good at lots of tasks. It may be one of the most used cartridges in violent encounters i the US.
Those uses aside, I know that it has been used to take many game animals that you might not realize. I once knew a man who took Whitetail deer with a .22
The largest hog I personally ever shot (over 350 lbs) was taken with a .22. One shot, bang flop. The hardest past of that was loading it in the truck.
I have read accounts of moose being taken with the little cartridge.
There is one well documented account of a native woman taking a world record grizzly bear with the .22 rifle. It's a great story and deserves to be read around campfires for many years.
If society crumbles and the zombies come out, I'm going to grab a .22 rifle, strap a .22 handgun to my waist, and head for the woods. It may not be the best combo for a lot of things, but it's the best combo for all-around. Which reminds me, I need to pick p a couple more bricks of .22 ammo.
7 comments:
I just picked up some yesterday. I don't like to get below 10000 rounds of .22.
When I first moved to Alaska in the 1970’s I knew an old timer who shot moose with a .22 back in the early 1930’s. He said shoot them in the lungs while they were bedded down and let them alone long enough to bed down. On that grizzly you mentioned, she used .22 longs, not long rifle!
Yeah, an extremely useful cartridge the rimfires are. Pretty likely everyone knows (or should know) a particular spot in the woods where a pair of game trails cross with a nearby natural 'hide' where the hunter can wait for a meal to show up. If you are a belt and suspenders type of person, having several locations where wind blows from target to you is wise.
If our economy craters, a lot of people are going to be finding alternate sources of meat. The less attention you gain is more security that you show up back home with vittles. Rimfire are quiet in the woods and can be improved on rather easily.
Am also a fan of the overlooked 22 magnum round. Not a lot more noise and out of a carbine barrel ballistic power of a 38 special.
Was often referred to as the poacher's rifle, I wonder why?
There was a story about a Canadian land owner whose place was to be visited by Queen Elizabeth during the Jubilee in 1967. On the day the queen was to arrive a bad tempered moose had shown up and to avoid an incident the man took a .22 and fired it in the general direction of the animal to run it off. Of course in a million to one shot he dropped it on the spot. A lot of brush was quickly cut and a large pile was maintained until the visit was over.
In the middle of the last century, when I was young, deer hunting in the lower two thirds of Michigan was limited to shotguns and .22 rifles. A lot of tags were filled with the little cartridge. The .22 Magnum was also popular and a lot of them were sold in Michigan.
Dined on many a squirrel and cotton tail as a youth. Mom was happy to cook them. All taken with my Marlin bolt action .22.
.22 LR are over-penetrating SOBs and since they were typically carried in pockets and many of them sported wax coatings, they introduced all kinds of filth into the wound.
Before antibiotics they were sure-but-painful slow death with any Center-of-mass hit.
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