.22LR as a survival tool

[don heath]

Thoughts on the .22LR as a survival rifle…

Following up on a comment made on the bug out truck thread that a 12G and a .22LR is all you are going to need/end up with….

Background- As a kid growing up in Rhodesia we could get a license for a .22 rimfire rifle when we were 12 years old and a .22 handgun when we were 14. (We could license a centre fire rifle at 14 and a hand gun at 16). Every kid owned one, and those, like me, who lived out of town but were not ‘boarders (ie staying at the school hostel) carried our firearms to school every day. We had shooting practice twice a week anyway. I think there was hardly any rural kid that did not own a .22 and did not get it licensed in his own name (so he could carry it in public without a parent being present) as soon as he was old enough.

As a police Forensic ‘s officer I have picked up and carried out autopsies on quite a few people who died from a .22LR round. Most were suicide or murder (where the victim could be shot in the head at close range) but the odd other – like a kid shooting at a dove, bullet ricocheting and killing another kid playing 150m away at right angles to the direction the bullet was fired in.

Thoughts…We all soon learned that a .22LR would not kill a guinea fowl from side on- you had to take a going away shot…but you could do the same with a decent air rifle! Abet from longer range with the .22.  It was also interesting to see the scramble for .22mag rifles and revolvers once the war stated getting ‘hotter’.  I was one of the fortunate ones. I had an F,N, .22LR single shot that was perfect for ‘open sights’ competitions which we shot at school and a Bruno (now CZ) .22mag for carry . I also had a high standard ‘double nine’ with a .22mag cylinder. .22mag ammo was expensive. 5-6 times the price of eley club .22LR and still 3 times the price of .22LR high velocity…but ‘combat experience’ made it worth it for mine and many other parents. The main limiting factor in the .22LR from a rifle was trajectory…Beyond 100m it has a trajectory like a mortar and in fleeting contacts or shooting at multiple attackers from the windows of a farm house…who remembers to judge range and adjust sights for every shot? The Army has a hard time getting trained troops to adjust sights let alone civilians. The .22mag has a true 150m effective range – sure a good shot can stretch this by careful range estimation (I love my leupold range finder) , but if the rifle is zeroed at 125m you can freely engage anything from point blank out to 150 without thinking about range. For hunting that isn’t so true…especially smaller stuff where 4” high or low can spell a miss or wound.

When it comes to killing power…the .22LR is certainly lethal but not hugely effective. Many a kid has taken a duiker or jackal with his .22 but I think we probably lost a dozen or so wounded for every one killed. There are always exceptions….the kid from next door killed three gooks one night with his single shot .22LR including the section leader who was armed with an RPD light machinegun. The gooks surprised the house and managed to put an RPG 7 into the main bedroom ( they climbed a tree on a small nearby hill so they could get the rocket over the security fence instead of the usual practice of trying to cut a hole in the fence which inevitably triggered the alarm and switched on the outside security lights) as the first indication of the attack. The miner was critically wounded and his wife badly cut up by flying glass. The second rocket blew the front door open. 8 year old kid grabbed his .22 and ran out of the back door as the attack came in. Kneeling by the corner of the house and using the (now triggered) security lights to aim by he cut down the section leader and two other AK armed gooks…all one shot kills. In the mean time his mother had come looking for him and run to the blown front door…where two gooks were shooting at the kid at the corner of the house…they should have been looking inside because she had an Uzi. With five dead the gooks gave up.

Still, the hard test of actual use showed that the .22mag was far, far superior as an anti personnel weapon to the .22LR, giving a much higher hit probability and much better as a hunting tool. As soon as we could many of us ‘upgraded’. Being a big kid, I got a 7x57 for my 14th Birthday…many others went to a .22 Hornet or, if they already had a .22 Mag, stuck with that until they were big enough to handle something more meaningful. Certainly no kid stayed with a .22LR after his 14th Birthday except for target and training use.

As a parting thought….the PRIMARY survival firearm is a HANDGUN…as has been proved time and time again by farmers, miners, parks and vet services men (and women) across Africa, you cannot have a rifle in your hands at all times and you cannot retain a full 360º look out when you are concentrating on a difficult task  - or asleep. It is also often difficult to operate a long gun when injured. Considering how anaemic most handgun rounds are a .22LR is hardly worth considering. A NAA .22mag with adjustable sights might be useful in some circumstances (I love mine when travelling in south Africa)…but in general- you need something more. I have NEEDED a handgun 4 times- The night I was shot in the right shoulder (bad guy fired 15-18 rounds at me from a distance of 3 paces with his AK and hit me once. I fired one shot with my .41 mag, left handed and problem went away) , the night I woke up with a Hyaena standing on me (.41 was on a lanyard round my neck), the day I rode into an elephant on my motorbike (I was watching a jackal for signs of Rabies and got to absorbed to notice a 5 ton grey thing in the road…ele didn’t like me running into his leg but cleared off when I fired a warning shot past his ear) and the day I was riding back to the station and a lion decided to chase me ( I had a rifle but couldn’t access it and the road was so bad I couldn’t ride faster than about 25-30 MPH...) . I was also very grateful of the handgun on other occasions…changing a wheel on the truck one night when all the hair on my back stood up…I looked round but could see nothing…swept the bush with the torch and there, lying in the grass about 5 paces away was a lioness just watching me..she didn’t try anything but if she had, there is no way I could have got my rifle into action even though it was propped up on the side of the truck just inches from my hand.

Also, the san Bushmen often have a firearm in each group…they would never use it for hunting- the bow is much more efficient – but simply for security. The most desirable firearm they can get is an old Brit .455 revolver- you would be amazed at how much work you can get for a box of shells for one of them. Handguns are totally illegal in Botswana and so the few that are in circulation are very highly prised.

And lastly…the 8 year old kid who killed three gooks was killed on his 16th birthday..in a different civil war, because he could not get his rifle into action quickly enough while riding home from school. I got to pick up his body and go and tell his folks.

[cbl51]

Well, tales of Africa aside, millions of people have found the humble .22 to be a very good survival round. In poorer parts of the country, the .22 rifle is kept busy putting meat in the stew pot durring hard times. Most farm houses in the old days had two guns. One was a shotgun, the other was a .22 rifle. Both were valued guns for the business of everyday survival like putting food on the table.

I can't think of any other round that give the effectiveness to weight ratio of the lowly .22LR. It will even take a deer if one is careful, and it's the number 1 deer poaching round in the U.S.

If push came to shove, a .22 can be used to defend oneself. No, it's not a combat round, but then the regular Joe Citizen just wants the problem to go away. The .22LR is more than capable of doing that. For over 40 years of being a life member of the N.R.A., I've always turned to the Armed Citizen page of the American Rifleman each month. It's my favorite item in the magazine. Not too often, but not rare either, theres an account of some armed citizen using a humble .22 for getting rid of a criminal. Viewing tapes of the Reagan shooting, it seemd to put everone it hit on the ground with a single shot. It will do the job if the shooter does his or her part. It's not the hardware, it's the person behind it that will make a difference.

A 12gauge shotgun teamed up with a .22 seems to be the perfect survival combo to hit the road with, or holeup with. The .22 will do for all small to medium game, and the shotgun will handle everything from ducks to bear, four legged preditors or two legged, depending on what it's loaded with.

[RON17T]

A .22 is a great survival rifle. You don't have to get a single shot,get a Ruger 10/22 and a couple 25 round clips. Also a good gun if you want to carry a bunch of ammo 2000 rounds weighs very little.

[don heath]

cbl...22LR is a favourite with meat poachers here as well..which is why in two neigboring countries it is almost impossible to get a .22 rifle license and why in my own country it is a minimum mandatory jail term of 5 years if you are found with a silencer on your .22

It works pretty well on game up to impala size if used at night with a spotlight, but there are those who have even taken elephant with one.  However, having used a .22LR as a meat getter (silenced Drulove targer pistol with detachable wire stock and scope fitted) on our attemp to drive up to Egyp via the congo and done alot of night culling of impala using a silenced rifle..All I can say is, it will do if you have nothing else.

Many poor folk use what they can afford or get. Black folk in Zimbabwe were restricted to a shotgun or .22 rimfire for many years under the previous regime...Oh boy did they kill things- but as soon as the government realeased thousands of .303 rifles to peasant farmers, .22LRs got traded in despite the cheapness of the ammo! None of them rushed out to trade in their 12g, 10g or 8 bore shotguns though! Every home should have a .22LR but they are no more powerful than many of todays airguns (mine throws a  20 grn.22 Pellet at 1220fps)

[schoolmaster]

I like the .22 mag as well. Always keep a couple around to hunt with. More power and range than a .22 Lr and you don't have to reload for them. I have a Savage 93 blue/syn and a Stevens single shot. Both nicely accurate and easy to handle.

[HAMMERHEAD]

I really like the .22 WMR. I get much better accuracy with the mag than I do the .22lr and the trajectory is much easier to compensate for.
My CZ 452 Lux is super accurate with most any ammo and handles like a full size rifle. Nice open sights too, a must for me. My CZ and my small frame Freedom Arms .357 are my woods walkers/'survival' guns. No lions or bears (oh my) around here.

[Casull]

Every home should have a .22LR but they are no more powerful than many of todays airguns (mine throws a  20 grn.22 Pellet at 1220fps)

A .22LR would be twice as powerful as your airgun, and penetrate much better with a 40 grn bullet at the same velocity.

[cbl51]

Every home should have a .22LR but they are no more powerful than many of todays airguns (mine throws a  20 grn.22 Pellet at 1220fps)

Even if that were true, no airgun can match a .22 rifle for long term realible function in the field. There's a reason airguns went out of favor to firearms.

However, my Feinwerkebau air rifle puts out velocity like you quote, but even with the heaviest .22 pellet that Beeman air guns carries, it only penitrates about 1/3 of my local phone book. On the other hand, a Federal bulk pack high speed hollow point round fired from a Marlin model 39M goes totally through the phone book, not to mention a nice oversize blown out exit hole in the back. If indeed airguns are more powerful than a .22 LR, perhaps you can enlighten me as to how this happens?

Not to meniton the rapid follow up shots that can be fired with a .22 rifle.

[ironglow]

  Air rifles are better than they used to be, of course 20gr at 1220fps is not a common size. Most .22 air rifles, although there are a few exceptions, are @ about 800fps and more like 14 gr. The big drawback of air rifles in most cases is repeatability..compared to say a .22 auto.
  Then too, nowdays of course, we have the CCI Velociter, 40gr HP @ 1450fps.

  Still as a survival tool, 50 rounds of .22 mag adds very little weight and takes very little more room than 50 .22LR rounds. No argument, a .22 mag can kill larger game..I just wish my experience with .22 mags were as positive accuracy-wise as my .22 LRs. ..But that's just my experience.

    Don Heath;
  I enjoyed your shared African experiences as a youth growing up..feel free to share more upon occasion..

         As a youngster I recall reading about Rhodesia. Back then, it was a prosperous nation; with productive farms, a well entrenched manufacturing base with a bright, promising future. then the "natives got restless"..demanded this and that and finally got their "independence" dropping thename of Rhodesia....
 
       ...Please tell us, how has all this "hope and change" worked out for Zimbabwe ?

[vacek]

I have a Feinwerkbau 124 @ .177 caliber that I bought myself as a gift out of grad school in 77.  Later my wife and I used to put a lot of protein on the table back in the late 80's early 90's.  Not a lot of money then, but 5$ bought a can of pellets.  One day in less than an hour she took 9 cottontails with nine shots.  We could do that because we knew where to hunt and there was no noise involved.  We also took quail at opportunity.  I own a lot of guns but it would be one of the top 3 if I had to run out the door.

[ironglow]

I have a Feinwerkbau 124 @ .177 caliber that I bought myself as a gift out of grad school in 77.  Later my wife and I used to put a lot of protein on the table back in the late 80's early 90's.  Not a lot of money then, but 5$ bought a can of pellets.  One day in less than an hour she took 9 cottontails with nine shots.  We could do that because we knew where to hunt and there was no noise involved.  We also took quail at opportunity.  I own a lot of guns but it would be one of the top 3 if I had to run out the door.

  I recently bought a Ruger .17 springer; nice little rifle and I use it sometimes , around the home. Thought i would use it much more than I do. I still find myself using a .22 with CB caps more often.
  No doubt though, a good air rifle can collect meat...I'm just still "stuck on .22"... regular rifles that is...

[gypsyman]

If it's available where you live, try CCI Velocitor ammo. Hard hitting, a 40gr Gold Dot bullet. Ammo in a caliber this size makes a big difference. gypsyman

[don heath]

cbl 51...check out many of the european air guns...and pellets. The nylon pellets with hard tip give me same total penetration in wet pack as a .22LR - and mine is not the most powerful rilfe on the market by a long way. I went for it becuase it was the most accurate of the 'over 12ft lb energy' ones I tried.

To me, the main advantage of a .22LR is that it is cheep to practice with and can be very quiet...Like I said, everybody should own one. But, if small game is your quarry, then a good air rifle works as well, and you can carry a heck of alot more pellets than .22LR rounds.

If you do not need quiet...a .22Mag is, at 100 yards what a .22LR is at the muzzel.
of course, this weekend I got to play with an RWS .222 adaptor that allows one to fire .22LR in a .222 Accuracy was fair (2" at 50m) and had the advantage that when you cycled the bolt you ejected the 'adaptor cartridge' and could instantly chamber a 222 round...am looking for a couple of these for my daughters .223

[Victor3]

 I have a 22 cal Daystate pre-charged pneumatic; one of the more powerful 22 air rifles available. Adjusted to the max it will send a 30 grain Eley solid 'pellet' (exact same design as a 22 short bullet) out at ~850 fps (~50 fpe). When fired, it sounds just about as loud as a 22 short.

 A standard 22 short's muzzle velocity with a 30 grain bullet out of a 20" bbl is ~1000 fps (~65 fpe).

 A standard 22 long rifle's muzzle velocity with a 40 grain bullet out of a 20" bbl is ~1100 fps (~100 fpe).

 There is no commercially available 22 cal air rifle that produces anywhere near 100 foot pounds.

[Couger]

22's versus airguns?

I see a need for both, altho if I could only afford or have one of them, I'd opt for the rimfires - but never in .17 cal like the .17 M2 or .17 HMR.  (their place IMO, is strictly for the sporting niches they fill)

I'd stick with the conventional and popular Long Rifle, and .22 Mag if the Long Rifle needs were amply covered!

Gotta admit though, I'm quite intrigued by the 22WMR and want a North American Arms 'Mini Master' for my survival kit, with BOTH cylinders!  That diminuitive "revolver" has a four inch barrel, so with the Long Rifle cylinder could make a quite effective hunting tool, but with the Mag-cylinder could be nasty as a defensive tool too.

But what I actually intended to say in this post is that I've managed to collect some selected .22 ammo based on a LR firearms.  At the top end I have some 40grn Velocitors with a jacketed "Gold Dot"-like bullet listed at @1460fps - because they are the most powerful Long Rifle round available.  I also have some "standard" Long Rifle ammo because they are versatile and ample under most condiditons and duties, but operate at subsonic velocities.  Next I have some .22 Short (CCI) Target ammo, which is the all-lead 29grn bullet used in the CB-Short and CB-Long ammo CCI makes, but from a "Short Target" round that operates at @830fps MV.  Lastly in my SHTF .22 cache is some CB-Longs, listed as giving @710fps at the muzzle with the 29grn all-lead bullet.  Each ammo type has its purpose even if those purposes overlap, and if I used them in a .22 I don't own (and know how it groups) figure there's enough ammo variety to fine at least one good round it likes.

Before I finish I might end up with a .22Mag barrel for the Contender, altho a M10/22 Magnum would be no slouch of a RF rifle either!

[ironglow]

I have a 22 cal Daystate pre-charged pneumatic; one of the more powerful 22 air rifles available. Adjusted to the max it will send a 30 grain Eley solid 'pellet' (exact same design as a 22 short bullet) out at ~850 fps (~50 fpe). When fired, it sounds just about as loud as a 22 short.

 A standard 22 short's muzzle velocity with a 30 grain bullet out of a 20" bbl is ~1000 fps (~65 fpe).

 A standard 22 long rifle's muzzle velocity with a 40 grain bullet out of a 20" bbl is ~1100 fps (~100 fpe).

 There is no commercially available 22 cal air rifle that produces anywhere near 100 foot pounds.

 

        Victor;..30  grains @ 850 fps is no slouch either, comes out to 48.14 fpe..that's in the neighborhood of .22 short rounds and good enough for  most small game.
 
Here's a handy energy calculator that works well with regular rifles also..store it in your "favorites";
    http://pyramydair.com/site/articles/formulas/

[RON17T]

I actually have a original AR-7 takedown .22 rifle. Anyone remember those? There not super accurate but there portable,they float and weigh almost nothing. I've taken it on lots of camping trips over the years.

[ironglow]

  that's the one Henry makes now, US made (in NJ) and still interesting...   http://www.henryrepeating.com/h002_survival.cfm

[tacklebury]

I like my Marlin Model 70P better than the AR style for every reason escept that the barrel fits in the stock.  I've fired over 12,000 rounds through it and it's still quite accurate.  It has some feed issues, but I cannot complain since it was the first firearm I purchased myself 24 years ago.    I personally wouldn't be without a good pump .177 cal air pistol though for survival.  You can carry a lot more bb's/pellets than even 22 shells in the same space and if you have the pistol, you can take birds, rats and other small pests without wasting your more powerful rounds.  My Crosman 1377 pump has put almost as much meat on my table and more importantly in my belly than my .22 rifles & pistols.  I also used it for over 12 years consecutive before I had to replace the leathers, so reliability for me was awesome, just remember to put one drop of oil where you are told every 500 shots or so. 

http://www.pyramydair.com/p/crosman-1377-pump-pistol.shtml

And at that price, it's a great starter to teach any kid basic pistol safety too.