For Self Protection -- Don't Overlook the 22

Had an ER tech once tell me that one should see an xray of someone shot in the head with a 22. It basically scrambles the brain.

On the other hand, I had an acquaintance that killed his wife and himself with a .22. Shot her in the head then shot himself in the head but the first one didn't do it so he shot himself again.

 

Yeup.

He needed more range time, wasting perfectly good ammo on second shot.

 

Oh that's bad. I always wondered if his wife knew what was coming like in a suicide pact or if it was a surprise.

 

Even then, sub sonic is sub sonic. There isn't going to be a great difference between the two in terms of suppressed firearms.

 

Huh? I've been following this thread, and I don't know where sub sonic came into play here.

 

In explanation that .22 rimfire is used for assassination purposes because it is easily suppressed; especially when the round is subsonic and does not break the sound barrier.

 

They also use sub sonic for .308 and better suppression otherwise the crack the bullet makes braking the sound barrier gives them away.

 

OK then. It's time to bring in this little story:
http://www.ruger1022.com/docs/israeli_sniper.htm
I could be wrong, but I believe that it was for this project that Aguila developed the 60 gr. sub sonic sniper round. It's not the wimp that you might think it is. That bullet penetrated 15" of ballistic gelatin!
And now that we have the Israelis in discussion, one of the uses for rimfire pistols in assassinations has been (rumored to be) by the Mossad in ridding the world of Nazi war criminals. The idea is that a pair of agents walk up behind the bad guy, with one on each side. Each agent slips his .22 short Beretta semi-auto pistol under the bad guys arm, and dumps the magazine into his torso. Don't try this at home!
As for sub sonic .22's being quiet.... Even without a suppressor, .22LR sub sonic target ammo is nearly silent. Another very cool Aguila load is the sub sonic 38 gr. HP. In a rifle with a barrel of 22" or more, this is a great round to use for varmint suppression in your garden if you live in places where the neighbors object to the sound of guns next door. It's very nearly silent.

 

That was the whole idea with the development of the .300 Blackout. Feral hog hunters like that a lot. It fires a 180 gr. bullet at around 900 fps, and it works just fine in an AR. The piggies don't know why their buddies are falling down, so they don't run away.

 

Problem with that is that it reduces the 308 down to about a 38 Special in terms of energy.

 

Oh yeah, sub sonic is very quiet. I have found that subsonic CCI 22 Longs is the quitest I have encountered, you hear the drop of the pin and the bullet impacting the target. I have found that sub sonic .22LR lacks the sonic boom, but there is still a pop from the muzzle.

 

One of my 10/.22 builds has a 22" Shilen match barrel on it, so back in the old days, when you could find .22LR, I was sampling everything I could find. Just about any of the sub sonic target ammo is next to silent.
I also have an old Rem. bolt gun with a 24" barrel. Shorts are truly silent with that one.
Moving to another 10/.22 build with a 20" Green Mountain barrel, the target ammo has the little pop you mention. It's not a sound that most people would associate with shooting, but they might sneak around your place to find out. The shortest 10/.22, with the 16" barrel does sound like a gun. Those last inches make a big difference, and it's a matter of the gas pressure escaping from the muzzle.
BTW- In one of the Mark Wahlberg "Sniper" movies, you see him using a plastic soda bottle as a suppressor. Wrong. There were also stories of Chechen rebels doing the same. That would help with sub sonic ammo, but there's no hiding that sonic crack when the bullet is traveling faster than about 1,080 fps.

 

I completely agree on the muzzle lenght, I use 22L in shorter barrles, and there is a pop. Longer, totally silent.

 

While .22lr is better than nothing there are still better choices than that. I have a 9mm carbine that will fit small framed people well and still hit harder than a .22. Why shoot repeatedly when you can shoot once or twice and be done with it?

 

Which model do you have ?

 

It's a 514, made in the late '50's. Not good. I bought it because I wanted something other than my 10/.22's to shoot this Aguila Interceptor ammo. With ammo that strong, it forces the thin web of steel between the chamber and extractor to move into the extractor groove, thus preventing the extractor from entering.
That's how I found out that it's so quiet with sub sonic ammo. That's the only thing it can shoot.
der wustenfuchs- Where you say: "Why shoot repeatedly when you can shoot once or twice and be done with it?" I had to laugh a little. This whole matter of shooting people is so inconvenient!!

 

My first rifle was a single shot Remington 510 Targetmaster. My father bought it for me probably around 1962.

Extremely accurate, won turkey shoots as a young 13 year old with it going against other shooters who had expensive 8 to 10 pound target rifles with peep sights.

Around 1976 I got my hands on a Remington 513, magazine fed 510, but it was beat up.

Not that familiar with the 514 but it's of the Remington 500 series produced from the late 1940's to the early 1970's.

Here's the scoop on the 510, 511, 513 and the 514's. Keep your hands on any of these rifles, they are going to become collectors items.

Ten years ago Martin B. Retting < http://retting.com/ > apraised my 510 at $175. My father paid $24 for it back in 62. And with Obama in the White House, all guns have increased in value. Martin B. Retting said that all of the Remington 500 series .22 rifles will soon become collectors items.

For hunting and plinking, it's the Ruger 10/22 for me. But for serious target shooting, it's my Remington 510.

 

The Rem 500 series is your honey. The price appreciation isn't all that remarkable. My first 10/.22 cost $56.50, with a serial number in the 17 thousands. It was a far better gun than the current crop, with real walnut, and aluminum in all of the places that the new models have replaced with plastic. The new ones cost a bit over $200. The last one I bought with all aluminum in the receiver and trigger group has become my "ultimate", with a total investment of close to $750. Ammo is still unavailable, so I don't shoot what I have.

 

I bought my first 10/22 probably around 1974, still have it today. Bought another one in 1980. So I have two today with six ten round mags and two 25 round mags.

I was looking at some websites, those walnut stocks for the Remington 500's in excellent condition can go for $65.

 

Back to the topic--
In the 2 years or so while I was shooting the 10/.22's a lot in the process of working out accuracy, it became pretty clear to me that the biggest hindrance with a .22 in a fight is knowing where to put the bullets.
Let's imagine that TSHTF, and it all came down to you having no gun but your 10/.22. If you have a good understanding of anatomy, you can make debilitating or lethal hits pretty easily.
You'll occasionally see someone claim that he doesn't need any more gun than that, because his .22 carbine will get him any gun he needs. I thought long and hard over that, and decided that I wouldn't impose that limit on myself by choice, but I would train for the possibility.

 

I would never show up at a gunfight with a .22.

But if the SHTF and all I had was a 10/22 it's probably better choice than many pistols considering that the .22 has some range that the pistol doesn't. A 10/22 with a ten round magazine is some firepower to take into account. No recoil so quick follow up shots capable of putting numerous 40 gr. lead bullets into a vital area of the body.

Back during the 70's I did take down a deer with that Remington 513 I mentioned. The shot was from only 35 yards or so away and I had to follow the blood trail for a few hundred yards until it bled out. Any bullet that can kill a deer can definitely kill a human.

I've seen gang bangers with a gut shots by .22 handguns and they were still mobil. A chest shot, I doubt they would be to mobil, a lung shot you will eventually drown in your blood. A heart shot, you're dead. A head shot, you're either dead or going to be a vegetable for the rest of your life.

Mafia gangland executions, the .22 is the choice of weapon.

 

Larger, stronger bullets have been stopped at the skull, as has been shown in this thread. There is no guarantee.

Citation.

 

I read a study that the U.S. Army conducted during the 1950's before there was a PETA. FMJ .45 ACP ball ammunition and the bullets were bouncing off the skull of cows from 25 feet away.

 

A high school friend bounced a .45 off of his sternum a few years ago. The ricochet took out most of his liver but he survived and was alert enough to warn the rest of the high school he coached at before he collapsed.

 

Don't overlook the sword, shield or bow, either.

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Yay guns.