Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire .22 semi auto rifle for home defense?

ever shoot an American 180

Had a guy tell me the story of the time he was sitting in a bar in Clarksville TN back in the 1960's, and a man came in and shot another man with a 22 pistol. The bullet hit the man in the arm, ricocheted off the bone, came back out and went in the guys chest and into the heart. He said that if the shooter had been using a bigger caliber, he probably would have just wounded the man in the arm, and not killed him.

our USA govorment can saefly give up on the biger guns, their is so many stories in witch the 22 Lr is been showed to be deadlier than many other rounds. were gona have to right congress to get those to swich over to the 22Lr for the army and Mareins.

Well for home defense, especially for women, a 22 pistol might be a good choice but it doesn't have much stopping power. It is however deadly and makes a itty bitty hole. The bullet goes in and may end up anywhere tearing up everything in it's path until it finally stops, or it could go straight through. The 22 pistol is small, light and controllable. It's a great thing to learn with.

The 22 is probably one of the only calibers that was designed from the start to be able to be suppressed as it is already nearly subsonic. How bout a .25?

I've seen plenty of jams with 10-22's. Rimfire ammo isn't the most consistent and reliable, especially the cheap stuff. You couldn't prove to me that the Marlin 795 isn't just as reliable as any .22 auto on the market. I have two of it's direct ancestors with essentially the same design, a model 995 and 989m2 that have been more reliable than several other makes of .22 auto's I've owned, including several 10-22's. The 989m2 was my first .22 rifle purchased in 1976 and has had 10's of thousands of rounds put through it. I could count the number of malfunctions with it that weren't the fault of dud ammo on my fingers.

Are you shooting One or Two Thousand bullets from the living room sofa (through the window) this fine day?

I've got the Taurus-made copy of the Winchester 63 semi-auto .22. Had it for about fifteen years. Never a jam that I can recall. You can really spit them out fast with it. Ten round tubular magazine. Nice crisp trigger. If that were all I had, I doubt I'd feel all that badly armed in the home, loaded up with ten rounds of CCI Mini Mags.



But since I do own ARs and shotguns, those are what I keep at the ready instead, along with some Glocks, one of which is usually on me, even while home, or in the night stand.

There has been a considerable amount of information stated here.

I'll add my two cents.My concern would be the ability of a .22 to penetrated a perp when they're wearing heavy clothing,such as leather.

The firearm also would have to be reliable as others have stated.

Probably none today. Got firewood that needs stacking and a crossbow that needs sighting in.

I am starting to wonder if all these stories about pin balling 22 rounds are some covert attempt at getting the old long rifle round banned.....or at least classified as a destructive device.

So sorry GI, this was only a CB short round. YMMV.





Forwards and backwards. Bullet was recovered about 6" deep in the neck muscle.

The 10/22 is close at hand for rogue squirrels getting too close to the house. But next to it is a lil trapper .30/.30 for things that go bump in the night.

As others have said, it’s hard to duplicate the stress of a home invasion. To date most stressful situations I’ve performed reasonably. But I’ve never endured the stress of a home invasion. At the range I can obliterate an apple with the 25 round mag. 👍🏻

But a stranger in my house ? I want the biggest target I can acquire. Ergo torso, if I hit a limb instead of torso, I want more effect than what the .22 provides.

Will say I know the .22 to be deadly, wife’s grandma FBI ( that’s full blooded Indian ) shot a guy between the eyes that had just shot her husband w a .38 in the hip, and he dropped cold stone dead. The guy w the .38 not her hubby, he lived. He had a partner w him that might have met a similar fate, but her .22 jammed after the first shot 🤷🏻‍♂️

Everyone’s comfort level is different and you’re certainly not unarmed w a .22. I just prefer to be more heavily armed in an invasion scenario.

I was working for a butcher back in the late 1960's and an old man brought in a sow for us to finish butchering. His plan was to shoot it with a .22, stick it and let us do the rest. After He shot up all of His .22 shells, He knocked the sow in the head with a hammer and stuck it. After scalding, gutting and cooling, when we started to work on the sow and was skinning the head out, there was about 20, .22 short hollow points that had gone through the skin and fat, and was up against the front of the skull. None penetrated the skull at all. Now this was a pretty fat sow, and a wild hog will little fat would be different, but it does shot that because things might work in one instance, it might not work in another. Home defense, of personal defense needs to work all the time. miles

And now you know why I don't care for HP ammo for the .22 RF.

Put me in the camp of not wanting to be staring down the business end of a .22 rimfire firearm...

I agree. Solids only, for self-defense in a .22. Penetration is the most important factor when you're talking about a .22 in this context.

in my op a 22 is better than a 25 auto . when I was 17 I got shot with a 25 in my right shoulder from the back over a pool game. at first I though I got hit with a pool cue once out side I found out I was bleeding I took my jean jacket off and it pulled the 25 cal hp out of the hole. may have been 1/4in deep wound. I have seen 22 solids get a lot better penetration

I did screw up one day and killed a pig with a LR. CCI SV thru the neckbone. It's connected to the headbone.