Post in main forum made me think, such as I'm able. Guess I'm counting on a poor 'lil .22 more often than not, because it's on me most. Not in the house, or traveling. I've got .38s,.357s,.44s,.45s,
more than I need, and shoot them all at times. Shotguns, rifles, ditto. But I've lived in the Rockies (CO,UT,WY,MT) or Ozarks (MO)
all my life, now split time between, always in rural areas. With .22 handguns, I've killed mice,gophers,ground squirrels, tree squirrels, rats, packrats,muskrats, beaver, skunk, possum, coon,
3 non-trapped coyotes (don't know how many trapped), armadillo, snakes, lizards,prairie dogs, badger (tough!), deer/elk/antelope
(road casualties), beef, chickens, lamb, hogs, 1 suffering horse,
and even fish (long ago, no tackle, 2 days hungry), cottontails, jackrabbits, dogs and cats- that's all I can think of right now.
Mostly I just had it with me when I needed it. It's light, easy, and works. I'm no LEO or serviceman, God bless them. But I'm blessed enough to live where few mean folks are, most of the time
and if they ever show up I guess I may be stuck with a .22, if I don't see them coming. I rely on it because my main reason for it isn't really defense. Now I feel a little better about myself... I use a .22 most because I think I may have more use for a handgun,
than most people.

I remember reading a story about an American Indian who hunted for regular sustenance. He only used a Smith & Wesson K-22 (Model 17). He regularly took deer with it, and insisted on using longs vs long rifle because he insisted the latter was too destructive of meat. I believe he always found a side shot through the lungs.

Well, I've only shot 1 healthy deer with a .22, an old rifle. I was a kid working in high country and my boss kinda insisted. Knocked him down in the garden, then he got up and took off and we chased him til he got a .270 in him. Never again. To put one down, from behind where the head joins the neck is my spot. Lots of roadkill around here.

I hope your decision does not come back and bite you in the azz. As I said in the other thread, the reason to carry an effective caliber pistol is to stop the threat right then and there.
Yep, a .22 will kill a squirrel, or rabbit, or human. It may well NOT stop an aggressive attacker though, until he has done grievous bodily harm to you.
Free country, so carry what you want, for what ever reason makes sense to ya.

...the last three shooting cases I worked...the BadGuys in those cases would argue with you...all dropped right there and none survived.

Putting the bullet where you want it to go is generally much more important than caliber. Having to deal with a big bear is one thing but 99% of will go our whole lives without ever being in the same state as a big bear let alone ever even seeing one.

Bob

The .22LR may be the most useful cartridge of all.

hackelwrap01,what .22 handgun was it you did all that killing with?
Back in the day I carried a High Standard HD Military ,22 pistol and killed quite a few specimens with it,all though I never killed big game with it.I would never shoot big game with a .22 handgun unless it was a life or death situation.I did shoot a spike buck one time with a .22 rifle at about 50 or 60 yards and drooped him in his tracks.I hit him just next to one eye with a Remington Yellow Jacket and it was lights out.

I want another one, I have been through 1 Ruger mark III hunter (too heavy too big), two Smith 63s (both would not shoot for beans), and one Bersa 22 (trigger stuck back when you shot it) in the last year, all had issues. There may be some Karma against me and 22's. I may try the ruger SR22 in a month or two. I keep wondering how well those little ruger 22 revolvers shoot as well. Finally why does every one want to put that stupid fiber optic front sight on a 22?

maybe you could talk all the LEO guys in your state into packing a .22 then. Bet they would jump all over that idea.

and you fall into the fallacy of suggesting that only a fellow shooting a .22 can place his bullet accurately.

Fiber optic sights are the work of beelzebub.

+1.........

I've used several neat .22s as regulars- an HD Military, a Sport King, a Woodsman Match Target (wanna cry even now) were all among them. For the last 2o years, it's been mostly a Buckmark,
but I also have a 22/45 that sees regular service. As far as it coming back on me, I hope it doesn't, too- when I go where more people are, I usually pack a 1911.

hacklewrap:

What you're doing right now is perfect. Don't change a thing.

more deer have been killed with a 22 lr than any other cartridge
I would gamble to say ALL other calibers put together!

As a youngin we shot our share.
My brother insisted on a neck shot. My FIL? only eye shots!
I would always shoot for the heart. And most never took more than a few steps.

I hunted deer with subsonic lr's and a homemade silencer on a Marlin rifle. You could only hear the spring and hammer drop.

I usually found the spent slug just inside the hide on the far side.
And lots of protein was put on the table.

The Smith 17, BuckMarks, Woodsman all fine handguns, I take my 17 to the range everytime as it's a darn site less expensive to run a brick thru than the .357 ,44 ,etc.
I have killed quite a few butcher hogs and beef with the 22lr, and considerable small game with the 22 shorts even.

I don't carry it when on the mule though. Thank God I have never had to put down a mule in the back country,but I have had to put down a few horses that did not belong to me that had met with mishaps. It's darn hard to insure an eye shot or the like with a thrashing around horse thata 22lr requires.

If I have to go back the next day to a pack an elk out there is a definite possibilty of having to chase a black bear from the kill.I did it last year. Although most will run that sow with a cub was intent of getting her fill of meat. Further confrontation might have left me a little anxious if all I had was a 22.

For those reasons I carry the .357 Security Six or Ruger 44 mag BH if I don't have a rifle along.

An African bull elephant has been take with a 22.
I have put 6 hollow point 22 rounds through the bodies of many 1 pound 6 month old roosters, and they do not even develop a limp.

So obviously, shot placement is important.

I have shot many raccoons with a 22, and body shots are no good, I need a head shot.

There was some Quickshock 22 ammo from Brazil that was loaded hot. It will stop the big rock chuck marmots with a body shot, so they don't make it back to the hole.

Stevens 22 single shot with 6" barrel chronographed at 1240, 1286 fps with 32 gr.


I would pay $1/ round, if I could get more.

The best gun for the job is the one you have with you. I've killed more critters with a .38 special than all the others I've had combined, and usually because I had it with me at the time.

Clark...check out CCI..they are now marketing the Quik-Shok and it is much more accurate that the old stuff was...

Bob

Agreed. Fiber optic sights were zombie before zombie was zombie.

CT, don't leave us hanging....elaborate, please! How's come?????
....U 2 Bruinruin.....

Hard to argue with success and sounds like the Op has had plenty of it. Truth be told I'm not far off in his thinkin. When it comes to useful tools in the gun world the .22 is right there with the best. Now if you spend most of the time in the city and only use guns to fend off the boogie man than I could see how your view of what "useful" is could be warped. But for anyone spending a good chunk of their time roaming the back roads and in the field a .22lr makes a hell of a lot better sense than some compact, centerfire brass chucker or a .357 snub doesn't it?

But personally I've decided that when it comes to handguns I'd be better off with a centerfire if forced to pick only one. No, I'm not worried about the boogie man and yes 99.9% of my kills in the woods are small to middle sized critters. So why would I choose a centerfire over a .22lr? Cause I can reload my .32H&R or even my .357 to be more than friendly on small game while still having better capabilities when critters get bigger and tougher.

The only disadvantage I have with that choice is reloading. I know many of you enjoy reloading; I'm not one of them. If I had my druthers I'd never reload another round in my life. But to afford to shoot centerfires I have to reload so it's become a necessary evil and one very very big advantage to the .22lr.

Twixt reliance, reloading, and reality ... it's all a 'Catch 22'.

God bless the .22's.



Travis

Try it - you'll love it.. When ya get old and eyesight decreases, you'll appreciate that FO front sight.. I know I do..

Know what I'd love to see? And SR-22M (.22 magnum)... THAT'D be the catz azz...

Can't speak for CT, but for me there are 2-3 reasons.

-The FO front sights tend to be a bit bigger and blot out a bit more target.

-From what I've seen they are less sturdy than standard sights.

-In bright light they absorb and transmit so much light that they get a big fuzzy and less precise.

Great for certain applications, but not for most uses, IMHO.

Last month, I found something while returning from a bowhunt at about noon that was not there at 5 a.m. when I was going into the woods in the dark. If I carry a .22 handgun in the woods, which is rare, it is a second handgun. I just keep it simple and stick with my city gear almost all the time, maybe with an ammo change.

coyote or wolf

Much bigger than usual coyote scat and also had berry seeds in it.

Bear???

I whole heartedly agree with what Chris said. 22s are just great fun ! Cheap to shoot, low noise, and virtually no recoil. If I could only have 1 handgun, id probably go with some kind of center fire semi, for home protection and make it do for plinking too. But if I were to get a 2nd gun, it would be a 22 of some kind, they work well on alot of small game, and are terrific plinkers ! Travis, did you use snake shot on that thing, or a regular 22 round ? If shot, what was the distance ?

So on the main forum, you were talking about defense, but here I can clearly see that your main purpose for a handgun is for the woods or trail, and self defense against 2 legged varmints is quite secondary; that makes sense.

I�m a big fan of .22lr snake shot. Not it doesn�t kill a snake DRT with one shot, often not even with the second�them snakes tend to hold onto life rather dearly. But .22lr snake shot does STOP most snakes right now�the second and third shots just make me feel better�more humane, that�s what I always tell myself.

For the woods, I often choose my centerfires mostly because I don�t have any picket .22�s. One of these days I hope to pick up a Beretta Model 70 in .22lr to go along with my .32 ACP, and then I�m betting it will go with me into the woods an awful lot. My biggest concern here in the Ozarks are Copperheads�man do they ever blend in, and about the first chance you know they�re there is when they�re sinking their teeth into you. Other than that, it�s just pest animals around the farm when they become a problem, which is pretty rare. We have bears but I�ve never even heard rumor of anyone being bothered by bears. We see their droppings when we go into the woods, but we never see the bears; we must grow them smart round these parts I guess.

If I ever encountered a 2 legged varmint that was intent on killing me or mine, I guess my .22 could get the job done�but. Honestly, as soon as I feel I can�t wander the woods without that threat; first I�ll start packing the .45, then I�ll start shopping for a new place to live.

Yessir, you got it. For me, the most likely uses have always been
non-humanoid, and often enough to warrant carrying something, but something I can shoot well enough. My basic pistol needs are more basic .22 LR needs, and I hope never to need more. Not that I don't carry other things,EVER...I've taken 2 elk & 1 muley buck
with my old SBH, and came near doing another elk, last week. In winter, I've taken to a snubby .357, cause it fits in my coat pocket and there are lions sometimes back of my house. When I'm enroute to my Ozarks place for awhile, my favorite 1911 is on me.
Once I get there, I switch to the .22 except for trips to town-
I know about your copperheads, my cabin is on Big Sugar Creek.
Most of my shooting is around my house, here or there. For perspective, I only live 3 miles from the nearest town- but it's
42 miles to the nearest stoplight, and 90 to the nearest mall.

I am often puzzled by the references to a "trail/defense" gun. The two situations call for totally different weapons in my experience. Not that there couldn't be some cross-over in an unusual situation. While it's "possible" that I might need to defend myself from a human-type threat while in the woods......it's also possible that A satalite could fall from space and land on me too, but it's hardly likely. I go with Kevin.....if I REALLY feel I need to worry about self defense while walking the woods......I'll find a new place to woods walk.

I do carry a .22 in the woods quite a bit because it's just so useful for "normal" game encountered. It will easily dispatch snakes and other small varmits and does a great job on edible small game such as squirrels and rabbits. However, even though I know the .22 "can" be used on larger game, the likelyhood of running across a hog in the areas I hunt means I most often have something a bit heavier whenever I am more than very near the house.

Most often I tend to carry a revolver in .45 Colt or a 1911 type auto in .45ACP or 10mm. The 1911 is NOT because I think it is a "better" defense round, but because I "like" it and know it works well on hogs.

If I somehow manage to dodge the falling space junk and have to defend myself from a human......I really don't think the SAA in .45 Colt will result in my doom. Odd, but in my experience, "packs" of human preditors are pretty rare in my neck of the woods. Six shot single actions seem as effective as 20+ shot semi-autos against any threat I might encounter.

I think most need to come back to reality. If you need a "trail" gun....then talk about trail guns. If you feel the need for (and think it likely you WILL need) a defense gun.....then carry a shotgun in the first place.

Travis, have you shot that gun on paper at 15 feet? I know its not a 25 yard gun however the two 63's I had would not put 8 into less than 3 inches at 15 feet. I am curious! I may need one of those ruger 22 revolvers.

I wear snake boots and carry a smith 38 special, two loads are snake shot 3 are Speer gold dots, I figure I got most things covered with that combo.

25yds. Strong side barricade:


Buy my friend, buy.


Travis