Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .22 Long Rifle Pistol as Primary Carry Gun

many many years ago i got a call to the local hospital for a gunshot situation. 20 year old something had a .22lr wound upper leg, tranversed all the way down and lodged in the ankle area. How did this ocurr? Well, the gun malfunctioned was the answer. It couldn't be because you were playing fast draw and goofed up? The real story. Quite interesting when the doc got these long forceps to pull the bullet out while i restrained him. Think he probably never did that again.
I use to keep a ruger mark I around the house. You could dump one in just a second or two. Kind of like a load of buckshot.

I've had way to many FTF's with rimfire ammo to ever consider it for anything except putting small game on the table and plinking! JMHO

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/07/dean-weingarten/man-kills-9-foot-bear-45/



Many people claim that handguns are useless for protection against bears. Numerous examples have shown that this is a false notion. Handguns may not be ideal as defensive weapons for bears, but they can be effective. In a defensive situation, you have to use what is available. In this case, a homeowner in Alaska used a .45 against a brown bear that was trying to get into his house on July 7th of this year. He and his son were in the home. He had scared off the animal with some warning shots just three hours before. adn.com picks up the story . . .


“I couldn’t believe that it came back,” he said.

Landess grabbed his .45 pistol, stepped out onto his upper deck, took aim and fired seven rounds toward the bear’s vitals. He said the bear “got crazy” and ran about 50 feet before it collapsed and died.

Landess said while he has seen bears around his property, living in close proximity to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, he had never experienced one this aggressive. He said he didn’t have any food around his house that could have attracted the bear but did have an empty cooler on his porch that the bear tossed around along with some chairs. He said this was the first big game he’d ever killed.

“I’m not a hunter; I’m a fisherman,” he said. “It wasn’t something I wanted to do. I wanted to scare him off.”

A comment by Landess’ son on ADN.com gives us some more details: The pistol was a Hi-Point .45, and while seven shots were fired, only one shot hit the bear.

Yes that was my dad and he shot it with a highpoint 45. Shot at it 7 times but only one shot hit in the directed area. One threw the lung dropped it

A 9mm or 38 is a comfortable minimum for me to pack. With mild cast loads it'll cover the small game chores of a 22rf, and with full patch loads it handle tasks I wouldn't be comfortable using a 22 for.

Not to mention if you cast and reload ammo is cheaper than 22rf.

I use to load Stingers, but found CCI Velocitors to be hotter and a hell of a lot more accurate. Full 40gr. bullet. I see Winchester has a 40gr. load now. Almost as hot as the Velocitors.

There’s a fairly decent chance that my theory may come face to face with reality at the cabin one day, especially for stargazing or after the inside water is turned off for the season and I have to use the outhouse, and I just feel more comfortable with a little more insurance that doesn’t really cost anything extra. If somebody says they’re only black bears or a little kitty (or a momma moose with babies) and they only need a .22, they certainly are free to make their choice. I can’t comprehend a cattle rancher on Kodiak carrying a Woodsman or all you Alaska and Montana people carrying .22s (or Idaho .32 guy) as primaries off pavement.

I must be a weenie. At least if I go to Glock Talk some guy from Atlanta will assure me I am crazy to go out there with anything less than a belt fed long gun with a .454 for a backup.

Heck, I can't even walk the dog around my neighborhood without bumping into these guys.

I figured that.

I wanted to jump on this one's back and kill it with a tactical pen to one-up Rockchucker





Unfortunately, I wasn't there at the time and I didn’t have a tag.

Stop using Remington thunderbolts

Been tons of Mtn lions killed with 22 handguns. I know that usually means over dogs but it goes to show that it can be done. Killed a few big Angus cows with my Single six and the lr cylinder.

Know a guy who shot himself thru the leg with a 22 short out of a Bearcat. Said his immediate reaction was to roll on the ground and kick and scream, felt like his leg had caught fire.

Having had all my front teeth blown out I can say with some certainty that a 40 grainer in someones dental work would likely stop most any fight and right now.

just wow! is that a story you'd share with us?



that's an Ingram #4, one of my all time favorites.

Also many years ago, a friend shot himself in a similar way with a .22 LRHP playing fast draw. After he finally got out of the hospital, he became the most careful person with a gun I've ever known.

Everyone ought to own a .22 rifle and pistol. They're just too damn much fun to not own a few.

I can understand a guy carrying a .22lr for defense if that's the only thing he has. But if you were to take two guns of the same make, one in .22lr and one in .38 special, and the guy chooses the .22lr over the .38 special...well, that guy's kinda "special" if you ask me. Again, I'm talking about making a choice specifically for self defense.

Now I can understand it if it's a matter of someone who can't handle a lightweight J frame in .38 Special; they legitimately are a handful, and they are hard to connect with. A .22lr hit will beat a .38 special miss every day of the week. But if a guy can hit what he's aiming at with a J frame .38 special, but makes a conscious choice to carry the .22lr instead for self defense...that's just not a real bright decision.

Or perhaps it's because he's just not convinced he'll ever need the gun for self defense, but prefers to carry the .22lr J frame for convenience, snakes or shooting small game; that makes some sense.

sometimes I feel like giving schitt a sporting chance...

I have an air weight .38, but I still choose the .22. Like Clark/Travis a .22 may as well be a pocket knife, it's just handy to have, so familiarity is there. If someone told me to choose a pistol and hit something at 40yds, that would be it. If I had to empty a clip full into someone's belly faster than fast, it's still it. Most likely scenario for me is if something was jacking with my trash cans, the .22 gets the call.

They're just to damn handy and easy to shoot to get fooled by horsepower. Speed of fire and hits on target are the trump card in a bunch of scenarios.

How accurate and effective is a great shot when he's getting pelted with .22's? I'm betting he's gonna lose a few steps. And really I'm 1000% more likely to run into trash raiding coons or bunnies than a mugger who is that dedicated.

That choice makes no sense to me, unless someone is extremely recoil shy. In that case, a .22 beats the hell out of a sharp stick.

In the days of my misspent youth I killed a lot of "stuff" with a .22lr although most of it was with a rifle. It's amazing what a .22lr bullet can do to living things. I have a lot of respect for the killing/maiming power of that round........however I carry a .40 or a .45ACP for CCW.

One of our sons, while in medical school, did a rotation in a Cleveland hospital emergency room and treated about 40-45 gun shot wounds while in one of their finer neighborhoods in Cleveland. I asked him what he learned from that rotation, he bow hunts, rifle hunts, and fishes a lot, and he said "A .22lr might get'er done but if you want to make sure, a .40 or .45ACP is the way to go"

I've killed a few bears over bait with archery gear and like many of you know how tenacious bears like to cling to life. For the bears I carry a .44 Mag or 45 Colt when selecting a pistol and start at a .270 for the rifle work. Any firearm is better than nothing but I like a shooter with a big hole in the end of the barrel.

I don't mind. It wasn't a 40gr 22 bullet but about 4000 grains of what was once a pre64 M70 and good lord knows how much hot gas. Zeroing a rifle for a fellow and something let go. Blew the barrel and forend down range about 20' and the action was unrecognizable. I had all my front teeth basically vaporized and blown back into my mouth, my top lip nearly completely severed and hanging down on my chin, and my pallet broken and pushed down into my mouth. Thank goodness I was wearing safety glasses as I had a killer tattoo in a perfect outline around where they were of burning and little bits of brass and powder.
I never lost consciousness and walked myself into the ambulance but I had little else on my mind at the time, that's for sure.
Thanks to a good surgeon, who sewed everything back together while I watched so he wouldn't have to work around a breathing tube, you can hardly tell since my mustache has grown back. Had a bone graft to replace the missing part of my upper jaw and will get dental implants in a couple more months. Not a recommended experience for certain.

I hear you. I've got a lot of respect for what a .22 can do...to a possum.