Re-posted from Matthew Donovan’s THE WRITING GUNSMITH web page
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I remember receiving my first .22 handgun; it was an inheritance from my grandfather when I was 11 years old. That gun was a Colt Woodsman. That may have been the start of my passion for .22s; it was undoubtedly the start of my love for collecting. I remember my father showing me how to look up that Colt in the Blue Book. Every year, when my father purchased a new Blue Book, I would crack it open and see what my Colt Woodsman was up to. That little auto loader spent countless hours dragging down my pants as a boy. I remember crawling through the alfalfa at a ranch near Jiggs, Nevada, desperately trying to get close enough to a ground squirrel to zap it with my Colt. I can’t remember if I got it or even took a shot, but I remember having fun. There is probably a lesson about hunting somewhere in there, but I will let you all figure that out.
There is nothing I love more than a .22. At one point, I collected .22s, rifles, and handguns and had over sixty. I have pared down that collection to just my favorites, but a peek into my safe will tell you they are still a favorite of mine.
Reasons to love a .22 handgun.
If you want to discuss versatility, the .22 has it in spades. Especially today, with the wide selection of ammo available, a .22 handgun can do almost anything you want.
Defense.
Let’s start with the least appropriate role for the .22 handgun. Now, of course, a .22 handgun is not going to protect you from bears in Alaska, but contrary to what the keyboard warriors of the internet think, it’s not entirely useless. Don’t get me wrong, as a defense round, .22 is the most underwhelming of all cartridges, and there is no doubt about it. But is it useless? Certainly not. The only useless defense gun is the one that you leave at home. That is where the .22 shines in the defense world. They are often small and light, making them comfortable and easy to carry. Oftentimes, they are easier to manipulate than a larger firearm. They are certainly easier to shoot accurately and quickly, especially for those new to shooting; no one would argue with that. Finally, they usually carry much more ammo than a similarly sized firearm chambered in a more substantial cartridge. These are the virtues of a .22 as a defensive firearm. Now, let’s discuss the drawbacks and explore potential ways to mitigate them. Anyone who hunts with a handgun knows that four factors affect the lethality of a round: velocity, penetration, bullet weight, and bullet diameter (through size or expansion), and unless you are willing to pack around a 460 Smith & Wesson, you are not going to get all four categories into your carry gun. At some point in the history of firearms, the FBI decided that the standard for handgun defensive prowess was the ability to pass through two layers of denim and 15 inches of ballistic gelatin. Since then, the defensive ammo market has gone crazy over this goal. So much so that I think they have many times made worse ammo.
For instance, in the CCI 22 Punch Ammo, they made a solid bullet with almost no meplat (the flat face on a solid bullet) to achieve the stated FBI goal. I would rather see a bullet that does more damage with less penetration, not that penetration isn’t essential; it is, if you don’t make it to the vitals, then all you are doing is causing flesh wounds, and vice versa if your bullet makes it to the vitals but then does no damage when it gets there you are also out of luck. My daily defensive carry is a .38 Special Smith & Wesson J-Frame in my pocket. I have a Smith & Wesson Model 317 J-Frame that is the understudy to that gun. It’s an all-aluminum eight-shot .22 LR. Sometimes, I swap my .38 for the 317, usually when I’m going out hunting. I do this because my concealed weapon is then pulling double duty as a defensive weapon and a trail gun with the potential to bring home some dinner. As for ammunition, I carry CCI Stingers, which are high-velocity hollow points. In a snub-nose revolver, they achieve a remarkably close approximation to the ballistics of a .22 Magnum. They are cheaper than Punch Ammo and kill small game more effectively. No matter what ammo you choose, .22 LR only has defensive use at touching distances, but hey, it’s better than brass knuckles. Reliability is the last issue that needs to be discussed when choosing .22 as a defensive round. No rimfire cartridge is as reliable as a centerfire cartridge. That’s all there is to it, though I have found that this downfall is nearly mitigated if higher-quality ammo is chosen over the cheap “bulk pack” offerings. That’s another good advantage to selecting a revolver. If a round doesn’t fire in a semi-automatic, a whole series of firearm manipulations must be done to clear the offending round and get another one ready to fire; with a double-action revolver, you simply pull the trigger again.
Even if you don’t plan on carrying your .22 defensively, getting one as an understudy to your actual carry gun is a great idea. Almost any firearm used defensively has a .22 LR counterpart that can be purchased for inexpensive training and other purposes, which will be discussed later. Even the most affordable 9mm ammo costs three times as much as the most expensive .22 ammo.
Yes, the .22 LR is certainly not an ideal defensive round, but if that is the gun you commit to carrying every day, all day, then you are doing better than those who leave their gun in their sock drawer.
Hunting.
Hunting is my favorite use of the .22 LR handgun. Many people don’t give much thought to small game hunting, and I think that’s terrible. Here in Nevada, big game tags are not as easy to come by as they used to be, but even when they were, small game hunting has always made up the bulk of my outdoor time. Adding the extra challenge of hunting with a handgun makes it all the more enjoyable. Hunting with a handgun even puts you at an advantage for many small game species. Close-range cottontails in the thick brush are more manageable with a handgun as long as my shooting is on point. Hunting with a handgun also enhances your handgun training. So much defensive training is conducted at high speeds against steel targets. I’m here to tell you, though, that you spend some time shooting tree squirrels or cottontail rabbits in the head, offhand at 25 or more yards, and you will see those rapid-fire steel target scores go up. Even nongame species can be hunted and eaten. For instance, marmots (also known as rock chucks, woodchucks, and groundhogs) are found throughout the United States, considered good eating, and classified as varmints. Here in Nevada, black-tailed jackrabbits are traditionally a varmint and available to shoot year-round. I have even heard of people eating ground squirrels; although I have never tried them, there is no reason they wouldn’t be good to eat. Almost every state has some edible critter that can be hunted with a .22 handgun year-round, and if you can’t find anything to hunt, we move on to our last category.
Fun!
Rimfire handguns are just plain fun. Nowadays, people have forgotten how to set a pop can on a hill and do a little shooting (just remember to pick it up and throw it away when you are done; it seems people have forgotten that, too). I also love walking in the desert and shooting random things, such as twigs and rocks, on a distant hillside. I’m lucky in that regard. Here in Nevada, we have the space to do that, and I can do it just a couple of minutes from my home. Even though this is not formal “training,” you will be surprised at how much a person will improve by going out and having fun. As a child, my father and I would spend countless hours just “plinking” after school, or on a slow weekend. We would grab a .22 and head out back to a little abandoned gravel pit near our home and just shoot. We would make up little games, which I never won, but we had lots of fun.
To this day, at 80 years old, my father steps out behind his house in the desert and “plinks” on the small shooting range he has in his backyard. It’s fun, and it never gets old, especially if you like collecting guns. Oftentimes, gun companies use the .22 LR as an experimental base for new guns, so there have been a lot of strange .22s out there that can be purchased for next to nothing. The other day, I picked up a Ruger standard model from a pawn shop for $200. The standard model was Bill Ruger’s first foray into the semi-auto market and still lives on today as the MK IV series of handguns. That aspect alone can give a person a lifetime of fun shooting. A lot of really fine .22 handguns spend their days collecting dust in pawn shops and gun stores. Give them a home and have some fun.
Get out there, whether it be defense, hunting, or just having fun. Grab a .22 and head out into the country, or better yet, grab a buddy or a kid and make a two-dollar bet on who can pick that 40-yard pinecone off that hillside before the other can. See who can bounce a tin can the farthest. I love collecting guns, but they are meant to be shot. Enjoy them and share the fun with anyone around you.
