Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Pretty much every book on preparedness goes on at length about the utility and versatility of the .22 LR cartridge. Its promoted as ideal for small game, training new shooters, pest control, dissuading bad guys and ‘plinking’. I think probably every one of us started their shooting careers with the little .22…and that’s probably as it should be.
I enjoy shooting although, honestly, my ‘recreational’ and ‘goofing around’ shooting has almost disappeared in the last few years. Now my shooting is mostly about upkeep and refining defensive skills, evaluating guns and ammo, hunting, sighting in guns or other serious stuff.
Nothing wrong with that, of course…the world is a different place than it was five or ten years ago so naturally my focus is going to be on different things as well. Once in a while, though, I do get nostalgic for when I used to sling a rifle and some ammo, get on the motorcycle, drive out of town and spend the day wandering around a pasture shooting gophers.
Anyway….back to the ubiquitous .22.
For the .22 rifle everyone seems to, at some point, champion the Ruger 10/22. Ruger’s little autoloader has been around for a little short of fifty years. In that time it’s pretty much become the benchmark of .22 semiauto rifles. It isn’t the most accurate, it isn’t the most elegant, and it isn’t the most expensive. It is, however, the most versatile and rugged .22 that youre probably ever going to find. Aftermarket parts are more available for the 10/22 than any other .22 rifle. Folding stocks, aftermarket barrels, magazines, sights, etc, etc…theres parts out there to turn your 10/22 into whatever it is you envision it to be.
Like most of Rugers guns, the 10/22 is simple, has modular subassemblies, is durable beyond reason, and priced pretty affordably. Plus, assuming you clean it every so often, shoot decent ammo, and use good magazines, theyre as reliable as can be.
If someone said to me “Look, I’ve only got a limited amount of money. I need a .22 that will take abuse like a White House press secretary, never break, always have parts available in case it does break, be easy to maintain and clean, and be adaptable to different situations…whaddya recommend?” I’d hand ‘em the 10/22 and point them to the internet for accessories.
Other .22’s? For a bolt action .22 I am a huge fan of the Marlins. I am especially a fan of their tube-feed bolt guns. I usually don’t care for detachable magazines in a non-defensive fun since its just one more thing to get lost, so I prefer the tube magazines over the detachable ones. The tube magazines, however, are not without their own problems. Dent one and you may have some feeding problems. I don’t mind the detachable mag for the Ruger because the magazines are ubiquitous…I can get them anywhere.
I’m also a fan of the CZ rifles and I would very much like to get one o their long-barrelled Lux rifles to play with. For ‘serious’ gopher shooting I think they or one of the new Savages would be tough to beat. Savages AccuTrigger system has a lot of appeal and if I were choosing between the CZ and the Savage I think my head would explode at having to decide between those two fine guns.
What don’t I care for in a .22 rifle? Remington autoloaders that get orphaned pretty quickly as Big Green changes designs and discontinues models after only a few years of weak sales. The AR-7 takedown rifles are a great idea and once in a blue moon you get a good one but otherwise they are just trouble. If you want a takedown rifle either get a 10/22 with an aftermarket takedown barrel/stock kit or, as a second choice, get a Marlin Papoose. Personally, a Ruger 10/22 with a Butler Creek sidefolding stock and a short 16” barrel is about as compact as you can get. If you want to go even smaller, get Rugers 10/22 pistol, the Challenger. I hear excellent things about it for accuracy, most parts will interchange, the mags will interchange, and if you feel like doing the paperwork you can make it fit a side folding stock and make a cute little .22 PDW out of it.
In pistols, the choices are a little clearer. The Ruger 10/22 is the most common autoloader in rifles and I would say their Mk II and Mk III semiauto pistols are the most common in the way of handguns. I prefer the Mk II models over the newer Mk III because I dislike many of the new safety features on the Mk III. Like the 10/22, the pistols have a huge following of aftermarket parts and magazines.
Other .22 semiauto pistols worth a mention, in my opinion, are the old S&W 422 series and their variants. Extremely flat and lightweight I think they made excellent ‘kit guns’ for tossing into backpacks and tackleboxes. They haven’t been made in about ten or fifteen years but they were excellent little guns.
Im not usually a fan of .22 versions of fullsize pistols except as used for economical training and practice. For example, why carry a 1911 in .22 except to practice your handling skills? The nice thing about .22s are that they are light and easy to carry, so if Im wandering around the hills I’d rather have a small, compact, light .22 than one that is unnecessarily bulky and heavy. However, for practicing sight picture acquisition, move-shoot drills, etc, etc, I am a big fan of .22 caliber full-scale guns that duplicate the centerfire versions. Or, if available, conversion kits.
For .22 revolvers, pretty much any of the big name brands will be good. A Smith or Ruger or even a Taurus would probably be my first choices. I would stay away from ‘bargain’ brands like imported stuff from EAA or other importers. The quality, especially in the timing of the revolvers, just doesn’t seem to be there.
For ammo, I really like the bulk Federal stuff. I get fewer misfires with the Federal in automatics than any other brand, The Remington, in my experience, misfires too often for my tastes. However, in a bolt gun the Remington seems to perform just as well in terms of reliability. Still, any difference in price is niggling so I just stock up on the Federal stuff. The only exception is that I find my Beretta 21A pocketgun prefers CCI Stingers. I keep a couple hundred rounds around for that gun, but otherwise we just keep the Federal ammo.
Two is one and one is none, so we have several 10/22 rifles. One is in a Butler Creek folding stock, one is a special limited edition stainless with a longer-than-normal barrel, and then theres a couple older wood-stocked ones that are just for knocking around. For folding stocks, get the Butler Creek…theyre rugged, lock up solidly, and work well. For magazines, the Butler Creek steel lip mags are the best, in my opinion. Theyre a bit more expensive than the plastic Hot Lips magazine they also produce, but they’re worth it. I had some BC Hot Lips mags that I bought before the ban in 1994 and they just started acting up a few years ago. The steel lipped mags wont have feeding problems after a decade of use. However, because of pricing, I stock up on the Hot Lips mags. To be fair, I only had a few of the Hot Lips mags during the ban so they got used quite a bit. Im sure that if I had five or six mags to spread my usage over they would have lasted longer.
Succinctly, if I had none of these things and was going to tromp down to the gun store, my shopping list would look like this:
Ruger 10/22, blued or stainless, doesn’t really matter
Ruger Mk II or Mk III, I prefer stainless for the pistol
A dozen Butler Creek 10/22 mags
A dozen Ruger-branded Mk II or MkII mags (they are not interchangeable, so be careful)
Butler Creek side folder stock
.22 Bore Snake
Sling
Holster (careful, the front sight blade on the Mk II/III can hook the inside of a holster and make the gun impossible to remove. Kydex is a good choice here.)
As many bricks of .22 Federal as I can afford
What about the .17 and the .22 Mag? Both are great cartridges and ballistically superior to the .22 LR. However, both are much more expensive and not nearly as common as .22 LR ammo. When I acquire guns I try to make sure its in something I can find ammo for whether Im in a MiniMart in Montana, a hardware store in Houston or a yard sale in Yakima. No doubt about it, theres better rimfire cartridges than the .22 LR in terms of ballistics and performance but none easier to find or as widely supported.
Is the .22 a defensive cartridge? I suppose, inasmuch as any cartridge can be used for such tasks. Detractors will point out that a fella can do a lot of damage before even noticing he’s been shot with one, and supporters will point out that getting shot a few times with a .22 is far more damaging than not getting shot at all. Mel Tappan thought that the .22 was handy for responding to bad guys laying siege against one’s retreat…a volley of return fire from the lowly .22 might make the bad guys think that their victims are poorly armed and thus lure the bad guys closer in for a vicious followup with more powerful weapons. Interesting theory. Truth is, the gun you have with you is far better than not having a gun at all. If all you have is a pocket .22 youre still far ahead of the fella with no gun at all. However, it’s never, ever my first choice if I thought something bad was imminent.
Is the .22 a hunting cartridge? Many folks say that its great for quietly poaching deer. Plenty of dead deer out there, no two ways about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good first choice for deer hunting. If I were on a plane that went down in Alaska and all I had to forage with was a .22 that’s one thing but fortunately I have better alternatives available to me.
But the .22 is versatile enough that you could protect yourself with it if you had to and you could knock down a deer with it if you had to, but it wouldn’t be easy, it wouldn’t be a good idea, and it would never be a preferred way of doing things. But…if you had to….
If you have a .22 rifle and pistol you like, keep it. Theres plenty of alternatives to my favorites out there. I’m just telling you what I like and why.
