Vern Humphrey, I have another, similar High Standard .22 story. At the local tavern, a man and his girlfriend were minding their own business when a bully-type drunk began trying to pick a fight. They tried to just leave but the bully followed them out and blind sided the man, knocking him down. Then the bully jumped on top of him and began to seriously beat him. The girlfriend ran to their car, parked nearby, and got her fella's High Standard Double Nine Longhorn .22 revolver, ran back to the fight ( probably better described as a beating), and she fired into the bully's back from about three feet until the pistol went click, click, click. Now, she wasn't a gun person and had every intention of sending the bully off to begin keeping the grand secret, but the pistol had been loaded with .22 birdshot, so he just got a really interesting looking back out of it. He did, however, decide to stop his assault. We weren't sure if the pistol was fully loaded when she started or not, but it was full of empties when she stopped. Her boyfriend said he had shot it some and may or may not have loaded it back up. Short of counting all the itty-bitty holes, there just wasn't any way to tell. The local prosecutor didn't file any charges against her. I thought she did well, myself.
I'm not saying .22 birdshot is a good defensive round so don't EVEN go there, but it did save one guy's bacon, one time.
Steve