What's So Special About .22lr?

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Mr.Blue

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I'm not looking to stir up controversy. I'm sincerely interested in learning why everyone loves their .22lr rifles so much.

I know they are cheap to feed. I know they were probably many people's first rifle. I know the round allows for quick follow up shots.

I have a .22lr rifle and it is very accurate. It has a thick barrel and a big stock, making it feel like a bigger hunting rifle. That said, I don't really feel like I'm shooting a real rifle. Due to the low recoil, I feel like I'm shooting a BB gun. I much prefer shooting my larger caliber rifles. Some people advocate using the .22 rifle for practice for the bigger rifles. I sometimes do this, but I feel the lack of recoil makes this practice unrealistic. I'd much rather use my 223/5.56 for this purpose, as it at least recoils slightly.

I understand that some people like to shoot squirrels and other small game for fun, but I don't just shoot creatures for the fun of it. I also would not eat squirrels! ;-)

Please help me appreciate the .22lr rifle.
 
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Cheap ammo, very accesable, and honestly can do alot more than people give it credit for.
I'm not saying to do it, and no I've not done/tried it, but .22lr can take whitetail...I know people...please don't flame me because of this comment, its merely being used as an example of its versatility in the hands of a decent marksman, in a "survival" situation...

P.S. Squirrel is delicious. :)
 
I also would not eat squirrels!
Click to expand...

You haven't gone hungry lately ! I much prefer rabbit myself, but when its time to put something on the table, you eat whatever you managed to shoot. 22 was much cheaper to do this with than a shotgun. A mute point for most today, but not all, and not always.

Never shot things I didn't eat other than for pest control or dispatching a sick animal.

The basics of shooting itself is what you can learn with the 22 caliber rimfire. Shooting doesn't take recoil - recoil is just a results of shooting. Building skills and taking small game with the cheap to shoot 22 rimfire is rewarding without the jar and the noise. Practical in many ways.
 
As you said price is scaled down.

Other apsects are scaled down also.
.22lr makes you a better shooter even though recoil is less. The bullet spends more time in the barrel so follow though is important. Trigger time is trigger time even if only dryfiring.
I have shot 1100 rds of .22lr in one day. That would be hard to do with centerfire. I shoot air rifle at home and a lot of .22lr at the range. Hardly any centerfire this year.
 
As for practice on the larger rifles, a .22 is an excellent tool for working on your head position behind the sights/scope, breathing, trigger squeeze, different field shooting positions, getting rid of a flinch etc etc. Once you have all of these down with the .22, then you transfer it over to the big boys and are the better marksman for the practice.
 
I like being able to shoot all afternoon for less than $20, compared to the cost of centerfire which is getting to be about a dollar a squeeze.

And I like being able to see what you hit because the rifle's not bucking up in your face.

You can sit on a hillside all afternoon and plink without worrying where your $500/thousand brass just flew off to.
 
You pretty much stated every single benefit to it that you already know. Now, if you don't like it then you don't like it. It is a great way to practice certain things without breaking the bank. Things like technique are easily practiced with them.
 
If your first rifle was a .22, and you learned to shoot "well" with it, you'll always go back to it, not just for sentimental reasons, because its a fun caliber of firearm to shoot. I have 5 .22 rifles, all of them shoot very well, I'll always have a .22 around the ranch, thats the way I grew up.
 
I think most of us had a .22 with us just about anytime we could when we were younger with it we learned many things from Kentucky windage to ethics. I hunted with it wandered with it and kept it under my bed at nite. It is like my pocketknife id feel naked without it. Got my first .22 when I was 5 or 6 and ill take one to the grave with me. Other than a pellet gun there is nothing else I can shoot in my yard without disturbing someone ( CB caps are the main ammo these days ). Even though it is kinda weak I still get to shoot allmost daily and the best way to stay sharp is comstant practice it is more about muscle memory than felt recoil. That dont mean I dont like full power rifle and pistol but it is not allways conveinent and even shooting reloads it can get pricey.
So there are a couple reasons im sure there are more to come !

T
 
I should add that I learned to shoot a rifle with a Remington 700 in 30-06. I know it was a tough way to learn, but I've become a pretty good shot. My dad was a Marine who qualified as Rifle Expert and he taught me on the 30-06 as a teenager. I'm a big guy so the recoil didn't bother me. I didn't get a .22lr rifle until a few years ago (35).
 
For those of us plinking instead of hunting I think it comes down pure and simple to the cheap cost of the ammo. But there's lots you can do to add back a bit more fun to the lowly .22's recoil... or lack thereof.

For many of us just seeing a tight group of holes in the paper on a windy day is enough of a reward. Gauging the wind to get the rounds on target out at around 150 to 200 yards with a little .22 can be quite challenging. I'm quickly learning that long range, for a .22, is quite a demanding task to do it well.

Then there's shooting at some sort of reactive target. Shooting at those flip around steel targets is hellishly fun. When you connect with the disc on the end of the arm there's a TING! and the arm swings around and locks up. When they are all gone then comes the challenge of hitting the release so you can do it all over again. The sound of hitting the steel targets helps replace the lack of recoil. And hearing the bullets connect and seeing the target react really makes up for the lack of noise and recoil. And best of all you don't need a spotting scope or to go and replace the targets.

Then there's using a lighter gun. Sure, it's still "just" a .22. But when shot from a small and light rifle or handgun there's enough to at least let you know that something is coming out the end. I've got a little single shot falling block Stevens Crackshot that is just a kid's size. But with a half dozen reloads for it saddled between the fingers of my support hand I'm good for a string of 7 shots at a time with decently fast reload times. And for some of us it's just plain fun to shoot such stuff.

Granted my .22's won't replace all my center fire guns. But they do form a solid portion of my collection. And I do enjoy shooting them using all the variations I noted above. I certainly don't just "tolerate" them because they are cheap. They are excellent for training myself for cheap and often form much of the shooting for any outing. Then for giggles I'll finish up with a few big bang guns.

But equally fairly they aren't for everyone. If you've tried a few and just can't warm up to them on any level then what the heck, at least you gave them an honest try. As long as you don't turn into one of those folks that jumps in at every opportunity to say to any and all that they are boring. Far too many seem to get that way. They try it, it's not for them and therefore the whole range of guns is written off and it's suggested that anyone that likes them is less of a guy or inadequite in some way. When I see that, and it comes up ALL too often, it just makes me roll my eyes. The world is a big place. There's lots of room for all of us to partake of this and other hobbys in whatever manner we enjoy.
 
For me it's the price. I really couldn't afford to make going to the range a hobby with centerfire. Someone on here has a sig line that goes something like "there's a difference between gun owners and shooters. I know a lot of gun owners, very few are shooters." Without 22LR I'd definitely fall into the gun owner category. I only shoot centerfire once a month or often once every two months, outside of work that is.

My CMMG 22LR M4ergy is the only rifle I own that I've replaced parts on and the only one I've bothered to get accessories for, hard to justify spending money on much of anything for my centerfire rifles when 95 or more out of 100 rounds I shoot outside of work is rimfire.

I'd have to say the nicest thing about shooting rimfire though is that I can just enjoy shooting and not worry about the pricetag. My wallet screams at me every time I shoot centerfire and I can't quit hearing the cha ching of a cash register every time I pull the trigger. With rimfire I can make a hobby out of shooting for only $40 - 50 a month ($40 gets me 1,100 rounds of Federal 22LR at Walmart and the CMMG 22LR loves that stuff).

* Incidentally I ran the math recently and figured given the 3.5 cents a round I've been paying for 22LR versus the 20 cents a round Wolf 5.56 was going for last time I bought some, with the number of rounds I've put through the CMMG 22LR I've saved just over $2,200.
 
.22 Long Rifle is one of the most efficient and underestimated cartridges ever.

It has probably put down more living creatures (both human and not) than any other cartridge (or perhaps all others combined). It has been used successfully on everything from squirrels to coyotes to deer to even wild hogs (blasphemy...everyone knows you need at least 50bmg or 600NE:eek::neener:), and will continue to be used successfully for many years to come.

.22 LR guns can be found in the hands of Americas young children as their first rifles as they accompany their fathers/uncles/grandfathers on their first hunt, to the those same fathers/uncles/grandfathers favorite target rifles. You will find .22s in the hands and nightstands of college students, single mothers or even in the purses of little old ladies that have lived in slowly degrading urban areas most of their lives, these same guns being used successfully time after time to faithfully defend the lives of their owners. Theres even stories of kids with there ages in the single digits successfully shooting intruders with the pink 10/22 they got for christmas.

22 LR ammo can be found on all parts of the globe, from metropolitan areas(some:D), to your local big box storm to a ramshackle old feed store down near the Everglades, to a dusty old grocery store in a little cow town out in wyoming, to the pawn shop across from my University of Florida campus, to the old hardware store on the little south florida commercial fishing island I grew up on.

What other ammo has that kind of availability; Even after doubling in price in the last 10 years, it is still about .03 cents per round, when even the most common of 100 year old hunting loads (.270, .30-06 etc...) are pushing a dollar or more PER BULLET!!

IMHO, the .22 LR has made more of a lasting impression in the pages of firearms history than nearly any other innovation (save the invention of gunpowder:D)...but what do I know, Im just a dumb college kid

I feel the .22 Long Rifle is the single most important metallic cartridge of all time.
 
Cheap ammo. That's about it for me. I prefer old school .22s for the fun of it. And if you go into the garage of anyone who has been shooting for a good period of time you'll find at least a thousand rounds somewhere. I've seen people take whitetail turkey and coy with 22lr. But it is frowned upon unless you are impeccable with it.
 
Wow, some of you made me think that I'm missing out on a slice of Americana. I have to try warming up to the .22lr again. Thanks for your convincing comments.

I plan on giving my .22 to my daughter when she is of age. I don't want her learning on 30-06!!
 
Growing up we used .22's for tin cans, light bulbs, coffee cans, rats, squirriels, rabbits, coons, skunks, badgers, and well...just about everything. Grandpa used my rifle to kill cows and hogs for butchering. It may be a small round but once you practise with it, it's just good for almost everything and cheap to shoot to boot.

My truck gun is a .22 rifle and I keep a .22 revolver loaded on top the kitchen cupboard. It's gentle so everyone in the house can use it if need be...just in case a critter needs to be taken care of.

No it's not exciting, no it doesn't make your shoulder hurt, no it doesn't make things explode, but it gets the job done quietly and humanely.
 
Did the 22lr take out the cows or hogs quickly? One shot to the head? I would think it might be hard to penetrate the skulls of cows and hogs, although they might not be any thicker than ours.
 
No other calibers can compare to the price of .22LR.

With no muzzle-rise, a friend's S&W .22 in the AR style with a cheap scope and a full magazine is as fun as any other gun I've ever tried.

His S&W 20 or 25-rd. magazine is reliable, whereas the mag. on his (GSG) MP .22 rifle is very unreliable.
 
Did the 22lr take out the cows or hogs quickly? One shot to the head? I would think it might be hard to penetrate the skulls of cows and hogs, although they might not be any thicker than ours.
Click to expand...

this is the classic underestimation of the .22 LR...in these days of enough penetration, Super Duper Short Mags, Bigger Faster Hotter, and laser like ballistics, we over look the diminutive .22 LR...there is not much in mother nature's domain that can withstand a 40 grain chunk of lead traveling over 1000 feet in 1 second

I've killed wild hogs with my 10/22 and it will put down a 250lb boar hog with authority with a shot to the skull, much to the chagrin of the chest thumping big bore totin hog killaz, and the hog I might add
 
one shot, quick no suffering dead. Keep in mind this was point blank, Not like he was shooting across the pasture. I also know for a fact that .22lr has taken alot of deer by folks hunting on the sneaky side of things. I haven't done it personally but I know it's done.

I actually saw a show on alsaka police on tv that showed a moose that died from an air rifle wound. It was on tv so I know it was true ;) Keep in mind that all these calibers that worked great for 100 years only stopped working since the new and improved came out. I really don't think critters have become any tougher than they were in the past.
 
when you put holes in paper all day long and you start to feel the hole in your pocket, you may learn to appreciate that the holes from the 22lr are no different than the holes of a 223, only there are a lot more of them.


As with most things I dive head first into, I started big. My first gun was a 1911. My second one was a Super Redhawk Alaskan in 454 casull.

Six or seven guns later I discovered 22's and I have since been shooting them more than anything else. They're just as fun, probably more social (face it, not all girls like to shoot the big guns), cheaper, and its really the only type of gun that I can feel like I've had my fill of before I actually run out of ammo.

I just think the "it was your first gun" argument is completely moot.

If you want a challenge, there isn't one that can't be met equally with a 22 if you scale down the targets and ranges.
 
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