It’s cheap, abundant, easy to find, and fun to shoot. It’s the most common and most popular round on the market, but it is often derided as having little practical use outside of target practice and plinking. The .22 LR cartridge is often lauded and condemned in the same breath, but why? Despite its shortcomings, I feel it has a serious role as a practical survival rifle.
Almost every shooter started out with the humble .22 LR rimfire cartridge. It’s versatility as a training round and a small game hunting cartridge is well known, but the usefulness of a lightweight and reliable .22 rifle is often downplayed due to the round’s relatively low energy and reputed lack of “stopping power”. Despite the small punch it packs, the .22 LR cartridge can still be enormously useful in the right hands.
As a survival tool, the .22 rifle serves its purpose well. In addition to being effective against small game such as squirrels and rabbits, the .22 long rifle cartridge can also be used to take larger game with the proper shot placement. Game wardens have long targeted poachers who use quiet .22 rifles to surreptitiously and illegally take deer. Anecdotal accounts of hunters using .22 ammunition for feral hog and coyote control abound on the internet. Using rimfire ammunition and rifles to take large game such as deer is illegal in most areas, but in a survival situation it is possible to harvest such game with a single well placed shot.
For personal defense, the .22 is not necessarily ideal. Detractors point out that an aggressor can withstand multiple shots from a 40 grain .22 caliber bullet before being significantly incapacitated. Yet, all it takes is one well placed shot from the same gun to end a fight. In some circumstances, the mere fact that there is incoming fire may cause an attacker to rethink their plan.
While the .22 LR may not be the most ideal round for hunting or personal defense, it can get the job done. In a survival situation having a .22 is better than having no weapon at all.
In terms of the best “Bang for your buck” it’s hard to beat a Marlin Model 60 autoloading rifle. This reliable rifle has been around for 50 years now and has earned its reputation as an inexpensive, accurate and dependable firearm. The Model 60 is a tube fed semiautomatic rifle that comes with iron sights, though a rimfire scope can be fitted. New Model 60s can be found for less than $200.
The Model 60 isn’t your only option of course. There are a number of other fine .22 caliber rifles that work well as a survival rifle. The Marlin Papoose and Henry US Survival rifle are both good examples of .22 survival rifles that break down to be able to be stored more easily. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what is probably the most popular .22 rifle of all time, the Ruger 10/22. Unlike the Marlin Model 60, the Ruger 10/22 uses a detachable box magazine for quicker reloads. Like the Model 60, there is an enormous amount of aftermarket accessories for the 10/22. If you can think of the accessory, someone somewhere probably makes it for the 10/22.
One thing that is important when feeding an autoloading .22 is your choice of ammunition. Mr. Completely shared his thoughts on rimfire ammunition choices a while back. Bulk packs of Federal seem to be a popular choice. These copper plated rounds tend to feed in most automatic rifles and handguns with very few problems. Still, they aren’t the most accurate and tend to have misfire rates at slightly less than 1%. CCI Standard ammunition tends to be a bit more accurate, and their Green Tag ammunition is sorted by weight for consistent performance. But for most autoloaders, the best bet is CCI Mini-Mags. Even the roughest semiautomatic actions can digest Mini-Mags with little fuss.
When storing your .22 ammunition, make sure to keep it in a location where it cannot be affected by moisture. Exposure to moisture can easily cause .22 rimfire cartridges to fail to fire. Ziploc or vacuum sealed freezer bags are cheap insurance to keep your .22 cartridges dry.
The .22LR may not be the best round for any number of roles, but it is versatile, cheap, plentiful, and easy to store in large amounts. The ability to have a small rifle capable of taking small game as well as improvising as a defensive weapon can prove incredibly useful in a survival situation. For around $200 you can purchase a small .22 rifle and 500 round of ammunition; a small price to pay for such a useful tool.
The mission of Cheaper Than Dirt!’s blog, “The Shooter’s Log,” is to provide information—not opinions—to our customers and the shooting community. We want you, our readers, to be able to make informed decisions. The information provided here does not represent the views of Cheaper Than Dirt!
I know what you mean the .22s are so reliable, the Navy Seals use .22LR rounds for a amphibious pistol called a Ruger MK II and the O.S.S.(now CIA) in WW2 Used .22 pistols as well. I myself have a single shot .22 rifle and i love it, its reliable,light and i barley ever miss with it(2 out of 30).a lot of people don’t relies that its also a doctors worst nightmare because every murder that a .22 is involved they have a hard time removing the slug and i was told that by actual doctors they said its way easier removing a 9mm then it is to remove a .22 so yeah people really don’t know what they are bashing its a caliber to be cautious with oh and also the Army have already designed a armor piercing round out of .22, it goes right through Kevlar and is very silent
Comment by Jeremy Minch — February 23, 2011 @ 11:56 am
I love my Remington 597. Reliable, accurate and cheap to shoot all day. I’m sure any home invader who has these rounds coming at them will think twice, its still a bullet.
Comment by Paul — February 23, 2011 @ 3:38 pm
I too have a Marlin Model 60 that I use for training my nephew good shooting techniques. It is very accurate. I use Federal ammo for plinking. (We got bored shooting cans tied to strings and started shooting the string itself.) I used this gun extensively to shoot prairie dogs at 100 yds. until my wife tried it and wouldn’t give it back and I naturally had to get a .223 for longer range.
One thing I dislike about tube-fed rifles is having to load the ammo one at a time. So, I fashined tubes from an old TV antenna, lengthed to hold 12 or so rounds, and covered the loading hole in the loading tube on the gun. I made stoppers from plastic milk bottles. (Imagine a cross with the center about half an inch square and the ends about an inch long. Fold them together toward the center and tape them to each other at the corners. I used cammo duct tape and attached a string to it and the tubes to keep from losing them.) And now I just dump all the rounds in at once rather quickly. I have about 20 tubes I preload and we can reload tubes while taking turns with the rifle. It works great. Just thought I’d pass that along.
Bob
Comment by Bob — February 23, 2011 @ 3:56 pm
I still have my first rifle, a Browning Semi-Automatic. But I want my daughter to have a bolt action or single shot, like a Cricket or something similar, so she can appreciate the value of one well-placed shot.
Comment by WoodyTX — February 23, 2011 @ 4:43 pm
My father’s first rifle was a Remmington ScoreMaster and he shot just about anything within sight with it. Naturally it was handed down to me, its very reliable and highly accurate. I learned to place my shot carefully from watchin him and because the fact it was a bolt action.
Comment by Fedele — February 23, 2011 @ 5:03 pm
My vid shows damage a .22 can do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeVMaEXk_Yk
Comment by Platinum — February 23, 2011 @ 9:55 pm
I shoot several thousand rounds of 22lr a year and love it. Beretta neos,s & w 15 22 pistol, winchester 190 rifle and ruger 10/22.
Comment by Chris — February 23, 2011 @ 10:04 pm
Jeremy Minch – You’re retarded. Please don’t handle firearms ever again.
Comment by Nunya Biznuss — February 24, 2011 @ 3:53 pm
When I was 19 years old, I was shot buy a 10/22 firing a CCI Stinger hollow point. It was an accident in which the shooter wasn’t aware the gun was loaded, he tripped and fell, and the gun went off. I had just cashed my check and had a wad of money in my left pocket. The bullet passed through the wad, went through the front of my leg from left to right (I was shot from the left side), then hit me again in the right groin area and finally stopped above my left groin area. When I got to the hospital, the doctor thought I was hit by a 9mm, due to the fact that when the bullet hit the wad of money, the hollow point expanded and created a large wound channel. He said it missed a artery by about an 1/8th of a inch. If it would have hit the artery, I would have bled out before I got to the hospital. When I got hit, it felt like a sudden burning sensation, and then nothing. No pain at all! At first I thought it just grazed my leg, but then when I looked at my pants, there was blood soaking through them. The moral to this story is just like you have all been saying, people underestimate the .22lr. The Israeli’s use the 10/22 with a special shrouded barrel and special ammo for taking out security personnel of a wanted target. The bottom line is bullet placement, and the only way to put that bullet where it needs to go is practice,practice,practice. And the .22lr is cheap enough to do plenty of that. Good shooting everybody and be safe.
Comment by Tom — January 24, 2012 @ 6:28 am
So, when I was 26 I was shot in the face by someone who intended to kill me. I was able to fight him off and escape with a gun shot wound. I am 6’0 240lbs.
I am about to buy my first hand gun and will be starting with a .22 but would not want to have to rely on it for self defense.
Once I am confident with my .22 I will be moving up significantly.
Just my personal experience.
Comment by Rock — November 19, 2012 @ 9:25 pm