At least one firearm chambered in .22 Long Rifle (LR) rimfire should be part of every survival plan. If you do not currently own a firearm or if a .22 is not part of your current arsenal it should be high on your “next to buy” list, if not at the top. The .22 is essential to your TEOTWAWKI preparation. From providing food for the family to [marginal] self defense, the .22 will work for you. Here are a few reasons the .22 LR is so important to your preparation and survival.
Practice
Whether or not you are currently familiar with firearms practice is vitally important. Practice now can mean the difference between life and death later. Any great musician or sports star doesn’t wake up one day with great abilities, they have practiced and practiced. When all of a sudden the world ends as we know it you are not going to magically be proficient with a gun, you must practice now. There is no caliber better suited to practice with than the .22.
It is inexpensive to shoot. With ammo prices sky rocketing the last few years many gun owners are unable to afford the price of ammo to practice with their larger caliber firearms. The .22 on the other hand is still very affordable to practice with. Where I live you can buy a box of 550 .22 LR cartridges for around nineteen dollars. I keep several thousand rounds, and when I shoot one box up I go get another.
The .22 is also ideal to practice with since there is virtually no recoil. If you are an inexperienced shooter it is easy to pick up the habit of flinching. Flinching happens just before the trigger is pulled in anticipation of the recoil. This will cause your shooting to be very inaccurate. With the .22 having no recoil shooters are less likely to pick up this habit. Since the .22 has no recoil you can shoot hundreds of rounds without your hand or shoulder getting sore.
The .22 also comes in about every firearm style imaginable. It can be found in bolt actions, single shots, semi auto rifles, pump actions, lever actions, revolvers, and semi auto pistols. By practicing with the .22 the fundamentals of shooting can be obtained with your favorite style of gun. Once you get the basics down of breathing, trigger control, and sight with the .22, switching to a larger caliber gun of the same style you practiced with will be much easier.
Every member of your family that is mentally capable of shooting a gun should be taught the basics. The ideal cartridge for this is the .22. While some women may be scared of guns, the .22 is quieter, and as mentioned before their shoulder won’t get sore when learning now to shoot it. For kids the .22 is also ideal, a father and their child can spend great time together shooting tin cans and also get valuable practice time in.
One last thing about practicing, I would rather own a .22 that I can hit a rabbit running with than a .50 BMG that I could not hit the broad side of a barn with. Or what good are thousands of rounds of ammo but you can’t place the one round on target that will save your life? If you are planning on using a firearm when the world goes into chaos make sure you practice weekly with it, because if you don’t the gun you are counting on will let you down due to operator error when you need it the most.
Transportation
You all know when things start to collapse there may be times when your G.O.O.D. plan with have to be put to use. More than likely it will not be practical to take a whole arsenal of weaponry along. So which gun will go, and how much ammo can you pack because what good is gun without bullets. The .22 LR is the ideal caliber of gun to factor into your G.O.O.D. plan.
Ammo takes up less space with the .22. Compared to 12 gauge shotgun shells you can pack 550 .22 rounds for every 25 shotgun shells. That is a big difference, you could pack 2,200 rounds of .22 LR in the same space only 100 12 gage shotgun shells would take. What good will that shotgun do you when it is out of shells?
There are also several models chambered in .22 that are ideal for packing away in case of an emergency. Henry makes a [AR-7] survival rifle that breaks down and all of the components fit in the stock, which floats in case it is dropped in water. Marlin makes the Papoose which breaks down and fits in a small case. With the Ruger 10/22 folding stocks are available in order to make them more packable. Don’t forget about the pistols, all of which can easily fit in a holster on your side or in a backpack compartment. The .22 LR is also one of the most popular firearms in the world, so wherever you go there is a lot better chance that you could come across ammo for it than cartridges for other firearms. The same thing goes for the gun itself, what if your gun breaks beyond repair and you still have thousands of rounds of ammo. Finding a firearm chambered in .22 LR will be easier than almost any other caliber.
Many Applications
The .22 LR has many applications, in fact it is probably one of the most versatile rounds in the world. Many guns have specific uses they are intended for. Take for instance the 9mm, it is a good self defense round but it is impractical in many hunting situations. Shoot a squirrel in the chest cavity and it will probably blow it apart. The .22 on the other hand can be useful to take squirrels all the way up to whitetail deer if the shot placement is correct. [However, the hunting regulations in most states prohibit its use for taking big game.] A book by Peter Hathaway Capstick even claims elephants have been taken with the .22 LR. While there are not many that would try such a feat, the .22 LR is capable of killing any animal in North America.
The .22 can also be used [marginally] for self defense. There are some that may scoff at this statement, but they wouldn’t volunteer to take two rounds the chest with a .22. If you have practiced, and you can place your shots correctly then the .22 can [under ideal circumstances] stop an intruder. Anyone taking two rounds to the chest and one in the head won’t shake that off. I would rather defend myself with a .22 than a snub nose pistol that I couldn’t hit anything with.
Proven
Who wants to put their lives and their family’s lives in the hands of a piece of equipment that has not stood the test of time? The .22 LR has stood the test of time, in fact it has been around since 1887. This cartridge is used in competition, training courses, hunting, and everything in between. It has proved itself time and time again. There are more powerful guns out there than the .22, but there are none that are more suited to survival than the .22.
I am lucky to have the gun my great grandfather used when he was a boy during the Great Depression. My great grandfather’s dad died in an accident 1929, just before things got really hard for people all across the country. Unable to make enough money my great great grandmother lost her house and was raising her children all on her own. It was up to her boys to put meat on the table, the only gun they had was a single shot Stevens .22. The gun is worn out today, it still shoots, but not as well as it did 80 years ago. Every time I shoot the gun I think of how my great grandfather kept his brothers and sisters alive. How he killed everything from birds to deer, and how things could be very different for me if they hadn’t owned that gun to provide for them. While I am not planning on using this same gun to keep my family and I alive when it’s TEOTWAWKI, I am planning on using the same caliber of gun. It has proven itself.
I hope this has shed some light as to why the .22 is so important to your survival. I know there are calibers out there that are more powerful, will shoot farther, and are better adapted to specific situations, but there is no caliber that is more universal than the .22 LR. I can stock more ammo, practice more, transport it easier, [marginally] protect my family, provide food for my kids, and perform more tasks with this caliber than any other. So head down to your favorite firearm dealer or gun show, buy a .22 and lots of ammo. Start practicing today, because as I said before, practice now can mean the difference between life and death later.