I always poo-poo’d the .22 when I first started shooting. Seemed silly to dink around with a gun that fires a round not much bigger than a decent booger.
Then I had some old hands take
me under their wing and I noticed while I was happy to get my 9mm holes inside the diameter of a trashcan lid at 25 yards (I’m much better now), my buddies were coring out the center of sharpie drawn crosses at the same range.
Now that I’m damn near that good with a nine, you can bet if I could only have one firearm, it would be one of my several .22s.
My experience is limited to shotgun/trap and 22/range. One day I’ll get around to some caliber diversity. Like to think I can calibrate within 3 shots.
Good article with real data. The best kind of testimony.
I grew up shooting 22LR (semi-auto). It was not unusual to take down a fully grown hog at 50-100 yards with a couple of shots. These were domestic hogs allowed to "free range" by unscrupulous neighbors who thought it was easier to cut our fences and feed their hogs on our corn crops than to buy (or grow their own) "hog chow". Any such found on our property were "terminated with extreme prejudice".
Anyone who says the 22LR is "non-lethal" is an idiot.