Posted on 09/29/2003 3:34:04 PM PDT by John Jorsett
The lowly .22 caliber long rifle round is becoming a favorite among snipers. Professional assassins (usually thugs working for organized crime) have long favored using .22 caliber (5.56mm) pistols for their work. While not a powerful round, if you shoot someone up close with a .22 caliber pistol several things are noted.
1- The victim is dead if you shoot him in the head, whish is what pros usually aim for (as these guys like to say, "two in the head and you know he's dead.")
2- There is hardly any sound if you use a silencer, and not much even if you don't.
3-A 22 caliber pistol is small, even with a silencer. That makes it easier to conceal, and easier to dispose of.
Then the Russians noted that Chechen snipers were effectively using .22 LR (long rifle, them little bullets kids use to hunt squirrels and rabbits with) weapons. Inside towns and cities, the .22 LR sniper was very effective, especially since the Chechens would improvise a very workable silencer by putting a plastic bottle on the end of the rifle's barrel, with a hole in the bottom of the barrel for the bullet to exit. Using a cheap scope, Chechen snipers were very deadly at ranges of less than a hundred meters. Such ranges were pretty common in built up areas. And since you usually did not hear the shot (to the head or face, of course), you had a hard time finding the shooter. Having suffered from these low tech .22 caliber Chechen snipers for ten years, the Russians have come out with their own professional .22 LR sniper rifle, the SV-99. This is a little heavier (at 8.3 pounds) than your usual .22 LR rifle, but is built for professionals. It has a heavier barrel, a bipod, silencer and scope. It's 39 inches long and can accept five, eight or ten round magazines. There is a compartment in the butt stock for two five round magazines. With the SV-99, at a hundred meters, a skilled shooter can consistently put all rounds in a half inch circle. This is a specialist weapon, most likely used by commandos. But any trained sniper can quickly adapt to using it. And snipers like not being heard.
Can I buy one of these silenced carbines in North Carolina? I want to take out a few deer that are eating our floral and vegetable gardens.
My current horsepower weapons would bother the neighbors and violate the "covenants" in our private neighborhood.
We've got plenty of the "locals" who'd take away the venison.
I will say this - if I'm hunting people I want as much lead in the pipe as I can stuff. People sometimes shoot back.
ambulance? medivac?
I worked ambulances in and around NYC back in the early 70s, both professional and a local volunteer. Best thing I got out of it was my wife. Every friday night for 6 months on the volunteer ambulance I was the crew chief and she was my crew. Got spoiled as she did everything I said. Then we got married (g).
Thanks Eagle Eye, for the recommendation.
I'm looking at the Ruger catalogue as I type. The 10/22T - bull barrel, tiger-striped stock is a nice touch. Very nice set-up.
There will be some fresh venison for the locals. Venison ain't our favorite. We like rare prime rib with juices, mashed potatoes & gravy, veal, and shrimp. All the "bad stuff."
The lowly .22 caliber long rifle round is becoming a favorite among snipers. Professional assassins (usually thugs working for organized crime) have long favored using .22 caliber (5.56mm) pistols for their work. While not a powerful round, if you shoot someone up close with a .22 caliber pistol several things are noted.
The original 1973 movie version of Day of the Jackal (remade as The Jackal, with Bruce Willis) had a very professional assassin using a specially made single shot 22 rifle. He hand drilled the bullets and filled them with mercury and then capped it with a putty to hold the mercury in place.
1- The victim is dead if you shoot him in the head, which is what pros usually aim for (as these guys like to say, "two in the head and you know he's dead.")
He practiced with a watermelon as a target and regular 22 bullets first. He'd hit it dead on and get a nice neat hole. Then he switched to the mercury loads and poof - no more watermelon.
Interesting movie, but it was most interesting to me for the portrayal of stuff like this. The guy playing the assassin (Edward Fox) was a cold blooded SOB who didn't look it. That's what's really frightening. Remember Wednesday Adam's line from the first Adams Family movie about her apparently not wearing a Halloween costume? "I'm going as a serial killer. They look like everyone else."
2- There is hardly any sound if you use a silencer, and not much even if you don't.
In the book and first movie his target was De Gaulle at ceremonies in Paris. The silenced gun was so effective that he was able to miss once or twice and no one noticed it.
3-A 22 caliber pistol is small, even with a silencer. That makes it easier to conceal, and easier to dispose of.
The gun broke down into pieces that fit into the aluminum tubes of crutches. The butt plate was obviously one of the pads on the top of the crutches. He folded one leg up (rather painfully) to make it look like he was an amputee and used that ruse to get past the guards to a vantage point overlooking the square.
I never though the same about "little" 22s since then. Someone else pointed out to me once that a 22 is bigger around than an ice pick and you wouldn't want that being introduced into your body, even without much relative speed.
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