who here has experience with .22 lr as a survival rd. Can you take down a deer with a shot to the head or lungs?  How about subsonic?

More deer have been killed by poachers than any other round I heard.  

It would make a great round for survival, great for small game.

Spotlights make a BIG reflection on eyeballs, and thats where the poachers aim at.    22LR to the eye drops em where they stand.

as a survival round, yes the .22 is ok on game.  Against people, less so.

22LR has its place I have heard that it has dropped everything up to a Elk! Now I have shot a 10lbs Fox from at most 25 feet away first shoot was through its right eye and it was still alive it took two more shots to put it down for good. Shot two took care if it running anywhere shot three was just to let it die without pain as much as I could.


Can you take a deer with a 22LR I'm not sure people say you can! When your talking food for the family I would not chance it! I have seen many hunts with people with rifles up to 338win mag not take a deer down with one shot or even find it after they shoot it! What I'm saying is you can take a deer with a sling shot but why would you want to? 22LR is a great round I have a Ruger 10/22 and 2,000+ rounds for it but please don't count on this round to take large game food home to the family!

only 2k?

when thinking of .22 I think head shot or rabbit and smaller.

Just got the 10/22 a few months ago and 22LR has been hard to find around me and/or I need the money to buy food for my family. Just a friendly reminder a snare can catch a lot of food also and you don't have to be around all the time like a rifle! Also a roll of wire cost $5 and I can make 100+ snares out of it!

Back to the whole ammo thing you can only carry so much ammo so what will you give up the 223 or 22LR maybe the pistol ammo? Might be the shotgun ammo. Your going to have to take it or leave it!! If you take it I hope you get to your BOL or your going to have to make a choose take it or leave it? Why but more then you can carry?

A guy 2 farms over got busted poaching deer. DNR found 8 deer hanging in his barn out of season. He was using a scoped .22mag lever action.  As a kid i read a story in a magazine about eskimos in canada hunting polar bear with .22

Is that why the eskimos are almost extinct???

22lr should be part of everyones preps.
I have a 10/22, a marlin, a single shot rossi, and two revolvers in 22lr
I have about 10k rounds of bulk stashed away and various other types of 22lr.
22lr can take many of critters and manimals with a head shot(s)...
Caliber of choice for taking large game or 2legs? no.
Can it be done? yes.

A good read about 22lr:
http://www.usrsog.org/surfire.htm

22lr is my favorite round to shoot... Mostly because at this point, its about all i can afford to shoot on a regular basis.
Actually going out Wednesday with an instructor from my PD for a little training and 22lr is what I will be shooting most... of course we will also be shooting other calibers but the only way I can afford to put many rounds down range is with 22lr.  Practice and training is what counts!

This Summer, I saw a relative shoot a 2300 lb. (dressed wt.) breeding bull, with an attitude; rifle-shot, to fore-head, from 30" w/ a 22lr solid.  Bull went down instantly and no movement within 10 seconds.  At the time, I was reminded of shooting a less than mature skunk in a trap.  I hit him 7 times with 22lr, all shots in head or neck.  Skunk didn't even seem to know it was shot; he kept on spraying for at least 15 minutes .  I have seen enough odd happenings w/ hunting over many years to know nothing is certain w/ any caliber.  (only likely)

http://www.angelfire.com/on2/LandOwner/images/GRIZLEY2.JPG

Interesting story....
Bella Twin, an Indian girl, and her friend Dave Auger were hunting grouse near Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta. The only gun they had was Bella’s single-shot bolt-action .22 Rimfire rifle. They were walking a cutline that had been made for oil exploration when they saw a large grizzly following the same survey line toward them. If they ran, the bear would probably notice them and might chase, so they quietly sat down on a brush pile and hoped that the bear would pass by without trouble. But the bear came much too close, and when the big boar was only a few yards away, Bella Twin shot him in the side of the head with a .22 Long cartridge. The bear dropped, kicked and then lay still. Taking no chances, Bella went up close and fired all of the cartridges she had, seven or eight .22 Longs, into the bear’s head. That bear, killed in 1953, was the world-record grizzly for several years and is still high in the records today. Which only goes to show that in an emergency, strange things are possible, but who wants that kind of emergency?

What do you use for snare wire? Can it be bought locally?

Grew up in semi-rural Oklahoma and Texas.  The .22lr was the most popular game cartridge (followed closely by a .30-.30), all the way up to whitetails.  I have seen many a deer taken first hand with a .22lr.

Thin wire ,guitar strings anything like that you could even use 550 cord. I'm going to Home Depot soon to see it they have any wire that would work. Also I think the old Nam trip wire would work also.

A .22 is very marginal for large game.  As mentioned .22 can take down foxes and stuff, but sometimes a follow up shot is necessary.  Using it for deer is not only cruel for the animal, but really lowers your chances for putting food on the table.  Get an appropriate caliber for the appropriate job.

.22LR is stupid and if you kill them, you were lucky.

I shot a deer in the spine with a .223 and it dropped in place paralized. I went to finish i off with a shot from my P22 in the head. 10 shots later (point blank in and behind the eye, It was still kicking. It would have eventually died from its wounds either way but "dropping" them reliably with a head shot from a .22 is a myth.

Sure they might eventually die, but that isn't a dependable way to gather grub.

The .22lr is far from stupid.  Some folks like to impugn smaller calibers, as there are quite a few folks who  call using a .223 stupid, as well.  The .22lr requires precise shot placement, or the ability to quickly track for many, many miles which is no longer really viable in must hunting areas.  Thus, it is not considered humane and is not allowed, and justifiably so.  Some argue the same for .223 or any .22 caliber centerfire.  The reality, however, is that they can do the job, if used properly.  There is a difference, as well, between a .22lr fired out of a short barreled pistol versus a rifle.  Yet, there are plenty of folks that have put animals down with one shot to the skull at close range with short barreled .22s.  Personally, I do not hunt deer with a .22lr, nor do I plan on it.  But I do know that it can be done, especially if it was all I had, and my family would starve if I simply believed the .22 was too stupid to hunt with.

Remington Subsonics are what I had in my Buckmark a couple years back when I had a young buck in need of a coup de grace.  I shot him in the neck twice at 5 feet or so.  



when I skinned him out, I recovered both slugs.  The one that broke his neck was mushroomed a bit more than the one that hit only muscle.  The latter traveled about an inch farther.

This is for the people who were inquiring about snare wire. Last time I bought snare wire to practice with and store I picked up green painted wire in the arts and crafts department at Wal-Mart. It was very cheap and I bought several spools of it.

I still have a few of the 2 green and 2 yellow "tripwire" rolls that I got a long time ago too.

shot placement folks. Learn the anatomy of your target. If you shoot a deer between the eyes straight on from elevation, the shot never hits the brain. It just goes through the mouth cavity and lower jaw line.  Every animal and human has a T zone that covers the brain and upper spinal cord, learn where it is.  ETA  the T of a deer is behind the ear from the side or slightly higher than between the eyes from the front, same for most animals. Larger calibers are better, but if all you got is a .22 and you are starving? Well you make do.

Still it is a very small bullet -  a single small branch in the way and it will loose trajectory big time.  Even still all animals are not 100% built the same.  Just like humans we all have different chins, noses, waist sizes, stomach placement, limb variations, etc.  Yes things are in the same general area, but there are slight variations that can amount to a few millimeters or centimeters.  

When you have to use such a small bullet with a small wound cavity, you have to be 100% in the right spot.  

That kind of kill has very poor odds.  It is still better to use the right tool for the right job.

I did mention larger calibers, but if all you got is .22 you work with it.  same could be said about the .223 it's same size hole.  I'm not advocating a 100 yard shot on a deer with a .22 but in a survival situation close in less than 25 yards I'd make the shot. ETA the chin, nose, waist has nothing to do with shot placement  the center of the brain is in the exact same place on every animal in the same species. That is my target for meat shots. I am talking about shooting to be 100% sure I kill whatever I'm shooting, not hunting for trophies. In trophy hunting you worry about racks, meat hunting and survival is totally different.

as has been said a dozen or more times already, yes the little lowly .22LR can take deer and other animals.  Is it recommended or even considered effective?  Nope.  Not by a long shot.  It IS, however, far more effective than sharp sticks, big rocks and a whole bunch of other improvised weapons.

The .22LR has a place in every survival kit.  It has several really very useful characteristics:

1) It is cheap.  A really good .22  rifle is a mere $200.  I've purchased a new Mossberg .22 semi on a black Friday sale for a mere $64 last year. There is no reason for not having one.

2) The ammo is small, light and inexpensive.  It can be stockpiled in quantity.

3) The rifles are light, easy to handle, have little noise and low recoil.  They can be used by just about everyone.

4) They are highly effective on all manner of small game.  Rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, porcupines, racoons, grouse, turkeys, geese, ducks, muskrats, beavers, whatever...  If its under 50 lbs it's in serious trouble.

5) While the .22 is likely the least effective round we have for big game (excpet maybe for .22 short, .25 acp, and some of the .17 rim fires) it can be used with moderate success and it is definitely better than no gun at all....

6) practice is fun and cheap with .22's.  

If you live in a major urban center (meaning there is little to no game except rats ) you are likely best served with a defensive firearm first.  However, if you live in a rural area, I'd argue that a good quality .22 semi rifle (Ruger 10/22) should be the first survival firearm you buy.

Tactical .22 rimfire.

Gunkid approved!

Doesn't that guy get out in like a year or so?

The .22 isnt the best choice for defense. But, i know for a fact, you can probobly take any game in your area with it. If you know what you are doing. i have seen numerous hogs and several deer taken with one shot from a .22. So, the question is, are you talking about survival or zombie hordes.