.22 lethal at 300 yards

[krese]

some dude at a party last week was trying to tell me that a .22 at ~50 yards would hardly put a man down.......why are people so dumb???

here is a vid of a .22 going through 8 layers of denim and 4" of beef at 300 yards:

[az gt eater]

There is no doubt that a 22 would penetrate at 50 yards, but there is no knock down power. Like 130 foot pounds? Barring a kill shot, it would just enrage most people.

[stevenm357]

I would not want to get hit with it at any distance..... More ppl have been killed with a 22 than anything else.... Mostly because of accidents but still something to take quite seriously.....

Sounds like an idiot running his mouth about things he doesn't know.

[Smittro]

.22 mag will put them down..

[Zinergy]

I would not want to get hit with it at any distance..... More ppl have been killed with a 22 than anything else.... Mostly because of accidents but still something to take quite seriously.....

Sounds like an idiot running his mouth about things he doesn't know.

Also because a lot of mafia hits came from a unregistered or stolen .22 pistol point blank range in the head.

[wileyCoyote]

... well, ..i think the opening statement in the OP says it all ... "some dude at a party last week was trying to tell me..."

[Tobynine9]

More ppl have been killed with a 22 than anything else....

That sounds a little... suspect...

More people killed by accident with the .22? More people killed in murders with the .22? More people killed in combat with the .22? More people killed, altogether since the history of firearms with the .22?

[krese]

[krese]

this one is great! "what it's like to get shot at"

(can't remember if i posted this before or not)

[310stanger]

I've heard that what make a .22 lethal more then anything is not the knock down power but a lack of it. It doesnt go through you, it bounces around and just tears shit up. It may not have a kick but the velocity of the bullet it is quite high. I would NOT wanna get hit by a .22 at any distance.

[Zinergy]

True, if it gets caught inside of you it is gonna bounce around and jack shit up. As for velocity, a .22lr is not that fast, probably 1500fps. Now a .223 which is still a .22 can get up to 3800fps

[jad628]

Fellas,

The "tumble" effect that comes up when talking about wound channels is a bit exaggerated. Almost all single projectiles are fired from a rifled barrel. The purpose of the rifling is to spin the projectile which helps to stabilize its flight. Anything it hits downrange can cause it to become unstable and start to wobble or even tumble. When a bullet strikes an object, the balance/stabilization of the projectile will be affected. Sometimes the velocity and mass of the bullet will overcome this and continue on its original path. Depending on the construction on the bullet - hollow point swaged lead or core bonded round nose, for examples - the bullet will deform to varying degrees. All of those factors will have an effect on the path of the bullet as they change. If a bullet was to mushroom on one side, it could have an effect of the path similar to a man running straight and then grabbing a pole with his right hand, or just reaching out and smacking the pole. Each will have a varying impact on how straight the guy runs.

The heavier the bullet (and the shape/design/diameter, as well) coupled with the velocity at the time of impact, and the density of the matter it strikes, will have a significant value of how straight the projectile penetrates. Once it enters a fleshy area it will usually travel straight until it strikes a harder area, like bone. Depending on the remaining energy in the projectile, it may still travel straight or deflect to a path of lesser resistance. Usually, that is when the bullet tumbles. Being that a .22 short/long/long rifle is at the lower end of the power spectrum, diameter, weight, and bullet hardness, they tend to be more prone to deflection than most other calibers. 5.56 rounds were at one time the subject of a myth that they were designed to tumble. All I can say is that anyone who shoots and loads for accuracy knows that a bullet designed to tumble would be a detriment to useful accuracy of the round. You will NOT make consistent 300 yard hits with such a round. The "tumble" phenomenon comes from the facts mentioned above, not an inherent design.

Back to the .22 LR at 300 yards though. If you can put the round in the right place, it would still be capable of lethality. Definitely not a guarantee, but possible.

[Zinergy]

Very good point, many people think that the 5.56 round tumbles end over end from the moment it comes out of the barrel like a tiny tomahawk. As you said would greatly affect accuracy of round that is know to be accurate.

[Spikito]

its easy to tell when bullets tumble...i have had weapons that did such a thing.

you get profile wholes instead of round ones....if a 5.56 tumbled, you'd get tall skinny holes, pointed on one end, flat on the other.

What DOES happen though, is that some bullets begin to tumble after they become subsonic, the sonic boom disrupts the spin...but that's when you start getting into barrel harmonics, and bullet density uniformity....thats a whole nother topic

[Smittro]

Does'nt really matter.

I would'nt wait till you're half way up the street to start shooting, and it is'nt 300 yards or even 50 yards across a room in my house.

I have an over and under .22 mag lr - 16 ga. take a round from either one in my home and you'll be down I don't care if you're a 500 pounder..

@ 300 or 50 yards I'd consider you escaped, even if I was using a .50 cal. because of the questionable back ground.

just my .02

[Zinergy]

Does'nt really matter.

I would'nt wait till you're half way up the street to start shooting, and it is'nt 300 yards or even 50 yards across a room in my house.

I have an over and under .22 mag lr - 16 ga. take a round from either one in my home and you'll be down I don't care if you're a 500 pounder..

@ 300 or 50 yards I'd consider you escaped, even if I was using a .50 cal. because of the questionable back ground.

just my .02

Most likely you are right you will never be shooting at someone at that distance, but there are always those what if situations.

[Spikito]

fuck that...im not lettin the zombies get that close....


and they ARE coming.....

[az gt eater]

The "ripping up of shit" by a .22 is because it lacks the power to break bone, and instead, follows the bones at the angle it enters the body. Shoot someone in the forehead at an upward angle, and it will travel between the skull and scalp up, over, and finally exit on the back side. Or stop somewhere in the middle.
To the tumbling of the .223, it has everything to do with twist rate. The way I heard it, the Geneva Conventioin requires the use of FMJ. And, so , to inflict damage with a FMJ, you get the bullet to tumble. But, this has an adverse affect on accuracy.

[jad628]

I guess the last thing I'd like to add to the conversation is that the lack of "tumble" or expansion of a projectile in no way doesn't mean it wasn't a lethal hit. I, unfortunately, have seen the results of hits with higher velocity rounds on a human where the entrance and exit wounds were minimal and the person was extremely dead. What appears to be a small hole is actually a wound channel between ingress and egress that turns human flesh/organ into something similar to Jello. An autopsy of some shootings will really surprise you.

So many factors change the lethality of the hit; frontal diameter, hardness, shape, weight, velocity, angle of entry, expansion, clothing, bone, and the list goes on and on.

[slims00ls1z28]

While I am sure it "can" kill at 300 yds (I had an incarcerated kid who killed his grandfather with a BB gun so shit happens), I'll stick to either my .308 or 5.56 or hell even 7.62x39 for that.