I found my replies to that thread...
A .22 LR for a SHTF weapon is a necessity for small game hunting and rodent removal but it is not in any way, shape or form a tactical weapon unless it is a last ditch weapon that you’re caught out in the open with and then you’d better be damn accurate as at distance, Hell at close up, the only kill shots you’ll make on a human is through the eye into the brain or into the neck and they bleed to death…
Yes the Russian and Finns used them to great results in the 2nd World War but they were firing at very short distances, from cover and in ambush and only head shots counted--temple, eye socket, base of skull or throat…
I’ve also used them on the farm to dispatch various livestock but we did so from inches from the animal’s head so I really don’t think that it applies here?
There just isn’t sufficient mass, velocity or energy for put down shots to the torso of a human unless you are at extreme close proximity and even them it’s iffy whether you’ll get a [strike]kill[/strike] stop…
The A 180 was originally sold as a prison guard’s gun, among other things, to quell prison riots. It doesn’t get much more SHTF than that...
The guards were told to shoot the knee caps or ankles of the rioting crowd...misses would hit the thighs or calves and would still be damaging to the body and also curtailing the inmates sense of violence…
Those armed with shotguns were trained to skip load the buckshot into the lower extremities of the rioters...shoot 20 or 30 feet ahead of the crowd at a sharp angle and “skip” the bullets into the thighs…
.22 WRM, .17 HRM or .17 Mach2 albeit far more powerful and have greater kill range on rodents are still not SHTF calibers for personal defense against another human being, except as mentioned, in a last ditch effort to save yourself...the bullets just don’t have enough weight--mass--43 gr, the shells don’t hold enough powder to create speed--velocity which combined together with energy produce great rabbit & squirrel rounds but might just bounce off or get stuck in a heavy leather jacket at 50 yards…
That said, the preferred backup weapon for the likes of Skeeter Skelton and Bill Jordan, legendary pistol shots and lawmen, was a 3” barrelled .22 WRM revolver...They would use it only when they absolutely had to, take it out of the holster, place it against the bad guy’s body and fire or they were that good that they could put a couple into the eye…
SHTF minimum Calibers are:
Pistol = 9mm or .40 S&W
Revolver = .38 Spec/.357 Mag
Rifle = 6mm (.243) but much prefer 7.5 to 8mm (.300 to .323)
Shotgun = 12 bore
Although the pistols would be a little light for hunting with proper bullet placement you’d be able to eat--a little less so with the revolver for concern but all of them will do the one and only thing that they have to do--drop the bad guy…
