Let’s face it, gas is never going to be 25 cents a gallon again, and ammo prices probably are not going to dip significantly lower than they are today. I am struggling with the trade off between buying ammo to feed what I’ve got, or buying a 22LR pistol to reduce ammo expense in the long run.
My biggest concern with going the 22LR route is negative training, particularly the recoil reduction. I can do dry fire with current guns and CO2 BB pistol shooting in the back yard. Is the addition of a 22LR really worth the non-recurring expense?
Yes, I do know the answer is get both, but pockets aren’t as deep as I would like.
If you already have a Co2 bb pistol, then a .22 is kind of redundant, isn’t it?
OTOH a .22 conversion unit, or duplicate of your EDC in .22 is really a pretty slick addition and can certainly reduce your range ammo bill.
For $130.00 I bought my sister this Rough rider (6) rounds. pretty cool, decent price, She went back
to my little Taurus G3c (12) rounds , She likes the stopping power of a (9) w/ the Sig ‘V’ Crown and I got this pistol back! Cool deal. There is also a Heritage (10)
rounder for about the same $$$$$. You really don’t have to settle/either or ammo/gun @ these prices.
I have a cool sister!
Yes indeed, I am already downselected to either a Browning 1911-22 or a Colt/Walther 1911-22. I plan to rent a Browning towards the end of this week. I have not found the Colt available to try out. The tradeoffs between them are the Browning is half the weight, so should closer emulate the recoil of my 9mm and 10mm 1911’s. The downsides are it is 15% smaller and twice the price of the Colt.
Not really, the BB pistol velocity rolls off after each shot and it is dramatic towards the end of the bottle. The trigger is the definition of what you aren’t looking for in a 1911
I chose .22LR route.
Because I’m 1911 / 2011 guy I made it as close to reality as possible and bought 22 conversation kit for my pistols. The same weight, same grip, same trigger.
Training with the same platform is a must. I don’t care about recoil. Recoil always happens after the shot and has nothing to do with accuracy. With good built-in technique with .22LR, adding the recoil aspect during 9 mm shooting takes only few rounds to master bigger round.
I, too, am wrestling with whether to buy a 22LR pistol. I’ve been fooling around with my brother’s 22 pistols and while they are fun to shoot, they are notoriously unreliable – ammo sensitive, lots of light primer strikes and various malfunctions – and I’ve found them to be frustrating. So, I’m skeptical of their utility as a training platform (unless you want to practice clearing malfunctions).
If you go with reliable solutions and good quality.22LR ammo, you will get almost the same low malfunction rate as with 9 mm.
I owned M&P 22 Compact which got me hard time till the moment I took care of it and polished every part that ammo touched. Since that I had maybe 2 - 3 malfunctions during few months.
Now with 1911 conversion kit (Marvel 1911-22) I don’t have problems at all.
I strongly recommend “high velocity” .22LR rounds to avoid ammo related issues.
I would probably go the .22 route if you can get a pistol that is similar enough to your regular carry and/or home defense options. It is closer to reality than airsoft or dry fire (though I still use both of those regularly with dry fire counting for about 80% of my trigger pulls).
With ammo prices the way they are I have become very focused with my live fire time with my defensive firearms. I’m usually only shooting 50 rounds a session now doing specific drills. But I like taking a .22 along for some added fun as well as practicing different techniques like shooting on the move. I can cheaply work out the kinks with the .22 and then confirm with my standard option that the skills translate to the more capable platform.
@Mark697 I have been spending a little more for my .22 ammo lately to avoid reliability issues. I can’t remember the last time I had a malfunction with CCI mini mags or velocitor ammo. Though the .22 pistol and rifle I have do pretty well with the cheaper stuff as well. Provided I avoid Remington .22 ammo which I haven’t used in over a decade due to very poor reliability issues.
I would love more guns in my safe, however, with only two hands…
I prefer more ammo! Without ammo, I have paperweights!
In addition there’s a slight chance there could be another slump in ammunition manufacturing!
I’m not happy with my current stockpile!
It’s like having three cars, you can only drive one at a time, but without fuel you’re not going anywhere, in any of them!
Thankfully, my wife keeps nagging me to buy more ammo, almost daily!
What make and model .22s are you shooting? Some are prima donnas; others are as reliable as electric clocks. Also a history of abuse (dry firing rimfires) or allowing tight “match” chambers (common on high end target pistols) to foul, will screw things up pretty quick.
I too bought a22LR thinking I would shoot it more and save some money. I found that unless you also want to train racking the slide to fix stove pipes, miss fires failure to feed issues don’t. I only use it to plink around for fun.
How many guns do you have? How much ammo do you have?
Let’s phrase it this way: Is there an articuable job you legitimately have for a firearm, for which you do not currently own at least two? If so, consider a firearm.
Do you have enough ammo that you could shoot as much as you deem necessary for yourself to maintain an adequate level of proficiency for at least X years? With X being 2 years unless you have reason to put a different number there. If not, consider ammo instead.
If nothing jumps out to you as obvious, you can probably freely choose either. Flip a coin and what you want it to land on when it’s in the air is what you do.
That is something I had not thought about. It’s like a lot of things - hiding in plain sight but obvious once brought to your attention. Looking forward to trying out the Browning Wednesday.
I have a grandson turning 1 year old next week. Having a 22 pistol available when he is ready will be great to enjoy with him.
We just ordered my wife a S&W 43c 22LR revolver. She has been keeping one of my J frame airweight 38 spl revolvers. She grips it well, plus she’s good with the DA trigger, but the recoil is just too much for her small hands. She can get off a good first shot but I’ve always been worried there’d be no hope for good follow up shots in any decent time. She doesn’t like shooting the 38 special at all in the little airweights.
We had rented her, and subsequently bought, a M&P 380 EZ, but that’s a pretty large gun as 380’s go. In working it, she found that her grip wasn’t consistent, and it was just too big and awkard for her very small hands. Plus it was too much for her to conceal on her person, so it was a purse gun at best.
Now we’re really hopeful on the 22 revolver. She’s going to use it as her main SD gun, with the Federal SD 22LR ammo that is tested to 13" in ballistics gel with a 2" barrel. With 8 shots in the cylinder it could be a nice, small lightweight SD gun that eliminates the reliability concern with 22 autoloaders. I’m looking forward to practicing with her, I’ve got bricks and bricks of 22LR ammo I’ve bought over the years, some of which had the wrong profile for reliable feeding in my 22 rifle. Now we’ll have a gun for her to play with. Its like free practice with all that spare ammo, and I expect she’ll want to go shooting a lot.
Pewpewpew. I love suppressed rimfire. Its the absolute easiest platform for new shooters. Only downside is you gotta clean the supressed ones religiously.
Ruger mk4 tactical and silencerco osprey micro. Alao known as “the ugly brick that doesnt fit holsters”
