How Deadly Is A 22 Pistol 22 Pistol vs Human

Depending upon where you hit them - is the main issue - from a straight out kill, to slow deaths, to serious injuries...

I experimented with different 0.22" rounds and this is not a case of right or wrong or good or bad...

But different designs of bullets and ammunition, created for different purposes.

Light bullets accelerate to faster speeds with the same amount of energy behind them, as heavy bullets.

AND the very light "high velocity" hollow point 0.22" bullets are very fast, have a much lower drop from gravity over a given distance, and they are rapidly expanding upon impact, and they pull up hard in small targets at close ranges.

SLOW heavy solid round nosed sub sonic rounds, are used mainly for stealth hunting at closer ranges - because there is no supersonic shock wave to frighten the rabbits away etc.

So they are both designed differently for different purposes.

But firing them into a stack of phone books, was quite revealing.

The hollow points expanded and stopped very quickly - as they ought too.

The solid subsonic bullets penetrated ~ 3" into the phone books.....

It's a pretty hard and solid target.... Very strong and energy dissipating with the cellulose fibers in the many many pages - absorbing a great deal of energy.

So the 0.22" are quite a worry...

The hollow points will rip you up and smash you up internally and with any hard things they hit... e.g. bones.

And the slow heavy solids - will bore deep holes - probably all the way through on many bits - unless they hit a bone.

Quite a worrying round to be using in a self defence situation.

Especially the subsonics.

But like all things, there are compromises - and good reasons for and against 0.22" rounds and rifles and pistols.

As there are with LARGE heavy, high powered rifle rounds.....