Tactical .22?

IN OUR rapidly advancing world of technical wonders, an astonishing fact is that history’s earliest commercially successful, self-contained metallic cartridge design remains the highest seller on the planet to this very day. The .22 rim-fire began life as the Flobert .22 BB Cap introduced in 1845 and firing a spherical lead bullet intended for indoor target shooting. In 1857, Winchester developed it into their .22 rim-fire short, firing a heeled cylindrical bullet and intended as a self-defence cartridge. Then, in 1871, came the .22 Long, followed by the .22 Long-Rifle in 1887 – still in the black powder era. Today, smokeless powder versions of all these .22 rim-fire rounds remain in production, and the .22LR is the world’s top-selling cartridge.

Small wonder – firearms chambered for this cartridge come in every conceivable form – bolt-action, semi-auto and pump-action rifles, combination rifle/shotguns, semi-auto pistols, revolvers, and I’ve even seen one in sub-machine-gun format with a snail-drum magazine.

Rim-fire .22 ammo is the cheapest obtainable anywhere, enabling you to train and practise often and also to have fun plinking (you can’t hand-load any centre-fire cartridge for less than the cost of a .22 round). The .22LR’s recoil and noise levels are so low as to be unintimidating even to children and delicate ladies, making it ideal for teaching people of all walks of life to shoot.

The .22 has long been regarded as the