.22 rimfires for survival and subsistance hunting
If you live way out in the country where 911 response is longer than a few minutes, having some kind of a firearm readily available makes sense for home security, as well as for meat gathering and pest control.
For the NON-HOBBY shooter who intends to own only one firearm, the best gun to get is a bolt-action repeating 22 rifle.
The plain bolt action .22 rifle with open sights is virtually ignored by serious shooting hobbyists, but it is inexpensive and works just fine in the farm and camp utility role. A bolt action is the simplest design for a novice to use. This is because its chamber is exposed and easily accessible when the action is opened. You can see if the chamber is empty and everyone around can see that the gun is safe. A bolt action rifle may be single-loaded and shot one round at a time and remains functional if you loose the clip magazine or if a tubular magazine becomes damaged. That can be difficult with an autoloader.
Hobby shooters like semi-automatic .22s because they are just plain fun to shoot. They hold more rounds and shoot faster. While it is true that this could be useful in a self-defense role, it can be very wasteful of scarce ammunition when times get tough.
Telescopic sights are a help to older people with declining eyesight, but they make the rifle less handy. Cheap, poor quality Chinese scopes which you see in discount stores are often poorly sealed against moisture, have inferior optical quality, are less rugged and may fail to hold a zero. A quality scope and mounts may double the cost of your farm rifle. But if you need the scope because you cannot see iron sights well enough to shoot the varmint, then grit your teeth and buy the best one you can afford. Receiver or "peep" sights are a good compromise. Anyone who has been in the military since WWII is familiar with the peep sight and it is simple and rugged. The combination of a simple .22 bolt action with a bright front bead that you can see and a peep sight with large hunting aperture useful in dim woods is hard to beat.
A practiced and skilled shooter can reliably kill small game with a .22 handgun.
But, unless you are willing to practice frequently to acquire and maintain skill, a rifle is MUCH better. An adult of average skill, after some training and practice can readily hit a target the size of a tuna can at 50 yards using an iron-sighted .22 rifle. This is fully adequate for field shooting. Most people learning to shoot a .22 pistol or revolver handgun after basic instruction can do so at 10 or 15 yards. A relatively skilled shooter can do so at 25 yards.
Only an expert pistol shot can hit as well using a .22 handgun at field ranges as the average novice rifle shooter can at 50 yards. This is reality.
Handguns have the advantage of small size, light weight, low bulk and portability. For this reason many people who live and work outdoors in rural areas carry a .22 handgun. A handgun doesn't get in the way when you have other work to do, but can be a comfort when you are alone and threatened by things that go bump in the night.
In new .22 handguns one of the best sellers is the Ruger semi-auto.
Out of the box, hand held from sandbags, Rugers average 1-1/2" ten-shot groups at 25 yards with standard velocity ammo of average quality. High speed ammo runs closer to two inches.
Bolt action .22 rifles are more accurate than semi-autos, pumps or levers. The best buy in a new bolt-action .22 is one of the Marlins. A good .22 rifle should readily shoot groups under 2 inches at 50 yards with iron sights, if you use "good ammo."
In handguns any good .22 autoloader with a barrel longer than 4 inches which you can still see rifling in should shoot about two inch groups at 25 yards off sandbags, again, assuming "good ammo."
"Good ammo" means something other than the cheapest stuff they sell loose in a bulk box at Walmart.
The best buy in a new .22 revolver is the Ruger Single-Six. This is a "cowboy style" single-action which everyone is familiar with. Mine is just as accurate as a standard model Ruger auto pistol. But most .22 revolvers do no better then 2-1/2 inch groups at 25 yards. Years ago I went through a succession of S&W .22 "Kit Guns" and K-22 target revolvers and didn't find any that would average consistently less than 2" at 25 yards hand-held off handbags. That's realistically all a .22 revolver can do. For most outdoor use that's good enough. Woods ranges are short and 25 yards is a long shot for a handgun. In used .22 revolvers the Cadillac is the Smith & Wesson K-22. It is a reliable 2-inch grouper at 25 yards with standard velocity ammo and highly reliable piece, but any S&W brings a collector price.
If you get lucky, an inexpensive .22 revolver may shoot as well as an expensive one.Worth considering if you can find one in good mechanical condtion is the now-discontinued High Standard Sentinel. This is a 9-shot double-action .22 revolver can sometimes be found in pawn shops for around $150. These are ugly, but very serviceable if in good condition. If you can find one of the H&R Sportsman, High Standard Double-Nine or Sentinel 9-shot .22 revolvers, tight and in good mechanical condition, and cheap (less than $200) don't pass it up. You may be pleasantly surprised.
If possible test fire any used .22 revolver before you buy it. Cut the corner out of a Kraft paper grocery bag, poke the muzzle out and fire a cylinder load through it double-action. Inspect the bag to see if any lead fragments cut holes when exiting the sides of the bag. If not, it's a keeper. Clean it well, and shoot GREASED or WAXED, UNPLATED ammo in it. Avoid plated, dry-lubed bullets in revolvers, because they lead up the forcing cone and cylinder throats, destroying accuracy.
Fixed sights are best for a field or "survival" gun, but you may need to drift the rear sight for windage or carefully file the front or rear sights to get a clear sight picture and to adjust point of impact. This requires your spending range time to see which ammo is both reliable and accurate, setting up the gun for that ammo and getting a good supply of it to last a long time. I would buy a full case of 5000 rounds, which will last the casual shooter for many years. Good quality .22 ammo doesn't go "bad."
I recommend that irons sights on a subsistence .22 rifle or handgun be zeroed to strike about 1inch above point of aim at 25 yards. If your gun has adjustable sights, once you get a perfect zero, flood the screws with LocTite so that the sights stay put. Some serious hobby shooters put scopes or red-dot sights on their long barreled target .22 handguns. By the time you put high quality, reliable optics on a standard Ruger pistol you increase the total "system cost" to over $500 and the resulting "full race dragon" pistol tips the scales at about 50 ozs.! A heavy barrelled, "full race Ruger" is more bulky and much less handy for field use than the "Target and Trapper" model pistols of the 1930s and 40s. These were designed for the very backpack survival situations we talk about around the camp fire and plan for.
The .22 pistol I actually carry in my survival rucksack is a High Standard Model B made in 1942 with a 6-3/4" barrel. It was bequeathed to me from an old Alaska bush pilot who carried it in the survival seat pack of his DeHavilland Beaver float plane. The High Standard Model B uses the same magazines as the pre-war Colt Woodsman. It is similarly trim, light and accurate. High Standards in very good to excellent serviceable condition are common on web sites such as Cabela's Gun Library, and are worth looking for to have shipped to your FFL dealer, if you are serious about finding a .22 pistol for your survival ruck. A "shooter grade" Colt Woodsman, Huntsman or Challenger will cost $700-$800. The less-classy High Standard Model A, B, GB, D, H-B, or H-D in similar VG to Exc. condition will sell for about $200 less than a Colt in simiolar condition. Classic trapper's .22 autos are handy in the ruck and worth EVERY penny!
The CCI High Velocity Small Game Bullet (SGB) and CCI Subsonic Hollow-Point are the best hunting ammo, depending upon whether you want maximum power and penetration, or if you want low noise from your rifle for garden pest control without disturbing the neighbors. CCI Blazer is the best buy for low cost, high volume practice ammo. The CCI Subsonic HP is the only low noise (in a rifle), standard velocity round I have found which also expands reliably from a 4" or longer semi-auto pistol. While I prefer the SGC for goundhogs, subsonic hollowpoints are great for stuff like squirrels and rabbits.
Getting any bullet expansion from .22 revolvers is problematic. This is because the cylinder gap reduces velocity. Also, any cylinder misalignment causes asymmetrical scrubbing of the bullet which accentuates its initial yaw as it leaves the muzzle. In water-jug tests I have found that the same bullets which expand well from my 4-1/2" barrel Woodsman do not from revolvers. In revolvers you are better off with solids. High velocity is OK if you can find a batch of unplated stuff that is accurate.
Practice with your .22 frequently from field positions. With handguns use a lanyard of parachute cord to steady it. Practice until you can hit a Vienna sausage can all the time at 50 feet, then increase the distance to 25 yards. When that becomes easy, double the distance to 50 yards and shoot from a steady sitting position or using an improved rest. If you start trying to shoot clay birds on a dirt bank at 100 yards you've now become a hobby shooter and are just showing off!
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