22 LR vs 25 ACP or 32 ACP

If you're going to use one of those calibers it'd have to be .32. No question about it.

I would consider .32 marginal. .25 and .22 are practically unacceptable. Actually, I'd rather have a high-velocity .22 than a .25.

Honestly, there are good .380s in guns roughly the same size as the .22-.32's. .380 isn't going to win a kinetic energy competition, but it's at least somewhat acceptable, depending on your point of view.

 

+1

 

That's crazy that it followed the bone... Like it didn't have enough energy to break back out of the skin or something.

 

I believe he was also firing that rifle supressed. I was reading a autobiography of a SEAL in vietnam and his CO had given him a .22 pistol that was suppressed, for a mission. They were in route to the mission point when he was compromised by a NVA scout. He took the guy out, but not after putting 8 rounds into center of mass. He wrote that the first 5 rounds just pissed the scout off, and he kept coming, the next 3 rounds went into the head before the guy dropped.

I don't place a lot of stock into hollyweird, a single .22 to the head, unless its a "special" load isn't going to take a BG down instantly.

 

Obviously, you don't understand the stopping power of a bullet backed up by a script!

 

.32

I've owned and test fired small pocket pistols in all of the calibers you mentioned, and the .32 definitely blasts a bigger hole in the target. Not just due to the slightly larger diameter, but due to its greater weight and the "temporary wound cavity" it creates. None of them are very good on penetration, but the .32 is better in that regard than the others, too. If you get a hollowpoint .32 to open up, it will probably stop after just a couple inches of penetration. My .32 is loaded with 60-grain jacketed hollowpoints, but they won't open up. I tested them in soaked wet newspaper bundles. They are louder and more of a deterrent, I think, than the standard 70-grain FMJ ammo, so that's why I use them.

Seriously, if you're concerned with ballistic performance, you don't want any of these calibers. You only carry one of these because you need a tiny gun for the method of carry you choose and the place you're going that day.

 

I would think a 1600 fps .22lr would penetrate better than the others. But it would be a very small hole and it wouldn't do much damage unless it disrupts a major organ.

 

At least vs. the .25 ACP you'd be right. However, out of a mousegun barrel I'd be shocked if the .22 actually attained that velocity.

Honestly, .25 ACP has my award for "worst cartridge ever." Jeepster, it doesn't supervise me that a .25 couldn't penetrate bone. It just doesn't carry enough momentum to overcome something like bone.

 

I have a 32 acp that I carry as a bug. IMHO I figure that the only real scenario that a pocket gun would be used to its fullest would be close contact. You can't really aim them or get good penetration unless you stick the gun in the assailant's ribs and start pulling the trigger. Otherwise I carry my 9mm compact or 45.

 

Sure it will. You just have to ask the BG to open his mouth wide so you can stick the muzzle way down his throat before you squeeze the trigger.



Otherwise I agree, a OSOK with a .22lr means you got REALLY lucky. Maybe hit the BG in the eye, or somehow lucked out through the ribs & hit the heart. .22lr's will stop someone no doubt. They bounce around once they get in ya, but it's not going to be fast & it's not necessarily going to slow the BG down for a little while. If I don't have anything else I'll take it, but I'm not going to be real confident with it.

 

All of those calibers are made for doctor guns, not your average SD scenario.