Hello all. Kudos to Mr. Hudson on an interesting topic and to those who have responded. I've enjoyed reading it so far so I guess I'll chime in. (Mr. Hudson, your use of "contrarian" makes me wonder if you trade on the stock market?)
First, I've done very little testing with this round as I normally don't shoot rimfire too much. My only .22 handguns are a SIG P210 conversion and an old S&W M41; I tested out of the latter with it's approx. 7" bbl.
In water jugs, my observations were very, very similar to Mr. Hudson's. In water-soaked, supersaturated phone books, the little .22 bullets did reliably break into pieces as advertised.
A sitting jackrabbit at about 35 yards went belly up when one shot hit him just behind the shoulders and none of the pieces exited. He did the "Culey Shuffle" for a few seconds and shuffled off his mortal coil. The second jack was running from my right to my left (I'm right-handed so this was perfect) at about 20 yards. I hit him approx 2" behind the shoulder and again, no exits, but he just tumbled and was expired. Very good performance in my view.
I won't get into my views concerning ballistic "floors" on self-defense except to say that placement is paramount. I do not carry a .22, but, as has been stated, there are bound to be folks who do out of necessity or preference. I know I wouldn't carry a TPH, even a German one that works as they literally eat me alive. Perhaps a German PPK, PP, or some such if I just had to. I'm not even up on revolvers enough to know which models might be the best for this.
The mechanism of collapse or incapacitation depends upon many factors and many varying opinions are expounded. There is usually some truth in all of them. I lean toward the "medium weight for caliber and fast" over "heavy & slow" with .45ACP 230 gr HydraShoks being an exception or 255 gr HCSWC @ 950 ft/sec out of .45 Colt. I think that there is something to temporary cavitation, but don't think its effect manifests itself in all "targets" at all times as high velocity rifle rounds can. My favorite of all calibers is 9x19mm loaded with 124 gr JHPs @ 1280 ft/sec.
As to the .22 QuikShok for defense: IF you can get a frontal shot that is unobstructed and get the round(s) into the high-center chest area and unhesitatingly keeping pouring them (accurately) in IF needed, you very well might do fine. I do think that an arm in the way or having to plow through a shoulder from the side could present problems for this light round.
Not in the immediate future, but as soon as I can without rushing, I'll find the .22 QuickShoks I have around here somewhere and do some testing and chronographing and report back. I'll try to find some more commonly carried handguns like Rugers, etc to test from such that the results might be more valid than with my longer barreled pistols.
Allow me to close with a true story from what was then Rhodesia. In the '70s, there was a Mau Mau insurrection in which numerous farmers and ranchers were being killed with machettes and such. A lady whose husband was gone for several days at a time found that she loved plinking golf balls on their spacious estate property. Her weapon was a 4" bbl'd Colt Woodsman. She shot and shot and shot and learned to hit and hit darned well. Well, cutting to the chase, she was attacked by Mau Mau and she killed 8 with one shot each to the head. No more tried or that was all of them; on that point I am not clear. Does that mean that her .22 solids were "manstoppers." Actually, yes it does IN HER HANDS; she could hit, maintained her cool and skill, and didn't hesitate to shoot.
Best to all.
|