More scaremongering about centerfire .22's...

[benEzra]

11. Facts inconvenient to your thesis = "nitpicking".

"What he actually wrote was that it had a 'very high velocity' @ 3,000 fps, which you well know is what imparts high kinetic energy to the bullet, thus making the .223 quite powerful despite its light weight."

Oh, baloney. Plenty of deer and elk rifles can exceed 3000 ft/sec, including that poster's recommendation of .25-06, .270, and whatnot. .22-250 can approach 4300 ft/sec with the same 55gr bullet that you are railing about in .223 at 2950-3000 ft/sec. A .270 or .25-06 can match or exceed the velocity of any .223 load, with more mass, and will create a commensurately larger wound.

The inhumanity of using a small varmint round on a deer-sized animal or larger is that the wound may not be severe enough or penetrate deeply enough to incapacitate the animal, resulting in needless suffering and a wasted death.

"If cavitation occurs the animal can wander off & be in unbearable pain for days, moreso than with other hunting bullets."

Cavitation occurs with *all* hunting bullets above 1500-2000 ft/sec. A .25-06, .270, or .30.06 will produce twice the cavitation (or more) than 55gr .223, because it has more mass and more energy at the same or greater velocity.

"The target shooting aspect is immaterial"

Not for target shooters...which, I'll remind you, vastly outnumber hunters in this country.

"hunting game at longer range impractical; small game a quarter mile away bothers you? a 22 rifle is likely the preferred method for short range."

Then why is .223 Remington the most used varmint hunting round in America?

I'll tell you. Because it has enough energy to make humane kills on small game beyond the 50 yards or so that .22LR will, out to the extended ranges you discuss that require higher energy calibers like .22-250.

Again, you're saying that the top target round in the USA is irrelevant for target shooting, and the top varmint round in the USA is irrelevant to varmint hunting. That is nonsensical.

"your gloss glosses over what you volunteered recently, that the .223 will generally cause more severe damage if it hits a person thru drywall, with more grotesque & serious wounding. Bullet will still tend to fragment. Thus, first author's claim that the .223 is 'less desirable for home defense' is not 'exactly backwards' as you say, but spot on."

No, *you* have it backwards. See the Police Marksman article I referenced upthread. .223 Remington shooting lightweight JHP is *less* lethal after penetrating drywall than 9mm JHP or 12-gauge buckshot, even after a single wall, and is less likely to penetrate multiple walls or exit the structure.

"Here I sorta disagree with author, I think you need between 500 & 1000 dollars to get a bushmaster or ar15, making it an upper class white man's toy"

I suppose $549 is "between 500 and 1000 dollars", but it's hardly out of the reach of a working class adult. You're looking at about the same price as a Savage Trophy Hunter XP bolt-action at Walmart.

"some kind of bizarre status symbol that is hardly ever used constructively or humanely."

The most popular target rifle in the nation is almost never used for benign purposes like target shooting? Uh-huh.

"It is one of the most unused in violent crime or to cause death"

Yep, in spite of its being the top selling civilian rifle in the United States, and one of the most common rifles in U.S. homes. Which makes the obsession with banning it all the more bizarre.