Saw this article and thought I'd share it with you all and the OP.
http://www.americanrifleman.org/blogs/why-not-any-caliber/
I'd like to take exception to the claims made in the article, and I'm as concerned that such unsubstantiated claims would appear in the NRA's American Rifleman as I am that we seem to be unable to separate the chaff from the wheat, here. That is, we're so far removed from a background in basic science, most notably physics, that we're unable to recognize spurious anecdote when we read it.
The .22 LR is a very deadly round.
I disagree with this. Any round, even a BB, can be deadly. But "very deadly?" That phrase is unscientific. It was written by a writer who was writing for effect, not by a scientist accurately and objectively reporting findings based on hard data.
Many emergency room doctors will tell you that a .22 caliber gunshot is one of the worst to come in, because, quite often, a .22 LR will ricochet inside the body causing many small, hard-to-find wound channels.
This is a wild and unsupported claim. "Many?" As in "3 out of 5?" Sounds like a commercial to me. Even he'd said "73% of doctors polled will tell you..." I'd have to ask, "What about the other 27%? Why would they say otherwise?" Doctors are subject to anecdotal evidence, as well. One thing I've learned very well is how often both medical doctors and PhD's goof up their statistics. They're doctors, not statisticians (Unless they have their PhD in statistics, of course).
As far as doctors go, I have two doctor friends who've been working in ER for decades, one up in Denver. I ran this claim by them and both of them said "rubbish." Well, one of them said rubbish. The other used more colorful language. Regardless, their opinions are anecdotal, but as I know them, I'm inclined to side with their opinion.
The .22 doesn't "richochet inside the body" any more or less than do other rounds. If it has a clear path, As it's not designed to fragment, it tends not to fragment. A fragmenting .22 round will penetrate roughly 6 inches, while a non-fragmenting round will penetration roughly 12 inches.
Source. Even the non-fragmenting round's 12 inches allows for initial penetration, perhaps bouncing off one rib before coming to rest in tissue, or against a second bone.
The one except is a penetrating head shot, as in either through the eye or another means. Once in brain, which, unlike muscle, has very little resistance to penetration, a .22 round can indeed richochet around the skull. However, the penetration distance will remain within 50% of that for muscle. It's simple physics, and all the anecdotal "evidence" and doctors' claims otherwise do not override physics.
The surgeries for these wounds can take hours and as often as not, the victims bleed out and die.
To this, both doctor friends used colorful language, particularly about bleeding out. "That's what blood banks are for." They reminded me that most bleeders have sustained trauma to major cardio paths, including the heart, aortas, other major arteries, jugulars, vital blood-rich organs, or the head. Both are far more worried about blunt force trauma cause by car accidents as the bleeding is small on a local scale, but the bleeding is widespread.
As for shooting victims, one put it this way: "The worst are medium to large fragmenting rounds as it's difficult to determine the initial mass of the bullet. It's not like that value is stamped on the flat bottom of the jacket. Without knowing that, we don't know if we've managed to get it all. Regardless, we don't invasively feel around everywhere, either, as that exacerbates trauma to the wound. We get the main mass, feel gently along the wound track for side tunnels, close off any bleeders, give blood and clotting factor as required, pack the wound, close up, and monitor. If we feel we've missed something, a simple x-ray tells us where."
Now, if.22 LR is such a deadly round, then why am I so against it?
I agree with the author on this one. It's about stopping power, not killing power. However, unlike the author, I do not hold that the .22 is "such a deadly round." Rather, I hold that stopping power and killing power are closely correlated, an opinion that's substantiated by mortuary statistics and crime stats.
For a more interesting read, see the
FBI's Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness. The ideas presented therein are being the FBI's move from the .38 to the .40 i.e. faster round + heavier round = greater penetration + larger cavity. You can read about their testing and decision making process
here.
