Hi Members,
Just sharing some rimfire stories with you from a life in Africa. Please share your experiences.
Regards,
RSA1
“Mouse Gun Mishaps”
I believe Massad Ayoob coined the phrase “Friends don’t let friends carry mouse guns”. This refers to the common believe that the small handguns using rimfire cartridges are almost so useless, that you should not let a friend carry one if you cared about your friend. However, he also acknowledges that in some situations anything could be better than nothing.
While living in South Africa (for more than 50 years), I owned a North American Arms (NAA) single shot revolver with a 17/8” barrel, chambered for the 22 Mag rimfire (22 WMR). I bought it as a backup and for several years I carried it as a backup to my Glock 23 or Glock 35. I have also often carried it as my only (primary) gun while out running long distances, folding a handkerchief around it, and carrying it in my left (weak) hand, with the butt facing towards my strong hand. I regularly replaced the carry ammo to avoid the sweat running down my arm and onto the cloth from interfering with it firing reliably. It was very easy to carry, and I felt much more at ease having it with me, than only having a small folder knife hanging (inside) on my running shorts.
I once spoke to a well-known gun shop owner from Cape Town who survived an armed robbery, armed with nothing but his little NAA mouse gun. This incident was published in the South African Man/ Magnum Magazine’s “Action Report” several years ago. Now why would a firearms dealer with such a wide choice of handguns available to him carry a mouse gun? Well, simply, because it is better to carry a mouse gun than nothing at all, and this happened before the ridiculous South African restrictions of the Firearms Control Act of 2000 which allows the legal citizen only one dedicated (Section 13 of the act) firearm for self-defense.
I also know of a legally armed citizen living in Mossel Bay, who (in about 2015) used such a mouse gun (also 1 7/8” NAA chambered in 22 WMR), to defend himself and his family when they were violently robbed in that town, during broad daylight. He shot the one attacker in the chest at an arm’s length away, and the criminal almost instantaneously lost interest in the robbery (he died there on the street). The second attacker was shot through the side, and died later while receiving medical care. The citizen was charged with murder, the state claiming the dead criminal was trying to run away, and was thus shot in his side. The legally armed citizen stated that the second criminal had moved forward while the first criminal was shot, grabbing the shooter’s daughter. That is when that robber was shot, and it therefore explained the shot through the ribs. The case lasted almost four years before it was claimed a “legal shooting”. There were never any charges for having killed the first violent robber.
Back to my story: I must admit that I could not fire the little 22 Mag NAA very accurately, as was demonstrated by the following incident: I had previously worked for the South African National Parks in Wilderness National Park, and after I had left their service, the staff one day stopped me while I was out running around Island Lake (a 10km route), asking if I would please come and euthanize a large porcupine that had been hit by a vehicle, but not killed. I climbed on board their 4x4 pickup (in RSA people are allowed on the back of an open pickup) and went with them to where the porcupine was. Well to cut a long story short, at a range of only 10 feet, I only managed to shoot the porcupine through the (tiny) scull with my third shot. But at least I had the little NAA with me, and my concern while running was not about being attacked by porcupines from a distance of 10 feet!
My standard carry load was the CCI 22 Mag 40gr hollow point. From the short barrel the little 40gr bullets only achieved about 700ft/s. However, I have shot several large baboons through the skull with these loads (after they had been shot with my 25-06 Ruger VT, or one of my Glock pistols in 40 S&W, when culling baboons on campus), and the results were astonishing. The little bullet would penetrate right through the skull, and in one instance the bullet hit the lower jaw of a large male baboon and completely fractured it. However, I have never seen any bullet expansion in the few bullets which I recovered.
During 2004 a friend informed me that an old man urgently needed money and was selling his firearms. The dealer did not want to buy his ammo, so I bought several boxes of 22 WMR Hirtenberg 40gr “hollow point” ammo at a bargain price. I thought that I could use this cheap Hirtenberg ammo for training, and still use the CCI ammo for serious carry. Down at the range, the ammo had several surprises included with the bargain price.
Firstly, none of the boxes of Hirtenberg ammunition contained hollow point ammo, although these were clearly marked as “hollow point bullets” on the outside of the box. Secondly, when the first five fired cases were removed from the cylinder, each one had a large crack in the case near the head / rim section of the case. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. When the second round was fired from the second cylinder full of Hirtenberg ammo, it also chain fired the third round in the cylinder. This happened because the cracked case head of the round being fired, flamed onto the rim of the third round, causing it to “cook off”!
Fortunately, because of the very slim frame design of the little NAA, this round fired the bullet directly from the cylinder harmlessly past the side of the barrel and into the target. This bullet we later found had formed a perfect side-view profile of the bullet in the paper target, set at about 7 yards. Because the bullet did not go through the barrel, it was not spun by the rifling in the barrel, and the unstabilized bullet hit the target sideways.
But because the head section of this case was unsupported against the revolver’s frame, it blew out the head of the case, leaving a large hole in the brass, and it burnt away the skin at the base of the shooter’s right hand thumb. It also imbedded grains of unburned and partially burnt propellant into the skin of his hand and face. We immediately stopped using that ammo, but could not see any cracks in the unfired cases when viewed with the naked eye. However, when scrutinized with a 2x magnifying glass, more than 70% of the unfired cases showed very fine hairline cracks in the case head. Close-up pictures clearly show these cracks.
What went wrong with this Hirtenberg ammo? Why did the brass develop cracks? Why was the ammunition incorrectly labeled as hollow point, when these were solid soft points? Exactly how old the ammo was, we do not know, except that the previous owner had possessed it for more than 20 years.
What were the lessons learnt from this incident? Firstly, always test your serious carry ammo well before you bet your life on it. Secondly, my casual visual observation of the ammo after the first five cases split was not good enough. The naked eye cannot see fine detail that well, even if yours are not fifty years old. Thirdly, you must ALWAYS wear proper eye protection when on a shooting range. As mentioned, some grains of propellant from the blown case actually imbedded themselves in the face of the shooter operating the little NAA. Fortunately, these caused no harm due to the fact that he had been wearing high quality shooting glasses. Lastly, I believe that today in South Africa the average law-abiding Joe Soap cannot afford to own a mouse gun, because the new Firearms Control Act allows you only ONE carry firearm for self-defense, so that ONE gun has to be a serious defensive handgun. If you have to go through all the red tape and unfair, unconstitutional treatment to obtain a (legal) firearm for self-defense, you may as well buy a Glock and make the effort worthwhile!
END
Just sharing some rimfire stories with you from a life in Africa. Please share your experiences.
Regards,
RSA1
“Mouse Gun Mishaps”
I believe Massad Ayoob coined the phrase “Friends don’t let friends carry mouse guns”. This refers to the common believe that the small handguns using rimfire cartridges are almost so useless, that you should not let a friend carry one if you cared about your friend. However, he also acknowledges that in some situations anything could be better than nothing.
While living in South Africa (for more than 50 years), I owned a North American Arms (NAA) single shot revolver with a 17/8” barrel, chambered for the 22 Mag rimfire (22 WMR). I bought it as a backup and for several years I carried it as a backup to my Glock 23 or Glock 35. I have also often carried it as my only (primary) gun while out running long distances, folding a handkerchief around it, and carrying it in my left (weak) hand, with the butt facing towards my strong hand. I regularly replaced the carry ammo to avoid the sweat running down my arm and onto the cloth from interfering with it firing reliably. It was very easy to carry, and I felt much more at ease having it with me, than only having a small folder knife hanging (inside) on my running shorts.
I once spoke to a well-known gun shop owner from Cape Town who survived an armed robbery, armed with nothing but his little NAA mouse gun. This incident was published in the South African Man/ Magnum Magazine’s “Action Report” several years ago. Now why would a firearms dealer with such a wide choice of handguns available to him carry a mouse gun? Well, simply, because it is better to carry a mouse gun than nothing at all, and this happened before the ridiculous South African restrictions of the Firearms Control Act of 2000 which allows the legal citizen only one dedicated (Section 13 of the act) firearm for self-defense.
I also know of a legally armed citizen living in Mossel Bay, who (in about 2015) used such a mouse gun (also 1 7/8” NAA chambered in 22 WMR), to defend himself and his family when they were violently robbed in that town, during broad daylight. He shot the one attacker in the chest at an arm’s length away, and the criminal almost instantaneously lost interest in the robbery (he died there on the street). The second attacker was shot through the side, and died later while receiving medical care. The citizen was charged with murder, the state claiming the dead criminal was trying to run away, and was thus shot in his side. The legally armed citizen stated that the second criminal had moved forward while the first criminal was shot, grabbing the shooter’s daughter. That is when that robber was shot, and it therefore explained the shot through the ribs. The case lasted almost four years before it was claimed a “legal shooting”. There were never any charges for having killed the first violent robber.
Back to my story: I must admit that I could not fire the little 22 Mag NAA very accurately, as was demonstrated by the following incident: I had previously worked for the South African National Parks in Wilderness National Park, and after I had left their service, the staff one day stopped me while I was out running around Island Lake (a 10km route), asking if I would please come and euthanize a large porcupine that had been hit by a vehicle, but not killed. I climbed on board their 4x4 pickup (in RSA people are allowed on the back of an open pickup) and went with them to where the porcupine was. Well to cut a long story short, at a range of only 10 feet, I only managed to shoot the porcupine through the (tiny) scull with my third shot. But at least I had the little NAA with me, and my concern while running was not about being attacked by porcupines from a distance of 10 feet!
My standard carry load was the CCI 22 Mag 40gr hollow point. From the short barrel the little 40gr bullets only achieved about 700ft/s. However, I have shot several large baboons through the skull with these loads (after they had been shot with my 25-06 Ruger VT, or one of my Glock pistols in 40 S&W, when culling baboons on campus), and the results were astonishing. The little bullet would penetrate right through the skull, and in one instance the bullet hit the lower jaw of a large male baboon and completely fractured it. However, I have never seen any bullet expansion in the few bullets which I recovered.
During 2004 a friend informed me that an old man urgently needed money and was selling his firearms. The dealer did not want to buy his ammo, so I bought several boxes of 22 WMR Hirtenberg 40gr “hollow point” ammo at a bargain price. I thought that I could use this cheap Hirtenberg ammo for training, and still use the CCI ammo for serious carry. Down at the range, the ammo had several surprises included with the bargain price.
Firstly, none of the boxes of Hirtenberg ammunition contained hollow point ammo, although these were clearly marked as “hollow point bullets” on the outside of the box. Secondly, when the first five fired cases were removed from the cylinder, each one had a large crack in the case near the head / rim section of the case. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. When the second round was fired from the second cylinder full of Hirtenberg ammo, it also chain fired the third round in the cylinder. This happened because the cracked case head of the round being fired, flamed onto the rim of the third round, causing it to “cook off”!
Fortunately, because of the very slim frame design of the little NAA, this round fired the bullet directly from the cylinder harmlessly past the side of the barrel and into the target. This bullet we later found had formed a perfect side-view profile of the bullet in the paper target, set at about 7 yards. Because the bullet did not go through the barrel, it was not spun by the rifling in the barrel, and the unstabilized bullet hit the target sideways.
But because the head section of this case was unsupported against the revolver’s frame, it blew out the head of the case, leaving a large hole in the brass, and it burnt away the skin at the base of the shooter’s right hand thumb. It also imbedded grains of unburned and partially burnt propellant into the skin of his hand and face. We immediately stopped using that ammo, but could not see any cracks in the unfired cases when viewed with the naked eye. However, when scrutinized with a 2x magnifying glass, more than 70% of the unfired cases showed very fine hairline cracks in the case head. Close-up pictures clearly show these cracks.
What went wrong with this Hirtenberg ammo? Why did the brass develop cracks? Why was the ammunition incorrectly labeled as hollow point, when these were solid soft points? Exactly how old the ammo was, we do not know, except that the previous owner had possessed it for more than 20 years.
What were the lessons learnt from this incident? Firstly, always test your serious carry ammo well before you bet your life on it. Secondly, my casual visual observation of the ammo after the first five cases split was not good enough. The naked eye cannot see fine detail that well, even if yours are not fifty years old. Thirdly, you must ALWAYS wear proper eye protection when on a shooting range. As mentioned, some grains of propellant from the blown case actually imbedded themselves in the face of the shooter operating the little NAA. Fortunately, these caused no harm due to the fact that he had been wearing high quality shooting glasses. Lastly, I believe that today in South Africa the average law-abiding Joe Soap cannot afford to own a mouse gun, because the new Firearms Control Act allows you only ONE carry firearm for self-defense, so that ONE gun has to be a serious defensive handgun. If you have to go through all the red tape and unfair, unconstitutional treatment to obtain a (legal) firearm for self-defense, you may as well buy a Glock and make the effort worthwhile!
END
