If you’re like most eastern North Carolinians, the first real gun you owned was a simple 22-calibur rimfire and the chances are that the first animal you killed with it was a gray squirrel, our North Carolina State Mammal.

The small but lethal and very handy 22-calibur long rifle ammunition was invented in 1887 by the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company. It was originally meant for an inexpensive cartridge used for target shooting. It quickly became known as a very efficient cartridge meant for small game hunting and lately has been recognized as being, when properly placed, a lethal bullet on larger animals. Reportedly, the mafia uses this bullet in the handguns they use to “help control” their competition.

I don’t have the exact figures to back this up, but I’d bet that there are more 22-calibur rimfire guns (rifles, handguns, and shotguns) here in America than all other types of guns combined.

And, yes, there is a rimfire shotgun, a smoothbore 22-calibur rimfire that shoots No. 12 lead shot (“rat shot”). We used to use these shotguns at Camp Coker Boy Scout Camp to practice shooting small clay targets. This shooting game was called “mo-skeet” and learning to safely handle this little shotgun was one part of a Boy Scout earning a shooting merit badge.

In the modern world, the 22-calibur rimfire has become the No. 1 gun of all time in terms of total numbers sold in history and all guns currently being sold. An American by the bame of Bill Ruger designed the rimfire rifle, as well as the Ruger 10/22 auto-loading 22-caliber rifle.

Just for the record, Ruger has a plant located in Mayodan that manufacturers their Ruger American bolt-action 22-calibur rimfire rifle. The popular 10/22 is manufactured in the Ruger plant in New Hampshire.

One reason the 10/22 still remains an American favorite is because it is so “changeable.” Gun enthusiasts can change, add to, subtract from and choose interchangeable parts for this rifle and turn it into all sorts of interesting variations of the original rifle. Some of these variations are near-exact copies of several military weapons and are difficult to visually distinguish from the originals.

I’ve heard gun hobbyist’s compare their customizing of their Ruger 10/22s to how we used to interchange parts to stereo sound systems and “improve on” the original version. With the 10/22 it’s simple to change to a customized barrel, trigger assembly, stock, color and finish and this work can usually be done by an amateur instead of having to send the gun off to a gunsmith.

The well-known gun parts company Brownells advertises that you can order parts for the Ruger guns and “Dream it, build it” with their “endless possibilities” from their catalogues. They claim to have “everything you need to customize, maintain, repair and shoot your guns” and their “products are 100 percent guaranteed-forever”.  (brownells.com/dream)

No doubt the most unusual customizing job I’ve heard of involving the Ruger 10/22 rifle comes from LaRue Tactical. Basically, it involves removing the standard 10/22 barrel and substituting the LaRue barrel on the gun. The new LaRue barrel utilizes a blank 22-calibur cartridge like the ones you use to shoot a training dummy for your hunting dog. A 16-inch arrow is inserted into the new barrel and when the gun is fired it propels the arrow at a target at about 430-feet per second. It’s reported to be extremely accurate at 50 yards. Unfortunately this would not be legal to use for hunting because it doesn’t meet the requirements to qualify as being a bow or crossbow.  It’s just one example of what can be done with what’s reported to be a simple customizing job on the basic 10/22 Ruger rifle.

With all the past history of the .22-rimfire rifles, why is this particular gun in the news so much these days? It nearly looks like this gun is more popular than it’s ever been. If you try and buy 22-calibur Long Rifle ammunition, the store’s shelves are nearly empty of this kind of ammo and when you do find some, the chances are that the price is astronomical.

Five years ago when you went to the store to buy some ammo for a rimfire you probably paid about 3 cents per round for 22-calibur long rifle ammo. Today, if you’re lucky enough to find some 22-calibur ammo, you’ll pay about 20 cents per round.

Rumors are flying around the country as to just why 22-calibur ammo is so hard to find, but perhaps the most reasonable explanation is that people are simply stockpiling this useful ammunition.

Survivalists can “squirrel away” thousands of rounds of ammo and hide it in a small, inconspicuous area. One ammunition-manufacturing firm is even marketing the ammo sealed in a can filled with nitrogen, which makes it very stable for long term storage.

If I was limited to owning just one gun, it would have to be designed to utilize the 22-caliber cartridge. Certainly there are more efficient cartridges and shot shells for a wider variety of uses but, overall, the little 22-calibur rimfire would get the job done if the little bullet is properly placed on the target.

The most outstanding example I’ve ever heard of is the one about the world record grizzly bear that was killed by an Indian woman. She was out with her children picking berries when the bear attacked her. Using a single shot 22-calibur rifle loaded with a little short cartridge she fired, at close range, one shot into the bear’s open mouth. The record for grizzly bears has been broken since then, but for a period of time, the Indian woman held the record by using a 22-calibur-rifle cartridge that would be better suited for shooting squirrels. There are no degrees of being dead.