A Look at 22 Hollow Point Effectiveness

Veteran YouTuber Paul Harrell hits the range to demonstrate the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of 22 long rifle hollow point bullets on his “meat target” when fired from a handgun. He begins with a S&W pistol loaded with 32-grain CCI Stinger ammo.

Three shots later, he dissects the pork-rib-and-watermelon target to see how they did — and the answer is, pretty well.

36-grain CCI Mini Mags come next, and they too did well.

From there he moves to a tiny carry pistol, and in spite of the video title he fires round nose bullets from it, rather than the promised hollow points. They did a bit of damage but we don’t get to see the bullets themselves. Instead he brings up the goofy myth that 22 bullets will actually ricochet and bounce around inside of someone’s body. Ridiculous, of course, but some people really believe it.

That said, the 22 long rifle is certainly powerful enough to kill someone. In Paul’s words:

Although the 22 is certainly not the deadliest handgun round out there… with the results we have here today, it’s a lot MORE powerful than a lot of people think it is and it is NOT to be underestimated.

Enjoy the video.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.