This is not an official review of this ammo, just a short note about an outing I had this week. I recently obtained a Ruger American rifle in .22 magnum and put a Redfield Revolution 2-7 x 33 on it. I used a couple of Fiocchi loadings to sight it in at 100 yds at the house but went out to Central Texas this week to hunt turkey and took this setup to try out more ammo on plastic jugs and eggs.

I had found a case of the Hornady Critical Defense 45 grain ammo not long ago for just a bit more than cheaper 22 mag so took a couple of boxes along. It is marketed as pistol ammo with a hollow point bullet and a plastic looking plug in the middle and I thought it would be interesting to see how it performed out of a rifle. All I can say is 'wow'.

We never even shot the jugs and eggs, just the prickly pear pads that were everywhere. From 30-80 yds, that rifle/ammo combo was dead on. And the devastation was surprising. Each round blew a 1-2" hole through each pad. Even the entrance hole was huge. It was nothing but green mist covering everything behind it after every shot.

The Fiocchi JSP ammo was just as accurate but you could barely tell where you hit the pear. Some blew a small chunk out of the back side but nothing like the Hornady.

I wouldn't use the Critical Defense on small game in a survival setting as meat might be unrecoverable but in my opinion, it would be a very effective self defense round if all you found yourself with was a rifle full of it. For what it's worth.

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People underestimate the power of the 22 mag. It's not ideal but it punches way beyond it's weight.

Some of the hunting camps around here use .22 Mag for eliminating problem hogs. The standard gun is the stainless Marlin with the synthetic stock that used to be widely available at Walmart.

I had considered this load for my NAA Mini revolvers but I found some information online that these heavy-for-caliber slugs tend to keyhole in short barrels.

In rifles, it seems to be good to go, but not short barreled pstols.