Any love for the 22mag fellas?

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Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by mickb » 25 Jun 2022, 11:04 pm

I was always a quiet fan of the calibre but the ammo price doesnt endear me like it used to. Anyone still using one a lot?
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by No1Mk3 » 26 Jun 2022, 1:15 am

Only have 1 left, a Rossi Pump Action and I haven't used it for at least 4 years. Ammo is too dear, when I can use a 22 or a 223 to do anything the Mag could do. Probably sell the Rossi one day too.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by womble » 26 Jun 2022, 5:47 am

It is kinda obsolete in the mainstream. Not many ranges you can take it to that will let you use it closer than a 100.
But I still have one and I still love it.
I still take it out with me sometimes , because I know I can cleanly kill a fox at around 70-80 meters every time. Which is about as close as they come to me to check things out, thinking they’re at a safe range. Curiosity kills.
I sight it aft 80 too.
I just don’t like using 22lr for that. That’s just me.
It’s quieter then a 223 so theres that. And a comparatively limited effective range on smaller properties around my way.
Ammo price is not reasonable, but for me a box will last a year so I don’t really care.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bigrich » 26 Jun 2022, 5:49 am

like the hornet it would be handy on farms where the neighbours aren't far away, and neither round scares livestock like a 223 will . their both niche calibers in my opinion , but very useful in the right circumstance
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by womble » 26 Jun 2022, 5:53 am

Se there’s the thing. The hornet is a better choice again.
I still love my 22 with the magnum punch and it’s little hollow points though.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by womble » 26 Jun 2022, 6:01 am

bigrich wrote:like the hornet it would be handy on farms where the neighbours aren't far away, and neither round scares livestock like a 223 will . their both niche calibers in my opinion , but very useful in the right circumstance


It the right tool to euthanise livestock also if you have to.
A lot of hobby farm types around my way.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by JohnV » 26 Jun 2022, 7:01 am

22 Magnum is not a bad gun to use over pig dogs because it's powerful enough to drop a big pig at very short range but the bullet almost never exits .
Better for killing a cow than a 22 LR .
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by Blr243 » 26 Jun 2022, 7:03 am

At certain times of year depending on crops there’s a certain paddock I hunt where I sit on the edge of a cultivated paddock and thermal scan at night waiting for single or multiple pigs to turn up . At Times when only very small pigs turn up i had an idea that they could be cleanly take with a 22 mag so I would not scare away others with my 243 .. so I bought a heavy barrelled marlin but have never got round to useing it. Maybe spotlight work off my quad for small things close range. ( I carry one or two rifles at night ) I have a stack of ammo for it
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bladeracer » 26 Jun 2022, 9:45 am

Blr243 wrote:At certain times of year depending on crops there’s a certain paddock I hunt where I sit on the edge of a cultivated paddock and thermal scan at night waiting for single or multiple pigs to turn up . At Times when only very small pigs turn up i had an idea that they could be cleanly take with a 22 mag so I would not scare away others with my 243 .. so I bought a heavy barrelled marlin but have never got round to useing it. Maybe spotlight work off my quad for small things close range. ( I carry one or two rifles at night ) I have a stack of ammo for it


Just make up some reduced loads for the .243.
A 55gn or 58gn at about 1800fps would be similar to WMR for close work. Shoot them at 50m so you know how much they drop below your normal load.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bigpete » 26 Jun 2022, 10:46 am

Yeah I've still got the one dad gave to me for my 16th. Deadly accurate and nice looking too. Honestly can't remember when I shot something with it last. I should go and sight it in again and take it out,it always was a good little fox rifle
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by animalpest » 26 Jun 2022, 11:03 am

Still have my .22 mag I bought 41 years ago. Still love it as its great for foxes at closer ranges.

I have 10,000 rounds left that I bought when they were $6 for 50 so I can burn up heaps on a bunny spotlight shoot
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bladeracer » 26 Jun 2022, 11:08 am

mickb wrote:I was always a quiet fan of the calibre but the ammo price doesn't endear me like it used to. Anyone still using one a lot?


I like the WMR but I wouldn't own one again.
I bought one as a kid and I probably put less than two boxes through it.
Accuracy was no better than .22LR so it didn't give me any longer range for hunting. My choices of ammo where pretty restricted then though, it's possible I might've been able to find an ammo that it liked much better, but it would've been a very expensive exercise.

When I discovered bulk 500rd packs of the Winchester WMR 40gn semi-jacketed HP bullet, out of the .222 I got better accuracy with the same bullet at WMR velocities, and the loads were heaps cheaper than buying WMR ammo. Wasn't any value in taking the WMR out after that.

If we could still own revolvers for field use, the WMR would be a useful step-up in a Ruger Single-Six.

Modern rifles with modern ammo are capable of one-minute at 100m which makes the WMR more useful than it used to be, but I still prefer to use the .204, .223 or .243 with reduced loads.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by Blr243 » 26 Jun 2022, 2:08 pm

Good idea blade. Maybe some TB or 2206h.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bladeracer » 26 Jun 2022, 2:38 pm

Blr243 wrote:Good idea blade. Maybe some TB or 2206h.


Now for sure, I was using IMR4198 back then.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bigpete » 26 Jun 2022, 3:25 pm

I'd happily buy another 22wmr, in fact I'm always keeping an eye out for an older cz hogsback model.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by northdude » 26 Jun 2022, 4:24 pm

I had one in a zastava c99 or something like that. It was a nice little rifle but I'm a 22hornet fan so when I had both I found Id just grab the hornet so ended up selling the 22magnum. Hornet had the advantage of a bit longer range and the option to taylor a load to suit the rifle if you have the patience
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by mickb » 26 Jun 2022, 5:22 pm

Blr243 wrote:Good idea blade. Maybe some TB or 2206h.


TB would be for speeds around a 1000fps. Many pistol/shotgun powders can also do similar. There are ADI loads using As-30N in 223 and 308, also old US loads for using Bullseye the same way

Now Alliant 2400 if you can find it, with loads in the 15-25 grains range get you to sub 2000 speeds.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by mchughcb » 26 Jun 2022, 7:13 pm

I got a 22 Mag in the Sako Quad. I've killed plenty of foxes with it using the 30gr CCI Vmax. That is accurate and hits hard on rabbits and foxes. It is sighted in for 100m but with a hold over on the back of a fox will drop then at 135m no problem.

I also got a 22Mag Einstecklauf for my drilling which is unbelievably accurate for a tube that you drop in and screw tighten.

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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bladeracer » 26 Jun 2022, 7:48 pm

mickb wrote:
Blr243 wrote:Good idea blade. Maybe some TB or 2206h.


TB would be for speeds around a 1000fps. Many pistol/shotgun powders can also do similar. There are ADI loads using As-30N in 223 and 308, also old US loads for using Bullseye the same way

Now Alliant 2400 if you can find it, with loads in the 15-25 grains range get you to sub 2000 speeds.


Should be able to get very close to WMR velocity out of a .223 with Trailboss.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by NTSOG » 27 Jun 2022, 7:08 am

mchughcb: "I got a 22 Mag in the Sako Quad. I've killed plenty of foxes with it using the 30gr CCI Vmax. That is accurate and hits hard on rabbits and foxes. It is sighted in for 100m but with a hold over on the back of a fox will drop then at 135m no problem."

I use Hornady 30gr. V-Max with my Weihrauch 60P .22Magnum mounted with a PARD NV008 scope. The rifle groups just under an inch at 100 yards off my hunting rest. I use the rifle mainly for walking about hunting hares, but did drop a sitting fox last year at a measured 142 yards - to both my and the fox's surprise. Being quieter than my Weihrauch 66J [.222Rem] it allows me to shoot closer to my eastern boundary where there has been some sub-division across the road.

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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by Gamerancher » 27 Jun 2022, 9:17 am

Back in the early 1980's, I went spotlighting with a bloke who was using a Marlin bolt action in .22mag. Suffice to say that I was impressed enough to buy one the next week. (cost a whole $240 at the local sports store) I was working on a farm in southern NSW at the time that was infested with rabbits and spent the next 18 months pretty much ridding that place and the neighbouring properties of them. I used to pocket the empty shells to keep count and after filling two shoeboxes with them in pretty short time, I gave up. Being the only rifle I owned then, it was used to take rabbits, foxes, cats, goats, roo's and pigs. I even shot my first deer with it. (Fallow with a head-shot) I used it to euthanize a couple of horses and to drop a beast or two for the freezer. Probably it's best outing was culling 120 reds in one night on a Western NSW property. (I missed one :oops: ) Ammo was twice the price of .22LR, about $4.50/50 for Stirling brand or $5/50 for Winchester. I've got no idea how many rounds I put through that rifle but it was enough to wear the bolt out. ( The spring wore through the side of the body of the bolt ) It would still shoot 40mm groups@100m, (which is where it was zeroed) and I sold it to a bloke who was still using it around his farm ten years later. :thumbsup:
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by safeshot » 27 Jun 2022, 7:37 pm

I had a win L/a model 9422. Loved it. I sold it to put my son through an 'outward bound camp'. The camp was a dudd for several reasons and I wish i had not sold the rifle.
edit. The ammo then was $4.95 a box. :thumbsup:
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bigpete » 27 Jun 2022, 7:59 pm

I'm taking mine out to sight in tomorrow
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by MtnMan » 27 Jun 2022, 8:31 pm

Sold mine and bought a .22lr. Ammo too expensive and not very accurate, at least not out of the cheap Stirling M1500 I had.

I now have a .222rem load with a 40gr bullet at 2500fps that I use in place of .22mag.

The trouble with duplicating 22mag with a .222 or .223 is finding a projectile that is both cheap enough to load so as not to exceed 22mag ammo cost and still expands at .22mag velocities.
I had to drive them to 2500fps and knock the soft point off and create a little hollow point to get them to expand enough for hunting within 100m.

I would be all over Bladeracer's bulk .22wmr HP projectiles idea if I could find any for use in the .222
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bladeracer » 27 Jun 2022, 9:29 pm

MtnMan wrote:I would be all over Bladeracer's bulk .22wmr HP projectiles idea if I could find any for use in the .222


Other than a few old Super-X rounds I still have, I haven't seen that semi-jacketed bullet since the eighties, our modern bullets are higher quality.

There are 30-46gn .224" bullets available still for about $30/100, and the 50gn VMax is $350/1000. I think the cheapest WMR ammo I've seen is about $60/100, most is closer to $80-90/100. So you can still load your own WMR loads in .22 Hornet, .222, or .223 for about 40-50c apiece.

In the .204, the 250rd packs of 32gn VMax/ZMax for $100 are great value for reduced loads. Even at current prices ($185/500) you can still load WMR levels for under 50c apiece.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by Oldbloke » 27 Jun 2022, 11:22 pm

Just over a week ago I saw boxes of 55g super roos for $275 for 1000 if I recall correctly. They had about 60 or 70 boxes.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by northdude » 28 Jun 2022, 4:39 am

bladeracer wrote:
MtnMan wrote:I would be all over Bladeracer's bulk .22wmr HP projectiles idea if I could find any for use in the .222


Other than a few old Super-X rounds I still have, I haven't seen that semi-jacketed bullet since the eighties, our modern bullets are higher quality.

There are 30-46gn .224" bullets available still for about $30/100, and the 50gn VMax is $350/1000. I think the cheapest WMR ammo I've seen is about $60/100, most is closer to $80-90/100. So you can still load your own WMR loads in .22 Hornet, .222, or .223 for about 40-50c apiece.

In the .204, the 250rd packs of 32gn VMax/ZMax for $100 are great value for reduced loads. Even at current prices ($185/500) you can still load WMR levels for under 50c apiece.

I have a box of projectiles I have been trying to figure out what they are and after reading this thread I now know. They shoot really well in the 22 hornets I have
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by MtnMan » 28 Jun 2022, 7:40 am

Send them to me. I'll pay freight and you get more shelf space in your shed. Win win.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by bladeracer » 28 Jun 2022, 11:55 am

Oldbloke wrote:Just over a week ago I saw boxes of 55g super roos for $275 for 1000 if I recall correctly. They had about 60 or 70 boxes.


I found a receipt last week for 5000 62gn TAP's I bought two years ago for $569.
But above 50gn you're not really replicating WMR loads, you're just making reduced .223 loads.
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Re: Any love for the 22mag fellas?

Post by northdude » 28 Jun 2022, 12:46 pm

MtnMan wrote:Send them to me. I'll pay freight and you get more shelf space in your shed. Win win.
:sarcasm:

500 dont take up too much space :sarcasm:
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