Marlin 783 .22wmr.

That's a nice rifle and a good shooter. Unlike 22lr that can shoot bug holes my experience with 22 magnum have never yielded bug holes.
 
That's a nice rifle and a good shooter. Unlike 22lr that can shoot bug holes my experience with 22 magnum have never yielded bug holes.
I thought my 9422 was pretty good with the irons....I never put a scope on it. The RAR has a 4x32 and I wasn't too impressed. This one is a 3-9x 32? At only 50yds. But I haven't experimented with any ammo yet. Hopefully it will tighten up with 40gr ammo
They tell me the .17hmr is the shooter!
 
In my experience, accuracy varies with brand as well as bullet weight. Just like shooting different loads in a center fire rifle, my .22 mag rifles prefer different brands of ammo for best accuracy. So, I use CCI in one, Winchester in another, etc.

I settled on using 40 and 50 gr ammo for best results on varmints. The 30 gr ammo I tried was accurate enough but lacked the stopping power of 40 and 50 gr ammo and often required a finishing shot on larger critters so I stopped using it.
 
I have a 783 that is my woodchuck gun. I'm zeroed at 100yds. I've killed woodchucks out as far as 175yds with it, Great gun. When they were built the safety wasn't backwards.
 
I have a marlin 22mag , your groups are as good as i ever got! I went with a cz527 in 223 on RC Models recommendation! now that CZ will shoot 1 inch groups at 100yds. You received a very nice rifle from the landlady!!

I still Like my Busch Light!!

Bull
 
I thought my 9422 was pretty good with the irons....I never put a scope on it. The RAR has a 4x32 and I wasn't too impressed. This one is a 3-9x 32? At only 50yds. But I haven't experimented with any ammo yet. Hopefully it will tighten up with 40gr ammo
They tell me the .17hmr is the shooter!
Maybe a good cleaning of the barrel to make sure it is not leaded will tighten the group some more too.
 
Nice rifle. I have a 783 I bought new in 1981 from WM for $115. I have shot several hundred rounds through the gun. I zero at 75 yards. I prefer 40gr ammo in mine. I also have a stainless steel 883 with laminated stock. I found that in like new condition in a pawn shop. They wanted $200 and I offered $135 OTD. They took it.

I do not care for the CCI 22 mag ammo. The CCI ammo just uses a plated lead bullet that really isn't up to 22 mag velocities. I like Winchester or Armscor 22 mag ammo better. It come with a real jacketed bullet. When I would sight in at 100 yards with the Winchester ammo and then shoot 40gr CCI ammo it always landed below the Winchester rounds. It doesn't seem to be loaded as hot. Fiocchi also has good 22 mag ammo. But it used to be that Fiochhi ammo was loaded for them by Armscor in the Philippines. Also the CCI ammo seemed to foul the bore really quick. In 25 rounds groups would start to open up until I cleaned the bore. That was when my bore was new and it may have smoothed over time so there is that.

I guess if you were hide hunting and wanted a round with limited penetration the CCI ammo would be the way to go. If you want penetration get the Winchester or Armscor FMJ or Soft Point bullets in 40gr weight. I would love to try some of the 50gr loads. They dig deep. The 22 mag was made from the start to be a hunting round. Its too expensive to plink with. I bought 4,000 rounds of Armscor when Sportsmans Guide had it for $5.56 a box a decade ago. I have around 5,500 rounds on hand. Like I said I like the round. I got an email yesterday from Buds saying they got some Henry 22 mag lever actions in stock and I am really tempted to order one.
 
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I do not care for the CCI 22 mag ammo. The CCI ammo just uses a plated lead bullet that really isn't up to 22 mag velocities. I like Winchester or Armscor 22 mag ammo better. It come with a real jacketed bullet. When I would sight in at 100 yards with the Winchester ammo and then shoot 40gr CCI ammo it always landed below the Winchester rounds. It doesn't seem to be loaded as hot. Fiocchi also has good 22 mag ammo. But it used to be that Fiochhi ammo was loaded for them by Armscor in the Philippines. Also the CCI ammo seemed to foul the bore really quick. In 25 rounds groups would start to open up until I cleaned the bore. That was when my bore was new and it may have smoothed over time so there is that.

I can't speak for back in the day, but the only plated .22 WMR ammo I've ever used was Winchester Dynapoint, which I nickname Disappoint or Dynacrap.

All CCI .22 WMR that I've bought and fired in the last 10 to 15 years is jacketed.
 
All CCI .22 WMR that I've bought and fired in the last 10 to 15 years is jacketed.

Thats the way it should be. I haven't bought any CCI 22 mag ammo in a long time. It was the only ammo I had when I bought the gun in 1981. After I tried Winchester 22 mag ammo that was it for me. Then I bought some Armscor from CTD (this was before they turned into the place they are now) and found it shot right with the Winchester. There is one YT video of a guy shooting CCI 22 mag at a one gallon water jug and the bullet blows to fragments and never makes it out of the jug.

If you ever had or saw any of the old Marlin catalogs they gave away at the gun stores Marlin promoted the penetration of the 22 mag round over the 22lr by shooting a stack of Walnut wood blanks. The 22 mag would go at least twice as deep as the 22lr round in the same stack of wood. Like I posted earlier a fragmenting bullet can have a place. Good for no ricochets.
 
I had one of those years ago.I got tired of trying to get used to the safety and traded it for a Remington 541S 22LR.The Marlin 22 Mag was a great walking groundhog gun.Best shot I made with it was a crow I took out of a huge water poplar tree at 125 yards.I'd still have it if I wouldn't have kept scaring myself with the safety.Whatever Marlin engineer came up with that idea must have had some connections for them to market it.And,alas,the groundhogs here are basically gone except for the ones around some of the old barns and sheds.Coyotes and bald eagles have made them nearly extinct.I have probably a dozen beautiful varmint rifles that sit idle nowadays.Coyotes are too hard to hunt and eagles are not to be hunted.I remember seeing the first one I'd ever seen in Colorado while hunting elk,and was excited to get a good look at one.Now if I want to see the 3 or 4 that are close by all I have to do is shoot a deer and leave it lay in one of the fields.They'll be on it before the coyotes.
 
If looking for better accuracy, conversion to .17 HMR might yield better groups. I like the .17 I have. However, the groups you show will kill lots of critters to 100 yards, so if you hadn't group-shot it, you'd have taken it out in the field and killed a lot of small animals and hit a lot of things and fallen in love with the rifle and cartridge.

I once had a Stevens .22 LR that I plinked with a LOT and never seemed to miss rats in a dump etc. Then, one day I shot it from the bench at a target at 50 yards and it wouldn't group worth crap! I'm talking 6" at 50 yards!!! I traded that rifle the next day, but thinking back, it killed everything I aimed at, so it wasn't such a bad hunting gun, but we anal shooters have to shoot a rifle that puts 'em in the same hole.

Once, when hunting varmints and rabbits with that Stevens "waste-basket" size grouper, I shot at a winter-white rabbit at about 40 yards, or so, emptying the tubular magazine into it, and could see the ground behind it through the hole in the chest, but the rabbit didn't fall over, despite being dead.
 
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Nice pick up, I really like the 780 series
I had picked up a 22lr 781 that I liked so much I decided that it needed a 783 sibling which I finally acquired last spring.
The group was 40g CCI @50 yards when I took it out for a function test right after acquiring it.

DSCF0039.JPG
 
Nice pick up, I really like the 780 series
I had picked up a 22lr 781 that I liked so much I decided that it needed a 783 sibling which I finally acquired last spring.
The group was 40g CCI @50 yards when I took it out for a function test right after acquiring it.

View attachment 1142759
Pretty good group, probably without a solid rest.
 
I'm a big fan of the .22 mag. Here in Southern Appalachia, one gets no particularly long shots. The holes groundhogs dig in pastureland allow cattle's legs to go down in there and break. Fresh groundhog holes are slick and angled -- perfect for snapping bovine legs. Can't have that.

Too, groundhogs can make short order of a family's garden. My kin ate fried groundhog. Me, I find the meat too greasy.

Can the pelts be tanned and used? My kin never tanned whistle-pig pelts. I've not even seen them drying on the sides of barns. Anybody know?

An accurate bolt .22 magnum sounds like a near-perfect tractor rifle to me.
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If you want to see how well your Marlin will shoot, get some Winchester 40gr JHP.
In my experience, it’s the most accurate .22wmr.
My 883 Stainless will shoot 1-1/4” 5-shots at 100yds.
I zero for 75yds. Gives me 1/2” rise at 50yds , -1-1/2” at 100yds.
 
I sight in .22 LR at 50 feet and check at 75 yards. It will be dead on at that range (with most ammo.) For close targets, I aim a tad low. For far targets I aim dead on. For really far targets, I use the top of the thick bottom crosshair. I used to shoot .22 Silhouette and won a bit of money at that game -- with my .22 Kimber, I could clean the 100 yard rams.
 
Nice rifle. I have a 783 I bought new in 1981 from WM for $115. I have shot several hundred rounds through the gun. I zero at 75 yards. I prefer 40gr ammo in mine. I also have a stainless steel 883 with laminated stock. I found that in like new condition in a pawn shop. They wanted $200 and I offered $135 OTD. They took it.

I do not care for the CCI 22 mag ammo. The CCI ammo just uses a plated lead bullet that really isn't up to 22 mag velocities. I like Winchester or Armscor 22 mag ammo better. It come with a real jacketed bullet. When I would sight in at 100 yards with the Winchester ammo and then shoot 40gr CCI ammo it always landed below the Winchester rounds. It doesn't seem to be loaded as hot. Fiocchi also has good 22 mag ammo. But it used to be that Fiochhi ammo was loaded for them by Armscor in the Philippines. Also the CCI ammo seemed to foul the bore really quick. In 25 rounds groups would start to open up until I cleaned the bore. That was when my bore was new and it may have smoothed over time so there is that.

I guess if you were hide hunting and wanted a round with limited penetration the CCI ammo would be the way to go. If you want penetration get the Winchester or Armscor FMJ or Soft Point bullets in 40gr weight. I would love to try some of the 50gr loads. They dig deep. The 22 mag was made from the start to be a hunting round. Its too expensive to plink with. I bought 4,000 rounds of Armscor when Sportsmans Guide had it for $5.56 a box a decade ago. I have around 5,500 rounds on hand. Like I said I like the round. I got an email yesterday from Buds saying they got some Henry 22 mag lever actions in stock and I am really tempted to order one.

CCI makes several different types of .22WMR ammunition.
 
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