.22 mag shoot .22lr?

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No...The mag chamber is slightly larger in diameter than the LR. The LR cases wouldn't be supported and may split upon firing.
 
Unlike the .357 and .44 magnums, which are simply elongated versions of the .38 and .44 specials, the bullet and case diameters of the .22LR and .22Mag are different so most guns will not fire them interchangebly. The only guns I know that will fire both are revolvers with interchangable cylinders (one for .22LR and one for .22Mag) and even these suffer in accuracy becasue the optimum barrel diameter differers for the two rounds differ.
 
You've received sound advice. You can do it with relative safety but expect split cases, decreased velocity and poor accuracy. In a revolver you can also potentially have some hot gas and debris in your face. Not recommended.
 
No

.22 short, long and long rifle are part of one family of rimfire rounds with approximately .22 inch diameter.

.22 magnum (actually WMR for Winchester Magnum Rimfire) is part of another family of rimfire rounds with approximately .22 inch diameter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Winchester_Magnum_Rimfire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Long_Rifle

Lots of historical info there, read up on parent cases to spot the design differences.
Way, way back there were two competing types of ~.22" rimfire ammunition, the modern descendants of that competition are .22WMR and .22LR, the names are similar because of marketing, they are NOT compatible and it is obvious if you actually have one of each in front of you, the dimensions are different, the bullet seating into the case is different, the bullet design and shape is different, the rims are different, the case shape is different ... in general the incompatibility is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.

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I feel like I've written this up before ... ... searching ... searching ...
Hey, I did write this up before!
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=552272&highlight=22magnum+22lr
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=524044&highlight=22magnum+22lr
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=485687&highlight=22magnum+22lr
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=476114&highlight=22magnum+22lr
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=472869&highlight=22magnum+22lr
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=552272&highlight=22magnum+22lr

Here, have some excerpts from previous postings, since the search function must have been broken again.

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me said:
Why can't anyone check for themselves on this one?
.22LR/L/S and .22wmr/wrf are entirely different families of ammunition, in fact, they are not designed to be compatible because at one point they were competing for the rimfire market.
Yes, it is possible to fire a .22LR from the chamber of a .22mag gun, but you risk split casings and shrapnel in the works of your .22mag gun, if not in yourself.
It sort of works with single-shot firearms, because the chamber is sealed and any debris dumps out.
Some revolvers have a conversion cylinder and a bore diameter that works with either round, in response to market demand and the possibility of "close enough" sizing.

Just because ammo says .22 on it does not make it compatible, and attempts to fire the wrong ammunition in a firearm are rarely wise. Considering the low cost of even premium .22wmr ammo (comparable to really cheap centerfire pistol ammo), even someone as cheap and stingy as I am has no need to save by attempting to use .22lr in a .22wmr chambered gun.

The big problem is that ammunition nomenclature is often made confusing on purpose by marketers and manufacturers, in an attempt to associate one caliber with another in the minds of consumers. If the ".22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire" had been properly labeled as ".224WMR", and the ".22LR/L/S" family been designated as ".223", these questions would be far less frequent.
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me said:
You're missing the point here, this isn't like shoving a .38special into a .357mag chambered gun, it is like shoving a .44mag into a .45lc gun, the rounds aren't from the same parent case.

The rim is wider on a .22mag/wrf round than it is on a .22s/l/lr round.
The cases of the .22mag family are tapered, the .22lr family has straight walls.
The projectiles are different designs and diameters.

Don't get annoyed with me or the others who understand the lineage of the various rimfire loadings, get mad at the jerks who named two different base designs "twenty-two" and expected everyone to figure it out on their own.
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someone else said:
Darned if the 22mag didn't look just like the 22lr in comparison with the shorts
It wouldn't if you had both in your hands.
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me said:
The .22mag rim is wider, and the case is fatter at the base and tapers a bit. The .22mag is NOT a souped-up .22LR, it is a souped-up .22WRF, which was designed from the start not to be interchangeable with .22Short/Long/Long Rifle rounds.
The .38spl/.357mag relationship is mirrored in the .22S/L/LR, but the relationship between .22LR and .22mag is more like that between .357magnum and .357sig
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me said:
Look up .22mag and .22LR on wikipedia, they are very different cartridges, although their required barrel size is close enough.

Heck, put the two rounds next to each other, the differences are obvious to the most casual observer. They do NOT fit in the same chamber, they do not have the same diameter rim, and the bullets are mounted in the cases in different ways.

A conversion cylinder will let you use the same bore for both, shoving one into the wrong chamber will put you in risky territory, even though bubbas abound who have managed to cram a .22S/L/LR boolit into a .22WMR/WRF gun.
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OK, can we get a sticky now?
 
A 22 long rifle cartridge will slip into a 22wmr case.....does that suggest a difference in sizes?

A friend shot a 22lr in a 22mag cylinder, in a naa mini to be exact, and he asked me why his finger was scorched.......case split.

nuff said. Don't do it.

You can, however, shoot 22wrf in a 22 wmr chamber.
 
Guns chambered to fire 22lr will safely fire s, l, and lr. You might have to single load but will work. Guns chambered to fire 22mag are for 22mag only.
 
Depending on what gun you want to do this in, YES YOU CAN! BUT, you need some spl. inserts made for this purpose, to size the LR rounds up, so you can SAFELY shoot them in a mag. chamber. I have some of them, although i have in the past only used them in a S&W M-48.

Yes, they can be used in a bolt action 22 mag. too.

DM
 
Well...you can do it and I've seen it done. It's not a very good idea though. What I remember wasn't split cases, but rather unburnt powder being shot out along with the bullet. That may have been with CB longs however.

It's just one of those dumb things I remember being a spectator to about two decades ago.

I've heard of people fabricating sleeves out of spent .22 WMR brass to allow them to fire .22 lr, but even if it is possible, I can't see the point when you can just buy a used .22 lr bolt action for under $100.
 
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