Tell me about the .22 WMR

[cdb1]

Let me know how that CZ 512 works.

I have a 512 in .22 Mag and it doesn't cost a little more than a 10/22, it costs a lot more. I love my 512 though and will never give it up. My only complaint is the heavy trigger and there is not much you can do about it.

 

[vincyr]

I found that the solid point ones wouldn't be stopped by a pine 4x4...so I figured they would be perfect armor piercing rounds for squirrels that have that annoying habit of scooting around to the opposite side of the tree branches from me.

And I was right, too...

Good to know

 

[oz_lowrider]

Bruno 22mag

I have a Bruno 22mag and It's a great rifle for rabbits up to small pigs. My daughter shoots it and likes because it has no recoil. Great calibre.

 

[Radagast]

For the American readers, Bruno is the Australian pronunciation of Brno, the original manufacturer of the CZ452. The CZ452 was sold here as the Brno No.2 or Brno Model 2 from the 50s, IIRC.

 

[T.R.]

22MAG fired from a Derringer at very close range is a lethal cartridge. Jacketed hollow tip bullets blow pumpkins apart at 10 feet!

TR

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

You're welcome.

I'm seriously considering picking up an extra wood Marlin stock for mine and reshaping it to eliminate that bump. This way I can keep an unaltered original one. My original 783 was stolen many years ago, along with the butt extension I had made for it. Might as well do it up right the second time around.

Be nice to shoot it more comfortably with iron sights...course, Walmart still sells a $10 dollar scope that would work just fine, too.

A mighty fine rifle, though, in any case.

Bummer that the rifle got stolen Chief.
Reshaping the wood stock on a new one would be a good way to go. That's why I prefer wood stocks to plastic, you can personalize them to fit easier. Well, that plus wood looks better..

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Bummer that the rifle got stolen Chief.
Reshaping the wood stock on a new one would be a good way to go. That's why I prefer wood stocks to plastic, you can personalize them to fit easier. Well, that plus wood looks better..

Yeah...a real bummer if only for the sentimental value.

BUT, I found one at a reasonable price and condition on Gunbroker a few months ago and bought it. Also picked up a 783 barrel for a song. Barrel wasn't in the best of condition but I figured it'd look good re-blued and make the basis for a project-build.

Just picked the barrel up from the shop today, in fact, and it does look sweet! I plan on making it a project as a gift for my son, who is enamored by the 783 rifle I bought. I need sights, trigger, magazine follower, bolt, and stock now. It'll cost me more than a new one, but he'll be getting something his Daddy built just for him and I figure that will mean more to him over the decades than anything else.

 

[vincyr]

Let me know how that CZ 512 works.

Haven't shot it yet(was to dark when I got home), but it is one sweet little gun. Light, well balanced, far more attractive in person than in a picture, shoulders as naturally as anything, has really nice iron sights(why do so few guns have good iron sights anymore), and if the test target CZ included in the box is any indication, it is a tack driver @ 50 yards. It was just one ragged hole. I'll be happy if I do half as good as whoever test fired it.

 

[Dr T]

My first 22 WRM was a Marlin 783. It will do 1" 3-shot groups at 100 yards with the CCI MaxiMag. Nice, inexpensive, and accaurate. My only complaints are that the the safety is "backwards" on mine (forward is safe) and that the tube is a pain to unload in the field.

I also have a Savage accutrigger with thumbhole stock. It is more accurate than the Marlin, and has a clip. It also isn't very picky about ammo.

I have used more of the CCI TMJ rounds than anything else. They tend to be effective from both rifle and handgun. I sometimes wonder why would you need a hollow point.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I sometimes wonder why would you need a hollow point.

Good question.

Given the range and power of the .22 WMR, I chose to hunt with hollowpoints because I figured the first time they hit something, they'd deform more easily and loose energy more rapidly. It wasn't really a matter of terminal ballistics on my target.

Though it is impressive to utterly vaporize muskrat skulls with one.

 

[fpgt72]

It does hit very hard. I remember when the 17 came out and I was thinking I really should get one of those....but never did....the 22mag does everything I need it to do and a 17 would really be a no point. Now I do buy guns just to have them, but something like that I just could not figure out what the 17 did so much better over the 22mag that everyone went nutz over them. A few friends have the 17 and it just does not seem to bring anything to the table over the 22.

 

[johnnydollar]

I have a Savage 93--great rifle, great cartridge!

 

[moonzapa]

The 22WMR is a good close range varminter and pest getter. It definitely outshines a .22LR in performance. It makes a mess of cottontail rabbits and squirrels but it very effective on Bobcat and coyotes at close to medium range.

Not to sound morbid or to offend anyone, but the .22WMR is an excellent assassin round due to it's small caliber, relatively high velocity, and with head shots fragments. Forensic technicians, I am told, have a very tough time identifying the weapons these bullets are fired from due to this fact.

 

[frankenstein406]

Right now a 22 hornet would probably be better since you can reload and I think is around 3000 fps

Otherwise I love the 22mag but it's a little messy on squirrels so I went back to 22lr. 22lr seems to pass through and doesn't have the same dead right there effects. Plus it doesn't peel them open like the mag.

 

[Captain Capsize]

quote "22MAG fired from a Derringer at very close range is a lethal cartridge"

I'm not so sure of that, several years ago when I had a North American 22/22mag mini revolver I compared the 22lr against the 22 mag over a chrono. The lr clocked 749 fps and the 22 mag clocked 820 fps. These were both 40 grain bullets so my hypothesis was shooting a cartridge designed expressly for a rifle is pretty much a waste. It did have an impressive muzzle blast though.

 

[DM~]

quote "22MAG fired from a Derringer at very close range is a lethal cartridge"

I'm not so sure of that, several years ago when I had a North American 22/22mag mini revolver I compared the 22lr against the 22 mag over a chrono. The lr clocked 749 fps and the 22 mag clocked 820 fps. These were both 40 grain bullets so my hypothesis was shooting a cartridge designed expressly for a rifle is pretty much a waste. It did have an impressive muzzle blast though.

Although a "slight" advantage, the magnums jacketed bullet is a better defence bullet, giving added penetration.

I've fired the magnums in a High Standard derringer, and it did make a LOT of noise.

DM

 

[skoro]

So what the .22 WMR for?

As already posted by others, the 22wmr was created as a hunting round more than anything else. But I'm no longer a hunter (which isn't to say I never will again) yet I own a bolt action CZ 452 and a Henry H001M in 22 mag and I enjoy the heck out of these rifles. While I tend to shoot a lot of 22lr when punching paper or plinking, the extra mustard on those 22wmr rounds is sure a lot of fun.

 

[vincyr]

Update on the CZ 512...
Got a chance to shoot it some, this last weekend. Scoped, offhand at 50 yards, winchester HPs gave the best group, at roughly one inch. This gun does seems very picky as to what ammo it likes. The next best group(remington JSPs) was about 2 1/4 inches, and the worst group(CCI HP+V) was over 5 inches. Seeing as I was shooting offhand, a good part of the issue could have been me. Gonna have to set up a good rest to shoot from and see if it does any better.

 

[itsa pain]

What's the purpose of this cartridge? Is this a target/accuracy round, a hunting round or a pest/varmint round. I was looking at a single shot recently but when I checked the price of a box of ammo I was shocked. A box of .38 spl cost less. So what the .22 WMR for?

Thanks in advance.

The 22 mag is a good round. Not much attention was paid to developing better rounds for it so I think it suffered in accuracy a bit. I really like the 22 hornet a little better. What is amazing is that a post of 3 pages could be started by someone on a gun forum that supposedly does not know anything about the 22 mag. I was a ten year old kid in Brooklyn and I knew a lot about the round

 

[TeaCoffee.Guy]

I think that the .22WMR is better than the 17HMR because it has more kinetic energy in the projectile (because it is heavier) and for 100 meters the .22WMR is accurate enough for any practical purposes.,
And the extra velocity of the 17HMR is not any advantage really.

 

[Mike1234567]

Although I've gotten completely out of all rimfire for the time being (I'm sick of overpriced RF ammo), for my purposes a WMR is the better choice. A good powerful pellet gun is fine for squirrels and a .223 Rem is great for coyote. Here... there's really nothing in between that truly needs a .22 LR or .22 WMR. But, if I were to keep shooting rimfire, the WMR with the right ammo is more effective on coyote while .17 isn't quite enough IMO but is way overkill for squirrels. So the HMR just doesn't really fill a niche (here) and WMR is unnecessary (here).

Anyone want to buy a very nice Remington 597 WMR? I already sold all my rimfire ammo.

 

[Dr T]

Couple more things:

1. Since my last post on this thread, I have added a Ruger American Compact 22 WMR to the collection. Haven't shot it yet, but it feels handy. With a conventionally mounted scope, it will have a very similar form factor to my Ruger 77 Frontier 308 so should be a good pickup rifle outside of deer season.

2. Speer and Hornady are now producing 22 WMR loads tailored for self-defense use in short barreled revolvers (1" to 2" like the NAA Pug and Black Widow, the Ruger LCR, and the S&W 351). They are said to perform quite well in rifles (but I have not tested this yet). Does anyone know if they developed some new powders specifically for these loads to achieve the velocity levels claimed (and independently verified) in the mouse guns?

 

[chicharrones]

Couple more things:

1. Since my last post on this thread, I have added a Ruger American Compact 22 WMR to the collection. Haven't shot it yet, but it feels handy.

2. Speer and Hornady are now producing 22 WMR loads tailored for self-defense use in short barreled revolvers (1" to 2" like the NAA Pug and Black Widow, the Ruger LCR, and the S&W 351). They are said to perform quite well in rifles (but I have not tested this yet).

Congrats on getting the new American! Let us know how it shoots!

I have fired the Hornady Critical Defense out of my .22 WMR rifle and it shoots as accurately as most .22 WMR ammo, but it still won't touch the V-Max. I bought it because it was on the shelf and I wanted to give it a try. I don't have a snubby .22WMR gun so I guess I don't have a real need for Critical Defense.

 

[bflee]

I have the 93 in 22WMR and its a great gun. Shoots to 150 easily with killing power. I havnt shot my 22lr but a couple times since I got it. It shoots 1/2" MOA and cannot be beat for beaver and coyote control in the golf cart. Very light, accurate package that will flat out kill anything. Not too expensive if you are not range shooting. I have a 6.5 CM for that and the really long range shots. The 22 WMR is my "sneak up" gun an performs well for that.

 

[powder]

I got to hunting the PMR-30s too late, but I started buying the ammo for em everytime we went to wally-world, amny years ago. Never could find a PMR-30 for less than 450 or so.

A Rem. 597 WMR HB came up locally and I snagged it. Went to rimfirecentral dot com for some sweet pointers on smoothing out the action, and I've forgotten all about a PMR....kind of...

Think of it as a baby .223