Why do 22LR pistols have such low magazine capacity?

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cyanide66

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I have been thinking about getting a 22 LR handgun for a while because shooting my higher calibers has been getting expensive, even shooting 9mm is expensive! but yeah, i was wondering why do all these 22 LR only have a capacity of 10 rounds? I mean i have a 33 round mag for the glock, why cant i get somethign bigger than 10 rounds for a 22?! maybe i've missed some of the high capacity 22's, if anyone knows of them, id appreciate the info :)
 
The .22 has a big rim around the base and was designed originally for revolvers, unlike cartridges designed specifically for magazine weapons which feature a recessed rim.
The wide rims of revolver cartridges tend to tangle up in double column magazines.

There are a few pistols which are engineered to make them work (the Grendel comes to mind), but they aren't big sellers.
 
That's a very good question and one I can't answer. The most common answer is that the rimmed cartridge precludes staggered high capacities magazines but this is simply untrue. Here's a shot of a Ciener 15rd magazine for the 1911 with the rear panel removed. They are extremely reliable.

IMG_7134b.jpg
 
With all the modifying and tweaking done to Ruger 10/22's I am also surprised that no one has come out with a high cap mag for the MII or MIII pistols. I even asked over at Rimfire Central and nope, nothing.
 
The problem with any existing guns is that there is no room in the grip for any more. They would need a minor resdesign to accommodate a wider magazine body. Personally, I really don't understand why nobody offers one. Wouldn't be difficult at all for a major manufacturer.
 
I personally don't understand why anyone wants a hi-cap .22 pistol either.

I can miss fast enough with 10-round mags.

By the time a mag is empty, I need a break in concentration to reload anyway.
Thats why I have four of five magazines for all my .22 pistols.

If I just want to make noise, firecrackers are much cheaper then .22 ammo.

rc
 
It bugs me too. I was out shooting my buckmark today and It was reload city out there. I was shooting 100 yards at a 12x12 gong, I would hardly call it mag dumping either.

That buckmark is the only pistol I own that I can shoot that well. That gun rocks my socks off!
 
Some of the S&W autos have factory 12-rounders.

I'd bet it's because many if not most of the current models were re-designed during the '90's AW ban and couldn't have more than 10 rounds due to federal rules.

Other than that - rimmed cartridges are tricky to double-stack well, and single-stack magazines get long, quick.
 
I personally don't understand why anyone wants a hi-cap .22 pistol either.
Click to expand...
That's what I thought too, until I started playing with the Ciener. Then I found out how much fun 15rds was (more time shooting, less fiddlng with mags) and thought 20rds would just be that much better. Of course, just because it holds more than 10rds, doesn't mean you have to waste them. ;)
 
The rimmed cartridge does make it difficult to make a hi cap mag.

Just because Ciener can do it doesn't mean that it's easy to make a double stack .22 lr. Ciener appears to be the only one who has figured it out. It's difficult enough such that most other companies don't even try. Of the few that have, reliability is horrible.

A single stack hi-cap either needs a significant curve or angle to it.
 
Why do 22LR pistols have such low magazine capacity?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't a 30 round magazine need a much stronger spring than a 10 rounder? Because of the relatively weak round the recoil spring and all the slidey parts of a .22 auto pistol need to be as light as possible. It seems to me the first few rounds in a long extended magazine would be pushed really hard against the bottom of the action. Would that make the pistol more likely to malfunction?

Oh, and the rim thing.
 
My wife's High Standard Trophy has a 10 round .22lr mag, but her HS Olympic, (basically the same gun but only shoots .22 shorts) has the mag stopped at 5. I guess I would go with the other person that said, with a .22, why would you want more?

10 rounds are enough to totally distroy the X ring, after that you are just punching through air. If you are shooting the metal silhouettes, it is only 5 per target anyway, then it is the next guys turn.
 
One I haven't seen touched on is the company's cost.

No one is really clammering for more than ten rounds in a .22 in a pistol, and 10-rounders are legal everywhere. Thus, the company doesn't need to set up more machines for different magazines or keep a seperate stack of guns set aside to ship to California or such.
 
Kel Tec makes a 22Mag with 30 capacity. Lots of .22 drums coming out. I got one for my GSG 5PK pistol. You are not looking at the right guns...they are out there.
2010-03-19_215838_gsg5pk.jpg
 
...why would you want more?
Click to expand...
Why would you want more than 10rds in your 9mm pistol or 5.56 rifle? Or anything else for that matter???

It's very interesting to me and a little contradictory to hear responses like that. The .22LR is the king of plinking rounds and more is always merrier. This coming from a single action nut used to loading only five at a time.
 
At inception, 10-round pistol magazines were a vast improvement over 6-round revolvers.

Magazines are a pain to load. More bullets increase the difficulty.

(My take on the matter.)
 
I am very much hoping that Kel-Tec comes out with a .22LR version of the PMR-30 or whatever it's called. A lot of existing .22LR pistols aren't friendly to reload, either.
 
I have used the Ciener 15 round magazines in my 1911 with either a Ciener or Marvel 22 conversion unit.
 
I find it really amusing to hear someone refer to a ten round magazine as low capacity. I must be really old.
 
The majority of the .22 pistols on the market today have been in production for a while. The Ruger MK I carried 9 rounds, today, they have 10 rounds. The older High Standards had 10 rounds. They fit into the grip, and, to many engineers born and raised in the Depression, that was more than enough.

If you want more capacity, pre-load a few magazines.

FYI, taking a look at several .22 semis, it would take more than a "minor tweak" on the part of the manufacturer to adapt a double stack magazine. The added thickness would also make it harder for small hands to manipulate the gun.

I'm sure, though, that with firm orders (with deposits) for 10,000+ pistols, one of the major players might look into it.
 
Even most of the single stack mags such as the ones in Rugers, Buckmarks and a lot of others would easily take more like 12 to 15 rounds.

I suspect that it's got to do with the states and other countries where magazines are limited to 10 rnds for handguns and given that these guns are used primarily for plinking and practice there's just no real need for a higher round count for most folks. And there just isn't any big money to be had doing special runs for a few folks that would like higher than 10 rounders.
 
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