Why no 22 mag semi auto pistol?

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The long, thin rounds, and the rim make for a lot of feeding problems in semi autos. Along with handguns, you rarely see semi auto rifles in 22 mag
 
Appalachiannative said:
I once seen an automatic 22 mag made by Sig I think it was called a Mosquito and the guy selling it said it was rare so I don't think it was made long. If you want a .22 mag handgun a revolver is the way to go I'd say.
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My Mosquito is in .22 LR, Ive never seen one in .22 Mag. That would be a rare one indeed. :)


Gus Chiggins said:
It gives you a good reason to buy a revolver.
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Yup. Even w a 4” barrel the .22 WMR spits some flame. ;)

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Stay safe.
 
In my pre-reloading days, always wished for a more powerful rimfire that would allow cheap shooting. There were such things, but in the 19th Century.
It's now apparent why those long-ago rimfires were abandoned, and why .22LR has become the standard. Twenty two mag isn't a cheap plinker, and requires some real compromises to run in an auto.
Moon
 
Same reason why there aren't many 22WMR semi-auto rifles. It isn't an easy round to make semi-autos out of.
 
A word on the PMR30; bought mine a few months ago and had pondered for some time before that whether it would be suitable for SD. Caliber wars aside, because people love them, I can say after replacing the magazine release mine has been 100%. No failures to feed or fire even during mag dumps (30 rounds) back to back. That’s been over the course of 700 rounds since parts swap.

Price for ammo was $14.99 for CCI MaxiMag, cheaper than 9mm and so much fun to shoot. Any of you who can afford to feed a 9mm can afford to feed a .22mag

Now the concern I would have for carry is that short barreled pistols/revolvers firing .22WMR is a recipe for both ear splitting noise and night blindness. If it weren’t so, I would feel perfectly comfortable carrying what is a low recoil, fast follow up in a round with respectable ballistics, given the correct load.


A445B21F-2A3B-4512-BFE8-DEFDF3683581.jpeg

Even with poor technique, as demonstrated by a range buddy, the PMR barely leaves the target.
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I run a PMR, a CMR and a Rock Island XT-22.

The PMR had a long break in period. Not super accurate but not ammo picky. Very light, great trigger.
The CMR carbine is just a straight blowback vs the hybrid action of the PMR. It ran fine on day one.
The XT-22 is my favorite, but it doesn’t feed Hornady Critical Defense and surprisingly, Armscor brass case. At all. But I’ve thrown every flavor of CCI including TNT and hp+v with great results. Speer Gold dots are my favorite round, if you don’t like football sized fireballs. The chamber on the XT-22 seems tight, when a round doesn’t work, it sticks on extraction.
 
Coyote3855 said:
I have several KelTecs including a PMR 30. After a break-in period and a learning curve on loading the magazines with the recommended ammunition, it has functioned reliably. I carry it working outdoors around the place. DRT on ground squirrels. A different shape but not larger than a 1911 and much lighter. I can conceal either with the appropriate clothes.
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What's the recommended ammo? When it comes to .22 Mag I pretty much try to buy whatever is cheapest for plinking and for social work the Speer Gold Dot .22 Mag. Would be a shame if only CCI is the recommended ammo.
 
TTv2 said:
What's the recommended ammo? When it comes to .22 Mag I pretty much try to buy whatever is cheapest for plinking and for social work the Speer Gold Dot .22 Mag. Would be a shame if only CCI is the recommended ammo.
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Mine now runs anything I try. Old Winchester SuperX, Federal, Browning, CCI MaxiMag (preferred), and lately CCI A22. I found a box of Federal Premium Speer TNT HP but haven’t run them yet. The M*Carbo magazine catch was key in getting things instantly reliable. Total package of upgrades from them runs $250, I got my KelTec on sale new for $350, and I’ve got about $800 into it including optic and upgrades I chose. They often run discounts on parts that don’t meet standards for finish, including the trigger and safety levers I bought. Very tiny blems.
 
Skylerbone said:
Mine now runs anything I try. Old Winchester SuperX, Federal, Browning, CCI MaxiMag (preferred), and lately CCI A22. I found a box of Federal Premium Speer TNT HP but haven’t run them yet. The M*Carbo magazine catch was key in getting things instantly reliable. Total package of upgrades from them runs $250, I got my KelTec on sale new for $350, and I’ve got about $800 into it including optic and upgrades I chose. They often run discounts on parts that don’t meet standards for finish, including the trigger and safety levers I bought. Very tiny blems.
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Would you say after doing the mag catch upgrade that the PMR30 is still worth buying over a 9mm for a similar price? Last year I was really thinking about the PMR30, but had a Taurus 92 on my mind for a while. I ended up going with the Taurus as I could find 9mm for 15 bucks a box while .22 Mag is about the same. I figured the larger centerfire was a better choice.

Still kind of interested in the pmr tho.
 
TTv2 said:
Would you say after doing the mag catch upgrade that the PMR30 is still worth buying over a 9mm for a similar price? Last year I was really thinking about the PMR30, but had a Taurus 92 on my mind for a while. I ended up going with the Taurus as I could find 9mm for 15 bucks a box while .22 Mag is about the same. I figured the larger centerfire was a better choice.

Still kind of interested in the pmr tho.
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Really depends on your interests. I knew the KelTec would just be a fun gun for me, with a small chance it could fill some other niche role. If it’s ever sold I’m certain I’ll take a bath on it but for now it’s rather enjoyable.

I dare not compare it to other calibers as I refuse to play favorites. I like my rimfires though I own plenty from .380 ACP to .45 ACP and at one time had an even larger footprint. 9mm is more practical, I just had that base well covered already.

As far as where to stop on upgrades, yes the mag catch is all that’s really necessary for functionality and I dare say I could have easily purchased other pistols for even dollars but still chose the PMR30. It’s my clown car in a fleet of Fords and I love it.
 
My first pistol was an AMT Automag II with the 6 inch barrel, which I bought not long after they first came out in 1987. I waited a few years, reading up on it and keeping an eye out for any issues which might be inherent with the design. I dropped the money for one somewhere around 1990 or so. I still have it today, and this despite my oldest daughter eyeballing it every time we go out shooting.

It's slim and absolutely the sweetest thing to shoot. A crisp 1911-style trigger and as accurate as anyone could wish. I used to shoot soda cans with it at 100 yards while standing, though it would generally take me the full 9 round magazine load before I actually hit the can. But all the shots were kicking up the dirt in close proximity to the can.

At typical pistol ranges, you could punch the bullseye out of targets all day long.

Impressive 18 inch muzzle flash and, to quote Marvin the Martian, "an Earth shattring KA-BOOM!"
 
I picked up an AMT 22Mag pistol recently & have been very happy with it so far, impressive muzzle blast with minimal recoil adds to the fun. 100% cycling with CCI ammo. I never realized the engineering that went into this pistol to make it functional. The chamber has a series of holes that vents gas around the casing to aid in extraction of the long round, the spent casings mirror the vents.
http://dave2.freeshell.org/tech1/automag/am12/am12.htm
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Nasty Canasta said:
I picked up an AMT 22Mag pistol recently & have been very happy with it so far, impressive muzzle blast with minimal recoil adds to the fun. 100% cycling with CCI ammo. I never realized the engineering that went into this pistol to make it functional. The chamber has a series of holes that vents gas around the casing to aid in extraction of the long round, the spent casings mirror the vents.
http://dave2.freeshell.org/tech1/automag/am12/am12.htm
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Nice custom work on the slide, too.

When it first came out, it was designed to function flawlessly with Winchester .22 WMR only. Something about the powder used. They wouldn't guarantee no issues with other brands of .22 WMR. I had good luck using Federal, though, if I recall.

However, I believe since then the powders have changed with CCI and others and you shouldn't have any issues with them. If I remember correctly, many years ago I called and ordered a firing pin spring from them and while talking to the customer service rep I gleaned that little tidbit of information.

If you don't mind my asking, what did you pay for yours? If I remember correctly, when I bought mine around 1990, it was about $275.
 
Correct-the issue was flake powder would clog the chamber "vents" where the ball powder in the Winchester's at the time would not. I paid more than I should have but I'd only ever seen one other AMT with factory engraving (30 Carbine), jeweled trigger/hammer & this one was like new, unfired, in original box with extra magazine & all paperwork. They've definitely gone up in value since the 90's.
https://truegunvalue.com/pistol/amt-automag/price-historical-value
 
Part of the problem and also why we don't see too many pistols chambered in 22 WMR is due to the over all length and how skinny the rounds are.

Here is a comparison photo. From left to right; 22 WMR, 38 Super, 45ACP, 40 S&W, and 9mm

22WMR vs others.jpg

What I have found with the PMR is that they are sometimes finicky about what weight bullets you use. My local FFL ordered three PMR pistols. I bought one of them and he kept the other two for him and his dad. Only one out of the three will function 100% reliably with 36 grain bullets. The other two will prefer 40 grain ammo for the best reliability.

One of the main things to remember with the PRM and CMR is to properly load the magazines if you want them to function correctly.
 
sabbfan said:
Walther must have heard you because they just announced this 22 mag pistol https://waltherarms.com/wmp/
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Cool looking gun, but the mag release situation on that gun is a weird design exercise to me. Extra complexity always triggers my knee jerk reaction of "more crap to go wrong".

". . . and a first-time patented ambidextrous reloading mechanism incorporating both paddle and button releases called the Quad Release. With 4 total activation points, the Quad Release mechanism is the most versatile ambidextrous mag release ever created."
 
My guesses are rimfire reliability, long case may cause feeding issues since its nearly as long as a 38 Special. Plus its pricey and really at best you're going to get ballistics similar to a 22LR rifle.
 
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