.22 WMR (.22 magnum)

Mauser66

Well-Known Member
I like the .17HMR, but prefer the .22 WMR (.22 magnum). It carries more energy further. And you soon get the hang of the drop and 75yd hold under with a 125yd zero. Good round and because everyone has fallen for the .17HMR the rifles are cheap now. Great selection of quality factory fodder now..unlike years ago.

Anyone else a fan of the .22 WMR?

Craig
 
I am, the minute I sold mine I regretted it, I would take one over the vastly over rated 17HMR (in my view) any day.

John
 
I have had a CZ 22mag for about 15 years. I struggled with accuracy until I got the 32gr V-max's. I quite like it, but it is a compromise in my view.

I bought mine when it was hard to get centrefire 22's in N Ireland. It is a pretty good fox gun out to 100-120 yards. Beyond that it drops off very quickly and is susceptible to the wind. It is really too much for rabbits if you want to eat them.

If you do your fox shooting with a centrfire, I think the 22 mag is pretty redundant in the UK or Ireland, you would be better served with a 22lr. Also the ammo is silly priced compared to an lr.
 
Ah, but it's much closer to .22 Hornet than .22LR.

Price-wise it's on a par with the .17 HMR, sometimes cheaper depending what you buy and from whom, but obviously there's no comparison to .22LR prices. If you do a lot of rabbit control etc then the Long Rifle is the way to go, but for a mix of rabbits, crows, foxes, mink, feral cats, whatever, at ranges up to 150yds then it's a fine little cartridge. When you do the sums it's cheaper to buy .22 WMR cartridges than to reload for the .22 Hornet.

I'm a centrefire user, but I still love the .22 magnum. It's such a useful and fun round. Only recently were .22 WMR cartridges made with as much care and precision components as .17 HMR. CCI Max Mag +V I find to be superb as are the Winchester Supreme.
The rem 33gr accutips are pricey..too pricey.

Craig
 
I have no less then seven 22 WMR's to balance the three 17HMR's I don't shoot as often. I love it. Interestingly, one of the more accurate ones is a Savage Arms "Striker" bolt action pistol. (Left hand bolt, right hand eject) that will keep MOA from a bipod. One of the most "exotic" is a Brno 611A autoloader. My favorite, hands down, is the CZ American. ~Muir
 
You're right John, there's not a lot in it though the .22 WMR works out a wee bit cheaper for me.

Well Hornet costs me a minimum 26/27p a round to make, not including the case of course or opportunity cost of time spent reloading, and that's with a decent 40gr soft point, which I now struggle to find at a sensible price. If I go for a V-max or Ballistic Tip then that cost goes a good bit higher. And if you add the initial cost of cases and split that across several loadings it adds a good bit too.

My .22 WMR would cost me £11.50 per 50 retail for my favourite CCIs (in reality a lot less because I get trade and bulk prices), which is 23p a round. 33gr Accutips sell for daft prices though - no different to HMR though.

It's the price of bullets for reloading that knocks back the Hornet right now, though the difference between the two isn't that great. If you can get your .223" Hornet bullets cheaper it works out better.

Cheapest factory Hornet around me is Winchester at £12 per 20 - 60p a round. PPU could be cheaper if you can find it and if it shoots ok in your rifle.

It's not so long ago that it was cheaper to reload for the Hornet than have a .22 WMR. I do like the .22 Hornet - useful little round and not that noisy. Can be difficult to get it to group well in some rifles, but home loads bring out the best in it. Same can be said for the .22 WMR grouping of course. I just like that wee round; my foxes love it :).

Best, Craig
 
Hi all
Just bought a remington 597 wmr semiauto, first time out today 1 inch group at 100yds 7 shots in about 15 seconds i was very impressed
Cheers Geordie
 
Hi Muir,
It's an ancient pre-war BRNO that I recovered from a batch of surplus out in Eastern Europe some time ago. Groove diameter .223" and twist 1 in 16". I've not tried .224" in her as the old Hornet bullets seem to stablise well enough. Hornet bullets come in both diameters, though new rifles are .224".
Cheers, C
 
I have a pre war 218 Bee and found that .224" bullets shoot just fine. JAYB has a 1949 BRNO and shoots .224" 40 grain V-Max through it. You may find that shooting the .224" bullets offers less expense and wider variety. MidwayUK sells their "Dog Town" 32 grain HPs for a very reasonable price and they are quite accurate. I shoot them in my CZ and the cost difference does make my 22 Hornet cheaper than my 22WMR's. Just a thought. I am a real Hornet fanatic and shoot mine almost daily. ~Muir
 
I've got a few .224 Hornet bullets to try out. The old BRNOs are lovely rifles in the main and Hornet is a joy to reload for.
I suppose it makes a cracking all round farm rifle, but a few of us on here will know of old Highland stalkers who years ago used Hornet for red deer.
It's always a joy to go back to cartridges and rifles from the past. I had my eye on a pre '64 Winchester 7mm Mauser but lost out on it at auction.
Why do we struggle to reproduce the quality of the past? All the best, C
 
I've got to be honest and say I've never tried a WMR. I've never really seen the point in the hot rimfires and feel that the Hornet offers much more to the home loader! That said, whatever floats your boat is the way to go. You can have a semi auto WMR if you want to which gives it one thing the Hornet can't offer!
 
I had a moment there where I thought that a .22wmr could be what I needed, then I looked at the price of ammo on Macleod's website & realised I couldn't afford to feed one!
Will just benchload for the .223 instead.
 
.22 WMR

When I bought my SAKO Quad I could only get it in .22WMR, so I bought it in this calibre and got a .17HMR barrel later, .22 WMR was devastating on rabbits and Geese, trouble was you had to hit them first, tried 4 or 5 loads from different manufacturers none grouped better than 35mm @ 100m,
.17HMR groups to 10mm @ 125m with 20gr Gamepoints and takes down everything . . . including Foxes, head, chest and heart shots, they just lay down !

I will stick with my .17HMR thanks, oh ! .22 WMR SAKO Quad barrel for sale if anyone wants one !

my personal view,
Flyboy270
 
Re: .22 WMR

FlyBoy270 said:
When I bought my SAKO Quad I could only get it in .22WMR, so I bought it in this calibre and got a .17HMR barrel later, .22 WMR was devastating on rabbits and Geese, trouble was you had to hit them first, tried 4 or 5 loads from different manufacturers none grouped better than 35mm @ 100m,
.17HMR groups to 10mm @ 125m with 20gr Gamepoints and takes down everything . . . including Foxes, head, chest and heart shots, they just lay down !

I will stick with my .17HMR thanks, oh ! .22 WMR SAKO Quad barrel for sale if anyone wants one !

my personal view,
Flyboy270

Cottontail100yardTripodrestcz452jpg.jpg


Sounds like a problem with your SAKO. You should contact them. This is my CZ 452 American. I was sitting on a folding chair resting the rifle over an old camera tripod. This is 100 yards and a 4X scope. Accuracy isn't a problem with the 22WMR. Ask the four 17HMRs I don't use....Or the six other 22WMR's I do use!~Muir

PS: The same CZ, Same Federal 30 grain HP at 80M from a bag and bench. Five shots.
CZ22WMR50MFED062RED.jpg
 
Well done Muir, good targets.

Santa delivered an ultrasonic cleaner and I have been uber busy polishing up old cases with it - works a treat.

Anyway, I thought I'd find something really gopping to test the ultrasonic cleaner...and then I looked at an old SAK .22 moderator that had been on several .22LRs and currently a .22WMR. It was so dirty inside that no physical or verbal persuasion would separate the internal baffles from the outer sleeve so I got fed up and just dropped the SAK into the cleaner and let rip for about 15mins. Christ, the water turned into black soup and the moderator looked spotless. And I could now drift the internals out.

2 things: amazement at the ability of the ultrasonic cleaner to shift years of carbon crud, and secondly does anyone know if having a really dirty SAK / other moderator affects accuracy / precision in a .22WMR? Yet to try a group after the clean, but so much crap came out I would be surprised if there was no tangible benefit.

Oh, and any thoughts on .22WMR Winchester 40gr JHPs leaving quite a lot of unburnt powder in the moderator? My old batches seemed to shoot a lot cleaner and efficiently than these latest ones. Then again I've only recently put a can on the .22WMR so maybe they've always been inefficient burners, but I only noticed when the can collected the crap after the shots. After 10 rounds there is quite a bit of unburnt powder to knock out of the moderator. Perhaps the priming mix is less firey??

CCI 40gr Max Mag used to burn relatively clean for me and give tighter groups so might go back to them.

Cheers
 
If it was me I would not bother with the mod on a WMR, I never did on mine. It will not stop the supersonic "crack" and other than that the amount of noise involved is not bad.

Just my opinion of course.

John
 
Back
Top