Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Most accurate .22 Magnum ???

Tell me about the most accurate .22 Magnum rifle/load combo with which you have direct experience.

Thanks, RS

Rip, have had several .22mags.. My current one is a CZ.. I love it .. Very accurate especially with CCI HP ammo.. BUT I believe the most accurate that I ever owned was a Marlin bolt action tube fed .22 mag.. at 60 yards it would just chew one hole.. Like a fool I traded it for a classier Marlin Lever gun, that wouldn't keep 5 shots on a snuff can at 60 yards.. My pal and his son both have newer plastic stocked Marlins tube fed, and they are deadly..

I have had a Mauser 210, many Ruger with sporter and bull barrel, and Browning A bolt.

The Mauser 210 was unreal to say the least, the browning A bolt a close second, and a couple of the Rugers very close to thirds. The Rugers are hit and miss, but all of them were very accurate.

Also, a Marlin 25 M clip feed was shocking at how accurate it was.

Ammo type is critical, but all the most accurate loved the same ammo, the Winchester 40g HP.

Many do not realize that the 22 mag has to be cleaned. If you ever shoot a plated lead bullet in it, you clean immediately after shooting every time because those copper plated lead bullets lead up the barrel quickly.

I have owned two so far. A 77/22M and a 94/22M. I only use Winchester Super X JHP 40 grain ammo as it has proved to be very effective for dispatching problem critters.
Number one Son has "borrowed" the Ruger and the 94/22M remains with me. I would recommend both rifles and ammo.
If I were in the market for a working accurate .22 Magnum rifle I would give serious consideration to the Ruger RAR.

My most accurate .22 magnum is my Cooper Jackson Squirrel Rifle. It will shoot Remington 33 grain ammo under 1/4 inch at 50 yards providing I do my part.

Anschutz 1720 with the CCI 30 grain red tip rounds. It will shoot 1/4 inch give or take at 50 yards.

Likes the 40 grain Winchester loads also but not the Hornady 30 grain ones.

I have a CZ 452 and a Savage 93 in the .22 mag, both will shoot
inside a dime at 50 yards with the Hornady V-max 30gr.
I don't need it to be any better then that.

While real accurate with the ammo it liked this 77/22 All-Weather boatpaddle would not hold zero session to session.

Other accurate .22 Mags...

Marlin 57M...would put as many shots as you wanted to shoot into a 3/8" group at 50 yards with most any of the 40 grain rounds...if you switched to the 30-33s it would run 2"...

Savage 24 DL...same...loved 40s but groups opened up with the light weight Magnums.



TC Contender...shot this group the other day...40 grain Winchester HPs...at 50 yards.





Had a 16.5" Carbine barrel for it that would run 1/2"....

Bob

I have an older (circa 2000) Marlin WMR with a heavy barrel that shoots groups like RJM showed above consistently with with the 30 gr Hornady VMAX or CCI 40 gr Maxi-Mags. It's a heavy gun and the stock trigger sucked, but I think I have maybe $350 invested in it including the scope and a Jard trigger. These are at about 75 yards off of a bipod on a fairly calm day.

A buddy of mine had a CZ 452 American that would honestly put five shots of the Hornady 30gr. load under a dime at 100 yards. Completely under a dime, it would cover a five shot group, on demand.

My 455 just won't do that, at least, not yet. I haven't really had time to wring it out properly, but one thing remains the same, the Hornady 30gr. VM load is a real shooter. My 455 won't shoot the 40gr. Winchesters worth a hoot, though there's more work to be done there.

So far, the WMR doesn't really impress me much.

RAR Predator with Hornady works for me.



100 yard group

So far it's my Savage/Anschutz Model 54 Sporter with the Remington 33 grain and a close second is my Savage/Anschutz Model 164M with the same ammunition.

SC

I have a Marlin bolt action tube fed 22 mag ..... great gun !!! It's a model 883 and is most accurate with the Winchester black box ammo. I think Winchester calls that ammo Supreme.

I was hoping to see some rave reviews of either the Kimber 82 22 Mag or the CZ 452 Mannlicher 22 Mag so I'd have a reason to buy one. But it seems that there's not really any rhyme to reason as to which is the most accurate.

Reason has nothing to do with it. If you want it, no one will admonish you NOT to buy one. If it makes you happy and the bills are getting paid, groceries in the kitchen, etc., get one. We promise not to criticize.

My chuckster likes Remington 33gr. accutips, but I can not find that ammo anywhere. I've just settled on using what I hunt coyotes with. The federal 50gr. hollow points. They are accurate enough in this old rifle:



Good enough for shooting yotes.. I've tried the Hornady poly tipped bullets and it didn't shoot as well as either the Federal or Remington loads mentioned earlier.

The 22mag can be real accurate. Every 77/22M I've had or seen shot well, some were just outstanding. Keith didn't mention one particular 77/22M he had. Back in '93 or so, on the way to eastern Utah for pd's we stopped at a pawnshop where he bought a blue/walnut 77/22M. An hour later at a sandpit we stopped, a scope was mounted and the gun was sighted in. Using those Sinclair benchrest targets with a square and a circle below. At 50yds I watched him put 5 rds into the circle, just one ragged hole, not one of them touched the ring. That circle is 1/2" OD with about .100" thick ring. The best 77/22 I've seen. Winchester 40hp.

Accuracy with 22Mags can vary just like with any other rimfire. You don't know how one will shoot til you shoot it. I've had a bunch of them. By far most accurate is a T/C super 16 carbine which began as a 22lr with so-so accuracy, maybe 1/2" at best. Mike Bellm rechambered to 22Mag and it became a death ray, extremely accurate. A 601 auto grouped well but the barrel wasn't in line with the receiver and it the scope wouldn't come even close to zeroing. The H&K was kind of a goofy design, tricky to take apart and reassemble, but it shot very well.....wish I'd kept it. I've had a few 77/22's. The worst shooting was maybe 1/2-3/4" at 50yds.......that gun now wears a threaded no-taper Walther barrel originally for a 10/22, with a tight match chamber. It's very accurate. There's a 77/22 laminated stainless with med. weight barrel which I haven't messed with yet, it'll be cut to 18" or so. There are times shooting groundsquirrels when targets are so thick a semiauto would be real nice. Most recent addition is a heavy Volquartsen barrel installed on a 10/22Mag that's been sitting around for years. We'll see how that one works.

I tried several Ruger 77/22 mags and despite a lot of gunsmithing, they would not produce good groups.
Currently I have a 1720 Aschutz and its quite accurate with Horndy ammo.

I got lucky on my 77/22 .22WMR, but have had 1 in .22LR that also performed poorly....i put a Green Mountain barrel on the .22lr & turned it into a .17mach2, which shoots well.

My CZ and Cooper .22mags are more accurate, but i carry the Ruger more than those, for me the .22WMR gets used as a general purpose "never know what might need shot at" gun when trail riding. average groups at 50 with Winchester JHP's: