Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Anybody tried a Ruger American .22 Magnum?

Ammoseek, AmmoEngine, and GunBot are good search engines for finding in-stock RF ammunition. Just last week, I found reasonably priced HM2 ammo at Academy Sports through one of these sites.

I would've owned one by now, but recently got tired of waiting for the stainless version to come out, so I added a barrel to my existing CZ 455 instead.

that certainly is better than waiting,I assume it shoots well too.i had a CZ455 and it shot well, but it just didn't tick my clock for some reason or another.darn good rifles though.

I was wanting a stainless barrel also, but bought the predator and had it Cerakoated(SP?)

It was a good option for me! Low glare finish and weather resistant!


Virgil B.

Homesteader, if for any reason the source runs out for the link Mule Deer gave you, you can also get the CCI Mini Mags at Cabela's right now for a good price and free shipping.

https://www.slickguns.com/product/ccispeer-mini-mag-100-rounds-22-lr-849-no-limit

I've been finding .22mag at most Academy Stores for the last few months, CCI Maxi Mags and Hornady Critical defense.

Mine shoots Maxi Mags and Dyna Points very well.
The Dyna Points were purchased in OKC, back in '93, or so.

I fired two Predators side by side doing five shot groups. Both did pretty good with CCI VMax and Hornaday VMax...~3/4" at 50. Both also shot Winchester Dynapoints and Fiocchi 40 gr poorly...~1"- 1 1/2" at 50 with the Winchester being the worst.

m1919,

Thanks for the info. It's exactly what I was looking for, to figure out if I just got an exceptional rifle. Mine shoots the Dynapoints very well, but I don't have any Fiocchi ammo to provide a comparison there.

1 to 1 1/2" is plenty good enough for a lot of what a .22 mag is good for, I think. I tried a couple of rifles that would go 3/4" with the ammo they liked, but decided that it was overkill to have something bracketed so closely by LRs and the Hornet and hard to feed to boot. I can use the time spent looking for Mag ammo to load reduced Hornets (and now .223s).

I do kind of miss the 9422 I sold, but for the rifle, not the load.

John, I always thought those Dynapoints filled a very useful niche, in a rifle that would shoot them. Lucky you.

Mule Deer

This may or may not be relevant, but in the Dynapoints I fired, I had several that split the case.....some nearly the entire length. I contacted Winchester via email several times about this but they have yet to respond.

Unfortunately I didn't notice the split cases untill I had gone through a few boxes and was picking up the brass.

I may have just gotten hold of a bad batch.

Compared to a Marlin, the American is a thing of beauty.

m1919,

Thanks for the additional info about the split cases. I haven't had that happen with any .22 Magnum ammo, in several handguns and rifles, so do suspect you got a bad batch.

John,

I have a one in 22 Mag with the 22 inch barrel.

I don't have much experience with many other 22 WMRs, however, mine seems to be reasonably accurate with a few brands of ammo.

Specifically, it adores the Hornady 30 gr vmax stuff. It will shoot very uniform 5-shot groups that average just under an inch at 100 yds.

It also seems to shoot the 40 gr CCI maxi-mags and 40 gr Rem PSPs well. Both of these go between 1.25 to 1.5 inches at 100. Again, 5 shot groups. interestingly, these both go to the same POI which is about 3 inches off from the Hornady stuff.

The one round which it did not like was the CCI 30 gr +V stuff. That shot 4-5inch patterns at 100 yards. Just all over.

So far, that is the only ammo I have wrung thru mine. I do like it and bascially either shoot the Hornady or Maxi mags depending on the situation.

HTH,

Bob

Bob,

Thanks for the info.

As noted in my original post, I've owned a bunch of .22 Magnums and all except this Ruger were very ammo-sensitive, even more than the average .22 Long Rifle. Haven't checked my records but can't remember one that wouldn't scatter at least one load like your rifle scatters the CCI 30-grain stuff.

This was fine back when .22 Magnum ammo of various kinds was easily available, but that's not true today, I suspect because so much production time is going into making .17 HMR ammo.

Plus, .17 HMR rifles of all brands seem to be accurate and remarkably ammo insensitive. It's rare for .17 HMR ammo of any kind to average groups over an inch at 100 yards--and they all seem to land in close to the same place. I tried four different kinds of .17 HMR ammo the other day in my CZ. The four 5-shot groups averaged under an inch, and all 20 rounds went into 1.63".

I've been on the fence thinking about buying one of these. I think Whittakers had them for around $270 at one point with the heavier barrel. Came real close to grabbing one.

How is the factory stock? Solid or typical plastic junk? Anyone making a decent wood/laminate stock for them?

On the fence here, also. Been looking at a couple but still unsure because this would be my first ever 22 mag., (rifle, anyway). Stocks I've seen don't look that bad but I also checked out Boyd's gunstocks and they have several for the RAR in 22 mag.; about $129. IIRC. If a RAR were to wind up in the safe here it would probably also wind up with one of their sweet looking laminated stocks. From reading this thread it seems they shoot pretty good with ammo that they prefer. Heck; I should get one. My excuse could be that it fills that gap between my 22LR stuff and my 22 Hornet. Any excuse for another gun, right?

Mule Deer,

My buddy recently bought one of these and it is a shootin' sumbitch. Likes the Federal Game Shok the most but it doesn't seem real picky with a variety of other stuff.

He bought it at Scheels for $179.00. I think he has more money into the ammo for it at this point, than he does the actual rifle.

Gophers have been good this spring and it knocks the hell out of them.

Are you going to Kalispell this weekend?



Travis

I personally feel people get a little too neurotic with the rimfire stuff. It will do anything you need a .22 Mag to do in regards to accuracy.



Travis

Now I'm getting pushed over the edge.... Maybe I'll take another look at them. I've never owned a 22 mag. in a long gun and I can recall a couple 22 mags that used to show up at the range once in a while and they never impressed me all that much, accuracy-wise. But that was over 20 years ago and I don't recall who made them; all I remember is that they were 22 mag.. Those RAR's are starting to look a lot nicer now. At least for that kind of money.

Translation: Don't let Stick call you out for being a do-nothing chkunt...

Personally, making a 22 Mag not sound like a 357 (where legal) is Podunk, skookum or Ojibwe....if you live where it don't matter, get your chkunt off the couch.