Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is the 22 Mag DEAD and Replaced with the 17 HMR?

See if the butcher would take $50 for the worn out one...

Looking some more, I found Federal and Winchester making .17 Hornet ammo. This round may make it after all.

When I was a teenager in the mid to late 70's, my Dad, my brother, and I spent most Saturdays up in Knox county Ohio shooting groundhogs. when I would get bored watching their holes from long range, I would take my Marlin model 782 .22 WMR loaded with CCI maxi mags and walk the edges where farm fields met wood lots.I was amazed at the lethality of the .22 magnum on groundhogs up to 125 yards. Flash forward to the early 2000's when I got the urge to buy a Marlin heavy barrel stainless 17HMR. I put a variable power Simmons scope on it, loaded up with some 17 grain polymer tipped Hornady ammo and went hunting. I was amazed again that I killed a large groundhog at a laser ranged 153 yds. he was DRT. I love the accuracy of the 17HMR, but would never part with my 22 Magnum. If I were shooting a larger varmint, I would use the .22 mag.

Ron

As a Hornady product, I figure it's a pretty safe investment, unlike the WSM, which still looks a little risky to me. I think JB made cases from .22 Hornet brass for a while, which remains an option if it flops.

Hornady, Nosler, and Prvi are really filling the gap left by the "demise" of Big Green and whatever the Hell is happening at Olin/Winchester these days.

I bought a Ruger Super Single-Six about 30 years ago. I bought one box of .22 WMRs just to see what they'd do, and I've never bought another. At that time Winchester Wildcat .22 LRs were under a dollar for a box of 50, and 158 gr. .38 Specials were selling for around $8-9 per box of 50, so those $7.50 boxes of .22WMRs didn't have too much appeal as handgun ammo, and so far as I'm concerned, still don't.

My.22 mag. is one of the most useful varmint rifles I have. It is far from dead.. With all the mags. out there, it will take the HMR a while to catch up..

I did see a nice 17 in Montana.. We should get up that way soon.. If it is still there, I may buy it..

The mags are too pricey for plinking, at least for me, but are great small game killers, and have the added advantage of being dry and clean for loose pocket carry. I sold my Single-Six as my eyes require a little help for the fine aiming required for shooting little critters and I switched to a semi-auto with a red dot. For just-in-case belt carry, I use a SS New Bearcat full of Stingers and a snake load, which weighs over half a pound less than the Single Six.

Lately, I've been looking at Single Sevens in .32 Federal, which can be loaded for small game, but also can handle stuff like coyotes and two-legged varmints. I'll need my glasses for that one though.

It's not dead as long as I have bullets.

Picked up a 9422M some years back and a supply of ammo. Don't shoot much but when I do it excels across the board. Yep, I have more accurate rifles but then 1/2" groups @50 don't suck. Not for sale. Ever. Ammo isn't hard to find online.

au contraire, mon fraire



The PMR-30 is more fun than a guy should be able to have with his pants on, or off, for that matter.

I only load 25 rounds at a whack. Carry one mag in the gun and two mags in your back pocket or a fanny pack and you've got 75 friends. Outstanding!

I'll carry it up at my deer lease. I wear a headlight at night. It's a hoot to light up a coon. The reset time on the trigger is superlative. One can fire 10 rounds in less than 3 seconds.

ya!


GWB

no

Back in June I put a rimfire scope on my Marlin bolt action in 22WMR - nicely accurate - much better than the old iron sights, so it's not obsolete yet. It does favor the modern 30 grain, plastic tipped loads by CCI & Hornady.

Nope, because though there are maybe hundreds of .17's around now after several years of production, there are literally tens of thousands of .22 WMRs after decades of production...

bearbacker,

I suspect you're seriously underestimating the number of .17 HMR rifles already out there. Also dunno how you define "several years," but the .17 HMR was introduced 15 years ago.

That doesn't mean there aren't a lot more .22 Magnums out there, but the difference isn't as big you apparently think. It's unusual for gun stores around here to stock new .22 Magnum rifles anymore, but always have new .17 HMR's on hand. I would bet there are tens of thousands of .17 HMR rifles just in Montana.

This doesn't mean there aren't more .22 Magnum rifles in existence, along with quite a few .22 Magnum handguns. Just that difference isn't nearly as much you think--and the gap grows smaller every year.

And I'd say that with more 17's being sold lately than 22WMR's, a lot more 17's are being shot, just because more people will be out playing with their new "toy" rather than the 22WMR in the back of the cabinet.

Hell no. Any more dumb azzed questions? I'll be here all night...

I used the 22 magnum mostly for turkey hunting, and it really didn't ruin much turkey. How does the 17 HRM stack up as a not too destructive turkey killer?

Until two years ago I didn't worry about which direction I shot on my land. There is now a housing development south of me. When shooting at coyotes in that direction I use a 22 mag instead of my .243. I already had a 22 mag and I have read it's better than a 17 HMR on coyotes. And you guessed it, most of the coyotes I shoot are south of me. Figure they are scavenging for food in the neighborhood. Another thing is in the 60's when I was a kid the 22 mag seemed to be the cats meow to my friends and I but none of could afford one. I didn't get one until I was in my 50's and I love it.

I've owned a couple single six's with LR and MAG cylinders. But the rifles I have not. If I were to buy a new rifle in one of those cartridges, it would probably be a 17. But I would not turn down a decent priced 22 MAG either. The 17 outselling the 22 MAG doesn't mean the 22 MAG is dead, IMHO.

My guess is that the 223 hasn't killed the 30-30 either.

The ideal rifle is only ideal until you acquire it and take it into the field. At that point I usually find that my new toy falls a couple of small details short of achieving "THE ULTIMATE FIREARM" status. This, of course, requires me to buy another, even perfecter, rifle.

I have been sneaking up on springing for a combo which will be the perfect companion when hunting jacks in the sage (nearly the perfect sport).

I am thinking Volquartsen lightweight in .22 mag. The HMR would probably work just fine but the .22 mag seems to thump larger critters significantly harder than the .17 HMR.

There will be at least one more .22 mag sold before it meets it's predicted demise.