Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Reason(s) to get a 22 WMR

Reason? Because everyone needs a fourth one.

My “fear” is that with all the ammo I’m gathering for the pistol, I’ll get a hankering for another .22 mag rifle. At least I can scratch that itch with a barrel for the CZ instead of having to sneak in another entire rifle.

I like the .22 Mag out of rifles, have no use for one in a pistol...although I do really like a .22 Hornet from a 14" Contender barrel (just picked up some 45 gr flat points to load, should be a nasty coyote load). That being said, I do have a few Single Six/Super Single Six revolvers that I shoot .22 Mag out of occasionally.

I picked up a bunch of .22 Mag back when it was $8-10/box, but have seen it fairly frequently (lately) in the $15 range. At one point, people were paying $25/box...it was actually cheaper to shoot .223.

For a time, only rimfire rifles and shotguns with #2 or smaller shot were legal here for night predator hunting. Now .22 CFs are legal too. IIRC, there are still some Eastern states with similar restrictions, and the .22 mag should be the top choice for those places.

Wow , she’s a keeper!! I love my 9422 mag I have hornets 222’s and 223’s but they aren’t light and handy like the 9422. Need has nothing to do with anything. The 22 lr is still a fantastic cartridge. Buying 22 lr match ammo is almost expensive as 22 mag

Instead I would consider the .17HMR. For hunting varmints there is nothing better. I ranges out to 175 yards, the WMR is definitely inside 125 yards. It is also a much more inherently accurate cartridge.

You don’t have one should be reason enough 🙂

These are 2 great reasons to own one. That's the reason I used when I bought my LH T-Bolt.

Growing up in PENN I knew a few fox hunters that used 222 and 22 Hornet for night calling, but most of them used 22 magnum rifles

Fifty one years ago, flush with money from the recent sale of muskrat and raccoon furs, Dad took me to a gun shop to buy a 22 Magnum. He wasn’t keen on the idea of reloading, especially a 13 year old, so had ruled out a Hornet and 222. I knew factory ammo for either would exhaust my meager resources so I compromised on the 22 WRM.

I still have that rifle today. A Savage 34M. Magazine fed. I did recrown the barrel some years back. Decades of hard trap line use had dinged it up a bit and accuracy was not what it had been. The recrown did the trick.

I shot hundreds of woodchucks with it, first with open sights and then with a Weaver D4. A truckload or two of foxes, coyotes and raccoons. A few nuisance control beaver and muskrats and even a few head shot gray squirrels. And several beef and pigs on butchering day.

For the guy not wanting to take the time to reload or is not so inclined, the 22 WRM is the ticket. Even though I reload for a few dozen chamberings, the 22 Mag still has a place in my lineup.

Here some places allow rimfire only if it isn't gun deer season. They kill stuff like armadillos and coons with authority. I have one and carry it for a truck gun to shoot things like dillos and such. It will kill pretty much anything you want dead. Mine is a cheap savage and it shoots ammo it likes well.

I hadnt had one for a long time, now I have 6 for some ungodly reason. A Rem 597 that used to be a 17HMR, a Marlin Levermatic, a Taurus pump and a Magnum Research MR17/22 which is sweet! Then I have the Keltec PMR30 and a Ruger revolver.... I sure dont need all of those...

Never gad a use for one as 22lr handles anything small and 224 centrefires handle anything a tad larger, currently my tad larger rifle is a ZKW465 22 Hornet.

Get a contender or encore with a 18-20’inch barrel and the velocity numbers will impress you. Especially the 2200 fps ammo!

If you hunt raccoons or other small game with a 22, the mag is about 5x the killing power. If your just plinking it’s a lot more for ammo but better. Just depends on your uses. The 22 mag is just a great gun to leave in the hunting truck. JMO

For varmint rifles............22 mag for close, .243 for far.

In handgun, my Smith 648 6" was a dandy shooter. But proly like using a .22 lr rifle on critters.
IHMSA Field Pistol is where I liked it best.

Did pop a few chucks with it. Worked fine.
Pops loved his 8 3/8" M48.................laser beamed the chucks w it.

Used dads old .22-250 this yr on a small bean field. Rocket launcher.
Got a new CZ457 and popped one there. Much more polite.
The 24" bbl is kinda long for a .22 mag but was nice at report.

Am happy w the rifle.
Old WW 40gr JHP stuff put the last 4 during zero session, in the red dot of the Shoot N C target at 50 yards.
So dime sized.

Good enough. Have 2 bricks of the stuff from way back.

Tickled.


Still have a 14" bbl for my Contender. Wore an old Burris 3-12X.
That thing was a chunk last coyote hunt. Kind of annoying.

The .22WMR is fantastic for small/medium game hunting. As to handguns, consider its energy is equal to that of the .22LR out of a RIFLE! Thats reason enough to use a WMR out of a handgun, imo. Nothing like having that capability compactly in a holster on the belt, rather than carrying a longarm.

So said, I was at the range today and shot both my maggies, a Marlin XT-22M and a Ruger stainless Single Six extensively.

Good luck!