Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Combination Guns and Drillings Slugs & 22WMR ammo

I am rescuing a Savage 24 DL in 22WMR/20ga that the previous owner had cut down to a little over 18”. I finally got a front sight installed along with an old “22/410” receiver sight. I shot it for the first time today. The 22WMR is dead on at 150 yards with 30gr VMAX (2” three shot group!) but the Rem 5/8 oz slugs I tried were about 6” high at 20 yards and still a foot high at 150! Any advice about ammo that might minimize the elevation difference? So 22WMR that shoots higher then average or slugs that shoot lower?
Thanks!

Try different brands of slugs?

Brennekes shoot better than FED/REM/WIN in both my .410 and 20 gauge Savage 24s.

What do you plan to shoot at 150 yards with 20 gauge slugs?

The puny recoiling rimfire point of impact wouldn't change much from a barrel-bob, but a heavy recoil round would print MUCH higher from the shortened and lightened barrel, since recoil starts as soon as the projectile begins to move. The far less barrel rise from a longer heavier barrel makes the bullet print lower.

The answer is to use the highest velocity, lowest weight slug you can find to get it printing lower.

Savage was never known for their barrel regulation and bobbing the barrel likely didn't help it much. Like L2S said playing with ammo might help, try 40gr Win. Jackets or even Fed 55gr in the 22 Mag also along with different slugs.

L2S has it.

That math don't add up.

Might

They start dropping like rocks at 100 yards.

Right. I would think it would need to be whole lot higher at 20 yards, to get high enough to be able to drop to a foot high at 150.

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I went back and looked at the target picture again. I was mistaken about the 150 yard target. The slug hit closer to 15” high.

Barrel regulation is likely the problem. Ran into the same issue with a .30-30/20 Mod 24. The gun had not been modified and the rifle shot quite well. #3 buck pattern center was about 24" high at 10 yards. Down the road it went.

A straight cylinder bore 20 gauge would be borderline worthless IMO and it is hard to believe that someone would think that it was a good idea to bob a 24 DL barrel like that. My own 24 DL .22 WRM and 20 gauge puts slugs within about 2 inches of each other at 50 yards. We can use rifles state wide here for deer, so I don't see myself ever using that 24 for slugs, but it was a good thing to try at the range one day. In your case I'd start over and sell that short one.

Try a 75 yard zero with 22WMR and see where that puts your slugs. You could also get a multi-blade rear sight with blades for different yardages. Use one blade for slugs and another for 22WMR.

My son now has the 20” Mod 24c “Camper’s Companion” .22/20ga with which I taught him to shoot thirty years ago, in that model the shotgun barrel was cylinder bored.

Accurate .22 barrel but slugs shot way low. Way low but in the same vertical plane. Using the base of the front sight as the front sight it was on at 25 yards and beyond that one could compensate accordingly. Minute of paper plate with Remington slugs at about 100.

A few years ago I was excited to find a 70’s era .357 over 20 gage Mod 24. Heavy, bad stock geometry IIRC with a high comb as if for scope use, horrible trigger even for a 24. Rifle barrel printed OK, shotgun barrel was way the heck in left field. Traded it off the very next show.

My brother had a 24DL .22LR/20ga when we were kids. The .22 barrel shot okay and the 20 gauge, FC barrel shot slugs like a house afire. It would put three in a couple of inches at 50 yards.

The 22/20 ga. that i bought must be a wonder 24.

Because at turkey shooting range they both do a number.

I've owned several M24 Savage combination guns. If they are regulated at all from the factory, it is pure coincidence. They are the poorest built combination guns I have ever come across. I suggest you try some sort of spacer or shim on the front barrel band, to separate your barrels a bit. Perhaps a thin strip of metal foil on the top of the shotgun barrel and inside the barrel "clamp" . Worth a shot anyway.

AFAIK, there isn't any way to regulate the Savage 24s that have the barrels soldered together and there isn't any provision for regulating the barrels that aren't soldered together. A Savage 24 with a center-fire barrel that will shoot the rifle and shotgun barrels anywhere close to the same POA is probably a keeper.

I can't understand why anyone would expect a Savage 24 to have the barrels regulated to shoot close. That takes hours of hand work and shooting, and hand work, and shooting. Or they could have charged 3X more, what a high quality control Valmet costs. Valmet does it with quality, and they can be owner regulated.

Regulation comes with costs.

BTW, I have two 300 series Valmets that cost me about $550.00 that drive tacks and dump slugs right where I want at 100 yards, one in 222Rem, and one in 22 HP.
Trying to make the great old 24s into anything they're not isn't a wise use of money and effort.

The way I got around having to regulate my Savage 24DL chambered in .22WRM/.410 was to mount a scope with elevation+windage marks on the reticle. I first zero the scope for the .22WRM @ 75 yds and then determine the POI of slugs at 25 yds. Noting the elevation and windage marks that intersect at the slug POI establishes the point in the scope that is used to aim at the target.

There is an issue of parallax to be worked out. The scope I use is a 3-9X variable for muzzle loader/shotgun. At 9X, it is parallax-free @ 75 yds which I find useful for the .22WRM. When dialed down to 3X, there is still a wee bit of parallax but hitting 8" paper plate size targets@ 25 yds is a near certainty.

With the 22 dead on at 150 yards maybe let the short barrels speak to you and try a higher front sight and move the happy space in close for both.