Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire .22 mag accuracy

The absolute #1 deer killing cartridge choice of nighttime poachers in my county.

Winchester 9422M most used walk-a-bout gun for enjoying a day.

Been using a lot of 45 and 50gr bullets for awhile now.

5 shots 30 Grain CCI Maxi Mag + V at 106 yards. Good enough for me.

22 Magnums are just like any other rimfire.

Different guns prefer different ammo.

Some shoot well with some ammo, few shoot well with any ammo.

My Marlin 882SSV likes the 40gr Wincherster HP's.

It will shoot CCI's okay, but absolutely hates Federal 22 Mag ammo.

I have had five 22 mag rifles and four handguns. Savage, H&R, Winchester, and two Rugers. An all-star 77 stainless (redundancy, I know) was the only long gun to be able to approach 2 MOA with any of all the ammunition I tried and I tried everything available. I think the ammo is the problem as I've had a half dozen 22 long rifle firearms that will do 1 MOA on a calm day. None of them over $500 sans scope.

I only have one 22 magnum rifle - a Ruger 77.. It loves Winch. Super-X 40 gr ammo, and absolutely hates Winchester HE 30gr.. I don't know wth I'm going to do with the rest of THAT stuff - except waste it in my only other magnum - a Ruger Single-Six Convertible..


dang...

So will my Winchester 94

I shoot nothing lighter than 40 grains in mine. The 50 grain load is a real killer out past 100 yards

I have 3 22 mags. Now if I could just find any ammo to shoot.

It's out there.

You can buy all you can afford.

Maybe it was set with the scoop as tare wt? If so, it will show the variation correctly even though the total wt is way off.

I’ve always said the best thing about 17 caliber Rimfire’s is they caused manufacturers to make decent ammunition for 22 magnums. Better ammo increased the accuracy of most 22 mags. I own 3 rifles and 2 pistols. To say I like them is an understatement. That being said they are game rifles and not paper punchers. Hasbeen

I did a bunch of research on the .22 Magnum not too many years ago for an article in RIFLE magazine. My conclusion was that the reason .22 Magnums are so "picky" about ammo is the bullets vary more than in any other rimfire round.. All .22 Long Rifle ammo uses similar bullets, whether plated or lubed lead, and .17 HMR ammo (and .17 M2, when available) uses jacketed bullets. But .22 Magnum ammo uses bullets resembling both .22 LR (such as the original Winchester 40-grain load, which generally shoots well in most rifles) and jacketed .17 bullets Consequently there's considerable variation in bullet-to-rifling jump.

But then I picked up yet another .22 Magnum at a local store, partly because it was on sale and partly because it was a Ruger American, which despite their "affordable" construction generally shoot well. It proved to be the most ammo-tolerant .22 Magnum I've ever owned, and have owned a bunch of good ones. Just about any ammo will group 5 rounds into 1.5" or less at 100 yards, and some much better--and normally to the same point of impact.

So I contacted one of the design guys at Ruger and asked why this might be so. Did they do something different with their .22 Magnum chambers? His answer was, "Luck?"

But then a buddy and I went ground squirrel shooting, and he was so impressed with the RAR .22 Magnum (I let him shoot it some too) that he went out and found one--and it shoots the same way.

Good post, sir.... TY

I have an American Predator 22 Magnum. It haven't shot it a lot. I'd have to look at my notes to give specifics, but it can be picky. It can also be pleasantly accurate.

Sometimes when I’m lounging in my chesterfield, tooting on a generous bowl of Captain Black cherry, I’ll pick up the rotary phone and dial one of the design guys at Ruger...ask him if his refrigerator is running....chortle and hang up.

The only .22 Mag rifle I've ever possessed was a "loaner" Browning T-Bolt I reviewed years and years ago. I'd have to go find the article and accuracy tables to be sure, but my rememberies say that it was quite accurate.

Convertible revolvers are a whole different story. Bullet diameters for the .22 LR and .22 Mag are different, so the gun maker has to choose one over the other for bore size - or go for something in between that isn't optimized for either. I think the Ruger Single-Six like I own is a "tweener" but it seems to like both kinds of ammo. Naturally, we're talking much shorter ranges, too. Perhaps that masks any real accuracy difference. Dunno.

BTW, of all the "accuracy tests" for .22 LR target ammo that people use, I don't recall anybody ever sorting for bullet diameter. I dug out a micrometer one day and starting measuring that - and was astounded to learn that it varied by as much as .003" from brand to brand. As you might expect from cast bullet lore, the smaller the diameter, the worse the accuracy and fouling a given .22 LR load produced. So...if you're looking for accurate .22 LR ammo, you might consider sorting by bullet diameter rather than weighing or rim measuring.

Anschutz used to make a .22 Mag. Wonder how they shoot?

I think that's the key - stick with 40g or higher...

Pulled out another brick (+ 1 box) of the same lot # ammo so we’re dealing with 1050 rounds.
Culled off everything low and high.
(Qty.) Wt in grains
(46) 8.96 and below. Lightest was 8.87
(29) 9.07 and above. Heaviest was 9.12


(73) 8.97
(45) 8.98
(125) 8.99
(93) 9.00
(122) 9.01
(125) 9.02
(95) 9.03
(123) 9.04
(82) 9.05
(92) 9.06

Not sure if I’ll continue down the road with rim thickness and bullet diameters. Depends on how bored I get. I’m a bit surprised at the weight variability amongst the rounds.