Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires The .22 Mag-a-num...

Years ago our very own Mule Deer penned a bit on an Inuit that hunted Polar Bear and caribou with his ".22 Mag-a-num". The name sticks in the brain like an earworm of a song... Well, mine didn't shoot any arctic animals, but did get in a couple evening of Texas feral hog hunting. The little gun is not to be taken lightly.....And one thing I only suspected, but learned is that the more mild report of the gun doesn't spook them off as badly as the bigger guns...I managed three doubles with it and one triple, as the sounders involved simply didn't want to leave...till a couple shots were fired.

A little more Mag-a-num action...




a bush pig that swam the whole way over from Africa

Blood, dust, hogs, and golden nuggets...... sure looks like Texas.

A suppressed 223 sounds a lot like a 22WMR and you are right, they will sometimes hang around a bit more if you aren't shooting a big blaster.

I've been a .22 magnum fan ever since I got my first one back in the '70's. Haven't been without one or more since. Have used it to kill everything from squirrels to deer.

what ammo does the rifle like... or which the Hogs don't ?

Nice shooting! I’ve always heard the 22 mag was the choice for putting down horses.

Cz?

Great pics
Ugly critters

Hank

I used my 22 Mag more this fall for squirrels then the 17 HMR and 22 LR put together.

I'm using Winchester Silvertip 40 grain personal defense ammo. It was designed for a pistol but gives me the best speed and accuracy in the rifle. Also I checked out the penetration tests and it did great...it will penetrate a pigs skull!

Yes, CZ457

Head shots only? I've never liked anything rimfire except 22lr for small game. I like to eat what I kill.

OTOH 22 mag would be perfect to target hogs on the local WMA during squirrel season. Can't hunt hogs on WMA unless it's during a sanctioned hunt for other game.

Yep head shots only, with a quantifier...brain shots only. Gotta hit the brain for instant kills. Its about the size of an egg and lies higher in the skull than you might think, you can skirt the edges with a bigger gun, but the 22 Mag-a-num has gotta be spot on.

I wouldn’t be leaning that beauty of a rifle on those muddy, grubby hogs. 😁

That's a beater rifle for ingwe.

You can certainly eat small game killed with a .22 magnum. I've done it many times. Head shots not required.

My beater rifles are stainless/synthetic....like this .17 Rem.

You might eat some of it, if you can find it.

Fun trip Poobs, we'll do it again!

Boy that 22 mag with the wood stock has a great stock on it. What is that rifle? My 22 mag is a Marlin 783 with a tube feed. Don't care for the tube feed. If I were in a survival situation and short money the rifle and cartridge of choice for me would be something like a clip fed Marlin 783 in 22 mag. Putting meat on the table is easy with a 22 mag! Quiet, light weight, accurate and enough power to take down pretty much what ever I'd want to eat at reasonable range.

I’ve never owned a 22 magnum, but have stocked up on ammo until I find the right one.
Of eskimos and 22 magnums I know an Inupiant from Shishmeref, AK that killed a polar bear with a Winchester 9422 magnum, said it took the whole magazine!

Blackheart: I began using and enjoying the 22 Magnum back in the 1960's and indeed have seen game as large as Mule Deer kill't with it. Not my first choice for that but with carefully placed bullets it happens.
I used my 22 Magnums mostly for Varmint Hunting and did so for decades.
Then in 2,002 Hornady came out with the amazing 17 HMR and I forsaked my 22 Magnums - the 17 HMR, and the great projectiles it was offered with, just completely out did (outperformed) the 22 Magnum.
Then about 5+ years ago better, MUCH better bullets became available for the 22 Magnum and starting then the 22 Magnum cartridge in Rifles came back into favor with me.
Since the recent advent of better munitions for the 22 Magnum (accuracy and lethality wise!) I have brought three heavy barreled 22 Magnums into my arsenal - a Browning T-Bolt Varmint, a CZ 457 Varmint and a Ruger 77/22 Varmint. I have PLENTY of scope power on each of these Rifles and both accuracy and lethality is commendable.
Long live the 22 Magnum and the new munitions it performs so well with.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It doesn't blow squirrels to pieces with any ammo and does less damage than a good HV .22LRHP with either the Win. or CCI FMJ's or the Federal 50 gr HP. It ain't a .223.

I only shot one rabbit once with mine. It skinned and quartered him. I barley had enough left to flavor the gravy.

Must not be able to use the energy in a squirrel, good to know.

Its a CZ 457 Lux that I put into a CZ 457 Premium stock.

22 mag is and has always been a great powerful rimfire cartridge , i was told by some old meat hunters years ago that the 22 mag was the best poacher cartridge ever used was not as noisy , no recoil and cheap too use in those days.

I have one just like it, except I bought the American barrel with no sights in .22 mag to replace the LR one. Mine was an MTR originally. Got it dialed in with good ol’ Maxi Mags for turkeys, but also ordered a box of the Game Points to try.

Did some poking around on my WMA today and saw nary a track, feather, or poop pile, so this might be the Season of the Ambush, which I’m totally okay with. I know a good spot where they often pass through in the morning, then apparently return the same way. We open Monday.

Whaddya do, shoot it lengthwise stem to stern ? I generally only eat the front and back legs and backstraps out of a rabbit. Shoot one through the ribs behind the shoulders or through the head and the meat is fine even with 40 gr. JHP's. If you hit the shoulders you'll lose the front quarters but that ain't much and the hind quarters and backstraps, which are the best and most meat on a rabbit anyway, will still be fine. Of course if you stick with FMJ's for edible small game, it won't damage more meat than a .22 LR.

Yep, length wise. Didn't actually skin and quarter it but it did blow all the skin off one side and blew away a thigh and shoulder which is half a rabbit.

in the mid 70s I killed 200/300 . cows to butcher with a 22mag Win. pump gun with soft point ammo with out a prob. at 10 to 40 yards

Good stuff!

When fox pelts brought good money in PENN, I knew a fair amount of guys that used bolt action 22 magnums. They kept shots under 100 yards.

My last squirrel of the season was a big Fox squirrel. He wouldn't stop moving long enough for a head shot. He was going away at a slight quartering angle. I put the crosshairs between the last rib and the rear hind quarter. He dropped at the shot from the 22 mag. No meat damage.
We always strive foe head shots but the squirrels seem to be constantly on the move. A body shot with a 17 HMR is messy. I tried some FMJ in the 17 thinking if a body sot was all I could get there wouldn't be the mess. This didn't work out as planned as a couple recovered enough stamina to crawl into a hole or under a brush pile. I went to the 22 mag after this and had no more losses.

I was a licensed hog trapper during college. I always had a .22 Mag in the truck and with black box, Winchester JHPs. It worked very well. I liked autos as it was easy to shoot a hog or hogs multiple times if needed quickly.

So specifically what ammo would you guys recommend for something like coyotes or foxes at 75 yds?

Im using 40 Winchester Silvertip personal defense ammo, but I also really like Browning 40 grainer and Hornady personal defense.

Either the CCI or the good old Winchester 40 gr. JHP will work fine out to 75 yards. No need for the heavier bullets like the 50 gr. Federal so often recommended for coyotes. The 40's give plenty of penetration on game of that size and will actually expand nicely while the 50 grain Federal might as well be FMJ for all the expansion you'll get.

I've got a CZ 512 autoloader in .22 Mag-a-num, it's my raccoon rifle. It flattens them nicely. It shoots almost all CCI loads pretty well, but doesn't much care for anything else, Hornady's VMax excepted. Great little rifle.I also have a 455 American in WMR, but the 512 shoots every bit as well, so it gets the most use.

In the mid 70's, my family was acquainted with a guy who attempted to support his family purely through hunting, okay, actually poaching. In the winters he spent his nights driving back country roads and spotlighting bobcats. That was pretty good money at $300 each in 1975 dollars.


In the summer, he would chase bears. He had a very nice pack of redbone hounds. He would spend the days hauling suet and other baits into the hills, then go back a couple days later and release the dogs at the bait. They would usually have a bear up a tree within a 100 to 200 yds. He sold the gall bladder, penis and claws.

He carried a 9 shot revolver in 22 mag on his hip, which he used to knock the bear out of the tree.

By the time we came to know him, Oregon Fish and Game was on his ass pretty hard. He moved to Idaho and attempted to stay within the boundaries of the law, most of the time. But he was still running his bear baits and spotlighting bobcats.

He had made the transition to taking along a licensed hunter with a tag to actually shoot the bear. (most of the time) When it was my turn to kill a treed bear, I heart shot it with a Rem 141 in 30 Rem. The dog owner immediately hit it in the head with his 22 mag revolver. By the time the bear hit the ground, it had three 22 caliber holes in its head. The guy was a phenomenal shot.

My Dad told the story of the day he went along bear hunting. They treed a bear, my Dad shot it. The other guy put four more shots into it from his revolver. They drug that bear back up to the truck and headed on down the road.

The dogs scented another bear from the back of the truck as they traveled so the owner let them out. Only this time the dogs did not start baying at a tree. Instead they were fighting the bear. The owner and my Dad rushed in as fast as they could run. The dogs' owner told my Dad to put his rifle down as he did not trust him to shoot without hitting a dog. The owner waded into the mess and started popping the old boar with his 22, to little effect. He got five shots off, and the hammer fell on an empty chamber. He had forgotten to reload after the first encounter of the day.

Dad said that a very strange look came over the guy's face and he quickly abandoned the dogs to their fight. After reloading the revolver, he stepped back in and finished off the bear.

When they skinned out the head, they found several slugs had bounced off the skull and travelled along under the hide.

The next time I saw the guy, he was carrying a Ruger 44 mag carbine.

Those 50s shoot pretty well in my CZ, but only the top three in the magazine feed reliably, and the POI is way low compared to faster stuff. 30gr VMaxes hit 1 1/2” higher than MaxiMags, which is usable. Ordered a box of Game Points, to try. Might be less ‘splody than the MMs, but hit close to them. We shall see.

My BCA side-charger puts just about everything in the same place.

That’s a great story!

I was researching the Game Point loads yesterday and ran into a piece where modeling clay was used to test expansion and penetration. Surprisingly, the CCI FMJ blew a dang big hole in the block, but still penetrated well. Unlike many tests, the expansion was rested at 50 yards, the accuracy at 100. Those FMJs (TMJ) are supposedly favorites for slaughtering.




https://www.americanhunter.org/content/top-6-22-wmr-hunting-loads/

I've found the 50 grainers to be excellent longer range killers than any lighter weight in my 22 magnum

The 30, 40 and 50 grain loads do the same in my two .22 magnum rifles in regards to POI. I keep them zeroed with 40's as I've found them to be the most accurate in both rifles and best suited to my uses.

I have found the best in terms of both accuracy and performance is the grey box 40 grain Winchester JHP's.

For accuracy my Marlin shows a preference for CCI's while my Henry likes the Winchesters a little better. I do like the terminal performance of the Winchesters a little better, particularly on heavier game at very close range where the CCI is more prone to fragmentation while the Winchester will mushroom nicely and hold together better.

Sold my 14" Ingram Contender barrel.
Now just have the 9422M and a CZ457 in mag.
Two bricks of old WW 40gr JHP.
They do well with it.

Was gonna take the 457 to the range today but too windy.
Just check zero. Was dead on at 50 last yr, double check is all.
Wears a VX3i 3.5-10X. Run it pretty much at 6X.

It's been a while since I owned a .22 magnum rifle. I had a Ruger 77/22 boat paddle .. wish I still had it. I traded it for .. or traded for it, I forget which order .. a Win 9422 magnum. Both of those shot pretty well, inch an a quarter at 100 yards, with the CCI Maxi Mag +V 30 grain load. Killed quite a lot of ground squirrels with both guns. I'd be happy to have either back. Oops. I can't really bring myself to buy another .22 magnum with a very good .22 LR and a very good .17 HMR .. and an AR. Not much territory not covered. I still have a pile of that ammo. I had a 10" .22 LR contender barrel punched to .22 magnum and it shoots very well with that leftover ammo .. my revolvers sure haven't cared for it. Though it shoots a lot better scoped, for the situations where I use it, I prefer the iron sights so that's what's on it.

Being a true FMJ, the Winchester FMJ is a lot tougher than the CCI TMJ. Still the CCI TMJ does considerably less damage to squirrels than the HP's but the Winchester FMJ would be the choice for max penetration.

My cousin, a government trapper introduced me to the cartridge right after I got out of the Marines. As he said "it does everything you always wanted a .22LR to do."

I believe it is my favorite woods bumming cartridge. I thought I might be under gunned couple of times but I was mistaken.

I tend to stay with 40 grain loads. In general. I prefer Winchesters. I have used the round since the mid 70's and currently have five. Two pistols, a cricket, a 24D and a Ruger American compact.

For edible small game I tend to use solids. This includes grouse. For varmints up to coyote size I go to JHP. I have killed the odd coyote out to 125 yds.

A couple of times I used JHP on a rabbit. Only a little strip of skin held them together.

I have used it a bit on larger stuff. Mostly dispatching steers for a mobile butcher shop.

What about the normal, or 'even' ones?