Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .22 Hi-power

I tend to agrre with gnoahhh & JB. I didn't want to discredit someone's article, but most all should be read carefully. I had thoughts of a cusotm TC tith a 1:7 or 1:8 barrel, shooting 80gr A-Max's. My 700 22-250 carries a 1:8 Douglas and does very well on deer around here (100-125lbs). One was DRT, the other travelled 100 yards. I believe there is nothing wrong with the Hi-power other than the rate of twist. That happens to be the same malady as plagues the slower 25's (Savage and Roberts) with heavier slugs. It's odd to me that the factories are so slow to catch on.

JB, I'm certain that in your hands, darn near anything would work just fine on deer. I have nowhere near the breadth or depth of your experience, but even with my little, I have seen .224" bullets do a less-than-encouraging job on deer. All in the hands of other hunters, I hasten to add. Precision placement is everything when you use a bullet that small, and even that assumes a bullet up to the job even if perfectly placed. Not many bullets OR shooters are up to it.

Based on that, I'll continue to recommend against the practice.

Placement trumps diameter, period.

I saw the ads.....the .22 HP is definitely enough for deer. It was enough for tigers wasn't it???

I have a few Savage 1899s and 99s in 22 HP and the biggest problem with them is finding a 22 HP with a good bore. Most of them were made/sold/used prior to the introduction of non-corrosive primers and the combination of a small bore and corrosive primers had a real impact on barrel life.

The best original 22 HPs that I've seen are those made between the mid-1920s and the end of production in 1941/42, mostly 99EGs, 99Gs, and 99Ts.

JEff

I myself Realy like the little IMP, I have Two of them, one scoped with a stith & Alaskan scope, and Gary, Gnoahhh, does know his stuff, he got me lined out, on this fine round, I have taken a deer with it also but 50yrds shot, only needed one, fun to shoot and hunt with I realy want to shoot a coyote or 2 with it!
John

I have around 30 of them, but they are all still in storage in NH.

The only 1 that I ever shot much was a special order 1899CD that was made in 1914.

JEff

I've got a 1930's 99G and an Italian made combo gun. Both shoot great and are fun to hunt with.



Brian.

Saddlering, I have a little bit of fun now and then hunting coyotes with my .22 HP. I use the 63 grain Sierra over Reloader 7, a load I got right out of Waters Pet Load article. Works great with accuracy around an inch and a half at a "hunerd".

Decrying the usefulness of a 100 year old cartridge in a modern hunting rag seems a little pointless to me. It was designed for the times. If a guy wants something "better" than get a .223, what's the big deal? On the other hand, if you like cool old rifles and know your way around a reloading press, than this ones a lot of fun.

Nice. I'm justabout convinced to either build a custom or buy a Savage...Savage wins by the cool old gun factor...

mw406 - that's a terrific photo!

Guy

Badazz pic...


Travis

In the very late 1960s and the 1970s, my graduate students and I collected over 1,100 whitetails, including almost 100 big Kansas whitetails, with a .222 Remington Magnum or a .22-250 and 50 grain bullets (mostly Sierras, but some Hornadys and Remingtons). All were taken from a sandbag rest, either over the cab of a pickup or out of a window (when temperatures were below zero). All but a few were neck shots, but approximately 45 or so were taken with lung shots at extreme ranges when we were getting to the end of the month and needed a few more to make our quota.

Only two were lost: one that was hit in the cartilage at the base of the ear (she woke up when we poked her jugular with a syringe to get a blood sample and bolted despite my best efforts to hang onto a hind leg), and one that was hit behind the lungs below the spine (we collected him the next month and confirmed the hit).

I don't recommend the .22 centerfires for everyone, but with even average bullets and careful placement, they are deadly.

I have owned several M1899 22 HP rifles, and all of them shot the Hornady 55-gn FMJBT better than any of the .227" or .228 inch bullets available. I still have one, a takedown model, and it is no target rifle, but groups with the 55-gn bullet are about 2.5 to 3 inches at 100 yards, open sights; compared to 4 to 5 inch groups with the Hornady or Speer .227 or .228 loads.

beautiful "montana pale". nice rifle too!!! what are pelts bringing now?

The notion that the .22 High Power is "useless" because other cartridges that do the same thing is a dog that ain't gunna hunt. If that's true than why do we still have 7-08s, 7x57s, .280s and .284s? Might as well retire the .270s, .308s and 30-06s while your at it. We should all be using the more modern 7mm WSM instead.

Speaking of "dogs that ain't gunna hunt" at least any more, here's another coyote taken with the old Savage. I believe I had a better chance getting this coyote with the .22 HP than I would have by throwing rocks or using an atlatl. So I'd say it's still a little bit useful.

I've always wondered why Newton and Savage didn't think of necking down the .250-3000 to .224 and putting it in the 1899 as well.

I often wondered that to. It took guys like Jerry Gebby, J. Bushnell Smith, et al to make it happen 20 years later with the .22 Varminter (later called the .22-250).

I've read (and think I can dredge out the source if needed) that Gebby visited Newton's home in the early 1920s, and pulled a 22-250 round out of a cigar box containing various Newton experiments. Gebby hung onto the round, and began to work with it when Wotkyns tapered off working with it. The Newton round may have had a .228 bullet in it. Gebby wisely picked the .224 when he began to chamber for it.

The 22-250 wasn't a viable cartridge until the development of applicable powders. Wotkyns tried to work with the 22-250 in the mid-20s, but gave it up because of pressure problems. However, about 1932, he gained access to some pre-commercial 3031, and he and Sweany put together the 22-250 that sufficiently impressed Winchester to bring out the Swift.

With 3031 and 4064 available, the 22-250 worked.

--Bob

Savage was coming off of bad hype from massively overmarketing the 22HP as being good for any big game, and I think a few dead and injured PH's resulted. They went from the 22HP to a 25 caliber (250-3000) 3 years later, then to a 30 caliber (300 Savage) about 5 years after that. I don't think they had much interest in revisiting the 22 caliber high power market for a while.


Though this one was sure gutsy..

http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/LeverGun.html

Big Kitty... Little Gun...