Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Lets talk 22mag

I picked up a ruger 77/22mag the other day and am wondering at what range yall recomend sighting it in at? What loads are good? Uses will be groundhogs&rabbits maby the accasional crow or squarel?thanks

I zero mine at 50 yards. What range will most of your shots be at? That shoud be the deciding factor....

Probobly 75yards but some farther snd sone closer. When i had a 22mag before i never could figure out the trajectory right.

I sight mine in for 100 yards.

using the CCI regular 40 grain HPs, I can tell you that if you have a scope on top with target turrets, that if zeroed at 100 yds, raise the elevation 2 inches for every 25 yds and it is consistent for a prairie dog sized target out to 200 yds..

up 2 inches for 125 yds,
up 4 inches for 150 yds
up 6 inches for 175 yds
and up 8 inches for 200 yds...

hasn't used it beyond that...

It wouldn't have made any difference on the two 77/22 mags that I had. Both were highly inaccurate.
Hope yors works out well.

I had one...sold it. And just bought another 77/22 VBZ yesterday and scope is coming! I like the 50 yd zero myself and my other 22 mag LOVES the Remington Premier 33gr vmax/accutip bullets! They are lasers out that thing and shoot sooooo consistently for a rimfire!

As for trajectory, a 50 yd zero makes life easy out to 100 yds. At further distances, i havent done much work with it.

My .22 magnum also thrives on those .33 gr. Rem. V-max's, printing 5 of them under an inch at a full 100 yards consistently.. Sighted in for 100 yds. I'm 3/4" high at 50 and not quite 5 inches low at 150.

Thx for that info Blackheart!!! I may look at a lil longer distance and of course see what mine does once it gets here next week. Thats prob about the furthest i would want to shoot (150) on anything bigger then rodents/p dogs/crows, etc....

I konw the few predators i have shot (fox) have died almost instantly with shots under 100 yds!

As for good loads I use CCI 40gr HP and solids. The HPs are mean little suckers.... Not much experience with anything else.

My best accuracy has come from the CCI Maxi Mag +V hollow point, then the WW 40 grain hollow point. About 1.25" at 100 yards with the CCI, about 1.5" with the WW load.

In rifles, I haven't found any "bad" .22 mag loads. I've had quite a few .22 mag revolvers (convertibles, etc) that were load-sensitive.

my 1990s vintage 77/22 Ruger is finicky as heck.. it throws those 'under 40 grain' trendy bullets all over the place...

I use cci maxi-mag -V they are accurate and shoot 2 inches higher than reg velocity do at 50 yds. I shoot a cheap marlin mdl 25MN with micro groove rifling and it is deadley.

My 77/22 likes the plain vanilla W-W Super-X 40 gr. JHP load, and I sight it dead on at 100 yards.

Yep, those Marlin's do shoot. I have a 925M that likes the CCI maxi-mag HV 40gr JHP

I have a 30 yr old 25 MN, and it also doesn't like ANY of the new plastic tipped bullets, etc..

it is great with any 40 grain Load...

that rifle has accounted for about 10 deer in its life time...while serving as a truck gun and dispatching deer that have been hit by a car, out here in rural areas out west..

never took more than 1 shot between the eyes to put a deer down..

more than one were at 100 yds or more out in a field after getting clipped by a vehicle...that Marlin put the bullet right where the cross hairs were at...

"IF" your rifle will shoot them the CCI TNT is one bad azz round in the 22mag. I much prefer it over the poly tipped rds. It blows schitt up.

Agreed, the CCI TNTs are better then the plastic tipped bullets IMO at expanding, But for general use you can't beat 40gr. Winchesters.

My Savage shoots the Rem. 33grns. at less than an inch, always. It's a heavy barrel with the accutriger. Sighted in at 100yds. i shot 2 woodchucks last summer, 153 paces and 162 paces right down a blacktop road. With an old 4x Redfeild i held right on top of their backs, no daylight between crosshairs and hair. Killed them both graveyard dead, and the little 33grners. both came out the other side with big holes in the fully grown woodchucks. Great round, fun to shoot, i like to sight in dead on at 100yds. and feel comfy out to at least 150yds. YMMV

Guy

Interesting thread. I have two 22 WMR's. The above mentioned Marlin which prefers the 40gr JHP and a camo Savage that my son uses. The Savage prefers the Rem 33gr Accutips as Guy mentions and the Marlin won't shoot anything less than 40gr well. I'll have to give the CCI 30gr TNT a try in the Savage.

Out of 6 22mag rifles I've owned over the years Win supreme jhp have always been consistently more accurate than all others. This was pre poly tipped 22mag offerings were available though. I just preferred the TNT for splatter factor. Lol
The HP in the TNT looks like a flying pie plate. They are hella explosive ...

Thanks for the info Wareagle. I've ordered some TNT's. Will have to test them on some of the pesky armadillos down here.....they're always good for "splatter factor". Lol

Armadillos would have to be the perfect target for a 22 magnum.

I would agree. But the damn shell greatly impairs "Splatter Factor". Armadillos are the perfect target for anything.

When I hunted grey squirrels many years ago with a 22 magnum,
I preferred solid bullets over hollow points.

My Ruger 77 VBZ loves either the Remington 33 grain vmax or 34 grain Winchester Supreme.

The squirrel garners the respect of a clean kill. Armadillos are for splatter factor only. I'd like to watch one swallow C4.

CCI 40gr Maxi Mags

My Savage LOVES the CCI 30 gr. TNT's, but all I've shot with it so far was a beaver, and it took 3 shots to finish the job. Are they too explosive to penetrate a beaver's head??? Didn't recover that one , hard to tell. Anyone else using these things? It's the only ammo that gun likes!!

Sighted @ 50 by the way, vy little drop @ 100

confirmed.... the new 77/22 i mentioned earlier in this thread that was coming, well i got it yesterdya and shot it this morning.

It likes the same thing as my 597....

Remington Premier 33 gr vmax. the 77/22mag has the worse trigger EVER made and it shot 3 shots under .5 at 50 yds. I cant imagine what she will do when i get the trigger done. I know the trigger made me concentrate wwwwwwaaaayyy harder then normal.