Have an itch for a .22WMR

[kieefer]

In a revolver, a snub-nose of all things.

A Taurus 941 was speaking to me today.

Anyone have comments on owning one and something similar?

[morrisster]

I have the NAA 22mag with the short barrel. Its quite a bit of fun to shoot. with some practice I can keep it in the 9 ring at 7 yards

[Westwindmike]

22 Mag is too expensive for me to shoot!!!

[gregintenn]

Get BOTH cylinders! As Westwindmike said, 22 mag is an expensive proposition, and the extra noise soon loses it's cool after you buy a few boxes of ammo.

[hipower]

22 Mag is too expensive for me to shoot!!!

I disagree. It's not too expensive to shoot. You choose not to shoot it. Probably because you are still thinking of it as a 22.

I just bought 4 boxes of CCI at Wally's. 9.97 per box plus tax and their ammo fee. Seems pretty comparable to 9mm to me. 50 rounds of decent 9mm usually run at roughly 10+.

That seems pretty much the same to me.

Not trying to be a hardcase about it. But I hear this all the time and it's just not true. Yes, 50 rounds of 22mag is more expensive than 50 of 22lr, usually about double. But comparing price, quantity, and caliber on an even basis, it's just another caliber to accept the price on and shoot.

[Westwindmike]

So if I am going to have to spend $10 a box, why not shoot .38 or 9mm. A lot better self defense option. He did say he wanted a snub nose revolver. No other reason for one of those except for carry.

[hipower]

I think it's all a matter of perspective. If you like a 22 or a 22 mag...just shoot it. For whatever purpose you deem best for you...carry, sport hunting or range use. No debate over which caliber or gun is better. And I'm not trying to go there. Just saying that it's no more unreasonable to like, own, and shoot this than any other caliber.

[Guest TN.Frank]

The 22Mag really need a longer barrel to live up to it's potential. Out of a snub you're going to get a huge muzzle flash because you'll be burning most of the powder outside of the gun. I'd think a 22Mag revolver in a 6" bbl. would make a nice trail gun that you could use to hunt small game but in a snub you might as well step up to 38spl and be able to reload it for an even cheaper way to get practice ammo. JMHO, YMMV.

[gregintenn]

550 rounds of 22 LR is $14.97.

550 rounds of 22 mag, 11 boxes, would be over $100.

Same bullet, just a louder bang.

[DaveTN]

Why? A snub nose isn’t a range gun and a .22mag isn’t a good self-defense round. If it’s for practice I wouldn’t pick a designer round, I would go with a .22LR.

I’d put the $300 (new price) towards a carry or range gun. Just my opinion.

[Patton]

^These are all great points. I personally would like to have a jframe size revolver in 22lr just for practice.

[whiskey]

I had a 94 in .22LR. The single action trigger was fine. The double action was so heavy that I reached muscle failure around the second cylinder. I tried changing to a lighter main spring, but the gun became unreliable, not setting off every primer.

I am a .22WMR fan, but I like it in a rifle. For a handgun, I would consider a dual cylinder gun so I could shoot both. The Ruger single six is a better gun in my opinion, especially since the double action practice with the 941 is all but impossible.

[DaveTN]

Anyone have comments on owning one and something similar?

I bought this for “Cheap Trigger Timeâ€. It’s a Smith &Wesson 617 in .22LR.

It’s not small, but its competition accuracy. I bought it because it’s a Smith & wesson and the same size and weight as my K-frames and nearly the size of my L-frame .357’s.

“Cheap trigger time†is useless unless your gun has theability to put the rounds where you are aiming.

[gregintenn]

I bought this for “Cheap Trigger Time”. It’s a Smith &Wesson 617 in .22LR.

It’s not small, but its competition accuracy. I bought it because it’s a Smith & wesson and the same size and weight as my K-frames and nearly the size of my L-frame .357’s.

“Cheap trigger time” is useless unless your gun has theability to put the rounds where you are aiming.

In my opinion, you'd be much happier in the long run with something like this than with the Taurus 22mag. The Smith is a more expensive gun, but the difference in ammo costs will close the gap pretty fast. I love those grips!!!

I have a couple of Single Actions with 22 LR and 22 Mag cylinders. The LR cylinders are well used, while the Mag cylinders remain like new.

[kieefer]

Thanks for the comments, good advice and the more I learn about the Taurus I would probably be happier with something else. I hate heavy triggers.

I want something used to throw in the truck (the SP is too nice for that), perhaps a pawnshop gun? .38 would be OK, just didn't want that loud of a bang. The .22WMR is pretty loud from what I've read so I'm back to sq. one

sent from my laptop in the shop.

Edited June 5, 2011 by kieefer

[china coaster]

I have experience with 22mag in a rifle and a single six. I've taken coyotes up to 250 yds with the rifle and gotten solid hits on dogs and coyotes in woods at around 30 yards. The 22wmr is a very deadly round but I would suspect it would take some delicate trigger work for it to be reliable in a DA. The heavy DA pull is what has stopped me from spending money on something in WMR. I'm thinking of trying something in 327 federal mag.

[Patton]

I'm thinking of trying something in 327 federal mag.

6 shots instead of 5 in the same package does appeal giving the 38spl +p almost 357 ballistics. Ammo wouldnt be cheap enough to shoot a lot though.

[china coaster]

327 fed mag ammo is expinsive but like 357 and 38 you can shoot any 32 round in a 327 for practice and carry the 327. That's from the writers that have researched it.

[Patton]

327 fed mag ammo is expinsive but like 357 and 38 you can shoot any 32 round in a 327 for practice and carry the 327. That's from the writers that have researched it.

I know that but I have yet to find an in expensive 32 round.

[Oh Shoot]

Ruger Single Six might satisfy, if you'll get over the "snub nose" neurosis.

Shoot .22mag until it hurts your wallet, switch to .22LR until it recovers.

- OS

[china coaster]

Best price I can find on 32 is 16.18 per 50 rnds of fiocchi 32s&w long at cheaper than dirt. I do love the 22mag round. just wish there was a better option. Think I'll re- read Jeff Quinn's review on taurus' 941 in gunblast.

[Rebels010]

I have the S&W 351PD and love it. I originally bought the gun for summer carry, it's so light in the pocket I never notice it. I also got it to load with bird shot for fishing/hunting/out in the woods during the summer for snakes. I had a judge for that but it was so heavy I got where I didn't want to carry it as much. I also shoot a savage bolt action in .22mag and have PMR on order (not holding my breath) so I have slowly stocked up on .22mag ammo so I have plenty. While it is greatly debated, I think it at minimum is an underrated round. Hornady has also created a .22WMR in their Critical Defense line. Its MSRP is set for 16.00 for a box of 50, not bad for a premium round.

Edited June 6, 2011 by Rebels010

[JAB]

Same bullet, just a louder bang.

Only insomuch as a .357 Magnum and a .38 Special are the 'same bullet, just a louder bang', IMO.

In fact, however, .38 and .357 do seem to sometimes use the same bullet while most .22WMR bullets are nothing like their .22LR counterparts. Most .22WMR rounds I have seen use true jacketed bullets. The main exception to that rule are Winchester Dynapoints which are 45 grain, washed bullets in rounds that are downloaded a bit - apparently with the intent of mimicking the old WRF loads. Premium WMR hollowpoint rounds (such as Winchester Supreme) look more like high-end, centerfire SD bullets than anything I've ever seen in a .22LR case. Further, WMR bullets are not heeled and are crimped into their cases more like centerfire rounds.

That said, I have to agree with others that a snubnosed DA revolver is probably not the best platform for WMR. I like the round and, within it's limitations, I like it as a handgun round. I like it in my NAA mini because even though you do lose some of the potential out of such a short barrel, I believe (and NAA's charts back up my belief) that the WMR gives you just a little more out of the little guys than does .22LR. Of course, the little mini, itself, is quite a compromise and is 'good' more because of its size, weight and my ability to fire it well using only my off (weak, left) hand - meaning I like it for a weak-hand BUG - than because I believe it to be a powerhouse. If it were a 'full sized' snubbie, it would be much less attractive, to me.

I also like WMR out of my Heritage Rough Rider with its 6.5 inch barrel. I have seen more than one ballistics chart which indicated that a WMR round out of a handgun with a barrel of at least six or so inches in length would give velocity/energy numbers comparable with a .22LR out of a rifle. As a yard/woods gun that is impressive, to me. I tried mine out at 100 yards at the Spring Creek range a few years back. Shooting offhand, while I didn't exactly get anything I would call a 'group', I was able to 'dial in' a bit and get decent hits on paper with the limitations being more my shooting ability than anything to do with the gun or the WMR round. More apropos to this discussion, however, is that the target stands they were using at the time were plywood and those WMR rounds - from a handgun, remember - passed cleanly through the plywood and made satisfying 'thumps' in the dirt behind them. I'm talking nice, round holes - no keyholing - and enough energy left to make a thump and kick up a cloud of dust from the dirt berm a few yards behind the target stands after passing through the plywood. That is what convinced me that a WMR handgun ain't just a .22LR with a lot more noise.

All that said, I'd still have a hard time coming up with a reason 'why' for owning a full-sized snubbie in WMR (as opposed to a NAA mini.) Of course, "I just want one," is always a valid reason but I can't even come up with a reason why I'd want one. We tried out a used Taurus snub in WMR one day before my wife settled on a carry gun. The trigger pull was horrible. Because of the trigger pull, neither of us were all that accurate with it. It was no smaller and weighed no less than a Taurus .38 on the same frame. The lessened recoil might have been an advantage over a .38 for a person with weak hands or other, physical disabilities but that advantage was negated by the extremely heavy trigger pull (a person with weak hands probably wouldn't be able to pull the trigger in the first place.)

All in all, if I wanted a small, short-barreled revolver in .22WMR just for fun or for a woods gun, etc. then I'd probably look at one of the 3 inch barreled ones from Heritage - probably one with a birds head grip - and I'd definitely get both the WMR and the LR cylinder.

Edited June 6, 2011 by JAB

[BigK]

So if I am going to have to spend $10 a box, why not shoot .38 or 9mm. A lot better self defense option. He did say he wanted a snub nose revolver. No other reason for one of those except for carry.

Where can I find 38 special rounds that cheap?

Seriously though, I completely agree. .22 mag rounds in a pistol don't make sense unless you're on Swamp People. One guy used a .22 mag revolver to kill gators he caught. He could have used a 9mm for the same price and gotten better results.

In a rifle, that's a different story. I LOVE shooting ground hogs with a .22 mag.

[Will Carry]

I have a Single Six with a 9.5" barrel. 22 magnums are so much fun to shoot with this pistol that I have never even installed the 22 LR cylinder. I have wanted a Taurus 22 mag snub nose revolver for many years. The muzzle flash it cool as heck at night. You might could get 1300fps out of a 2 inch barrel which will give you a whopping 112 ft/lbs of muzzle energy. I get 200+ ft/lbs from my 9.5 inch barrel. I used to have a High Standard Sentinal Mark II, 2" 22 mag that shot great!

I have always come to my senses before dropping the money for a Taurus 22 mag. The new Taurus 22LR/22mag DA revolvers weight 55 ounces! WTF? The Raging Bull 454 Casul weights 51 ounces. I cannot imagine a 22 revolver with a 12 pound trigger that weights 55 ounces. It's like a 22 cailber anvil.

Edited June 7, 2011 by Will Carry