.22 mag queston

[Smith55]

I am thinking of buying a Henry 22 lever action. I can get it in a 22LR or 22mag. According to the owner's manual online the ammo types are not interchangeable. The question is: I use cci .22 mini-mags in my pistols. Is that the same as 22mag?

[Garufa]

No.  CCI mini-mags are .22 long rifle, not magnum.  The cartridges are not interchangeable.

[Joe357]

Mini mags are 22lr just hv

[Smith55]

thanks for the info

[JAB]

As I told my mom when she was surprised that I said she could shoot mini-mags in her .22LR, those are supposed to be higher velocity but there is nothing 'magnum' about them.  To me, naming them that is like a company labeling a .38 Special +P round as ".38 Mini-Mag" or some such.  The mini-mag name is just a marketing ploy (and, apparently, a confusing one at that.)  CCI also makes a 'Maxi-Mag' which is a .22 Magnum load.

 

Oh, and I think you would have a lot of fun with either of the Henry levers.  Ammo in LR is going to be less expensive for plinking (that is, if we ever see a steady supply of it return.)  .22WMR, however, is a more powerful cartridge and, IMO, not all that expensive when compared to other rifle rounds other than .22LR (you can get a box of 50 CCI for around ten dollars - or at least that was the case before the current 'shortage'.)  I have a Henry in .22LR and hardly shoot my semiauto rifles since getting it.  I certainly wouldn't mind having one in .22 WMR (the full name of the .22 Magnum is .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire) to go along with it.

Edited September 10, 2013 by JAB

[whitewolf001]

Now this is unrelated to the OPs question and as the way most threads go around here... :hijack:

 

My question is this; Is there a bullet diameter difference between .22LR and .22WMR? I know that the case is wider on the mag but is the bullet different? A customer at the shop was talking about how he had a Heritage Rough Rider with the interchangeble cylinders and said that one shot fine while the other shot horribly. The only thing I could think of is that the rifling out of the shorter barrel maybe had something to do with it.

 

*edit, found my answer on Wikipedia, according to that .22LR is .223 and .22WMR is .224 but this is from Wikipedia. Any intel you guys can share?

Edited September 10, 2013 by whitewolf001

[JAB]

Now this is unrelated to the OPs question and as the way most threads go around here... :hijack:

 

My question is this; Is there a bullet diameter difference between .22LR and .22WMR? I know that the case is wider on the mag but is the bullet different? A customer at the shop was talking about how he had a Heritage Rough Rider with the interchangeble cylinders and said that one shot fine while the other shot horribly. The only thing I could think of is that the rifling out of the shorter barrel maybe had something to do with it.

 

*edit, found my answer on Wikipedia, according to that .22LR is .223 and .22WMR is .224 but this is from Wikipedia. Any intel you guys can share?

 

I can't say for sure but have 'heard' (i.e. 'read' on the 'Net) from multiple sources that in a .22 combo revolver the LR will generally be less accurate because the bullet has a slightly smaller diameter while the barrel has to be sized for WMR so that the LR bullets don't engage the rifling as well.

 

I do know that the box of new manufacture CCI WRF rounds I bought to try out in the WMR cylinder of my Heritage (WRF being, of course, Winchester Rimfire - a now almost extinct chambering that I suppose was a bit of a forerunner to the WMR, the ammo for which can safely be fired from WMR firearms) had a warning printed on the label that they should not be fired from handguns.  When I searched the 'Net to find out why, what I found was that the warning was intended to apply to handguns actually chambered for WRF.  The explanation was that some of the old WRF revolvers simply used the same barrels as LR revolvers from the same company.   Apparently that was fine with most of the old WRF loads which, like most .22LR loads, used non-jacketed bullets.  The CCI bullets are jacketed and that since WRF bullets have a slightly larger diameter there could be problems.  Apparently, as WMR revolvers have barrels sized for WMR, the WRF rounds are fine in them.

 

http://www.ableammo.com/catalog/specialty-rimfire-ammunition-0069-winchester-rimfire-jacketed-hollow-point-1300-rdbx-p-75579.html

 

While we are exploring this side road, just to make things a little more confusing, when I emailed Heritage to find out if it is safe to fire CCI Stingers in my Rough Rider the reply said that it is safe but that I should use the WMR cylinder.  I emailed them back to make sure they realized I was talking about Stingers - a high-velocity .22 Long Rifle round - and they responded with further explanation.  Apparently, in order to obtain hyper velocities, Stingers (and possibly other, hyper-velocity .22LR rounds) have a slightly longer OAL than standard LR rounds and so may not work as well in the LR cylinder of some Rough Riders.  Figuring that a hyper-velocity round + less case support due to an oversized (WMR) chamber might not be the best combination and being that I am not that crazy about Stingers, anyhow, I figured I'd just skip using Stingers in the Heritage, altogether.

Edited September 10, 2013 by JAB

[Oh Shoot]

...  .22 WMR (the full name of the .22 Magnum is .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire) to go along with it.

 

Ruger makes the full name even fuller, they call it WMRF  :)

 

- OS