22mag reliability

I'll be another guy that has not had experiences with duds when firing a 22 magnum. Had plenty of issues at the beginning when I bought a PMR30, the issues lied with the handgun an not the ammo. Since than have I purchased a CZ 22 magnum and acquired a 9422M and the S&W 22 magnum and still no issues. Can it happen of course. I've even had issues with centerfire rounds especially Federal Gold where the 9mm and .45 acp create a stove pipe because they won't rack the slide all the way back.

To clarify things though, the amount of 22 lr to 22 magnum that I shoot is about a 15:1 ratio so I don't shoot it as much. I shoot more .357, and 45 acp than I do 22lr and 22 magnum, to put things into a little perspective .

I currently have 4 revolvers with 22 magnum cylinders and have never fired a round from any of them. I have several boxes of 22 mag that wouldn't function in my RIA pistol. One of my upcoming projects should be seeing which gun shoots which ammo best. The RIA never had any clicks. It was not enough oomph to load another round that troubled it. Very ammo finicky. CCI 40 grain was the only dependable ammo and it was scarce while I owned the pistol The revolvers won't care.

TTv2 said:

Maybe quality on .22 Mag handguns has taken a dump the last 15-20 years...

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Orrr those blaming are buying cheap crappy guns and point to the ammo?

I can't remember having a dud .22 mag but then I probably haven't fired a brick in 50 years.

tarosean said:

Orrr those blaming are buying cheap crappy guns and point to the ammo?

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If only $700 Ruger's and S&W revolvers are the ones that work with .22 Mag, that defeats any reason to buy them as .32 revolvers will cost the same (less if it's the Taurus 327) and hold 6 rounds and be more reliable.

I don't have enough of a use for .22 Mag in a revolver to justify parting with the money it costs to buy a S&W and the Ruger .22 Mag LCR just plain stinks. If I had to choose a double action .22 Mag, I'd choose the Taurus 942 as regardless of which brand you buy the triggers are all going to be terrible and the Taurus holds 2 more rounds than the LCR.

for what its worth, I seem to have less duds with revolvers than semi-auto shooting .22LR why? not sure. maybe the revolver hammer just hits harder

Generally speaking, I’ve had good luck with premium 22LR ammunition except for Remington.

I have a S&W Model 17 that cases stick in the cylinder of some brands of ammunition.

I have not fired much 22WMR ammunition but I have an S&W j-frame (Model 51?) and a Single Six convertible. They always went “bang”.

But that is changing. A while ago I found an 8-3/8” Model 48 and then added a 4” and 6” Classic Model 48 to the collection.

Eventually, I’ll see how reliable CCI ammunition is in them.

I have fired a lot of 22wmr and don't remember having any that didn't fire.

i have shot a wide variety, but not deep quantity, of 22wmr by different makers out of a ruger single six. never encountered any noticeable issues at all. maybe 20% of inconsistently made, bulk 22lr ammo by federal, herters (winchester) and remington lately causes cycling problems in a ruger sr22, but mostly goes bang in the r.s.s.

I started shooting .22 magnum ammo in the early 1970s and have used a bunch of it since. I can recall having several misfires in both a revolver and a rifle. The misfires were all with Winchester Dynapoint ammo, which is one reason I stopped buying it. I don’t recall having an issue with any other brand of .22 mag ammo.

Bottom Gun said:

I started shooting .22 magnum ammo in the early 1970s and have used a bunch of it since. I can recall having several misfires in both a revolver and a rifle. The misfires were all with Winchester Dynapoint ammo, which is one reason I stopped buying it. I don’t recall having an issue with any other brand of .22 mag ammo.

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I will also add that the Wal Mart Dyna Point .22 WMR was less than reliable for me, too. And that was in a couple of guns that I fired them through. My son got his face peppered when a CCI Maxi Mag case head failed in my Henry rifle, other than that the only other issues I recall in the last decade or so were several multi-strike duds with Winchester FMJ in my Ruger American .22 WMR and Henry rifles. That particular batch just plain stunk.

I shoot LR to WMR in at least a 20 to 25-1 ratio, and I have had duds or severe chambering issues in revolvers, semi-auto pistols and rifles with branded ammo from Aguila, CCI Blazer, Winchester, Browning and Federal Auto Match .22 LR.

Just yesterday I took six .22 LR DA revolvers to the range, and yet again both Browning and Aguila Super Extra ammo was very difficult to chamber (and harder to extract) in every gun I tried. (S&W 17, 18, 34, 317, and 617, and Taurus 94.) Mini Mags and Norma Tac-22 were flawless. I think the Aguila I still have on the shelf (about 4,000 +/- a few) will be relegated to my bolts, pump and lever rifles from now on.

All this to say that I would not rely on a rimfire handgun for SD either. But others may be in a different boat, so YMMV.

Stay safe.

Riomouse911 said:

I will also add that the Wal Mart Dyna Point .22 WMR was less than reliable for me, too. And that was in a couple of guns that I fired them through. My son got his face peppered when a CCI Maxi Mag case head failed in my Henry rifle, other than that the only other issues I recall in the last decade or so were several multi-strike duds with Winchester FMJ in my Ruger American .22 WMR and Henry rifles. That particular batch just plain stunk.

I shoot LR to WMR in at least a 20 to 25-1 ratio, and I have had duds or severe chambering issues in revolvers, semi-auto pistols and rifles with branded ammo from Aguila, CCI Blazer, Winchester, Browning and Federal Auto Match .22 LR.

Just yesterday I took six .22 LR DA revolvers to the range, and yet again both Browning and Aguila Super Extra ammo was very difficult to chamber (and harder to extract) in every gun I tried. (S&W 17, 18, 34, 317, and 617, and Taurus 94.) Mini Mags and Norma Tac-22 were flawless. I think the Aguila I still have on the shelf (about 4,000 +/- a few) will be relegated to my bolts, pump and lever rifles from now on.

All this to say that I would not rely on a rimfire handgun for SD either. But others may be in a different boat, so YMMV.

Stay safe.

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Man you have some lousy luck

JERRY said:

Man you have some lousy luck

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I don’t chalk it up to bad luck per se, I guess I just shoot a lot of rimfires. Sooner or later sub-par batches of ammo get sold, when I buy fairly big batches of a variety of ammo duds can eventually appear.

I talked to a couple of guys at my local Turner’s Outdoorsman today, they both said they have been getting customers complaining about the oversized Agiula SE rounds for several months now. (Others here on THR had the same blah experience with the Browning stuff that I had. That Browning ammo was a real disappointing discovery.)

I fired almost 750 .22 LR through the six revolvers on Tuesday, I plan on shooting another 300-500 tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Smith and Wesson must be worried about it. Just worked on a buddy's 351 .22Mag. The mainspring in that thing could hold up the back end of a Kenworth.
This is in sharp contrast to the mainspring in a regular J-frame .22, which isn't nearly that strong. I'll have to see if he's interested in experimenting with a less powerful mainspring; the trigger is pretty tough.
Moon

I can't say I've ever had a Lot of 22lr fails and can't say I've had any 22mag fails. I can say I think I've had more 9mm fails this past year than anything else. 3 or 4.
Come to think on it I can't say I've had a Lot of "off the shelf, store bought and not the expensive stuff" ammo fails of any kind.
But, heck. What do I know. I've only been shooting something over 60 years. Maybe this year.

halfmoonclip said:

Smith and Wesson must be worried about it. Just worked on a buddy's 351 .22Mag. The mainspring in that thing could hold up the back end of a Kenworth.
This is in sharp contrast to the mainspring in a regular J-frame .22, which isn't nearly that strong. I'll have to see if he's interested in experimenting with a less powerful mainspring; the trigger is pretty tough.
Moon

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I'd like to know how that goes. I have a 317 with a decent trigger and recently picked up a 351 and was astonished at how much heavier the trigger is.

As for the OP, I can't remember the last time I had a failure with 22WMR. But like most other people here, I rarely shoot 22WMR compared to 22LR and centerfire cartridges. You can easily spend as much on 22 mag as 9mm.

I don't shoot a lot of rimfire, but have been shooting for a very long time. I guess I am in that tiny minority though, that have shot more .22 Magnum than .22LR when I do shoot rimfires. My .22WMR guns have been more than one Ruger Single Six, and a Colt New Frontier. I can only say that I don't "recall" having any misfires with .22WMR in these guns. Of course these have a heavier hammer fall than some other types of .22WMR guns.

That being said, I've seen reports by folks who have had misfires with rimfire firearms. So I still wouldn't want to carry a .22 rimfire for defensive purposes...ymmv

wayneinFL said:

I'd like to know how that goes. I have a 317 with a decent trigger and recently picked up a 351 and was astonished at how much heavier the trigger is.

As for the OP, I can't remember the last time I had a failure with 22WMR. But like most other people here, I rarely shoot 22WMR compared to 22LR and centerfire cartridges. You can easily spend as much on 22 mag as 9mm.

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Not my gun; have to see if the guy who owns it wants to pursue reducing the pull. If you pull the grips (mind the lanyard pin), you'll see a very red mainspring.
Moon

My first handgun was a .22 convertible, at 12yrs old. I've shot a ton of .22Mag since then, out of revolvers, auto pistols and rifles. I never recall a single misfire. Same for the .17HMR. I've had case splits with .17HMR but never a misfire. It is absolutely better ammo than your average .22LR. Certainly leaps and bounds beyond bulk .22LR.

In the tens of thousands of rounds of .22 LR I've fired, I've had my share of misfires. Yet in probably 1000+ rounds of .22 WMR, have never had one in a factory-spec gun. I think the priming compound if more substantial and the ammo more reliably produced. For the price, it should be.

That being said, the rim is more substantial on the .22 WMR and requires a harder strike to ignite. Which is why .22 WMR revolvers come from the factory with very heavy trigger pulls, and trying to lighten them through spring replacement leads to light hits. So you get more reliability at expense of a heavy trigger pull. I have a S&W 351PD and it's totally reliable, but the trigger pull is not those in the throes of arthritis.

No free lunches.

I usually suggest a .32 revolver of any flavor for the recoil sensitive. You can load it with .32 S&W Long which is CF reliable, fires a bigger bullet heaver bullet, and has more energy and penetration. Trigger pull is way better too.

.22 WMR (Winchester Magnum Rimfire) is, as its name implies, rimfire ammo, not centerfire. There are .22 caliber centerfire cartridges out there, such as the .22 Hornet, but there are far fewer firearms available in .22 Hornet than there are in .22 Magnum Rimfire.

halfmoonclip said:

If you pull the grips (mind the lanyard pin)

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I have the Numrich part number saved for that one, along with Glock extractor springs. Thanks for the warning.