22mag reliability

potmetal

potmetal

Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
460
Location
Missouri
I've shot lots of 22lr over the years and had lots of duds, it's just expected with that round. It's also why I would not feel safe carrying it, I've seen some 22mag revolvers at the stores recently. I don't have as much experience with them. Is 22 mag any more reliable than 22lr? It seems like the offerings are mostly hunting/target rounds that are higher quality.
Just wondering.
 
potmetal said:
I've shot lots of 22lr over the years and had lots of duds, it's just expected with that round. It's also why I would not feel safe carrying it, I've seen some 22mag revolvers at the stores recently. I don't have as much experience with them. Is 22 mag any more reliable than 22lr? It seems like the offerings are mostly hunting/target rounds that are higher quality.
Just wondering.
Click to expand...
Mag isnt dud free. I don't agree with rimfire anything for self defense. My wife does and uses a high quality double action revolver. Dud pull trigger again, no lost time . Rim fire is not dud free. Some will deny that. You know better. Have a good morning.
 
There's a sizeable group who will wander into these forums and say that they've never had a dud in .22 Mag in decades, but IDK if that's all been in handguns or all in rifles, I tend to believe that handguns don't have the force that rifles do, but regardless I've had duds in .22 Mag and light strikes.

I don't find .22 Mag to be more reliable than .22 LR. The belief among that group that does think .22 Mag is more reliable is due to it costing more and thus that equates to better QC and that is not the case; the increased cost comes from the bullet used costing more to manufacture and using more brass for the case.

I was curious enough a year or so ago that I asked CCI what they do differently between .22 LR and Mag, if there's any change at all in the priming between the two that might cause .22 Mag to be more reliable and CCI said the difference is they use a different primer compound (probably a magnum type primer that burns hotter) and more of it for the larger powder charge.

That's it. They use the same tools/machines to make the cases, prime the cases, and load them and I suspect the testing/QC criteria is exactly the same as .22 LR.

Between premium .22 LR like CCI Velocitor and Federal Punch, I don't think the reliability between those types of ammo and .22 Mag is any different. Now, bulk packed crap .22 LR from Remington is of course going to have looser standards and won't be as reliable as .22 Mag, but it also won't be as reliable as premium .22 LR either.
 
I remember trying to help you sort out the issues you were having with .22 WMR, @TTv2.

.22 Magnum ammo pics y'all be asking for

@chicharrones and others have wanted them, I took these late last year and IIRC didn't have a light strike or dud with any of the ammo. All pics with both cylinders in them will have the .22 LR cylinder on top and the .22 Mag cylinder on bottom. I do have more pics of the Heritage cylinders...
www.thehighroad.org
 
chicharrones said:
I remember trying to help you sort out the issues you were having with .22 WMR, @TTv2.

.22 Magnum ammo pics y'all be asking for

@chicharrones and others have wanted them, I took these late last year and IIRC didn't have a light strike or dud with any of the ammo. All pics with both cylinders in them will have the .22 LR cylinder on top and the .22 Mag cylinder on bottom. I do have more pics of the Heritage cylinders...
www.thehighroad.org
Click to expand...
I'll have to try out that hammer shim fix for the Heritage.
 
TTv2 said:
. . . CCI said the difference is they use a different primer compound (probably a magnum type primer that burns hotter) and more of it for the larger powder charge. . .
Click to expand...
The "and more of it" part of priming compound use suggests that maybe there's less likely to be a priming void in the rim of the cartridge. I've never had a .22 mag dud, but I've fired SO few rounds (compared to .22 lr) that I have no statistical - or even anecdotal - basis to correlate that supposition with practice. I know that if I were going to use a rimfire - ANY rimfire - as a primary personal defense weapon, I'd prefer it to be a revolver so that in case of a dud, I could just pull the trigger again. But seeing as any centerfire above .25 ACP is a ballistic step up from .22 rimfire, I'd much rather go that route.
 
potmetal said:
I've shot lots of 22lr over the years and had lots of duds, it's just expected with that round. It's also why I would not feel safe carrying it, I've seen some 22mag revolvers at the stores recently. I don't have as much experience with them. Is 22 mag any more reliable than 22lr? It seems like the offerings are mostly hunting/target rounds that are higher quality.
Just wondering.
Click to expand...
Plan on it being the same reliability as any other rimfire ammo. Wouldn't use it for defense ever.
 
Duds once in a while, way back...........Ruger 3 screw.
Winchester ammo (super X).
Maybe 1% dud rate (first hit).

Different lot of Super X ammo, years later, Smith 648.............never a dud.
Target, hunting gun, shot single action.
 
Promo .22 long rifle ammo is where the dud % goes way up.
The cheapest .22 lr I'll run is CCI Blazer.
Its been very good over the years.
 
I believe several ammo manufacturers who have developed 22 WMR defensive loads specifically for handguns do make more reliable ammunition. For example the Federal Punch, Gold dots, Critical Defense and the like are made to a higher standard than regular 22 WMR ammunition.
 
I shot a local range's Bull's Eye 22 league weekly matches for years with a 107 Citation or my S&W model 17, never a mis-fire.
I shot PMC Sidewinder in the Smith and CCI Green Tag in the High Standard.
 
TTv2 said:
There's a sizeable group who will wander into these forums and say that they've never had a dud in .22 Mag in decades, but IDK if that's all been in handguns or all in rifles, I tend to believe that handguns don't have the force that rifles do, but regardless I've had duds in .22 Mag and light strikes.

I don't find .22 Mag to be more reliable than .22 LR. The belief among that group that does think .22 Mag is more reliable is due to it costing more and thus that equates to better QC and that is not the case; the increased cost comes from the bullet used costing more to manufacture and using more brass for the case.

I was curious enough a year or so ago that I asked CCI what they do differently between .22 LR and Mag, if there's any change at all in the priming between the two that might cause .22 Mag to be more reliable and CCI said the difference is they use a different primer compound (probably a magnum type primer that burns hotter) and more of it for the larger powder charge.

That's it. They use the same tools/machines to make the cases, prime the cases, and load them and I suspect the testing/QC criteria is exactly the same as .22 LR.

Between premium .22 LR like CCI Velocitor and Federal Punch, I don't think the reliability between those types of ammo and .22 Mag is any different. Now, bulk packed crap .22 LR from Remington is of course going to have looser standards and won't be as reliable as .22 Mag, but it also won't be as reliable as premium .22 LR either.
Click to expand...
That's what I've always suspected: much of the bad rep of 22LR is from bulk-packed, cheap ammo and that quality 22LR is likely as reliable as 22WMR. At least, that's been my experience. Not that I don't buy bulk 22LR on occasion for cheap plinking, but I know what I'm getting when I do.
 
Frulk said:
I’ll be that guy. Been shooting .22 mag since late 80’s in rifles. Been shooting them in handguns since mid 90’s. Can’t remember ever having a dud in either one.

.22’s are a much different story.
Click to expand...
Maybe quality on .22 Mag handguns has taken a dump the last 15-20 years...
 
I think the difference is there's no bulk pack .22mag.
I rarely get duds from good quality rimfire but I have several rimfires that just aren't 100% reliable with most bulk packs.
.22mags are primed just like long rifle so there should be no difference in reliability between CCI mini mag .22lr and CCI maxi mag .22mag.
 
I can't ever remember having a dud in 22 or 22 mag. This was always quality ammo like Winchester, Remington, CCI. Not the 5 gallon bucket stuff. And I have used quality rifles and pistols to shoot them. Although I wouldn't carry 22 or 22 mag for SD it wouldn't be because of their reliability.
 
Just to add some fuel to the fire here, or rather "points to ponder":
- the actual rounds don't rotate within the chamber of the cylinder in a revolver as you "just pull the trigger again" so that dud is eventually going to come back around and very likely won't go off that time either as you'll likely hit the rim in the very same spot.
- Federal in fact DOES produce "bulk pack" .22 WMR now. I've got it in both a plastic "ammo can" and a plastic bottle with something like 250 rounds in each one. And I haven't found any duds in those offerings yet, but it's not a really large sample size.
 
To a certain extent I don't understand some of the hand wringing that goes on about rimfire reliability. The CAU isn't really that complicated basically one of three things happened to cause the dud
1 insufficient impact to the compound this can be caused by weak spring or poor support of the rim from crud built up in the chamber, could be from excessive heads headspace from either a thin rim or crud built up not allowing the bolt to close all the way.
2 contamination of the priming compound
Or 3 no compound present either due to manufacturing error or due to it being dislodged in transit.
If one understands this it's pretty simple to have good reliability with rimfire ammo.
Keep the gun relatively clean, use ammo of a known quality that doesn't come loose packed in a bucket or milk carton.
 
I've shot far more 22lr than 22mag. However, almost every time I have a 22lr range day I get a dud or 3. I just haven't had that with the 22mag.

Maybe it's extra priming compound that gives more reliable ignition?
 
Jerry

I've shot far more 22lr than 22mag. However, almost every time I have a 22lr range day I get a dud or 3. I just haven't had that with the 22mag.
Click to expand...

Same here; a lot more .22LR rounds down range than .22 Magnum. As far as duds go I can't remember the last time I had one with CCI MiniMags, SV, and Wolf Match Target compared to Federal Bulk Packs.
 
I don't recall having ever had a FTF in 22 WMR, but I haven't fired thousands of rounds of it either.

Regarding .22 LR FTF, IME, about 95+% of them are due to issues with the gun, not the ammo. Most .22 LR firing pins strike the case poorly, either not hard enough, or more often, in the wrong position. Ideally, the firing pin should NOT crush the outside rim of the case.

Here's the correct type of firing pin strike on a rimfire case:
vju1nyn.jpg
 
It's a rare day when I swap cylinders on my Colt New Frontier .22 LR for the MRF cylinder, nor with the Ruger Single Six that my son and I share...but I can't ever remember a dud with the MRF in either gun. Rod



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