.22 LR/ .22 Magnum

C

CZ_

New member
Is .22 LR and .22 Magnum EXACTLY the same caliber? I thought they were slightly different like to 1/1,000th of an inch or so?

The reason I'm asking is that the (convertible) Blackhawks in .357 magnum and 9mm have a tough time shooting 9mm accurately from what I've heard. Since 9mm is .355 caliber, this might explain why (it doesn't fully seat in the .357 caliber barrel). Long story short, I am thinking of getting a Ruger Single Six in about a month, but I don't want to get one and find out that they have trouble shooting either the .22 mag or .22 LR accurately.
 
Last edited:
IIRC, the mag is .224 & the LR's a .223 (or visa versa). I've the SS & find that once you find what the handgun likes to eat, the point's moot - & that goes for each cylinder - depends on the fodder.

I think you'll be pleased with the .22 - nice l'il shooters.
 
Thank you for the feedback. As soon as my 30 day wait is up (one hand gun per month), unless I hear bad things about the Single Six, I'll order one in stainless with 5.5" barrel.
 
Welcome & BTW, CZ_, that's .001" (1/1000), not 1/100 (.01") variance.

Ex-calibration engineer here & a stickler for nomenclature (when I can remember such things) ;)
 
Great. :rolleyes: ... now I'll be the one who .... well, hardly matters, huh? ;)

You & I the only ones up tonight?
 
I have a 5.5" Single - Six in stainless steel and my particular revolver shoots 22lr ammo pretty accurately - actually have been very pleased with the performance! Have not had very good results with the small sampling of 22 Mag I have tried. This is fine with me since I bought the Single with the intention of shooting mostly 22lr.

This does not mean that 22 Mags cannot be accurate in the SS - just has been my experience with one particular gun. But it does seem to me that most 22 Mag ammo is best optimized for use in rifle length barrels.
 
I dunno. 629 .... I get pretty good results with Western X in the mag cylinder & that's based on not too much of a brand search/shoot. It seemed to do "good enough." Was looking for a decent 50+ yard turkey round.

Bitch I have with .22 mag ammo is that's it's more expensive than most anything else small game I'd care to do with a handgun & that would require the added punch of a .22 magnum round.

Supply & demand as pointed out by another of TFL's astutes recently, drives the price up & I'm not really all that inclined to spend the bucks necessary to really truly & properly evaluate the .22 mag.

My SS shoots .22LR quite well & that's plenty & if I can get something toio boot in the mag, I'll play & thank b Ruger for giving me the option.

It works "good enough."

I think though, that if I'm way serious about that fall gobbler, I'll probably use a home-brewed cast & downloaded .357 Keith - or even a .38 HBWC

That whole .38/.357's got flexibility written all over it.

Not to sneeze at that Single Six though .....
 
I bought a used, but like new Stainless Single Six Convertible with a 6 1/2" barrell a few months back and took it to the range for the first time about 1 month ago.

It was very easy to shoot with either cylinder and caliber, and was also very accurrate. Both calibers and cylinders shot where I was aiming and the groups were less than 2 1/2 inches at 25 yards, standing, and I am certainly not a great shot by any means. I was very impressed.

I used cheap .22lr Remington Thunderbird and the Winchester SuperX .22mag ammo.
 
Not a big fan of the 22s with two cylinders. The mag is slightly larger bore and in my experience the Long Rifle ammo performs poorly. Lower velocities and sometime poor accuracy.
 
A friend of mine has one and he told me the diameter difference favored the accuracy of the 22 mag. but that he was not displeased with the piece. He said he liked it fine.
 
I've got a blued 5.5" barrelled single-six and I'm very happy with it. I was pretty surprized at how good the trigger was out of the box. HOWEVER, if I had to do it all over again, I'd have gotten it in stainless steel. Ruger's bluing really sucks!
 
The diameter of the cases of .22 lr and .22 WMR are different, because the lr is a 'heeled' bullet, and the case is the same diameter as the slug...on a sampling of my rounds in stock this measures .222". The magnum case in contrast is larger in diameter than the bullet, as with all jacketed rounds. The bullet of three magnum rounds I pulled from a box of CCI hollow points measures .2225"-223". Not much difference. The bore of my SSS (200th year) slugs out at .221 groove diameter, so obturation with either lr or magnum slugs should be fine in theory. In practice, my gun shoots lr's about 1-1/4" at 25 yards and into 1-1/2" for the magnum, for 12 shots...and that's good enough for the use the magnum gets. Any SS ought to be able to stay inside 5 moa or so, out of either cylinder, with selected ammo and a good shooter. I like it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top