22lr to 22wrf

Yea, the WRF will chamber and fire in a .22 WMR. I, personally, am not a fan of the idea, but it is possible. It's not a SAAMI "Dangerous combination", but CCI labels their WRF ammunition with a warning not to use it in WMR chambers.


Why .22 WRF, and not .22 WMR?
Pressure?
Length?
Just wanting a more "period correct" chambering?

If you do go through with a WRF chamber, have the firearm roll stamped or engraved ".22 Remington Special" (same cartridge). It'll make it a little more unique.
 
The 22 WMR and WRF both use a bullet that is .224 and not .222 like the LR. A barrel for a 22LR will be just a little undersized. I believe that Ruger uses a barrel with a .224 or .223 bore on their convertible. It may work for you but not worth the effort or expense (IMHO). :D
 
I figured the 22mag would be too high a pressure (9 shot cylinder) and the gun in question has a 2" barrel witch would kill the potential velocity increase. I have found WRF fairly easy to find ( shoots really well in a Single Six) and it chambers a heavier bullet at about the same velocity as 22lr HV. The bore diameter to me is the most important thing and duly noted but the Winchester WRF is plated lead rather than jacketed. Just thinking it would be a more effective load than the 22lr and add some variety to my collection. Thanks' for all the feed back so far.
 
With all the new .22 mag rounds like the Gold Dot and the Hornandy Critical Defense I would just go with the .22mag. I doubt you will find as quality ammo for the WRF as you would for the WMR.
 
A number of years ago I had a Ruger Single Six Convertible. I placed the .22 WMR cylinder in my gun and used .22 WRF for hunting squirrels.

My primary reason was that the .22 WRF cartridges gave me about the same performance as .22 LR, but the larger cartridges were easier to handle with cold hands!

Bob Wright
 
I figured the 22mag would be too high a pressure (9 shot cylinder) and the gun in question has a 2" barrel witch would kill the potential velocity increase. I have found WRF fairly easy to find ( shoots really well in a Single Six) and it chambers a heavier bullet at about the same velocity as 22lr HV. The bore diameter to me is the most important thing and duly noted but the Winchester WRF is plated lead rather than jacketed. Just thinking it would be a more effective load than the 22lr and add some variety to my collection. Thanks' for all the feed back so far.
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I can't recommend doing something like that. But... if it was my revolver, and I wanted to do what you're thinking about, I would be perfectly comfortable with it.

I would definitely want to stick with the Winchester ammunition, though. As you mentioned, they use the plated lead bullet that's also found in the .22 WMR Dynapoint load. Although it ranges from .222"-.226", it is a very soft lead alloy that shouldn't cause any problems.

CCI's WRF ammo, on the other hand, uses a jacketed hollow point. Running them through a .222 barrel would increase pressures a bit.
It's been so long since I've seen Remington .22 WRF, that I don't even remember what bullet they load. (It would probably be a re-branded CCI product, today, since Remington doesn't load any of their own .17 HM2, .17 HMR, or .22 WMR any more.)
 
Dragline45 said:
With all the new .22 mag rounds like the Gold Dot and the Hornandy Critical Defense I would just go with the .22mag. I doubt you will find as quality ammo for the WRF as you would for the WMR.
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But the OP would be reaming out a .22LR chamber to accept the .22WRF. It's unlikely the cylinder of a dedicated .22LR revolver is long enough to accept .22WMR cartridges. Even if it were, by the time he reams out nine chambers I think his concern about pressure is valid.
 
I'm pretty sure the Winchester is a 45gr JHP while the CCI is a 45gr plated lead bullet. My son has a stainless clip feed Marlin 22mag that shoots both loads very well, more punch than a 22lr but not as loud of a crack as a 22mag. Nice in between load.
 
Nah.
Winchester's only WRF load uses the same bullet you'll find in the .22 WMR Dynapoint load: a 45 gr Flat Nose, with the most ridiculously thin copper plating, ever.
CCI's only current (seasonal) WRF load uses a 45 gr JHP ...which IS a plated bullet, but the plating is much thicker than that found on the Winchester bullets or plated .22 LR bullets. They're made via the same process as the Gold Dot HPs, the UniCor, and the DeepCurl. In any other load, they might even call it by one of those names.
 
Yea I had it backwards, I've got more than a few box's of both. The Win. was a brick I bought from a co-worker that was some kind of special edition batch.
 
The .22 WRF is a low pressure round that would not create any problems in a gun originally made for .22 LR, but would not give any advantage either. Even if one has a batch of .22 WRF ammo, it is hard to come by and once the limited supply is gone, there may well be no more. And once a .22 LR chamber is reamed for .22 WRF, there is no going back.

The other common proposal, to ream out a .22 LR chamber to .22 Magnum, is not a good idea, partly due to the higher pressure but mainly due to the fact that barrels intended for .22 LR only are made of soft steel and won't hold up very long under the higher pressure, greater velocity, and jacketed bullet of the .22 Magnum.

Jim
 
My main purpose was to use in .22lr/WMR conversion cylinder to reduce terrific muzzle blast from .22 WMR. .22 WRF muzzle blast isn't as bad in a single six.
 
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