What's the deal on .22 WMR's?

E

Enfielder

Inactive
Lately, I've seen an inordinate amount of interest in rifles chambered in .22 WMR on ARMSLIST. Gun Owner's Club, etc.. I answered an add for a sporterized Eddystone Mod. 1917 trade for a .22 WMR rifle. I had a Marlin with a stainless barrel and nickel plated bolt and receiver w/a black plastic stock, and a nice old Mod. 640 "Chuckster" made by Mossberg. Upon meeting to check out the goods, the Eddystone was a comercially sporterized rifle in good condition with a beautiful bird's-eye maple monte carlo stock w/a roll-over comb. When the young guy saw my Marlin, he didn't hesitate to trade for it. I drove home with my new favorite rifle and my old favorite rifle. Since then, I've noticed people wanting .22 magnums in trade for all kinds of nice firearms. Why the sudden interest?
 
my opinion:
most .22mag ammo was very expensive and not very accurate until a few years ago. I think the cartridge was in danger to become obsolete but the manufacturers started to act and the quality of .22wmr ammo improved and the price dropped (at least a little).
Now more and more people are interested in this cartridge.
 
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And, CF ammo is yet more expensive, with some folks not liking "old" guns, and/or "boomers" (anything biger than a .223).

Look at it this way: You scored a nice Eddystone ! :p





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.22mag ammo was very expensive and not very accurate until a few years ago. I think the cartridge was in danger to become obsolete but the manufacturers started to act and the quality of .22wmr ammo improved and the price dropped (at least a little).
Now more and more people are interested in this cartridge.
Click to expand...

This is not a fact, it's an opinion. I've been shooting 22mag for forty years and I've owned some very accurate guns during that time. CCI 40g has always shot reasonably well in most of the guns I've owned and some of the other brands have not. I don't know where you got your information that the cartridge was becoming obsolete, sales figures haven't shown that to be a fact. It's always been more expensive than 22lr by a wide margine. It's not "plinking" priced ammo and never has been. Most 22mag rifles suffer from chambers that are not match quality. I don't know of any that are. Even a 22lr will not shoot very well in a loose/sloppy chamber. Match chambers and good barrels give better accuracy. Some manufacturers are now making guns to better tolerances for this cartridge due to its increased popularity.
 
I've had at least 6 different .22 WMR rifles in the past 40 yrs. (as well as using 2 of my brother's on occasion), and I have never experienced any accuracy problems in any of them. For that matter, I've never had a .22 lr rifle that was inaccurate. The price of ammo was always higher than the .22 lr, but I always paid it for the privilege of more killing power on groundhogs, coyotes, foxes, etc.. I just wondered if the introduction of the .17 magnum and centerfire ammo expanded the market, and then those folks were trying to move to .22 mag. to save money and/or increase terminal ballistics.
 
In my limited experience (two 22wmr rifles) I haven't seen this much talked about lack of accuracy. Both of my bolt actions have been very accurate but do show preferences for certain brands/styles of ammo, which is common among rimfires.
 
I've had plenty of mag accuracy too. Beat up sears and roebuck marlin that is a TACK driver with a Walmart scope and CCI cartridges.
 
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