Why would you buy a lever rifle in 22 mag instead of 357/38?

I've been looking at Wal-Mart no luck. Cabelas said they get a little in once in a while but its immediately scarfed up.
 
I'm still working on the last couple bricks of PMC mags I bought years ago for $60 a brick once those are shot up I have a few thousand CCIs that were $40 per 200.
 
kcub, If you have a Cabelas close by, use the method I use with the Gunbot link I posted. When they show it in stock on there (and they do often), simply make the purchase and have it shipped site to store for no shipping charge. Then simply sit back and wait for them to call to let you know that it is in and ready for you to pick up. Buying ammo on line can get pretty pricey sometimes with the shipping charges, but not if you use this method.
 
turkeestalker, I had a .22 Mag bolt gun I took on a trade years back. It was an excellent turkey gun. I think a .38 is a little heavy for turkey (My opinion). I don't get out for turkey anymore, but if I did I would probably buy a .22 magnum.
 
I shoot a lot of 357mag levergun handloads, much of it Berrys or X-Treme 158grn plated bullets and at 13.1¢ per round ($6.55 per box) for them it's impossible to find any 22mag that cheap. Add to that the fact that I can shoot 357mag from light and slow 90grn, 700fps mouse fart loads all the way up to heavy and fast 158grn, 2,100fps or 180grn 1,900fps medium game loads and the 357mag in a levergun makes a ton of sense.

So much so that I've got 2; a 20" rd bbl carbine and a 24" oct bbl, tang and globe sighted rifle that I can shoot steel plates all the out at 300yds with. Darn good for irons and pistol calibers.
 
No idea why 22 mag is so difficult to find in retail stores. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, who actually casually shoots 22 mags over 22LR anyway? During the first Obama shortage, 22 mag was one of the few rimfire calibers you could find. Now it seems to be just about the opposite.
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I've assumed that the rimfire factories have been focusing primarily on trying to meet the 22LR demand and giving 22WMR correspondingly less production time.
 
With guns and ammo, the best is always this moment: guns and ammo will never be cheaper, with quality of each being the constant.
 
In the long run, I believe .22 mag will go back to being much cheaper.
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Commercially that may be true, however, as I can handload for 1/2 what you can find it for at WalMart, even at these current high component prices, I still will have a more capable and cheaper caliber. Besides, shooting a 357mag or 45 Colt levergun after shooting a 22lr levergun reminds me that I'm shooting a real rifle, not a toy. I like a real rifle with a real recoil. Of the 8 leverguns I own and shoot the single one I've not shot in the last five years is my Henry 22lr, even though I still have 9 cases of 555rd, Remington 22lr, ammo that I picked up at WalMart for $9.97 each back in 2004 for it.
 
I sort of feel the same way but I realize it's all in my head. None of these pistol caliber lever guns has squat for recoil, even my 44 mag. Maybe 454 is different but I have no experience with that in a lever gun.

Viscerally I have to move up to 30-30 or 45-70 to feel like I'm shooting more than a 22. Terminal performance may be different however. 44 mag destroys even empty cans and send the parts into low earth orbit.
 
Well, about recoil . . . . . . take a 5½lb Rossi carbine chambered in 45 Colt and load it up with some 255grn Ruger Only level handloads like you'd want for hunting hogs or deer or whatever and you have one seriously hard recoiling rifle!! I tried a couple of rounds of 'Ruger Only' level loads in a friend's Rossi carbine :eek: and that was sufficient to convince me that my 2 Rossis in 357mag were just right.
 
My 44 Henry has minimal recoil even with HSM 305 grain bear loads but it is brass, has a 20" octagon barrel, and is pretty heavy. I love it. Shoots anything, specials, SWC, you name it.
 
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