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The .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire by Mike Cumpston
As the decade of the 1950s gave way to the ‘60’s, the shooting journals were a-buzz with the introduction of the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire cartridge. A updated and upgraded variation of the old inside lubed .22 Winchester Rimfire Cartridge (WRF), the new round was aimed at the growing ranks of post-war varminters then diasporating across the fallow lands which erupted as a result of the Federal Soil-bank Program. The magnum rimfire propelled a .40 grain jacketed solid or hollow point at a nominal 2,000 fps from rifles and an advertised 1550 from the six- inch revolver. Much was made of its capacity to disrupt and destroy everything from jackrabbits to coyotes. Owners of the traditional rimfires were told that there was no way they could re- chamber their rifles and handguns for the larger diameter case as straining the larger magnum bullet down the .217 -. 2225 " bores would prove hazardous with the 24,000 psi. round. A fifty round box of Magnum rimfires proved more expensive than a like amount of centerfire varmint caliber reloads, a circumstance that curtailed the budding enthusiasm for the new round. This began to turn around with the early introduction of several revolvers bored for the magnum bullet and provided with a spare cylinder sized for the traditional rimfire rounds. The theory was that only a little bit of accuracy degradation would occur when the healed bullets of the long rifle " slugged up" to fit the larger bore. Soon it became pretty difficult to sell a Single Action revolver that wasn’t set up to shoot both and the concept made major inroads into the Double Action design scheme as well. Chambered in the Contender, the WMR, like many other cartridges, had a brief day in the Sun in the Metallic Silhouette game and auto-pistols of various designs have also appeared. Shortly after Ruger redesigned the Single Six line, I, and hunting friend Jim Stacey began a long and intensive association with the WMR cartridge as loaded in hollow point form by Winchester Western and CCI. Our 9.5" single actions provided excellent accuracy with the Winchester loads while achieving the same level of groupability with a variety of long rifle rounds from the alternative cylinders. The CCI was quite accurate and efficient from Stacey’s Contender and acceptably so from the long revolvers. The greenest of our valleys were tenanted, not by the good angels, but by a plentitude of Jack Rabbits, Armadillos, Cottontails and other small edibles. We found the WW load sufficiently disruptive at close range to take down running jack rabbits even when the circumstances did not allow surgical accuracy. This was an important improvement over the long rifle hollow points that require precise placement and usually demand a stationary target. The destructiveness of the WW and CCI hollow points was somewhat exaggerated and we frequently used them to take cotton tail and squirrel without excessive lose of meat. Until recently, the original Winchester Western solids and hollow points and the CCI Maxi-Mag rounds were the only readily available loads. RWS put out a round that closely resembled the Winchester but we never saw them on the shelves. We found that, from the long barrels, the Winchester Westerns would open to the classic mushroom out to about 35 yards and it was within this range that it proved so effective on running jacks. The CCI hollow point generally clocks a bit faster over the chronograph and the CCI bullet tends to crumble or fragment instead of mushrooming in the classic manner. Unlike the WW, the bullet has no exposed lead over its plated jacket and the higher velocity is needed for the hollow point to work. Winchester JHPs recovered from wet media at fifty yards show about three grains weight loss and no expansion beyond the basic .22 caliber. CCI’s fired from the 9.5" barrels and recovered at fifty yards, generally appear pristine. I have taken cottontails with the WW load at 50 yards and find that they are stopped in a much more definitive way than you would expect of a solid Long Rifle at shorter range. I recall watching Stacy take down a jackrabbit at 109 steps using the CCI JHP in a ten inch contender. Shot through the rib-cage, the jack dropped straight down and didn’t move. Tissue destruction was very evident. On the same outing, I was carrying a 5.5" Stainless Single Six Convertible- a revolver that incidentally showed mediocre accuracy with magnums and long rifles. I used it to finish off a wounded Jack rabbit at very close range and the bullet penciled through without any evident expansion at the velocity available from the relatively short barrel. Beginning from the premise that destructiveness is always desirable, I have modified both of these rounds by using an exacto-knife and sheep’s foot blade to put six to eight deep score lines between the hollow point and just short of the ogive. This treatment will allow the Winchester Western to mushroom at fifty yards and the CCI fragments just as it does unmodified at shorter ranges. This modification should increase the performance of the loads in the shorter barrel lengths. Twenty five yard bench groups demonstrate no decline in accuracy. The modified Winchester Western turns in nice evenly dispersed groups in the one-inch range. In the last couple of years, Winchester, Federal, CCI, and Remington have come out with " Premium" versions of the WMR. Bullets are full jacketed with deeply serrated hollow points in the 30 to 34 grain range. In recent range sessions, I learned that all of these rounds are extremely disruptive on water filled cans with most of the bullets exhibiting explosive fragmentation at 25 yards. The Remington load was something of an exception. Fired from the long Ruger and a 6" Model 48, the bullet would strike point on paper targets but the Sierra bullet tumbled without expanding on cans of water. The CCI TNT, Federal Classic and Winchester Western Supreme seem to be equally explosive at this range. I recently used a 6.5" Ruger Bisley to fire a number of the WW Supremes into a ham at fifty yards and found extreme fragmentation at that range. The 30 grain Federal, the Winchester Supreme, the Remington /Sierra have all produced consistently excellent 25 yard groups from my 9.5" Single Six. Five round groups ranging from eighty caliber to just over an inch are the norm. Try as I have, I cannot get good groups from the CCI TNT. My most recent range session produced a 5.7" group. This is particularly disconcerting since the folks at CCI sent me 500 of these for testing and would no doubt like to see an entirely different sort of report. I expected negative results form the PMC jhp that seems to be a clone of the original WW round. A recent report was not encouraging in regard to accuracy. I was pleasantly surprised as the Single Six registered a 1.1" five round group with four rounds in .94 caliber. It was one of the two moderately accurate loads from the Bisley turning in a five round cluster of 2.28. The PMC bullet acts much like its twin in the original WW load. I recovered a slightly flattened, but otherwise unexpanded example from a ham at 50 yards. The .22 Magnum Bisley came about as a result of learned discourse on the Sixgunner.com website. A number of the cognoscenti there had found that modern-day .22 barrels do not vary a wit and the Bisley, while not commercially available in WRM, will work with a magnum cylinder of the appropriate type. I found that my Single Six cylinder fit and locked up perfectly in the frame window of the Bisley. It proved suitably accurate with the old reliable WW JHP load- producing one group of 1.6 with four in .87" and another that measured 1.89". I extracted all of the tabulated performance data in one intensive Dillon Thomas –like range excursion. This was necessary given the somewhat hinky nature of the .22wmr cartridge. I fired ten rounds of each load from each revolver over the Chronograph and then fired for accuracy over a rolled up carpet on the 25 yard bench. It is readily noted from the data that the cartridge is given to high standard deviations and wide extreme spreads. I have noticed the same proclivity in a Model 48 Smith with 6" barrel and a 3.5" Automag. Only the WW JHP turned in an extreme spread of less than 100 fps. I find that my .22 magnum data can vary considerably from one range session to the next. In every case but one ( The Maxi Mag-HP), velocities were more consistent from the 9.5" single six than from the Bisley. The Federal, Winchester Supreme, Winchester JHP provide fine accuracy in the long Ruger and the recorded groups are actually at the outer edge of their usual performance in that revolver. The Bisley will shoot impressive groups with a variety of long rifle rounds but was not usefully accurate with any but the original WW hollow point and the PMC jhp. All of the loads shot very close to the sight picture with the Long Single Six while only the WW and PMC loads were point-on from the Bisley. The light weight, high velocity premium loads generally hit low and left of point of aim from that fixed sight Ruger. My overall impression of the .22 WMR as a revolver round is that it is, at least a bit more efficient and consistent, in the longer barreled arms. The basic Winchester Western Jacketed Hollow Point would be a good place to start when looking for optimum accuracy and performance from any WRM chambered handgun. It has proven consistently accurate from my revolver over a span of three decades. A couple of firm conclusions emerge from my experiences and observations of the WMR revolvers. One is that the Magnum Rimfire is a revolver of much character- some of it good. It will certainly provide a challenge to the shooter seeking the optimum load for his sidearm. It is also crystal clear that my 9.5" Barrel Ruger Single Six Convertible is a very fine revolver indeed! Mike Cumpston
Load Comparison .22 WMR Loads in Bisley 6.5" Barrel And Single Six 9.5" Barrel
Note: Mike is not shooting at the photographer. The camera was set on a tripod and tripped by a timer.
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