.22 Magnum reloading

[Fat-beeman]

I own a 22 mag don't shoot it much got 223 can load light loads for half price,I cast 55gr with gc works fine.
Don

[Tracy]

I think there is a market for a company like CCI, Federal or maybe Aguila to sell primed .22 Mag brass. If I could get them for say $5-6 per 100, I would buy them by the case. I already like the .22 WMR in both handgun and rifle; if I could get primed brass it would be even more versatile.

I found a discussion about reloading .22 WMR over on The High Road and, as expected, it went from bad to downright stupid. From "why would you even want to" to "but where will you find heeled bullets?" (.22 WMR doesn't have heeled bullets) to "but you can get loaded rounds for $15 for 500" (In .22 Magnum? Where?).
It would be nice if people who have absolutely no clue about a given subject refrained from trying to advise others about it.

[Uncle R.]

It would be nice if people who have absolutely no clue about a given subject refrained from trying to advise others about it.

Good heavens man! There wouldn't be a lot left. They could just shut down about two-thirds of the message boards and forums out there.
<
Uncle R.

[Tracy]

Handloading .22 WMR ammo is economical, simple, and offers gains in performance and accuracy over factory ammo.

When NRA Hunter Pistol silhouette competitors first began shooting the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR), they found they could hit far more targets with the round than with their .357s or .44s because the recoil was so much lighter. Unfortunately, the 40-grain WMR bullets wouldn’t knock over rams at 100 meters.

Experimenters started yanking slugs out of the rimfire cases and replacing them with heavier slugs to give the .22 WMR the punch it needed to slay the rams. It worked, and the handloaded .22 Super Mags, as they came to be called, became the rage. Shooters widely used the standard 40-grain factory loads for chickens, pigs, and turkeys, and 50-grain reloads for the rams.

Then, two things happened that made loading the .22 Super Mag passé for handgun silhouette. First, Federal came out with its 50-grain load designed just for silhouette shooting. The real death knell, however, was the approval of the .22 Hornet for Hunter Pistol competition. Those two factors convinced many shooters to stop reloading for the .22 WMR—it was more convenient to buy factory loads.

Nonetheless, .22 WMR reloads still offer more velocity and better accuracy over most factory ammunition, and Performance Shooters should consider them to be viable options for pistol silhouette and rifle field shooting. Harry Howell, a College Station, Texas, silhouette shooter and longtime fan of the .22 WMR, was one of the early experimenters who used the .22 Super Mag, and he still reloads for his T/C Contender. Here’s an inside look at how Howell reloads for the .22 WMR:

http://www.gun-tests.com/performance...reloading.html

[stubshaft]

I remember doing that back in the day, decided to get the 270 REN to forego pulling and pushing those boolits , no sooner than I did that they legalized the Hornet.

[Rangefinder]

.22 Mag is a GREAT varmint cartridge! average is about $12 a box for 50 (.24 a pop) so right along side my other varmint reloading stuff anyway. Don't let the non-reloadable factor turn you away--just keep enough on hand to not worry about it Same goes for 17HMR--I have a Handi in it that shoots like a darn laser and no bottle cap is safe within 200yds of the thing. Prairie dogs quiver at my arrival.

[looseprojectile]

of economics. My children got me two boxes of 22 magnum ammo for my birthday.
They probably paid between ten and fifteen dollars a box for them. I loved them.
At the same time I bought two bricks of 22 magnum ammo for myself.
They began to understand the need for bricks when we went to shoot the Kel Tek PMR 30.

Ammo is cheaper now than it has ever been.

I have bought cigarettes for nine cents a pack. Now they are over ten dollars.

I have bought gasoline for nineteen point nine cents. Sell two silver dimes and you can still buy gas for less than twenty cents.

Cigarettes for nine cents and at the same time a box of 38 special ammo was two ninetyfive. That is about thirty four times more for the ammo then.
On a par with the price of cigarettes that same ammo should be $340.00 + $30.60 tax a box now.

You just have to get used to inflation and carry mucho more cash. The dollar ain't worth much anymore.
Did I mention that you have to earn a lot more nowadays to be able to afford it all?
"Inflation, it's whats in your wallet".

Life is good

[Shiloh]

Saw some .22 rimfire reloading tools for an espionage agency, possibly Mossad.
They were supposedly used for reducing powder charges and thus muzzle report for sanctions of enemies.
Probably unneeded with the availability of subsonic ammo. They were not mixing priming compounds.

The manufacture of impact sensitive explosive compounds, are best left to those with the knowledge, equipment, and safety precautions necessary for this endeavor.

If it was easy and safe, my thoughts are we would already have heard about it and be doing it.

Shiloh

[softpoint]

Oh, I wouldn't let the cost of ammo deter me from buying a fine gun. I'd shoot it a little less, maybe - but that would just keep the gun in better shape for longer

True, I like .22 magnums just fine. Sure, I can probably reload my Hornets for a little less, but the Magnum .22 has about twice the power of a Long Rifle, or has ,at 100 yards about the power of a long rifle at the muzzle. And if I use jacketed bullets in the Hornet, there is no savings. I can still get most of the .22 mag. for about $10 per 50, and jacketed bullets for the Hornet will cost between $15-$20 per 100, then there's primers at 3.00 per 100, a little dab of powder, and Hornet brass doesn't seem to last quite as long as others. I enjoy loading most of my own ammo, but i still have a .22 mag rifle and a single six convertible I like.

[looseprojectile]

started with the OP thinking that 22 mag. ammo is too expensive.
I will go off topic a little further.
I see reloading the 22 magnum as beneficial to me because KelTek warns against using any ammo in it other than CCI minimag 40 grain.
If I can develop a load that mirrors the CCI load in my Armscor primed cases
[after pulling the bullets] I can make use of the ammo that I bought for sixty bucks a brick. Might relieve my mind a little though the Armscor ammo does work well in my gun. Maybe I can get better velocity and less blast.
I will do some investigating and compare powder used in the CCI ammo and the powder in the Armscor ammo.
I don't like the bullets that are used in the CCI ammo and prefer the ones used in the Phillipine ammo. Now I have bullets and primed cases, all I need is a dash of the right powder. Gonna take some sperimenting.

Life is good

[MT Gianni]

I'll go the other way. 32 H&R with 100 gr bullet 4.4 gr Unique is 1050 fps from a 5" bbl handgun. Same vel as 22 mag from a pistol with 2 1/2 times greater bullet weight. 1000 primers = $30, 14 lbs of lead @ 1$ lb is $14, scrounged is 30 c a lb or $5, 8 lb keg of powder @ $14 lb x 4.5/7 lb = $9. $53 per 1000 new WW, scrounged is $44 per 1000.
223 runs $85 per 55 gr bullet from MidSouth last spring, $30 primers, 25 gr powder @ $14 lb x 3.5 lbs. $129 er 1000 to reload 223 @ 3000 fps. Cast in the 223 8 lbs of lead $1 lb, gc @ 25 1000 instead of $85 bullets. 12 gr powder total cost for 1000 rds is $87.50 @ 2000 fps. I can't afford to shoot 22 Mag. @ $5 a box of 50.

[wbrewski]

Just bought 500 at a gun show $85

[jdfoxinc]

See the thread "Can you make priming compound?". .Get a kit from 22reloader.com.