Heather LaCroix:.22 WMR Not Worth the Money
An interesting albeit flawed penetration test conducted by YouTube outdoor sport celebrity Heather LaCroix which seems to indicate that .22 magnum ammunition doesn’t outperform .22 long rifle cartridges by wide enough margins to justify the higher price. I was particularly impressed with the ease with which a 36 grain Winchester High Velocity penetrated sheet metal. The rub comes when the .22s are fired into a row of paper back books at close range and the 45 grain Dynapoint .22 mag doing 1550 fps just barely outperforms the little Winchester which not only weighs almost 10 grains less but leaves the barrel 270 fps slower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3uxAFfjSgQ[/youtube]
Like I said a bit surprising although I’d be curious to see if using round nose ammo gave different results. I’d still be uncomfortable shooting a raccoon or coyote with a .22 LR (something people claim to do with .22 magnums all the time) but I think this just makes me rethink the usefulness of the .22 Mag in those situations, especially given the economics. 500 round bricks of .22 LR are still under $20 whereas people are slapping down around $12-15 bucks for 50 in my neck of the woods. The magnums are still significantly cheaper than centerfire handgun ammunition, but not cheap enough to make the small boost in power worth spending extra money per round.
Of course shooting through paperbacks is not what we use guns for. The .22 mag still discharges much more energy into a flesh and blood target which is why rabbits and such game shot with the round suffer wounds that waste a lot of meat. This is also a strike against the .22 Magnum in my opinion. The hyper velocity .22 LR ammo being produced these days will do anything a .22 Magnum can do cheaper, and other rounds will pick up where the .22 LR leaves off. I assume people interested in the pelts of animals too big of the .22 LR may like the Magnums but I have heard of professional trappers putting down almost everything on their ‘lines with a .22 LR to the back of the head from a pistol. For predator hunters the .22 Hornet teamed with a pistol in .22 LR seems more utilitarian than the .22 Magnum.
I had considered buying a .22 handgun myself but when I started itching for my .327 Federal Magnum I found that other rounds I could feed it like the .32 S&W Long were still widely available and figured that the little .32 filled the niche for a .22 handgun close enough (except for the expense) that I put the money I would have spent on a .22 rig into a few boxes of watermelon killing .32 S&W Long. I don’t see how a .22 Magnum could be more indispensable than the underrated and inexpensive .22 LR so I’m going to agree with Heather and her husband Jeff on this one.
on June 1st, 2010 at 2:43 pm
The 17 HMR could possibly be the replacement for the 22 caliber rimfire. It’s range is out to 200 yards and it does a very good job of dispatching critters. If you want a wildly popular small game round, try the 17HMR. The ammunition is flying off the shelves. It has been a varmint hunter’s dream. That little 17 is flying at close to 2,500 fps.
The main difference in the .22 magnum is the heavier bullets it fires and the higher velocity.
I am not sure what bullets were used for the comparison, but a 34gr 22 Mag is flying at 2200 fps.
Federal
Varmint/Predator Hunting
V-Shok – 30 grain Speer TNT HP; MV 2200 fps (rifle), MV 1610 fps (pistol).
Game-Shok – 30 grain JHP; MV 2200 fps (rifle), MV 1610 fps (pistol).
CCI
Varmint/Predator Hunting
Maxi-Mag +V – 30 grain GLHP; MV 2200 fps (rifle), MV 1610 fps (pistol).
Maxi-Mag TNT – 30 grain JHP; MV 2200 fps (rifle), MV 1610 fps (pistol).
Maxi-Mag – 40 grain JHP; MV 1875 fps (rifle), MV 1425 fps (pistol).
on June 7th, 2010 at 12:49 am
You would see the real difference between 22lr and WMR in a rifle. A pistol will not burn out the bullet. Trust me, 22 mag is a great round. I can get a box around 7 or 8 bucks a box.
on August 26th, 2011 at 10:38 pm
I’ll have to watch the video to know what they used to test fire both rounds. Up until recently most 22mag rounds were designed for rifle applications. Most handgun in 22mag produce impressive flame fronts. When I had my AMT Automag II you could see a lot of flame during day light and it was blinding at night.
In the late 80’s I had switched to 22mag for squirrel hunting. I had been target shooting and plinking on the range. I shot a 3 litre plastic bottle filled with water with a CCI Maxi Mag HP. The entry “wound” was big enough to stick my pinky finger in and the exit was stretched, warped, and blown out. I worked with a part time local cop and I showed him this bottle and he said he figured it was at least a 38 if not a .357 that did the damage. He was impressed that it was a 22 mag.
I shoot DynaPoints out of my Taurus Tracker. Basically I bought them because WalMart had them for $7.77 per box. They are cheap and I figured they would be inexpensive break in rounds. They are slow, not very accurate and under powered. Just shooting them against standard Win SuperX you can hear the difference. After all the rounds I have are gone I plan to try out some of the new HP from Federal. Hornady also has some new awesome 22mag in the Critical Defense line designed for short barrel applications, can’t wait!
on January 4th, 2012 at 4:30 am
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