I'll probably get smacked for this question but I'm curious...

I was wondering if you can shoot .22LR ammo with a .22 Magnum rifle? my gut says due to the difference in case length no, but it's worth throwing out there for discussion. If not I'll have to get one of the .22's from dad's house to plink with. I can't decide between the Ithaca lever action single shot or the _____ (forget the maker) heavy @$$ semi-auto w/ tube magazine. I learned to shoot with the Ithaca, and shot many squirrels with both, so I know their accurate. Hmmm...

Single shot, maybe. Anything else no.

My .22 Mag is a tube magazine so, no dice. I thought so but wanted to make sure.

The casing itself is to long and will not eject.

I think you could, I could shoot .22 short out of my .22lr

dont think it is safe but I bet it would go bang

I don't know if I would try it. Does the barrel on the Mag say you can shoot LR? I had a Ruger convertable, it had two separate cylinders. One for each bullet, must be a reason.

The case of the .22 LR has a smaller diameter than the .22 Magnum. I doubt it would be a good idea. Also the rim diameter is different and smaller, it might not fire.

Well it looks like I'm gonna snatch one of dad's .22s for plinking.

Mdman said:

I think you could, I could shoot .22 short out of my .22lr

dont think it is safe but I bet it would go bang

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thats fine, we do it all the time. you get the .22 cb shorts for your .22lr and they are dead quiet, all you hear is the click of the rim being pinched. The only thing is you have to load 1 at a time.

I'll probably get smacked for this question but I'm curious...

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Adams74Chevy said:

I was wondering if you can shoot .22LR ammo with a .22 Magnum rifle? my gut says due to the difference in case length no, but it's worth throwing out there for discussion. If not I'll have to get one of the .22's from dad's house to plink with. I can't decide between the Ithaca lever action single shot or the _____ (forget the maker) heavy @$$ semi-auto w/ tube magazine. I learned to shoot with the Ithaca, and shot many squirrels with both, so I know their accurate. Hmmm...

Click to expand...

Asking a question, about safety, before trying it... will never be smacked by me.
Any other thoughts, on this approach?

1) The original question:

I was wondering if you can shoot .22LR ammo with a .22 Magnum rifle?

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While it will often/normally fire, there is a definite safety issue, rooted in the possibility/probability of a case rupture, and it should NOT be done.

The case diameter is substantially different, with the "magnum" version being several thousandths larger, and the brass of the smaller "long rifle" family of cartridges are stretched "to", extremely "near" and sometimes even "beyond" it's limit of elasticity. Exceeding that limit releases gas and fragments into the action under quite a bit of pressure.

Yes, people do it, but they are going against one of the first rules of shooting safety that require using the correct ammo for the firearm, and assuming/creating a risk if personal injury. The gas and brass frags produced and released during a case rupture can cause severe injury, especially to eyes, one of my own favorite sense organs.

2) A secondary, related question/comment:

I think you could, I could shoot .22 short out of my .22lr

dont think it is safe but I bet it would go bang

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Other than feeding issues in certain firearm designs, due to the shorter cartridge lengths found on the "longs" and "shorts" this IS a safe substitution. The diameter is the same, and working pressures are compatible with the design of the "long rifle" chambered firearms.

If a large number of "shorts" are fired in a "long rifle" chamber, a ring of fouling will form in the chamber at the case mouth of the "short" cartridge that will cause hard or impossible chambering of a regular "long" or "long rifle" case. Cleaning will be necessary to restore normal function.

There is occasionally a "ring" of erosion produced at the end of the "short" case mouth that permanently damages the "long rifle" chamber, but this would be rare and many thousands of rounds would be needed to cause erosion to the extent of being noticeable in function.


3) FWIW:
Safe and economical lower power substitutes for .22 Winchester Rimfire Magnum (.22 WRM) are quite limited, but, the .22 Winchester Rimfire (.22WRF) is a safe possibility, though admittedly not as economically appealing.

The .22 WRF is a shorter, lower pressure round that has the same case and bullet diameter as the .22 WRM, but uses a lead bullet at lower velocity. The same fouling notes applying to the .22 shorts in a LR chamber apply here.

***

While it is not recommended to use any ammo not specifically stamped on the firearm, there are certain safe combinations, like .22 shorts in a LR firearm, or .38 specials in a .357 Mag . . . Before using any ammunition that is not stamped on the firearm, one might check over here: http://www.saami.org/Unsafe_Combinations.cfm

Thanks E.Shell. Trust me I don't plan on using ammo that isn't compatible, too many ways for things to go wrong.

I still need to decide which .22 I can talk dad into letting me long term borrow. So which one could be more fun plinking...Ithaca lever action single shot (very short carbine like) or the _____ (forget the maker) heavy @$$ semi-auto w/ tube magazine. I learned to shoot with the Ithaca, and shot many squirrels with both, so I know their accurate.

Right offhand, I'd think the semi-auto would be more fun as a plinker, unless it's just too heavy. Your ammo WILL go faster, but whether that's "good" or "bad" depends on your perspective.

If you want to use shorts, you may not get them to function in the semi, and so the lever gun would be the natural choice. Some semi-auto rifles (like the old Remingtons) WILL feed shorts and will be marked so on the side of the barrel.

These days, shorts are not really any cheaper than long rifles, especially when the LRs are purchased in bulk pack promotions and on sale.

If you are seriously working on "marksmanship", vs just having some fun "plinking" or hunting, especially marksmanship as it relates to position shooting, the semi-auto will let you learn more. I mean this in the sense that you don't have to break your position after every shot to reload the semi-auto and can thus spend more time working on getting a solid position, natural point of aim and trigger control.

I love my Remington 552 it will fire 22 short, long and Long rifle. (as marked on the barrel) and accurate as hell.

Here is the semi-auto .22, it's a Stevens Model 87A. It's not as heavy as I remember it, granted I haven't used it in over 10 years probably. The furniture is in pretty nice shape a few dents but still decent. It could use a blueing job. I'm gonna take it apart and give it a good ole cleaning doubt it's had much done to it in years...dad isn't much on cleaning guns, he is better than he used to be.
It says:
"22 short, long, long rifle
long rifle only as automatic"

Adams74Chevy said:

"22 short, long, long rifle" . . .

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Indicating it's safe to shoot all of these cartridges.

. . . "long rifle only as automatic"

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Indicating it would not be expected to cycle properly with anything but LRs and may not feed anything but LRs from the tube magazine either.

Looks like you should be GTG. IMHO, get a couple boxes of differing brands/types of .22 Long Rifle ammo and see what it prefers, with regard to both function and accuracy - some rifle show a marked ammo preference. I'd suggest using plated bullets for longer intervals between cleanings, plain lead bullets typically have a slew of wax lube, much of which stays in the rifle. YMMV.

I have a 550 box of Remington "golden bullets" .22LR HP just waiting to be shot. From what I remember from shooting it years ago it shot most any ammo well.

i have a question about .22 ammo now.

I just ordered a Henry survival .22 It is .22 LR. I want to shoot CB's out of it. They make CB Short and CB Long.

My questions
-what is the diff. b/e .22 long and .22 long rifle?
-will the CB Longs feed out of the magazine or do i have to load them one by one?

The bullet weights, published velocities and energies are identical between the (CCI) CB shorts and CB longs, just loaded into differing cases.

I found the shorts to be slightly more accurate, in the sense that the longs are "position-sensitive". This means that the minuscule powder charge can be close to the primer or far from the primer, depending on which way the rifle is pointed just prior to firing, and this can produce some velocity variations resulting in vertical stringing when you start stretching the range a little. The shorts are more consistent in this respect, but, up close, it's undetectable.

In some rifles, the longs will feed when shorts will not. With my fingers, the longs are slightly easier to handle, and getting shorts single-fed into my 10/22 was a learning experience. I ended up buying a couple Volquartsen .22 short magazines for my 10/22s and life is good. . .

Guess you'll have to balance these factors and make a choice.