.22LR vs .22WMR Rifle

I have owned a number of 22 WMR rifles over the years. The ammo is the biggest drawback.
The 22LR is highly developed, and in a good rifle will shoot c. ½MOA with ammo it likes.

No 22 WMR will do that consistently, but I have owned 3 that were surprisingly accurate with
ammo they preferred. First one was an original Mossberg 640K "Chuckster" With original Winchester
Super-X 40 grain HP, it would flirt with moa regularly

The second accurate WMR was a Ruger 77/22M It loved the CCI Maxi-Mag 30 grain and the Hornady
30 grain V-Max. Problem was, it liked to be cleaned about every 50 rounds or accuracy would go bad.

My present 22 WMR [a keeper] is an Anschutz 1522 [54 action] It is, hands down the best WMR I have
owned or shot. It shoots several ammos OK, but really dotes on the Remington 33 grain Accutip. I have
shot numerous sub-moa groups at 100M with this combo. It also likes a certain lot of cheap, silver-box
Winchester 40 grain HP.

Many on this thread have given good advice. The 22LR is likely to be more accurate, The WMR packs a
bigger punch, and may deliver acceptable accuracy if you find what it likes. Good Luck! Dave.
 
"The second accurate WMR was a Ruger 77/22M It loved the CCI Maxi-Mag 30 grain and the Hornady
30 grain V-Max. Problem was, it liked to be cleaned about every 50 rounds or accuracy would go bad."

My cz452 does the same thing with any copper jacketed bullets.

It will shoot lubed lead bullets quite well, up to 40 grains, out to 75 yards. Not good enough for bunnies beyond that.
 
Hello all! So I went out with my neighbour to do some shooting yesterday, took the opportunity to sight in my Marlin 25 in WMR and test out my Cooey 60, both given to me by my uncle. My personal experience was that the magnum was more consistent, but I'm a novice and was shooting at 50ish yards, the magnum being scoped, but even after getting closer I was still worse off with the cooey. I'm fairly sure it's a me problem and I need to change the windage on gun.

Regardless, I doubt I'd be shooting further than 50 yards, have you seen the bush around here? And after reading through the comments here, which have been actually quite helpful, I'm gunna hold off on the Badger. I've heard that they're great, I've heard that Chiappa is kinda YMMV when it comes to quality. I did hear that the hammers tend to degrade and go off on their own as well. I was wanting something to put in the truck, so that I could have it on me in case I feel like getting a few shots in or find a partridge out on the back roads when I'm out, but maybe the Badger isn't the best for that. I was looking at a Savage mk2 as well, I hear the triggers on them are really nice, but it's a proper sized gun and not something I'd leave in the truck.

As for between the LR and the Magnum, it really sounds like people are split, which seems to be the case everywhere. I like em both, the crack of the magnum and the light tack of the LR are both nice. I think the overall consensus is use a WMR for hunting/survival gun, both rounds are perfectly capable, accuracy between rounds is close enough to be a toss up but perhaps leaning towards the LR, but the LR is simply cheaper and will make your wallet cry less. I don't really have an interest in .17 HMR, it's loud and expensive.

Thank you all for your replies. I'll wait on making a purchase, and aim for something that's in the $300-400 range instead of a badger. Once I've got more skill behind me and know more from firsthand what each round is capable of, I'll be able to make some more informed decisions.
 
Never met a CZ that didnt like any ammo I fed it....
Even had a Browning A-bolt 22 WMR that was pretty dam accurate too.
Buy once cry once.
But, the 22 WMR will be expensive to feed iffen you like to try and shoot a brick a day.
More so that a regular 22 LR.
Tight Groups,
Rob
 
CarloNord said:
Hello all! So I went out with my neighbour to do some shooting yesterday, took the opportunity to sight in my Marlin 25 in WMR and test out my Cooey 60, both given to me by my uncle. My personal experience was that the magnum was more consistent, but I'm a novice and was shooting at 50ish yards, the magnum being scoped, but even after getting closer I was still worse off with the cooey. I'm fairly sure it's a me problem and I need to change the windage on gun.

Regardless, I doubt I'd be shooting further than 50 yards, have you seen the bush around here? And after reading through the comments here, which have been actually quite helpful, I'm gunna hold off on the Badger. I've heard that they're great, I've heard that Chiappa is kinda YMMV when it comes to quality. I did hear that the hammers tend to degrade and go off on their own as well. I was wanting something to put in the truck, so that I could have it on me in case I feel like getting a few shots in or find a partridge out on the back roads when I'm out, but maybe the Badger isn't the best for that. I was looking at a Savage mk2 as well, I hear the triggers on them are really nice, but it's a proper sized gun and not something I'd leave in the truck.

As for between the LR and the Magnum, it really sounds like people are split, which seems to be the case everywhere. I like em both, the crack of the magnum and the light tack of the LR are both nice. I think the overall consensus is use a WMR for hunting/survival gun, both rounds are perfectly capable, accuracy between rounds is close enough to be a toss up but perhaps leaning towards the LR, but the LR is simply cheaper and will make your wallet cry less. I don't really have an interest in .17 HMR, it's loud and expensive.

Thank you all for your replies. I'll wait on making a purchase, and aim for something that's in the $300-400 range instead of a badger. Once I've got more skill behind me and know more from firsthand what each round is capable of, I'll be able to make some more informed decisions.
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I think it's a good idea to hold off on the Badger, but I'm not sure some people are getting great ones, others are getting cruddy ones. The build quality is very poor on them, period. Doesn't mean you can't enjoy one, or, that it won't serve you well. More a question of expectations. You mentioned a Marlin 25-that's a decent rifle for sure. Lots of people would consider Marlin rimfires "truck guns", I think it's never a great idea to expect a wood stock to survive hundreds of expansion/contraction cycles as a vehicle interior heats-up/cools-off. At least, not without the stock warping/cracking. As a wood supplier once told me, "it doesn't know it's still not a tree". Better to have a synthetic stock.

You mentioned 17HMR being loud/expensive. Both are true, relatively speaking. 17HMR is simply a 22WMR case necked-down to .17, so, you can really expect 17HMR and 22WMR to be equally loud, or close. 17HMR sounds different than 22WMR, some might say a little quieter. I think just different, a bit choked sounding. Like the difference between a 22LR CCI Stinger and 17M2.

Once you have a budget sorted out, scope/no scope, etc...throw that question out. "If you had $_____ to spend on a 22/scope combo, and you plan on using it for_____ and _____ and_____, what would you buy?" You'll probably hear from experienced guys who've learned that decent gear is worth saving for, and quality is more important than qty. Or, you could do what I did=ignore that kind of good advice for a couple of decades or so. :) I've been most stubborn when it comes to scopes, but like to think I've smartened-up on that too. Long days shooting, middle-aged eyes-cruddy scopes do not add to the experience. Doesn't mean you need the most expensive, but some of the really cheap stuff out there can be problematic, and prone to failure. Kind of zaps the fun out of it.
 
I have both the 22lr and 22wmr little badger. The 22lr is accurate, the 22wmr one is absolutely horrible (inaccurate)...If I knew it was just my gun that was bad, I would consider buying another 22wmr one cause I really like the extra power.
 
My little badger shoots lights out. It’s taken 65 grouse, several snowshoe hare and a porcupine so far this season. Nice that you can customize them as well. Cheaply made, yes. Accurate as hell, yes.

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I have a cz455 in 22lr and a miniset in 22wmr. I currently have the rifle setup in 22wmr and the miniset gives the option of using 22lr if I want (I also have cz455 scout in 22lr). The miniset option is also available with the cz457 series rifles and also 17hmr.
 
tinviper said:
I found .223 was nearly the same price a few years ago as .22 magnum so never considered it.
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Same with 17hmr, I bought a rifle in it, shot about 2 boxes of ammo before I realized I could reload better .223 for the same or less money, and that was like 8-10 years ago... LOL
 
Chiappa is a hit an miss manufacturer in my opinion but the Badger's are so cheap and handy I bought one of each and they both shoot accurately and so far not full auto bursts but I don't shoot the magnum as much due to ammo costs and the .22lr I just use for grouse which is not a high volume of fire.

One of the short trapper bolt action Stevens rifles or the short barreled Norinco CZ clone would be a good beater truck gun if you can find one used.
 
Chiappa is a hit an miss manufacturer in my opinion but the Badger's are so cheap and handy I bought one of each and they both shoot accurately and so far not full auto bursts but I don't shoot the magnum as much due to ammo costs and the .22lr I just use for grouse which is not a high volume of fire.

One of the short trapper bolt action Stevens rifles or the short barreled Norinco CZ clone would be a good beater truck gun. Magpul Backpacker 10/22 takedown would be a good truck .22lr as well.
 
I owned both the .22 mag and LR versions of the little badger. My .22 LR is quite good, but I needed to do a little file adjustment on the mag to get it to fire the first time at all.

Overall impression was the mag made my ears ring and the ammo is 4x more expensive. Not really worth it when there is 40gr LR ammo out there at 1400.
Traded off the mag and kept the LR. Mine has been quite good, but it usually wears a bushnell tr25 reddot.
 
wkp774 said:
Accurate as hell no, sights dont adjust low enough reason why jobbers make taller sights. Total joke of a gun with no warranty in Canada.
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If someone gave me one in any caliber, I would not even take it to the range.
 
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