Question about sloooooow 22Mag barrel twist. Maybe somebody in the biz knows why?

[luckyshot52]

I love to practice with accurate rimfires. I've have a couple of 22wmr's that are easily under 1 moa at 100. CZ 455 after some tuning does 5/8-3/4 at 100. Magnum research is almost as good. Not a Hornady fan as such, but the 22mag vmax ammo is best I've tested. If a rifle won't shoot it try tuning rifle.

 

[AlNyhus]

I had a lot of fun with my heavy barrelled Marlin in 22 Magnum. It was an early version of the 883 Squirrel gun, but chambered in 22 Magnum. With a little bedding and trigger work, it shot 5-shot .6 and .7 groups at 100 yards over flags in decent conditions.

The 16 twist is perfectly suited to the shorter, factory loaded bullets. Substituting a longer bullet at the modest 1,900 fps range could certainly cause some accuracy issues relative to bullet stability.

Good shootin'. -Al

 

[Hohn]

I'm suspicious that 1-16 twists are chosen for both 22LR and 22Mag because they are often soft lead, or very lightly plated or thinly jacketed bullets that could foul rifling easier at faster twist rates. (??) Plus we already discussed that rimfires are normally hunting or utility based shooters intended for 50 yards. Heck, a spitball with a 1-25 twist could handle that short proximity, so a 1-16 should be able to do that. But firing tight 2's and 3's clusters at 50 yards with mediocre 1.25" groups at 100yds never made sense to me....unless the twist just was too slow beyond 50-75 yrds. I never owned anything else that grouped so paradoxically. Whatever I had firing 1/4" 5 shot groups at 50 yards had ALWAYS managed to keep sub 1" groups too.

Is this paradox of accurate at 50y but not accurate at 100y occurring with factory ammo or just your reloads?

I was under the impression that you are reloading wmr with non-rimfire bullets and then complaining about the twist being inadequate for that nonstandard combination. Apparently you've had problems with factory ammo, too?

My 22lrs will often be a lot less accurate at 100y, but this is normal when you have a very light bullet traveling at very slow speed outdoors. Only indoors have I seen the 100y performance be 2x the 50y performance as you'd expect.

I don't shoot 22wmr (never made sense to me in light of cheap .223), but I see no reason that it wouldn't behave similarly to a 22lr, just to a lesser degree. At has the same twist and it shoots similar bullets in design and weight.

 

[VaniB]

LOL...what else is new? Some are looking at pictures & not reading the thread. I said I handloaded my own ammo because THE FACTORY AMMO WOULDN'T SHOOT MOA, including Federal Premium, Remington Premier, and Winchester Supreme. But please disregard that and just state your verdict "It's the handloads." I'm able to regularly shoot 5 shot sub 1/2" groups @ 100yds easily with numerous bolt actions. Even my home built M4 variety 5.56 and 7.62 AR rifles with chrome lined barrels shoot inside 1" MOA. Did you read where I twice said my $75 factory Remington 5mm rimfire was 3/4" MOA? Yes, the Marlin 22Mag was too advanced for me and I haven't reached that shooting level of sophistication yet. Thanks. I'm done here.