Keep or dump the .22 magnum?

[Donny1]

Maybe others have, but personally, I have never ever regretted any gun purchase. I have, however, regretted selling/trading them.

Truer words were never spoken!

[Flying Sig]

The place I'm buying is 2 minutes from forest land and is pretty rural (Athol, ID a sneeze and a fart away from the wilderness). Up close coyotes come to mind considering I will be working in my shop late at night.

Hey neighbor - keep it. One of my favorite setups is my Ruger American compact in 22mag paired up with a Dead Air Mask 22 HD

[BigPimping]

Unless you are forced by wife or are near homelessness, selling a firearm is always bad.

[swruger]

I would not sell a .22 mag if al I had was a 17hmr to replace it with.

.17 WSM, maybe

.17 Hornet, maybe

But a .17 HMR, no.

Just my personal preference.

But I would never sell a .22lr or .22 mag anyway, so .......

[Wordupmybrotha]

Unless you are forced by wife or are near homelessness, selling a firearm is always bad.

After you sell a firearm, you know you could buy more right?

[MrElectric03]

A few years back I bought a used Savage in .22 magnum. The next week I bought a CZ 455 in .17 HMR. I shot the Savage once and it's been sitting in the safe ever since.

As I contemplate moving to Idaho next year I am trying to think if the Savage would have any viable use to me other than owning it. What role would it fill in between my plethora of .22 LR's and the .17 HMR? Would I be better off dumping it? I have nothing against the cartridge or the rifle just musing about why I have it.

No issues finding ammo up here, it's everywhere. My Dad buys for his 10/22M whenever he visits. That said I'm not a huge fan. I own .22lr only. Haven't yet gotten into .17 and don't see enough difference to buy one. I do have a few revolvers with replaceable cylinders and that's fun.

[Ron-Solo]

Keep it. Good caliber for prairie dogs an similar varmits. You can reach out a little further with it.

[Kilibreaux]

Apparently a great many people fail to understand that the .22 magnum's only commonality with .22 Long Rifle is the priming system and that's it. And even THAT is far more reliable on the magnum.

The .22 LR is a smaller caliber with soft bullets heel-crimped in place. It's cheap, and it's meant to be cheap. Even the "expensive" stuff is still "cheap" by comparison to the "cheapest" .22 magnum.

The .22 magnum is a true .224" caliber bullet seated inside the case making for a much superior construction, and sturdier cartridge. The rim is thicker and contains more priming compound, AND in case nobody has noticed, .22 magnums virtually never fail to fire - and before anyone replies with a ridiculous anecdote about the one their friend's mother's father's girlfriend's gunsmith owned, forget it. If a .22 magnum fails to fire, check the gun.

Anyway, the magnum fires real bullets, jacketed bullets of all types and purposes. From rifle barrels the .22 magnum will deliver around 350 fpe and has a demonstrated history of taking game animals all the way up to big. Even from a handgun, the .22 magnum with a decent length barrel is quite potent - way ahead of any hyper-velocity Long Rifle ammo.

Bascially, the .22 magnum is on the same quality of production level as centerfire ammo, and if 5.56 weren't available by the billions thanks to military contracts, it would NOT be less expensive.

I own plenty of .22's of both kinds but if I were going to grab one for survival it would be a .22 magnum or better, one with the ability to shoot both for obvious reasons, but NOT because there is any ballistic comparison between the two rounds.

I've got a Henry Mare's Leg in .22 magnum that's a hoot to shoot, holds 8+1 rounds, weighs close to nothing, has a 12" barrel and tiny stub-stock, but I can EASILY hit 6" plates at 100 yards with it, and with power. The gun is short enough to slip into a backpack and go without notice.
I'm would imagine "everybody" has a .22 magnum mini-revolver and truth be told, that's about all anyone "really" needs to carry for SD, and it will do the job.
I don't really care about "convertible" revolvers because their bore size is dedicated to the .22 magnum, which means the .22 LR is generally an also-ran. A .22 magnum from a long barrel revolver is very close to rifle speed which again, beats all the hypervelocity .22 LR's.

Now, I might get rid of the Savage because the rifle itself fails to stimulate my interest, but not because of the caliber. Maybe consider dumping the Savage bolt gun and replacing it with a Henry PUMP-action .22 magnum!

[b.thomas]

If I learned anything in my seventy-three years on this planet............it's don't get rid of any guns!
Always seem to be sorry after I do!

[M1XdColt]

A few years back I bought a used Savage in .22 magnum. The next week I bought a CZ 455 in .17 HMR. I shot the Savage once and it's been sitting in the safe ever since.

As I contemplate moving to Idaho next year I am trying to think if the Savage would have any viable use to me other than owning it. What role would it fill in between my plethora of .22 LR's and the .17 HMR? Would I be better off dumping it? I have nothing against the cartridge or the rifle just musing about why I have it.

I'll trade my marlin 60 and some lose rds For the mag. That's if you like tube feed and marlin brand

[acechanley]

I love my Henry Carbine and my Ruger Single 6 revolver! both are accurate and and fun to shoot. The Carbine is great to 150 yards and really shines at 100yds. The new urban survival gun 1200 rds weigh 9lbs vs 223 1200rds weigh 33lbs. Sure you can't shoot 300 yards with the 22wmr. but it is an excellent round for small game. The Carbine is as accurate as my high end 10/22 build and cost half the price. Super fun to shoot and is relatively light.
ace