22 mag topic

The 22mag ammo hasn’t received much conversation time. There may be more options on the table now than ever. Has anyone done much testing or formed opinions of which choice works best as a Pistol Cartridge option? Has anyone tried RWS at nearly a $1.00 a shot?

375Short wrote: Thu Jan 08, 2026 6:51 am The 22mag ammo hasn’t received much conversation time. There may be more options on the table now than ever. Has anyone done much testing or formed opinions of which choice works best as a Pistol Cartridge option? Has anyone tried RWS at nearly a $1.00 a shot?

Great subject. I have not yet done the actual testing, but have gathered a collection of .22 WMR ammo options from CCI, Federal, and Hornady Options. I believe I also have a couple boxes of the Fiocchi .22 WMR offerings. What you just posted about RWS ammo in that caliber is "news" to me. I'll have a look around.

My intention is to spend some time late winter / early spring with a couple of .22WMR rifles, a scope, paper targets, and a good mindset to conduct legitimate testing of all available .22 WMR ammo. As we know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions - so I won't ask anyone to wait for meaningful data to come from me.

Steve.

CCI MAX MAG, 40g, 1.04”@50y, v= 1941, ES= 45, KE= 342, Grp= 1.04"
CCI GAME POINT, 40g, 1.13" @ 50", V= 1852, ES= 43, KE= 299, Grp= 1.13"
Fiocchi, 40g, 1.16"@ 50 ([email protected]"), V= 1888, ES= 67, KE= 305, Grp= 1.16"
Armscor, 40g, .80 @ 50 V= 1703, ES= 164, KE= 246, Grp= .80
WINCHESTER DYNAPOINT, 45g, 1.42""@ 50", V= 1573, ES= 65, KE= 245, Grp= 1.42"
HORNADY DEFENSE, 45g, 1.17”@50y, V= 1666, ES= 70, KE= 268, Grp= 1.17" (1 FTF)
Federal Game, 50g, 1.48”@50y, V= 1486, ES= 150, KE= 241, Grp= 1.48"

Bench Results from a Henry with 24” barrel. Williams peep and 17a front. I’ll retest at 100y, eventually and run the same test on my 1866 Uberti.
There are some terrible velocity deviations, especially for only 5 shots. Oddly one of the worst is the Federal 50g load that I have been using for years in the 1866.

Just for the what it’s worth. I have never lost an animal to the 50g federal. I have used the Fiocchi a good deal and can’t recall losing an animal to it. I have lost 4 center hit pigs to CCI max mags. Two in Phoenix a good number of years ago and two in Raton a few years ago. I speculate the bullet is too soft in the CCI load. I had one round not fire with repeated attempts. Of all things it was the Hornady Defense ammo.

Results from Uberti 1866:

CCI MAX MAG 40g 1.37 @ 50 V= 1915, ES= 77, KE= 334, Grp= 1.37
CCI GAME POINT 40g 1.16 @ 50 V= 1860, ES= 51, KE= 305, Grp= 1.16
Fioccii 40g .83 @ 59 V= 1918, ES= 88, KE= 313, Grp= .83
Armscor 40g .92 @ 50 V= 1750, ES= 163, KE= 280, Grp= .92
WINCHESTER DYNAPOINT 45g 1.76 @ 50 V= 1558, ES= 136, KE= 242, Grp= 1.76
HORNADY DEFENSE 45g 1.06 @ 50 "V= 1569, ES= 170, KE= 220, Grp= 1.06"""
Federal Game 50g 1.49 @ 50 V= 1491, ES= 210, KE= 257, Grp= 1.49

Between the Henry and Uberti I’m sure of one thing. 22mag ammo manufacturing has mastered the art of extreme in velocity variations.
I shot the Armscor and Fioccii at 100 yards. Because they both produced decent 50y groups but drastically different extreme spreads. fioccii consistently pretty good and Armscor fairly bad.

fioccii 2.25” @ 100y
Armscor 4.48” @ 100y