22 Magnum ammo

Dad gum guys. I came to this thread to see about ammo accuracy, and I see 6 of the 7 pages is people commenting on their rifles and scopes, and how they performed on varmints. You fellas kinds hijacked the thread.
 

Chick, I don't think anyone intended to deliberately highjack. You know how discussions go in gun shops, even out in public on the street. Some guys get to talking about this or that and things just seem to take a turn in one direction or another without anyone intending to do anything bad. Discussions just lead to different topics, or topics somewhat related. It's life. Jump in and hang on. You'll feel better if you lighten up and enjoy the ride. There's stuff to learn here whether 100% topic related or not.

 
Marco, original poster, I hate the win 34 hp supreme, would not kill a feral cat reliably.

Winchester 40g Hp is a solid performer on coyotes, and a house would not hold the ground squirrels and p. dogs that I had killed with it.

You have to test a rifle as to what it likes.
 
Yep, the Winchester 40 gr. HP is my choice for my particular .22 mag Ruger 77. I have only shot one coyote with my .22 mag, a head shot at 75 yards. It dropped right there and barely twitched.

Here's an excerpt from a movie I have been working on for a while - Rimfire Groundhogs. I use the Winchester load while Waddill used a 30 gr. Hornady V-Max out of his 77 Ruger. While groundhogs are not coyotes, they can still be tough to put down sometimes. Large ones have quite a bit of mass in a small body.







 
I wasn't too impressed with the Hornady V-Max so I switched back to Winchester 40 grain hollowpoints. If I can't get them I shoot CCI Maxi Mag. But my all time favorite .22 mag bullet is the Winchester Dynapoint 45 grain JHP. I haven't seen a box of those in a really long time but I never shot anything with those that didn't die on the spot.

Ha! Whoops,I didn't realize how old this thread was. Well I guess we now know how trying the Hornady V-Max played out. Good to see my thoughts on the Dynapoint is still the same. Pretty good track record I'd say.
 
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I found that there was not a lot of difference at 100 yds with any of them. The Marlin heavy barrel did better much than my Marlin standard barrel. I bedded the standard barrel rifle, and it improved greatly. Bedding the plastic stock with the magazine, was a pain, but I got it done. T+I have enough confidence in the MArlin, that I have shot 2 boar hogs in the head at 100 yards, and both flipped over backwards like a cockroach.
 
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I found the Hornady VMAX to shoot quite good and kill just as good. I recently tried the Federal TNT (basically a tiny Gold Dot) and while it shoots amazing (3 shots into half inch group at 100 yards in a Marlin 783), I was not impressed with how poorly it seems to perform. I had multiple hits on groundhogs result in wounded animals even when hit in neck/shoulder area. Not exactly sure why. Of course Win Dynapoint are always good to go
 
I'm sure it's been mentioned. Sorry, I'm going to be lazy and not read all 8 pages here.

I have a cz455 with a .22 WMR barrel and the Hornady VMAX shoot amazing out of it. The issue with most 22WMR bullets is that out past 100yds is that they are moving too slow to get the full potential.

I think at 100 yds the 30 vmax is only going 1400fps. That's enough to cause some expansion of the bullet, but not anything significant. At 200yds it's barely going 1000fps, which is not expanding the bullet at all.

I'm not sure if jackets can get thin enough to give them the frangibility of the traditional VMax with it's explosive effects to have them shoot well enough and to not have them explode in air.

22WMR is a good cartridge, but has just a small niche in the hunting world in my opinion. The 17HMR is a much better cartridge for prairie dogs in terms of flat, energy dump, range and yes, even wind. The 22WMR is way worse in the wind than the .17HMR.
 
I picked up 3, 125 round count cartons of CCi HPs from Walmart in September for $22 a carton! I have been looking for Hornady Vmax for 2 season with zero luck.

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They had a couple of cartons in stock a few weeks back. I’m sure they didn’t last long.
 
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I have 3 Marlin 22Mags and they all prefer the 30 grain projectiles. Hornady is best followed by CCI. Perfect for groundhogs-anything bigger I use a .223-just my 2 cents.
 
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