Gun Question: Know anything about this practice?

D

Dr. Mudd

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Nov 7, 2006
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A long time ago I went out plinking with an old friend of mine who had a Ruger Single-Six revolver chambered for the .22 Magnum round. (This one did not come with two cylinders, one for .22 LR and one for .22 Magnum as is commonly found now.) We fired a few boxes of .22 Long Rifle ammo through the .22 Magnum cylinder and had a great time with no problems. Yes, the cases showed a slight split when ejected, but it caused no apparent harm to the gun or the shooters. No gas blowback or anything of the sort.

Well, I thought no more about that practice until recently when I found another old Single-Six that I was interested in buying. It was a .22 of some kind, but the Long Rifle or Magnum designation was not marked on it. The shop selling it is owned by a gentleman I've known done business with for 30 years. He is a formally trained gunsmith, having graduated from the Colorado School of Trades shortly before I first met him. To determine the correct chambering of this old Ruger he took it back to his bullet trap and fired six .22 LR rounds, since we didn't have any magnum ammo to check it for fit. The .22 LR cases exhibited slight splits after firing, but he told me that was no problem at all. He also told me that when he was young and he only owned a revolver chambered for .22 Magnum, he shot many thousands of rounds of .22 LR through it with absolutely no problems of any kind.

So, based on what I've seen and what this gunsmith told me, firing .22 LR in a .22 Magnum revolver seems to work just fine. Yes, I know we are only supposed to fire cartridges that match the chambering of any gun, but this appears to be an exception to that rule. What do you think about this? Have you tried firing .22 LR in the .22 Magnum chambers of a revolver?
 
I've had a Single-Six for almost 40 years and it's still my 'if I could only have one' gun. I've run brick upon brick of long rifle through it and maybe only a coupla hundred magnums - all in their respective cylinders. It seems like a LR would rattle a bit in the mag cylinder - but if it works, and doesn't shave lead or misfire, have fun.

Mike
 
Excuse me while I have a fit of heebie-jeebies :eek:

Okay, I'm better now. ;)

It's your gun, and I have done more foolish things in my youth, like firing a .410 shotshell in my .45-70 to see if it would work. (It did, but it split the base of the shell - question answered.) I may not be a gunsmith, but in my opinion using the wrong ammunition, especially one which will almost certainly result in case failure, is begging for trouble. Unless there was some overpowering reason, like it was the only firearm and ammunition I had, and I had to kill something to feed my family, I wouldn't do it.
 
Have you tried firing .22 LR in the .22 Magnum chambers of a revolver?
Click to expand...

No, and my question is this, why would you? Just because it works doesn't make it a good idea. I'm not sure what a steady diet of split cases will do to a pistol chamber, but my hunch is nothing good (when I start to get split cases in a batch of brass, I toss them all rather than push them all to failure). There have to be at least tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Ruger Single Sixes in the world, just find one with the .22LR cylinder.
 
Gents,
I am a gunsmith by profession. Shooting .22LR out of a .22 Magnum cylinder is NOT unsafe, and will work just fine. The only real drawback is that every once in a while a case may split at the mouth. Not a big deal. This will not harm the gun - or the shooter.

TR Graham
Armory USA
 
I've got a cheap heritage revolver with both .22lr and mag cylinders and sitting here comparing the fit of a lr to a mag cartridge in the magnum cylinder, there's no way I would try it. The amount of slop is terrible. The lr shells won't even stay seated tightly, and would probably misfire because of the hammer having to push them into the chamber before it can crush the rim.
I don't really see you would want to try it anyway. At least around here, single six's with only the lr cylinder are more common than guns with both, and don't think I've seen a mag only for sale anywhere yet. I'm pretty sure you also have the option of sending the gun into ruger and having another cylinder fit to it. There's no reason to be shooting long rifles out of a magnum cylinder.
 
i used to shoot 22LR outta my .22 mag revolver all the time when i was a kid, it wasnt a name brand either a german import single action colt clone, never had any probs with it other than a ruptured case every now and again, i dont recall how accuracy was though.

probably not a good idea though, except in an emergency i suppose.

i doubt it would hurt anything though.
 
So now I have TWO GUNSMITHS and a couple of us dumb old amateurs who say this works OK, at least in revolvers. I don't plan to try it in a rifle, though, due to the possibilty of gas blowback near my face from a split .22 LR case.

For what it's worth, I've heard of firing .410 shotgun shells in a .45-70 rifle, too, but they seem to be a real sloppy fit on the extractor so I haven't done it.

I suspect there are other ammo/chamber combinations that work OK, too. Does anybody besides me remember Elmer Keith's story of the two boys being held captive in a remote area who still had a Colt .45 but their ammo had been taken away from them? They found a few .44 WCF (.44-40) rounds and wrapped some paper around them until they were a snug fit in the chambers of their old Colt. Then they turned the tables on their captor!

No, I am not suggesting anybody go out and experiment with this concept! I just believe that there are sometimes exceptions to rules and it doesn't hurt to discuss them in a rational way. Knowledge is good. Knowledge is useful.
 
I actually have a single shot derringer style pistol chambered for .45 Colt/.410 shotshell. The case diameters of the two are close enough, both headspace off the rim, and the chamber is reamed to length for .410. Shooting shotshells through that doesn't bother me a bit. The .45-70 case is a lot bigger at the base than the .410, and the chamber does not support the shell adequately. In fact, the .410 shotshell fits the .45-70 chamber a lot like a .22LR fits a .22 Mag chamber.

Even if the gunsmiths do approve, I still think it is a bad idea, but it is your gun.
 
actually i have shot 22LR outta a 22 mag rifle too, a pump winchester, nary a problem other than split cases sometimes.

again, probably wasnt smart, but it did work.
 
Wouldn't you end up with a ring of bullet lubricant and products of combustion inside the chamber? Could this hinder chambering of .22 Magnum rounds later?

Contact Ruger with the serial number of the Single Six you plan to buy. Ask them for its correct chambering. Use that ammo in it.

Why buy a firearm with the deliberate intention of using the wrong cartridges in it?

:confused:

maximus otter
 
Like TR said, it wont hurt anything by shooting long rifle rounds out of a magnum cylinder. I used to fix guns years ago at a friends gunshop and still do for close friends and old customers. I have shot plenty of long rifle rounds out of a magnum cylinder myself and the only thing i noticed when switching to magnum rounds was a few that had trouble going in all the way, nothing that a good cleaning with a stiff brush wouldnt fix so go ahead and blast away.
 
Won't hurt a thing -- you will just have to do some extra brushing as mentioned above because of some fouling... kinda like putting a lot of .38 through a .357....
 
no, never a problem with later chambering the longer 22 mag, of course i have heard the same thing said about using .38 special in a 357 mag and i have never ran into that either, go figure.

i presonally wouldnt do this unless it was an emergency, not now anyway, when i was younger we did it outta curiousity at first then later 'cuz we had lotsa 22LR and no 22 magnums to shoot.

no need to contact ruger the calibre should be stamped on the pistol, probably on the cylinder.
 
i missed that max, thats weird i would venture to say its gotta be stamped on it if its a ruger, if not on the frame on the cylinders,
 
It has to be on the cylinder because .22 frames are often ordered with cylinders for both. Look, it has to be there. Ruger never sold a gun without marking the caliber on it.
 
All it takes is one .22 Mag cartridge to tell. If it will go in the chamber, it is a .22 Mag cylinder, if it won't then it is a .22 LR. The .22 Mag uses internally lubed bullets like most centerfires, so the case is larger diameter than the bullet. The .22 LR uses externally lubed heel type bullets, so the case is the same diameter as the bullet.
 
There are three drawbacks to firing 22 LR in a 22 WMR cylinder. 1 large velocity loss. 2 Substantial accuracy loss. 3 Split/swollen or hard to eject cases. I have personally fired 1000's of 22 LR's in a 22 WMR Ruger single six and these are the drawbacks I have found.
 
yablanowitz said:
All it takes is one .22 Mag cartridge to tell. If it will go in the chamber, it is a .22 Mag cylinder, if it won't then it is a .22 LR. The .22 Mag uses internally lubed bullets like most centerfires, so the case is larger diameter than the bullet. The .22 LR uses externally lubed heel type bullets, so the case is the same diameter as the bullet.
Click to expand...

sounds right to me.
 
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