I’ve told the story in my book of how I ran into five feral dogs on a homestead farm in the Virginia wilderness in the early 1970s. An S&W Model 48/22 magnumRF revolver with an 8 plus inch barrel cleaned house on them and I was sold on the little magnum ever since. Out of a rifle it is even more deadly. And contrary to some opinions, it is a premier round for accuracy. Like all 22 rimfire guns, some guns prefer one brand of 22 magRF over others...you just have to find which. And there are plenty to choose from with bullet weights from 32 grains to 50 grains, jacketed, gilded, swaged, electrolysis coated...hollow pointed or solid....you name it and it is out there.

Some also say it is between the 22 RF and the 22 Hornet in velocity. Well, yes but it leans closer to the Hornet out of rifles. Marlin, Winchester and a host of other manufacturers chamber rifles in leverguns, bolt actions, and autoloaders. Up until a few years ago it was a sleeper round. I hope I contributed a little to waking shooters up to it’s potential and power in my books and writings. Surely the lion’s share of credit goes to CCI for developing some many fine variations of ammo for the chambering. Handgun manufacturers have an extensive line of guns chambered for the round.

I once drilled several holes in a 1/4 inch hunk of ‘I -Beam’ (soft steel) with a Winchester Levergun and WW22 MagRF solids......

I have a good friend that owns a rather large farm in an outlying area of Washington State, not far from the Canadian border. The man only owned two guns, unique for my friends; a 12 g. shotgun and a 22 MagRF leveraction Winchester. He kills everything around the farm that needs killing....with the levergun. And he has a fine grasp of when solids are needed and when hollow points will do the job better.

He has a compact 2 to 6 power scope on it and is a deadly shot with the little gun, placing his shots into postage-size groups out to longish distances for the little round. He slaughters big pigs and very large cattle, goats and others are easy.

I watched him slaughter a very large steer one day. He shot directly into the forehead. The solid hit at 2000 fps or so, and drilled into about 10 inches of bone, cartilage and brain matter before it stopped. The big steer went down like an elevator. Every time I begin to doubt this little caliber's ability I remember that steer, those five dogs, and the I-Beam.

I personally would not hunt deer with a 22 MagRF. My friend says he doesn’t hunt them either. He just kills them with head shots - he "takes" them. Because he manages the herd and its gene pool, he feeds the deer on his property, so they can get thru the winter with strength. He only takes meat deer from the herd, spikes or dry does. Keeps the good bloodlines in the herd and keeps the over grazing down, he also keeps the numbers of does down. He is doing something right. I have seen some of the biggest bucks in that herd that I have seen in several states. And since I first wrote about him and his methods 15 years ago, those excellent bloodlines have spread into outlying areas for miles around his property.

I tried years ago to convince him that he should buy a centerfire rifle and handload for it, since the rimfire mag ammo is getting downright pricey. And he can easily handload a centerfire cheaper. But he has some excellent logic for his side. He stated that for the cost of a new rifle, the cost of reloading tools and such, primers, powder, cases, etc....will pay for 22 magRF ammo for twenty years for his shooting needs. Life must be nice when it is so simple. I gave him a Colt SA in 22 magRF. Now he has a handgun/levergun combo...and it is a good one.

Milt Morrison, pistol smith out of Colorado, makes a handgun frame of stainless steel round butted for a the Ruger SA line of handguns. The one he makes for the Ruger SA 22s is neat. I have always felt that the frame/grips on the SA Ruger 22s were too big for the handgun. Milt’s new grip frame cures that, and gives the gun some real class. Plus for me, better accuracy.

The second cylinder of the Ruger SA in 22 MagRF has always been very accurate for me. I know others have stated they have found them ho-hum in that department. But again I search for the ammo that best does the job instead of blaming the gun because my favorite ammo doesn’t do what I want it to from it. Friend and fellow Shootist Jim Taylor has a little 22 Ruger SA that he has carried for so many years it has been rebuilt. When you have to rebuild a 22 RF you know a goodly number of rounds have poured thru it.

Jim's Dad bought the gun back when Moses was a kid. He rechambered one chamber to 22 MagRF. And the accuracy with the 22 MagRF and the 22 RF ammo is the same. Best test I can think of to prove a gun’s potential with two different chamberings. And you can believe the amount of small game and varmints Jim has taken over all those years would fill an 18 wheeler.

AMT out of California a number of years ago put a 22 MagRF autoloader on the market. I have had a few of them, and they are very accurate and very reliable. My six inch slide AMT will spit out RWS hollow pointed 22 MagRF ammo at an astounding 1650+ fps! With a full 40 grain bullet, that is jacketed not gilded. The down side is the expense of the ammo...ouch! But for defense and varmints it is the berries.

WW-VARMINT H.P. is next on the velocity list, it brakes 1525 fps and goes into 3/4 of an inch at 25 yards. It is my main ammo for both my AMTs, the six inch and the 4.5 inch. It is the ammo I had to use when an idiot tried to use a knife on me during an off duty arrest. His knee cap got in the way of the warning shot. End of fight.

The velocities from 22MagRF revolvers, more than most other calibers, really do depend on their cylinder gap. So if you are going to purchase a revolver in 22MagRF, and the seller has a selection to choose from, make a tight gap top on your list of purchase priorities. I had the barrel on my S&W mod.48 set back, and closed the gap to almost zero. The velocity jumped 78 fps with CCI ammo. Also short barrels with the 22 MagRF chambering lose a lot of velocity. I had an old Spanish revolver, can’t remember the make (tough getting old), it was a four inch and a bad barrel gap on top of it, in 22 MagRF. I don’t think the velocity broke four figures. It sounded loud, but did little, like some politicos we all know.

Out of my 4.5 inch AMT Auto, WW-Varmint H.P. gives the velocity of a 22 RF rifle with hyper ammo and a better bullet. WW-Solids give a much lower velocity just over 1300 fps, .also the Varmint H.P. WW will give 3/4 inch groups where the solids open to an inch and 2/10ths. CCI H.P. ammo in nickel cases go 1433 fps and 7/10ths of an inch. WW standard JHP 22 MagRF ammo only hits 1253 fps but does give excellent accuracy.

The Winchester 22 MagRF leveraction rifle is a fine looking gun. It is built to very close tolerances and accuracy is excellent. With a scope...as much as I don’t like scopes on leverguns...this is a 150 yard varmint gun. I like peep sights. Ashley Emerson is the new guy on the block for peeps. He makes them for everything, boltguns, levers, pumps...you name he’s got it. And they are quality - small, well fitted. Not like the ones we are used to that hang off one side of the rifle or levergun. These sights add to the beauty and value of a fine gun. Where I can get an inch and a half group with a scope and this Winchester levergun, I can get 2 inches with Ashley’s sights....that’s fine for me. And does this new WW-Varmint H.P. ammo sting! It will rip a crow crossways, destroy the lungs in a coyote, stop a ground hog dead, and even tough old southwestern jackrabbits bite the dust fast with it.

When we lived in the wilderness of the southeast, we had a wild dog problem. That was in the 1970s. Federal estimates at the time ran as high as 15,000,000 feral dogs in the U.S. That figure has grown quickly. New York City, for example, is going thru a terrible time with feral dogs, as are other cities. The country areas outside of cities in this nation are breeding grounds for these mongrels. Any caliber will show itself to be marginal very quickly on these animals if it hasn’t got the stuff to penetrate and destroy flesh. Solids are no good, they don’t kill feral dogs quickly but the H.P.s are great - they are anything but marginal. And out of a rifle we are talking over 2000 fps velocities.

For those that don’t reload, this is a fine small game and varmint round. Like my friend in the Northwest, it will take care of all the needs of a shooter around the farm with just a little skill.

Ashley Outdoors, Inc. Fort Worth, Tx.

Ashley Outdoors  Ask for his fine catalog and tell’em Paco sent you. He’ll take good care of you.

PACO45@worldnet.att.net