Have any of you ever done this, or know someone who did ? Did it work, and give acceptable accuracy ?
I have seen/heard of lots of older 22lr bolt action single shots that were rechambered to 22MRF, and they all worked fine.
Just wondered if anyone actually had, or knew of anyone who rechambered a 17 to 22MRF.

Have any of you ever done this, or know someone who did ? Did it work, and give acceptable accuracy ?
I have seen/heard of lots of older 22lr bolt action single shots that were rechambered to 22MRF, and they all worked fine.
Just wondered if anyone actually had, or knew of anyone who rechambered a 17 to 22MRF.

If you ream a 17 cylinder and put it back into the original gun, accuracy will be poor. The .22 LR bore usually runs.222-.223, and the LR bullet is soft, swaged lead.

The .22 MRF bore is a true .224, and the MRF uses jacketed bullets. Swaging them down to the smaller size by firing them in the smaller bore will do nothing good for accuracy.

There are threads about this here somewhere. Do a search.

Paco Kelly wrote about converting several S&W .22 LR's to .22 WMR without a hitch. The jackets on .22 WMR bullets are very soft and swage down without raising pressures significantly. I've shot two K-22's that were converted, they were accurate (as .22 Magnums go) enough.

I've not seen many .22 Magnums that would go head to head accuracy wise with a .22 LR (an exception is the Freedom Arms Model 97 or 252). Keep in mind the extractor will need modification too, the .22 WMR case head is slightly larger.

I have a 17-4 that I fitted with a Model 48 cylinder. I have fired about 500 Magnum rounds through it with no problems. I fired and recovered numerous magnum bullets that show no signs of being swaged down smaller than the original diameter other than the rifling engraving.

I also have a Remington 510 that I rechambered to 22 Magnum. Both weapons deliver excellant accuracy with no signs of excessive pressure or difficult extraction.