The little known .22spl cartridge

[Hamster65]

The old 22 WRF is actually fairly easy to locate. Each year some ammo manufacturers make up a limited run. Since nobody knows what they are I get to buy all I want. Why would I want them??? With 22 magnum ammo so hard to find the past 3 years, this is what I shoot in my 22 magnum guns. An added plus (to me) is that they are much milder turning the 22 mag into a regular 22. This creates a situation where I can quietly shoot my magnums in the back yard without bothering anybody.

I think I read somewhere that you shouldn't use WRF ammo in WMR guns unless, it's a revolver. Apparently, it doesn't have enough umph to cycle a 22 WMR semi-auto and can get stuck in the chamber. It seems to me it'd be fine in a bolt action rifle but, that was another that was mentioned as a no-no.

I thought about buying some for my 22 mag. revolver since it's easier to find and is a good bit cheaper.

 

[alwslate]

I have a Winchester mod 1890 in .22 WRF that I got from a coworker
about 20 yrs ago. I got a partial box of Rem WRF ammo with the 45 gr
FP bullet. It was vintage ammo and marked as WRF and not .22
Special so I'm assuming they offered both types back then. The Win
ammo as in the pic was readily available at gun shows so I stocked
up. CCI has produced a 45 gr HP version and they are not hard to find.
The WRF is the same dia as the .22 Mag but much less powerful. It is
more powerful than the .22 LR however. My chronograph notes show
the vintage Rem ammo at 1356 fps, the retro Win ammo at 1310 fps
and the current CCI at 1229 fps out of my 1890 with it's excellent
bore. Not really surprising to see the CCI ammo being watered down
somewhat. Accuracy from any old .22 rifle is greatly determined by
bore condition and rough pitted bores just aren't going to be accurate
with the soft bullets of .22 ammo.

 

[Skeetr57]

I stand corrected on confusing the .22 Remington Special with the .22 Remington Automatic. I am old enough that I can remember when good gun shops carried all three of these now obsolete cartridges on their shelves. I didn't know much about guns back then, but I knew enough to avoid any that didn't use ammo that was available in the local hardware or feed store, so I have never owned a gun in any of these calibers.

 

[Larry from Bend]

...the .22 special:
A few years ago I took advantage of the opportunity to purchase a few hundred rounds of a recent reproduction of a very old .22 caliber cartridge that I had never previously heard of, and is now almost obsolete. This round is called the .22 SPECIAL. The formal name for this round is the Winchester Rim Fire {WRF}. Remington also made it.
Today, this cartridge is not very well known. Back around 1890-1905 a few firearms manufacturers produced handguns and rifles for this round, {Colt, Winchester, and Stevens, etc.}, Winchester and Remington produced the cartridge. It was, at that time, the answer to the need for a harder hitting small-bore projectile that was not available from the well known .22 Long Rifle cartridge. After about five decades, this round lost its appeal when today's more powerful and better known .22 Magnum Rim Fire {MRF} was introduced in 1959. The old WRF can be fired in a newer MRF gun, but not other way around.
If you have one of these old firearms whose unaltered chamber is designed to fire the old .22 Special {WRF}, you can still fire the other available present-day cartridges {short, long, and long rifle}, but if you do fire these other three rounds in that old firearm, the majority of the cases will split, just the same as if you fired them in a modern chamber designed to fire the MRF. Accuracy may slightly suffer, but this creates no danger to neither the person firing nor to the firearm, provided the firearm is in good condition.
Other obsolete .22 rounds also existed in those early days, such as the {not very popular} .22 xtra-long-rifle, but these cartridges didn't survive the change-over from black powder to smokeless powder which occurred in the mid 1880's.

Just thought I'd pass this on to you for your information and enjoyment. {My pictures are also included}.
-Don

What's really unknown is the 22 MRF --- because it doesn't exist. Maybe you mean the Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR).

 

[DWalt]

There was once also another odd .22 rimfire round based on a shortened .22 WRF case called the .22 ILARCO (and sometimes the .22 Short Magnum Rimfire), used in the even odder American-180 SMG. It used a horizontal flat pan magazine holding 177 rounds, similar to that used on the Lewis gun. I think only Winchester ever made the ammo and it was only in very limited distribution.

 

[italiansport]

I stand corrected on confusing the .22 Remington Special with the .22 Remington Automatic. I am old enough that I can remember when good gun shops carried all three of these now obsolete cartridges on their shelves. I didn't know much about guns back then, but I knew enough to avoid any that didn't use ammo that was available in the local hardware or feed store, so I have never owned a gun in any of these calibers.

I though I had straightened this out in my Post #11 but I guess not.

Put as simply as possible:
The 22 WRF, The 22 Winchester Automatic and the 22 Remington Automatic are all different cartridges and are NOT interchangeable.
The ONLY interchangeability here is the 22 WRF can be used as a reduced load in the 22 Magnum but NOT the reverse.
The are also several other long obsolete 22 rim fire cartridges but I won't go into that here.
Jim

 

[DWalt]

It always seemed odd to me that the .22 Win automatic and the .22 Rem automatic cartridges were developed for the same reason (to prevent use of black powder ammunition in semiautomatic rifles), yet are dimensionally different enough to prevent interchangeability. Looks like they could have gotten together to standardize on one cartridge.

 

[BUFF]

Might have been a case of each saying, "Nyah, nyah, mine's better!" Bitter competitors then, over smaller markets.

 

[Donald Paul]

What's really unknown is the 22 MRF --- because it doesn't exist. Maybe you mean the Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR).

~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Homie]

~~~~~~~~~~

EXACTLY!!!

 

[Hamster65]

What's really unknown is the 22 MRF --- because it doesn't exist. Maybe you mean the Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR).

Oh but, it DOES exist.........er well, it used to anyway. I think they were introduced back in the late 50's...........before my time so, I've never actually seen one.........just pictures.

 

[Kanewpadle]

You are right. The Winchester Model 1903 rifle was designed to fire the 22 Winchester Automatic cartridge and this cartridge was never chambered for any other firearm. When Winchester upgraded this rifle they converted the chambering over to the much more conventional 22LR.
Additionally Remington had a similar round to the Winchester Auto and the two are NOT interchangeable.
A run of 22 Winchester Automatic cartridges was made several years ago but I haven't seen any around for quite some time.
Jim

It's still around, But expensive. https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/pro...-50-round-box-1030-fps-ms22wa-640420001173.do