did DW make a 22 mag?

[Joe S.]

I've been watching 22lr's on gunbroker and am really wanting one. But I got to thinking, what about a 22 mag? Did they make em? I think that would make a better small game gun than a LR... Either way a 22 is in my future. And against my dad's stressing the superiorority of S&W over DW (a friendly family feud we have started since I've started liking the DW's), I think its gonna HAVE to be a DW!! Mainly want one for my daughter so I can maybe get her hooked like her old man and make papaw proud!

[Joe S.]

i was poking around on DanWessonforum.com today and see that they did in fact offer them. that was after emailing the guy at DW and he too said they made a short run of them. looks like i will have to jump on one IF i ever see it...

[Three44s]

After I bought a .22 lr model, I emailed DW and they told me (at that time) they were making cylinders and selling them for $90.00 (in .22 lr) and gunsmith could ream those cylinders out to .22 mag.

I questioned about the barrel and Genny @ DW checked with the Technical Dept and they said use the .22 mag conversion cylinder with a standard barrel ... pressures would not be an issue.

I don't know about accuracy but that's what I was told.


Myself, I bought a Smith model 48-4 6" ....... had to sweat "blood" at $450.00 for it but let me tell ya ........

A .22 mag in a revolver is awesome ....... !

Three 44s

[blhof]

The pressures aren't a problem for the barrel as the original barrel blanks for the 22 were also opened for the 32 and the 357mag.  They did the same for the Lg/Supermag barrels, the 357Max, 44, and 445 all used the same size barrel blanks.  Because of that the 357SM actually weighed slightly more than the 445 and Monson offered a IHSMA barrel that had a reduced diameter to make wt. for competition.  My #%&SM came with one of those barrels and a standard size for the spare.  The factory only had to order 2 sizes of barrel stock.

[Waldo Pepper]

The 22 WMR is one of the hardest to find because so few were made. I have a 22 WMR and it's fun sometimes to shoot, but it too damn expensive to shoot when I can shoot reloaded 357 in my DW 15 or 715 and Marlin 1894C cheaper. I have both 22 LR and 22 WMR cylinders and gun was originally just LR, but since DW used same barrel for both calibers like most manufactures it was a no brainer to have a LR cylinder reamed to WMR as I did a couple years ago.

[Swede454]

Kind of a long story but I think it will be worth reading.
 
I bought a Blue Dan Wesson with an 8" barrel at a Gun Show it looked real nice but would spit lead real bad. I cleaned all of the lead out of the cylinder and found it was ruff looked like it had been tapped for a bolt. Took it back to the next Gun Show and traded it for a Ruger Mark II it shot ok but I couldn't get use to the trigger. Sold the Ruger and bought a used really slick 10 shot S&W 22 I thought I had bought the ultimate .22. When I took it to the range it would group about the size of a 5gal bucket at 25 yards. I took it to a gunsmith he said most likely the cylinders did not line up properly causing it to spit and ruining the accuracy. I bought a forcing cone tool from Brownells to get the taper better it helped some. When I was using the rods that came with the kit I found out that several of the cylinder holes did not line up with the barrel correctly. Back to the next Gun Show sold it to one of the dealers for a loss and bought me a nice SS Dan Wesson 22 with a 10" barrel that had a ram on it. I did not notice at the time that the gun would only shoot in single action. I called Dan Wesson and he said they were made for the silhouette shooters he sold me the parts to convert it to double action. It is one of the best .22 revolvers I have ever had.
 
I have also been looking for a SS DW in .22mag but no luck so far.
 

[Waldo Pepper]

I hate to tell you this, but you can order a new shroud from DW with the 22 WMR on the shroud, have DW install new WMR cylinder or have a cylinder you can send them or any gunsmith to have honed to WMR. which is exactlly what DW did when making the few 22 mangum guns.
PS; I know where a new SS cylinder can be found cheap (<$100) compared to one from DW for $250 or more. 
 

[chefjeff]

Yeah, a few are out there. The one I had  started binding a little and I traded it on a shotgun. Always loved .22 mag and enjoyed several. Still own five. My fave is a 651 S&W. Some don't like the small frame but I love it. I have a rare H&R that has been a companion with CCI rat shot for river snakes for many years.

[Graybeard]

Let's bring this one back up and see if folks might want to talk more about it.