Will .22 LR safely fire in a .22 Mag rifle??

[mannyrock]

Dear Guys,

   Sorry to ask such a stupid question.  I was pondering the purchase of a .22 Mag rifle.  (I don't currently own one.)  And I was wondering whether the chamber size of the .22 Mag is such that you could safely fire .22LR in it, on a single shot basis.  (I'm sure the .22 LR would not feed correctly, due to shorter length.)

  Thanks for any info.

Regards, Mannyrock

[mcwoodduck]

No.
22 mag case is .25 ( at least that is what a gun smith told me he would use as a drill bit to turn a 22LR single shot in to a mag) and the bullet is inside the case like most centerfire rounds.
the 22LR is .221 and so is the case
If you were thinking that the 22 mag was like 44mag and all the other 44 rounds shorter will fit, (44 russian and 44 spl) it is not.
the 22LR is the 44 mag of the group and 22 Long and short will fire in the long rifle.
think of 22 mag as 444 marlin.  44 mag and marlin share the same projectile size only.
I did have a little O/U 22 Mag derrenger.  Loudest thing ever.  One night my budy was loading 22 CB's in it to get rid of rabbits in the yard.
He thought that the 22 mag was just a longer 22LR
I had it on the bench and the 22 bisley was apart.  I normally keept a Bisley loaded with CB's or Aguilla for yard pests.  I found out what he was doing and with the low pressure CB loads it worked only with the top barrel.  the pin was at the bottom of the chamber and would break the rim. on the lower barrel the pin was at the top of the chamber and would only skin the side of the rim and would not always set off the round.  I would be afraid to shoot a LR in it for fear of rupturing the brass and having hot gas come back around the chamber in a rifle.  You also want to see where the firing pin is located and how wide it is and if it will break the rim.
I have two 22 Mag rifles and will not try it.  OK if I were starving and all the 22 LR rifle I own were broken and all I had is one 22LR round then I would try to shoot a rabbit.  other than that I don't think it's worth it to damage the rifle or me or get frustrated with it not going off.

[Graybeard]

Fire yes. Safely NO. Case is guaranteed to rupture and rimfires don't have very good systems for handling case ruptures.

[Rex in OTZ]

My Ruger single six comes with two cylinders one for the .22 lr and the other for the .22mag
they both shoot very accuretly in this old revolver, I had once mistakenly left the mag cylinder in and loaded .22Lrs, it shot accuretly, it was when extracting the empty's that I noticed bulged cases and one or two were split at the mouth the cases, Im not going to condone openly that every body shoot them in every .22mag they own all the time, But mistakes happen and they do work without damageing my revolver or me. and that day I did bag 3 ptarmagin useing .22lr's in that magnum cylinder.

[mannyrock]

Dear Guys,

   Thanks for the excellent answers.

   I definitely won't try it.

Mannyrock

[teamnelson]

Get a MCACE Chamber Adapter and you can shoot .22LR/L/S out of your new .22WMR rifle. Heaven forbid we talk you out of buying a gun - that'd be unAmerican! 

[S.S.]

I believe that most .22 mag bores are .224.
most .22LR bores are .223. Even if .22lr rounds fire,
they would loose accuracy. In some rounds such as
the Sniper Sub Sonic, the projectile it slightly larger
than standard. In an extreme emergency I would give it a try.
But only in an emergency

[preventec47]

It is easy to fire 22LR in any single shot 22mag rifle or pistol.
All you do is file off the rim of a fired 22 mag case and insert that
into the barrel. Then insert 22 LR and fire.  this will expand and
snug the fired 22 mag case in the chamber and you can manually
reload and fire repetively.

Try it, you can just insert a 22 LR into a fired 22 mag case and the
fit is pretty good.

On some bolt actions, the extractor might not grab the rim of
the 22 LR real well because it is slightly smaller in diameter but
if it is not hard to get to you can pull it out with fingernails
or pop it with the point of a pocket knive blade etc.

[hillbill]

22 wrf will safely fire in the 22 mag.just like a 38 special in a 357. course unless yu own a 22 wrf or 22 "speshul" as my pops calls his, yu prob dont have any wrf shells laying around.