22 Special????

[Kurt]

Anyone ever heard of it? A friend  said he had one and shot it as a kid but ammo was obsolete. Is it the same as that other 22 rf between LR and WMR, what was that called?

[jhm]

Kurt:  your friend could be refering to (2) different cartridges both are no longer around one is the 22 extra long and the other is the 22 Winchester Rimfire (WRF) also obsolete.  If you can get with him and find out for sure what type of weapon it was we could possibly narrow it down a little nore hope this helped.   JIM

[John Traveler]

There indeed was a .22 Winchester Special, chambered only in a Winchester semi-auto made in the early years of the 1900's.  It's long obsolete, of course, and the cartridges are collectors items.

It was similar to, but not the same as the more oftem found .22 WRF, which was the basis of the longer and hotter 1960's .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire.

[gunnut69]

While the 22 special ammo is hard to find it is still made, occasionally anyway.  the last I've seen was made by CCI.  The rifle your talking about was the M03.  Looks very much like a Winchester M63 but specials only.  The 1890 was also chambered in this round.  Remington also had a 22 Special and the 2 are essencially the same round with minor differences.  It is a bit difficult to find but ammo is available for these old warriors.  BTW the 22 Special is different than the extralong and uses a .224 diameter bullet of (I believe) 45 grains weight.  Flat point I think?  Good luck from the gunnut69

[keppler]

I came across a website one day for old ammo. I think it was called The Old Western Scrounger. They had a lot of the obsolete and hard to find stuff. Hope this helps.

[Moonpi]

Most folks are refering to the 22WRF.
It was a "special" Winchester round used only in a couple of models of thier rifles back around WW1 time.
This ammo is very rarely made in special production runs. You can occassionally find a box at a show or shop but be prepared to pay a staggering sum for it. Last time I saw some(several yrs ago) it was something like $55 a box of 50. Kinda pricey to plink with.
Winchester made some in the 1990's.
The case is a little greater in diameter than a regular 22LR but the same length as a regular 22LR. Uses a non-plated lead bullet.
You can fire a standard 22LR in it but accuracy is lousy, case will sometimes split, and you will get hot powder/gas blowback because of the undersize case not expanding and filling the chamber on firing.

[hillbill]

hey kurt! i have a pump winchester in 22 special, a model 90 i believe. i picked up some ammo for it at the old cabin shop in carthage mo about a year ago. it was 7 bucks or so a box. every few years winchester will make a run of new ammo and it is not all that high. the old original boxes of ammo are what command the high price. my grandpa had this gun and my dad said it was deadly on small varmits. i havent tried it but have been told u can shoot 22 special in a 22 mag just like 38 special in a 357. of course it wouldnt make much sense to do so. i have always wondered if a guy could just have the chamber lenghtened on a 22 special and use it to fire 22 mag. if the gun was in excellent shape of course. i would not think it would ruin any collector value because you would be the only one who could tell it.lol the special may of originally been a blackpowder cartridge. anyone know if this is so? if this is the case it may operate at a lmuch lower pressure than the 22 mag.

[hillbill]

after rereading some of the earlier posts im gathering that some think that the 22 wrf and the 22 special are two seperate rounds. is this so? my gun is a 22 wrf but my dad always called it 'the 22 special' when referring to it. can anyone clear this up for sure?

[gunnut69]

As I said before the two rounds are essentially the same, the difference (I think, now those two words together should strike fear in anyones heart) was different weight bullets and maybe a different point shape.  The Winchester was called the 22 WRF(Winchester Rim Fire) the Remington version was called the 22 Remington Special.  Ammo was interchangeable.  The model 1890 would have to have a carrier modification to handle the slightly longer 22 WMR(Winchester Magnum Rinfire).  The winchester Model 03(an autoloading rifle) should NOT be alter to handle the magnum round.

[hillbill]

thanks for the info gunnut, you confirmed what i was thinking. hillbill

[Joel]

I'm gettin kinda confused reading this.  There's no such thing as a Winchester or Remington 22 "special"; at least not officially.  There was a Winchester round called the 22 Winchester Automatic chambered only in the M1903 rifle, another similar round called the 22 Remington Automatic chambered in model 16 Remington semi.  Both rounds were developed as smokeless powder rounds at a time when other 22 rimfires were still being loaded with both black and Semi-smokeless powders which would jam up a semi-automatic in a heartbeat.  The Winchester round was still being loaded into the 60's, the Remington version hadn't been loaded in decades.  The 22 WRF is a totally different round that was available in a number of different rifles put out by various manufacturers. The 22 WRFM or 22 Magnum is a lengthened version of the 22 WRF and 22 WRF can be safely fired in a 22 Magnum(I used to do it in a Savage 24), but not visa versa.  There, now I feel more organized anyway.

[hillbill]

hey joel! i think maybe the term "22 special" was indeed an unofficial name as you put it for the 22 wrf.  ive never seen it in an auto rifle. what does the auto round your talking about look like? was it rimmed or rimless? i have never seen a rifle like your talking about would love to learn more about them. anybody out there have one?

[Joel]

Hillbilly, Both rounds were rimmed and used roundnosed 45 gr inside lubricated bullets.  The Winchester round had a velocity(20" bbl) of 1055 fps(117 fpe); the Remington version had a velocity of 950 fps(87 fpe).  All this courtesy of "Cartridges of the World"(my old 3rd edition).  Supposedly neither was much bettre than a 22 Long, though it seems the Remington version wouldn't even equal that (Remington ammo was crappy even back then).  Their only purpose was to provide a non-jamming(due to unsuitable powder) 22 for those autoloaders.  Once regular 22's switched over to only smokeless powder, both cartridges had outlived their purpose.
                                 I thought, and still think, the the 22 WRF was one of the best small game cartridges ever brought out; with that 45 gr bullet at around 1450 fps(hi velocity version).  Killed a lot of squirrels with it in that old Savage 24; which by the way was the first rifle/gun to be chambered for the 22 Magnum.  Didn't really shoot a lot of 22 Magnums in the thing, until 22 WRF got hard to find/expensive.