22 LR in a 22 Magnum

[DAKA]

What is the problem with shooting 22 LR's from a 22 Magnum cylinder?
i have an NAA mini, I do have both cylinders, but was wondering if it would be "safe" to shoot the 22 LR's from the mag cylinder ?

[Jim Watson]

Cases are likely to bulge, split, and bind.
Or not.

[DAKA]

exactly what I thought would happen

[Aguila Blanca]

Cases will bulge, because the diameter of the .22 Magnum chamber is larger than the diameter of a .22 LR chamber. There will also be considerable blow-by, with resultant reduced muzzle velocity. Cases may or may not actually split.

.22 LR chamber: 0.227"

.22 WMR chamber: 0.2441"

[44 AMP]

And, its likely your accuracy will be crap.

Don't do it.

[Aguila Blanca]

With a North American Arms mini-revolver, accuracy is a relative term.

[RoyceP]

If you can find some, 22 WRF works fine in a 22 Magnum chamber. If you have the 22 LR cylinder I see no reason to do that just because 22 WRF is so costly.

[TruthTellers]

There are adapters that allow firing .22 LR in a .22 Mag, so if you have a double action that doesn't have a spare .22 LR cylinder you could shoot the cheaper ammo. I'm generally not against shooting .22 LR in a Magnum chamber, except in revolvers because even in a non revolver you lose pressure due to pressure being exerted to expand the case more, but in a revolver you also have the cylinder gap which adds to more pressure loss.

Because of this, I'm generally averse to buying .22 Magnum DA revolvers, except maybe the Taurus Trackers as they have the .22 LR cylinder. For single actions, they all seem to come with both cylinders.

[Hawg]

Some LR cylinders won't let a magnum fire. I had a Single six like that.

[FrankenMauser]

Have you seen .30-06 fired in a .300 WM chamber?
Same thing, smaller scale.

I'm generally not against shooting .22 LR in a Magnum chamber, except in revolvers because even in a non revolver you lose pressure due to pressure being exerted to expand the case more, but in a revolver you also have the cylinder gap which adds to more pressure loss.

The pressure is not "lost", it just does more work before exiting the muzzle.
If the .22 WMR chamber were not so much longer than .22 LR, it could probably be argued that this would smooth the pressure curve and possibly result in increased accuracy and precision. This is a well-discussed phenomena that occurs when fire-forming wildcats or improved chambers. But the long jump from the case mouth to the throat/leade means the bullet can get off-axis and lose all possible benefit from the smoothed pressure curve.

[Jim Watson]

After sleeping on it, I wonder why the OP is asking.
He has everything needed to find out.

[DAKA]

I usually carry my NAA when having a "bigger" gun is not an option,
I have the Magnum cylinder installed and have P/P ammo in it
Sometimes I have it at the range and would like to just "fire off" a few rounds, but not mag, just 22 LR and wondered what would happen if I did that.
No biggie, just wondering!!

[natman]

Originally Posted by Hawg

Some LR cylinders won't let a magnum fire. I had a Single six like that.

A 22LR chamber shouldn't allow a 22 mag cartridge to even chamber, being both too small in diameter and too short.

FWIW, the 22 Mag operates at the same pressure as a 22LR. That's why they can be chambered in the same rifles. The 22 Mag gets its boost in ballistics by maintaining the same pressure longer. It requires some barrel length to accomplish this.

In a very short barreled gun like a NAA mini, there isn't enough barrel length for the 22 Mag to take advantage, so ballistics will be nearly identical to a 22LR. The extra potential of the 22 Mag will be expressed as flash and bang.

Compare the velocities with 2" barrels at Ballistics by the Inch:
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/22.html
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/22mag.html

[Electrod47]

With all the reasons detailed, what could be the result is possible spit shaved lead from misaligned bullet or even, spit un-burned powder.
Which could "Put your eye out, Ralphy !!"

[Prof Young]

I did it once by accident (I suppose not paying attention does not really count as an accident, but more like an idiotic mistake). Anyway the unsatisfactory results notified me of my goof. Cases were harder to get out of the cylinder and as I recall what little accuracy I had with that mouse gun went out the window.

Life is good . . . so long as you pay attention.
Prof Young

[Hawg]

Originally Posted by natman

A 22LR chamber shouldn't allow a 22 mag cartridge to even chamber, being both too small in diameter and too short.

Yeah I wrote it backwards. I meant to say some magnum cylinders wont allow a .22 LR to fire.