Canadian Airgun Forum

Just out of curiosity, how many HMR ammo manufacturers are there now?

Last time I looked, it was just one~ CCI that made their own branding, and made Hornady's.
Lack of a small game bullet in this caliber has kept me away- the varmint style bullets are fine for pasture poodles, but I'd like some meat left on my edibles...

-D.S.

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"Ain't no half-way"
-S.R.V.

For years, CCI loaded all of the "makes" of HMR ammo. The .17gr. Vmax's boxed with WW, Hornady and Federal labels were all loaded with 5.4gr. Hodgdon Lil'Gun - apparently.
Whether the various companies finally started loading their own, I do not know. The Rem. 17gr. had green tips, red for Hornady and black for Fed and WW.
CCI also came out with their own 16gr. HP TNT, which did not shoot well in any of my 3 HMR's.
I did have a .22WMR Marlin with tube feed that really liked the old and cheaper WW 40gr. HP's. It made many groups in the 3/4" range at 100 meters. I foolishly sold it to a fellow
I worked with at the time.
The WW 20gr. HP's make a good game & gopher bullet. They are less violent than the 17gr vmax bullets. My current Marlin runs them at almost 2,500fps. The box says 2,375fps iirc.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

My somewhat limited experience with the WMR found a couple of good loads.
Rifle's a 94-22-M.
It's best load was the old armscor 50 gr h/p, marketed here as "Ruko".
S.I.R. carried them for a couple of years, then nothing more than CCI.
That old 50 gr loafed along at 1480 when I chronied them, and was incredibly accurate.
CCI's 50 gr r/n was almost as accurate in that rifle.
It absolutely detested the Maxi-Mag+V. They simply would not group out of that carbine length bbl.

I am still a fan of the L/R "mini-group" from CCI.
The mini-mag hollow points are still a favorite, and came within .001" of acing the BDT.
A favorite of mine for hunting as well.

-D.S.

_________________
"Ain't no half-way"
-S.R.V.

A little history:
IIRC - the "old" .22 WRF was the first use of the WMR case(same case), but was slightly shorter. It also used in inside lubricated lead bullet, not a healed bullet as-with the .22 LR.
The old WRF round was loaded with a lead 45gr. .228" grooved lubricated bullet at 1,450fps. My dad had that chambering in a Stevens single shot rifle when he was a kid.
I see the modern made WRF ammo is loaded to only 1,300fps. The WRF was the "magnum .22 of the 1930's through to 1959 when Winchester lengthened the case a bit, went with
a .224" 40gr. jacketed HP at a then advertised 2,000fps muzzle velocity.
For those interested in FPE #'s - the original .22 WRF developed 210.13FPE and the 1959 .22 Winchester Rimfire Magnum ran 355.4fpe.

_________________
Best Wishes
Daryl

Just had a look at Houze's book last night.
Their test bed 52 Winchester was getting 1/2" groups at 200 yds- this in a wind proof test tunnel.
My guess is the last guns to be tested in this fashion were the post olympics 52 Internationals- fired from a vise.
By the time the 52-E came along, the company was already bleeding red ink, and company records became very sketchy during this period- if they were kept at all.

-D.S.

_________________
"Ain't no half-way"
-S.R.V.

Interesting, Doc - actually QUITE amazing.
I used a borrowed 1950's, model 52 Winchester in the 1989 World Police and Fire Games match, held in the PoCo range, Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Our "corrections team" (4 person) won gold, with Keith, my fellow work-mate winning gold for high score and I got the silver for second highest score, using that old Model 52.
This was a standard rifle competition, aperture sights. The 10 ring is a dot. The scoring rings are 1/8" apart. Line cutters of course, score the higher score.
It was a 3-position match, prone, kneeling, standing at 50 meters on the standard, 10 bull target. IIRC, I dropped 16 points and Keith dropped only 14 out of the possible 300.
We used to be able to see well. LOL

_________________
Best Wishes
Daryl

This post opens a can of worms for me- mostly on acct. of how far off topic I've already taken this.
Most interesting post, and we really should take this up in a new thread...

-D.S.

_________________
"Ain't no half-way"
-S.R.V.

Thread drift?

_________________
Best Wishes
Daryl

LOL Daryl!

New topic on the way...

-D.S.

_________________
"Ain't no half-way"
-S.R.V.