i am buying a Marlin .22 WMR for shooting large varmits such as coyote's and bobcats and i neeed to know wat is the hardest hitting cartridge i can get?

This will sound like old-guy advice...becasue it is. Are lots of light weight (30-34gr.) loads that move faster, but seem to traded penetration for rapid expansion...would be my choice for little critters. (Actually, my choice for little critters would be the 17HRM, but that's another topic.) Were/are some 50gr. loads that expand slower and penetrate deeper that might be worth looking into.

Been staying with the old original loading more and more...40gr. JHP, and if your rifle likes the Winchester brand, would vote for that one as a good balance between the light and heavy extreams.

Bobcats are at the upper end of .22mag. land...not for thier size so much as their tendency to not give up easy. Animals seem to have a vitality that doesn't have to be proportional to their size...rabbits seem to give up easier than squirrels, even though rabbits are many times larger. Bobcats have more viatality than their size would dictate.

this is a pretty good read...may not 100 agree with the man, but it's pretty close to my experience too:
http://www.volny.cz/buchtik/Revo/22mag_us.htm

Yup, the 40 grain JHP seems to be the bullet. It is the happy spot for 22 Mag.

wat about the Remington Premiere 40 gr Accutip-V bullets? has anyone tried them?

I haven't tried those, but I have some of their 33 GR V-MAX rounds, and they do pretty good. I haven't killed anything with them yet, but they are what I have loaded in my Marlin right now, for when I see a coyote. They seem to shoot fairly accurate and fly pretty darn fast, so we'll see.

CCI 40 grain Maxi Mag is real accurate in my Browning A-bolt, .75" group at 100 yards. It has no issues w/ the big yotes here in NH, I use head shots! JP

I like the CCI 40 grain JHP but I'm going to try the 50 grain loads when I find some.

Good article Ribbonstone linked to about the .22 magnum. I love the cartridge. It's not an expensive .22LR, it's a cheap .22 centerfire. As the article says, it kills way out of proportion to what somebody not familiar with it might think.

I like the CCI 40 grain JHP but I'm going to try the 50 grain loads when I find some.

Good article Ribbonstone linked to about the .22 magnum. I love the cartridge. It's not an expensive .22LR, it's a cheap .22 centerfire. As the article says, it kills way out of proportion to what somebody not familiar with it might think.


Still like the old WW 40gr....the basic load (the only load for a good while). Everyone (but RWS) kind of backed off the original loadings for a time...recently, the vel. has beenc reeping back up a bit as they seem more comfrtable loading to standard pressure (or the brass got better...one or the other).

Hard to find and expensive RWS loads were loaded to the full potential of the round...trust me, the old WW factory stuff use to be as well.

Think I could live with three loads...a good 30gr. JHP for the tiny critters, the 40gr. JHP for nearly everything, and the .22WRF loads for small game.

I figured I should try some of this RWS 22 magnum. $28.50 for 50 rounds is more than I am willing to pay. :eek:

50 Grains will give the hardest thump , but Win. 40 gr. jhp's will give the best bullet performance ( 30-35 cal. mushroom , deep penetration, and will retain most of their weight). just my opinion :D

wat about the Remington Premiere 40 gr Accutip-V bullets? has anyone tried them? .

After replacing the flooring in my home post Katrina I used scrap pieces of laminated flooring to conduct an informal penetration test of various 22 WMR ammo.

The boards were .282" thick and I used 20 of them. These boards are very dense, very hard, and very tough. I burned up two skill saw blades during the job. Boards were 25 feet from the muzzle. The rifle was a Ruger 10-22 Magnum. I was surprised by the results.

Winchester 45 gr. Dyna-Point (copper plated) - Penetrated 6 boards.
Winchester 40 gr JHP - 8.5 boards.
CCI 40 gr. JHP - 9 boards.
CCI 30 gr. Maxi-Mag TNT HP - 7 boards.
Federal 50 gr. HP - 9 boards.
Remington 33 gr. Accu-Tip green plastic tip - 11.5 BOARDS. Yes, 11.5 boards. I couldn't believe it, but there it was; green plastic tip debris imbeded into board number 12.

Observations:
1. The 45 gr. Winchester Dyna-Point is copper plated soft lead and it disentigrated beginning at board 2 and on through board 6. No penetration but it is devistating and leaves a large permanent cavity.

2. Winchester and CCI 40 grain JHP bullets left a classic mushroom and retained about 75% weight.

3. CCI 30 gr. Maxi-Mag penetrated well for a varmint bullet, and left a good sized hole. Total fragmentation.

4. I expected the Federal 50 gr.HP to be the stellar penetrator but it was no better than the 40 gr. bullets. I think the problem is the low muzzle velocity which is 1530 fps. Good mushrook and retained about 85% weight.

5. Remington 33 gr. Accu-tip bullet penetrated the best, left the largest wound cavity and totally fragmented with primary and secondary projectiles making hamburger out of boards number 8, 9, 10, and 11, then breaking board number 12.

This test is not very scientific but maybe you can benefit from by my back yard plinking.

BTW Fitz,
I didn't have any of the 40 grain Remington Accu-Tip ammo, but if it performs anything like its little brother, the 33 gr. bullet, it will be the best performer of anything I tested.

The mossberg 22 magnum i use, loves the 40gr JHP winchesters too. Always had the most reliable kills with them.

The 33gr V max remingtons were shocking in my experience. 1 in 8 tumbled for some reason. Never killed anythin either. And they were an extra $10AUS than the winchesters. But this was out of one gun and its fairly old.

If you find that your gun does like them, then the 40gr ones will be your best bet. Dont know how big a coyote or bobcat is but if they are between the size of rabbits and foxes im sure the 33gr will work ok but the 40 gr will have a higher energy hit.

Im going to try to get ahold of these type of projectiles to make a 22 hornet load for foxes. This should be really effecitve especially on longer shots where our magnum just isnt reliable on.

Federal makes a 50 grainer that works perfectly on coyotes and bobcats.

I have a Marlin 982VS 22 magnum and I have shot and killed a coyote(40+lbs) with the 33 grain V-max load.Shot it in the front at about 80 yards,he did a flip and died on the spot.The entrance wound was three times the size of the bullet,and the 33 grain v-max shoots under an inch at 100 yards,its very accurate.I also shot a Armidllo at about 80 yards with this round,the same thing a very large entrance wound,and suprisingly the bullet didnt pass through(shot broadside).I havent heard of a Remington 40 grain accu tip,but if they make one I'll give it a try.

I've shot many factory loads of .22 WMR from winchester to PMC to those made in Germany (seeking for the best of course). I would recommend some kind of hollow point.

Winchester Supreme 34gr. JHP (probably the most accurate in my rifle)

Remington 40gr. JHP

Federal's are also very accurate in my rifle too but the bullet may be too light.

CCI was exceptional but never the favor in my barrel. Its accuracy is most likely different in other rifles.

One thing I have noticed about shooting wood is it doesn't seem to allow bullets to expand as much as they would on game. Maybe the 30gr bullets would have penitrated less an expanded more on a large varmit. CCI just came out with a 40gr soft nose bullet for the 22mag that expands like a big game bullet (small game bullet I think). The win jhp 40gr has done the same years. Win 32gr seems very effective for smaller pests I shot a porupine once and nocked off a ton of quils I think a 410 with #4 shot works best up close for them. It comes down to either the WIN40jhp or the FED50gr for bobcats and cyotes for me. If I shot some thing I will give a report.

Accuracy is a mater of the individual gun, one may prefer a CCI 30 grain HP, while another likes the Federal 50 grain. My BRNO 611 gave best groups with Federal 30 and 50 grain. Remingtons all were poor in that rifle and Remington was the only brand that didn't come close to its' claimed velocity. I've also gotten a lot of misfires with Remington .22 long rifles so I'm a bit leery of Remington rimfires in general.
I'm inclined to agree that the original 40 grain loads were the best all round compromise. The lightweights shoot flatter but have horrible wind drift. The 50 grain bullets have less drift but a poor trajectory. I like the Federal 50 grain bullet for larger animals but 100 yards is my limit with any .22 mag.