Thread: 22 Magnum 1885 barrel re line and modern ammunition

In 2020 I brought a vintage rifle that I had been looking long and hard for in NZ
A very rough Winchester 1885 takedown .25 Rimfire
Somewhere in the "Classics Corner" Post there are some images of its shocking exterior state that I had cleaned up to confirm that it was a great candidate for a full restoration
So being a .25 rimfire the bore was in a very poor state and of course ammunition is now all a collectors item
I did get given a whole box of Canadian .25 RF ammunition to try out in the rifle and at least proved that it was fully functional and that the bore was indeed no good at all ( i gave the ballance of the box of ammo back due to its value )
So changing the breech block to center fire and re chambering to 25-20 was not an option

I decided a 22 WRFM aka 22 Magnum would be a really nice caliber to have in an original 1885 Takedown rimfire
And recently I did bore and live a Stevens 044 1/2 from .32 RF to .22 LR very successfully and that required a 1.6mm offset at the breech face to bring the cartridge rim down on to the firing pin correctly

So I bored out the 1885 barrel to 12mm last week and I have the brand new donor 22 center fire barrel on hand to do the long tedious job of offsetting the breech 1.2mm and turning the entire barrel down to being a 12mm liner
I have borrowed a chamber reamer and go / no go gauges

[B]My question is[B] to those of you that are in the know about modern 22 WMRF ammunition
My barrel is 1:14" and the standard twist is generally listed at 1:16"
I'm leaning towards the reasonably conventional 40 Grain loadings but of course will do the smart thing and test a few different flavours to see what this set up likes the most
Will my slightly faster twist 1:14 barrel do the job ?
Going on the idea that you can't over spin a bullet but you can under spin it

But never owned a 22 Mag
And until I re lined the 044 1/2 recently had never really done any gunsmithing on vintage rimfires !
But these are both man sized rimfires and certainly worth the effort

Why reline the barrel? You are changing calibre so rollmarks are incorrect. Collector value I would say is low, so just screw a new one on.

Originally Posted by Got-ya

Why reline the barrel? You are changing calibre so rollmarks are incorrect. Collector value I would say is low, so just screw a new one on.

Its a takedown with the interupted threads and a very nice barrel anyway
And its value to me is huge

.22mag ammunition has come a LOOONG way in last 20 years,before we had 45grn soft points or 45grn soft points and maybe if looked hard some expensive CCI 40grn fast stuff or 50grn slow stuff...now there are even plastic tipped jobbies. I cant for life of me see the slightly faster twist being an issue...it should if anything make terminal performance better due to faster spin making projectiles more volatile.
looks like an awesome project,good on you for doing it,look forward to seeing how it goes.

@akoroa1 the Ruger American Compact in 22 WMR have a 1:14" twist from what I have read.

A few months back I had a good long talk to Hugh Bradley re 22's, 22 Mags, etc etc. Bradley use to make a very nice 22 Mag and it was very accurate. Graham Henry used one for a number of years as a test rifle for the various scopes he wrote about in the Rod and Rifle. Those rifles were very accurate compared to the std off the shelf variety available at the time. The reason they were so accurate is because they were chambered with no leade, ie, when you chambered a round the projectile was already engaged with the rifling. I would suggest giving Hugh a call.

Originally Posted by Husky1600

A few months back I had a good long talk to Hugh Bradley re 22's, 22 Mags, etc etc. Bradley use to make a very nice 22 Mag and it was very accurate. Graham Henry used one for a number of years as a test rifle for the various scopes he wrote about in the Rod and Rifle. Those rifles were very accurate compared to the std off the shelf variety available at the time. The reason they were so accurate is because they were chambered with no leade, ie, when you chambered a round the projectile was already engaged with the rifling. I would suggest giving Hugh a call.

Once I get some suitable ammo on hand I will accurately measure the chamber reamer
It's a modern Clymer reamer and expect a snug fit

I imagine some of the old ones were pretty sloppy in the chamber

Re the twist rate, why not buy a rimfire barrel liner rather than turning down a whole barrel to liner dimensions?
I had a BSA Martini relined from .22WMR to .17HMR to great effect.

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...prod10974.aspx

Originally Posted by hotbarrels

Re the twist rate, why not buy a rimfire barrel liner rather than turning down a whole barrel to liner dimensions?
I had a BSA Martini relined from .22WMR to .17HMR to great effect.

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...prod10974.aspx

Pain in arse to get anything like that into NZ and I can make a liner out of any donor barrel long enough

The 1:14" brand new light sporter barrel was given to me for this

The 1885 is now perfectly bored 12.0mm

It's a bit tricky and time consuming

The factory made liners do no address the issue of lining a 25 rimfire to shoot 22 mag or LR
They would not work without modifications to the breech block

I remember one of the fitters where I worked that rebarelled a stirling 22wmr back about 94. Have a sneaky feeling it came in for destruction by the coppers after a hand in with the barrel chopped but dont hold me to that.
Anyhoo made it a nice tight press fit, head spaced up ok and it was a tack driver.
I see now a method to fit barrels even in Anschutz use a slidey fit and retaining compound with the crosspin.