Rimfire truck gun

S

Shotgunner12

New member
I have been lookin at 22 magnums. I don't need another one but I do want one. I am set on getting a clip fed rifle. Was looking real serious at a ruger American or maybe the savage 93f. The only thing I am leery about the 22 magnum is that bullets are getting about as scarce as a coyote on a suicide misson coming to the call.
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Thats when a savage b mag in .17 wsm caught my eye. Pretty interesting little gun. And i can get bullets for it. After a quick search I found some accuracy problems with it but alot of decently accurate ones too. I was also wondering how they kill. I know a 22 magnum kills better than it should (if i do my part) can the 17 wsm do the same or is it just a wannabe 22 mag. Any input on any of these rifles would be appreciated.
 
Marlin .22 mag gets my vote. I have tried every .22 mag loading that has been offered and the winchester 40gr jhp's are the way to go. If you go the .17wsm route all I have to say is good luck. Maybe they are better now but the one I bought and the one savage sent me to replace the first one were to put it blountly.. A POS You stand a better chance throwning rocks than using a .17wsm. But that's just my opinion, along with a few thousand others.
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And welcome to PM.
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Ruger American get my vote. I'll have one in HMR one day. Not in truck gun price range but Ruger chambers the wsm now.
 
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I have a 17 WSM that I sent in a couple weeks ago. They are replacing it with a new one. Mine is a stainless bull barrel bmag. I am hoping that it shoots better than the one I sent in. If I get it back and it don't shoot better I am going for the 17hornet. I have two friends that have the bmag sporter barrel and they shoot great with no troubles. Both of them are shooting three shots within a dime at 100yards. I do have to say that its pretty brutal on small game. Head shots and you will be ok with rabbits squirrel etc.
 
I also have a savage 22mag that I really like however like you said before ammo is very hard to find and its getting expensive. I usually shoot the hornady 30 grain vmax out of mine and its a tack driver. love the gun. my favorite gun in the cabinet is my 17hmr for a truck gun. Im no gun expert but love the 17HMR. Obviously they have their limitations but I really like the 17hmr.
 
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Cz 455 Varmint .22 Mag gets my vote! Too many plastic parts on Savages and all of the Savages I've owned had issues. Ruger is good if you plan on bedding it and doing a trigger job on it. Stock Ruger triggers suck! Avoid the bmag in my opinion. Better off paying more and getting the Ruger 77/17wsm, but will still need to bed it and do trigger job for better accuracy. I have the Cz 455 Varmint in .22 mag and the rifle is a tack driver!

Edit....... Sorry, just noticed you said you were looking for a 'truck gun'. That Ruger wsm is definitely not a truck gun. That cz 455 is around $500. Not sure if that's what you were looking to spend but I'd say it's the most reliable, accurate and best built for the price.
 
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My daughter has a Bmag (won at a PM convention) that we've been playing with. Accuracy is not its problem, but that's about all I can say good. It's clunky, cheaply made, and unpleasant to operate. Even the typically excellent Accutrigger sucks. But when I can get it to chamber a round and work past the gritty POS trigger, it'll smack the crap out of prairie dogs at some pretty impressive ranges.

That said, I much prefer the 93 series .17 HMR.
 
how far are you planning to be needing to shoot this truck gun? what size critters do you need to be able to dispatch with it?


the 17 WSM is definitely more than a hopped up 22 mag - which is where i feel the 17hmr falls into the mix - but depending on your needs, for a RF truck gun a semiauto 22lr may be the ticket.


you can cause a fair amount of grief with a 10/22 when it comes to critters. generally speaking its a pretty rugged little firearm so in that respect they fit the truck gun needs reasonably well. the takedown version goes even a step further in portability department. its magazine fed, and the BX25 mags are just short of spectacular as far as high cap rimfire mag reliability goes.

my heavy barrel 10/22 is minute of eyeball at 50 yds & has a kill count that is only surpassed by the model 60 i used the same way growing up. yes you'll likely have to pull the trigger a few times to put down tougher critters like raccoons, groundhogs or opossums - but they are easy firearms to do super quick follow ups with. very little that gets within 60-75 yds of that rifle gets away as long as i do my part behind the trigger. and with good ammo and a solid rest i've taken successful shots out quite a bit further.

just something to chew on





oh ya, welcome to PM
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Thanks for all the comments. I'll be wanting to shoot not much farther than 150 yards. More times than not 75 or so. That's why i have been wanting to go with the 22 mag. I love the one i have but it's tube fed and 22 mag ammo is hard to find. That's why the 17 wsm caught my eye. I'm not a big fan of the 17 hmr. But ain't really gave the round a huge chance. I've just dabbled with it and I'm biased towards .22 mags. I've fell in love with that bullet from anything from squirrels to the occasional coyote. I shoot alot of coons and skunks. The cz is probably a shade out of my price range but I won't count it out. I've searched some more and found that if you can get it to shoot straight the 17 wsm can kill a coyote with a good shot. If i can get a rifle that's accurate enough to take a neck shot it'll do. I like a neck shot even on deer with a centerfire.
 
I've killed more stuff with a .22mag and .17hmr but I have to say the .17wsm is my favorite rimfire round. A buddy of mine has a stainless heavy barreled B-Mag that is capable of shooting 3 bullets through the same hole at 100 yards. I've shot a grey fox,a coyote at right around 100 yards,a 50 pound beaver and destroyed an armadillo with it. Along with numerous prairie dogs and other small varmints. As far as carnage goes it's pretty impressive. But I love my Marlin .22mag too and have killed all sorts of varmints and even a few predators with it. So I'd look at whatever ammo is most available and go from there.

I won't say the B-Mag is the best rifle I've ever shot. But I think for a truck rifle it would serve the purpose just fine if you can find an accurate one. Which I haven't seen one that wasn't out of the 3 I've shot but maybe those guys just got good ones. I really don't know. All I do know is the killing power it has over the .22mag or .17hmr is noticeable. But for skunks and stuff any of them will work. I'd base my choice off of what ammo nobody else is buying much of personally.
 
Originally Posted By: DesertRamMy daughter has a Bmag (won at a PM convention) that we've been playing with. Accuracy is not its problem, but that's about all I can say good. It's clunky, cheaply made, and unpleasant to operate. Even the typically excellent Accutrigger sucks. But when I can get it to chamber a round and work past the gritty POS trigger, it'll smack the crap out of prairie dogs at some pretty impressive ranges.

That said, I much prefer the 93 series .17 HMR.

DesertRam, I understand and can appreciate your dislike for the trigger in your daughters Bmag. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the one in mine BUT they are fixable. I just had mine apart and cleaned up the contact surfaces and polished them out. Put it all back together and tested it with my Lyman digital pull gauge. In four different pulls it ranged between 1.14lbs and 1.18lbs and there isn't so much as a hint of creep. If you don't want to mess with it yourself, I'd send it to Scott at S&S he doesn't charge all that much for a trigger job and since he's a Savage specialist he'll do whatever else you want done, too.
http://www.savagegunsmithing.com/Savage_Trigger_Job.html
 
I have a Volquartsen and three 10-22 magnums for calling predators. All of these rifles have either night vision or thermals. I just got a Savage A-22 for my truck gun. It has a conventional scope on it. When I first got it I had trouble with light strikes. About half the time the round would not fire. I had to take it completely apart and degrease the thing and it seems like that did the trick. It is very accurate and it has never once thought about miss-feeding, so they got that part nailed down....but it's still a Savage, so you know full well they just absolutely had to drop the ball on something!! It has a self ejecting magazine. There is this cheesy little plastic latch thing made on the magazine that releases if it is either touched or happens to be looked at wrong. I have had this gun for several months and do not know why I haven't lost the magazine yet. That aside, it is not a bad rifle for a semi-auto 22 mag made by the kings of cost effective guns.
You might want to re-think your 150 yard range quest when dealing with 22 magnums....my experience is that they start to seriously drop after about 110 yards and you need either a ballistic reticle or external turrets to be accurate at 150 if you are going to use a "normal for the caliber" zero.
 
Another reason to consider the 17 HMR is availability of ammo is not only cheaper but typically much easier to find for the 17 HMR or 17 WSM than it is for 22 mag.
 
I am a fan of the 22 mag for shorter range calling. I would also echo an earlier comment that the Winchester 40 gr HP is the cats meow.
I shoot an H&K 300 in 22 mag and it is definitely not a truck gun, it is way too nice and expensive since the cannot be imported any more but man is it a shooter.
So, my comments are more in support of the 22 mag as a caliber, not a specific gun. While ammo is scarce, it is also not like you are going out and shooting it like you would a 22 LR at cans and bottles. Or, at least I don't burn ammo up in mine like that any more.
Surely one day the ammo will come back and be more plentiful so I would not hesitate to purchase a 22 mag rifle.
Good luck with your choice.
 
Originally Posted By: WyoBullWhile ammo is scarce, it is also not like you are going out and shooting it like you would a 22 LR at cans and bottles. Or, at least I don't burn ammo up in mine like that any more.
Surely one day the ammo will come back and be more plentiful so I would not hesitate to purchase a 22 mag rifle.
Good luck with your choice.

LOL WyoBull, you clearly don't have a PMR-30 do you. I had to put mine away because I was burning through my stash of 22mag ammo at wayyyy to fast a rate. Those 30 round mags sure are sweet but holy cow do they burn up the ammo and I just don't think it's right to quit shooting before the slide locks back.
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The last 3 or 4 months I have noticed 22mag ammo on the shelves every so often. I bought 10 boxes at Cabelas a couple months ago and 3 boxes of CCI maxi mags at Wallymart just last week so it's definitely getting a little easier to find 22mag stuff but still nothing like it is for the two rimfire 17's.
 
The .22 mag ammo is starting to show itself-CCI brand. I've been going between Wisconsin and Colorado and have seen it in both places. Wal mart has had it in both places and I have also seen it in WI at two different Gander Mts recently.
 
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