Rechambering a .22 LR to .22 Magnum...

[RJM52]

I know it can be done having read many of Paco's articles but does anyone have the name of a good smith who can fit an extra cylinder to a Colt Diamondback and rechamber it... A friend has a 4" .22 Diamondback and just found a cylinder...would like a two cylinder gun..

Thanks...Bob Makowski

[1886]

Try Jack Huntington, Grass Valley Ca. http://www.jrhgunmaker.com/

[Lefty Dude]

You may have a problem with the bore size. That Colt will have a .220"-.221" bore groove diameter as it is a true 22LR chambering.
The 22 mag. is .224" and shoots jacketed bullets. Ruger & Other's who supply a convertible package with dual 22 cylinders have .224" bore grooves.
This would cause excessive pressures on a very fine Colt, keep it as it is and buy a 22 Mag Revolver.
I doubt you will find a Gunsmith who would do this job.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

Is the cylinder window wide enough in a Diamondback to accommodate a .22WMR? Perhaps it is. I think I recall that there was a factory sample gun in .22WMR that never made it to production.

[RJM52]

If you check the first Shooters Bible in which the Diamondback was listed, it was chambered in .22 Magnum...the last one I saw for sale was $6K....

One day about 12 years ago a friend who had been looking for a 6" .22 Diamondback called me up saying he had just passed up a nice 4" a few days before as he really wanted a 6" and this one was .22 Magnum and he didn't want to pay the extra money for .22 Magnum ammo... When I finally recovered from the shock I asked him where he had seen the gun and told him what it was it was extremely rare... He called the dealer back and it was gone...$250.00....

Thanks for the information...I'll let my friend know...

Bob

[Buck Elliott]

CAN you? --- yes.

SHOULD you? -- depends.

WAaaayyy back in 1959, I had a Colt Frontier Scout. chambered in .22 rimfire, of course. I wanted a gun chambered for the newly-minted .22 WMR -- of course.

An uncle of mine was an auto mechanic and a fair hand at simple machining chores. We took some measurements. With a bit of judicious grinding, He turned a 1/4" drill bit into a passable .22 WMR chambering reamer. VOILA! as they say in France...!!! Colt Frontier Scout in .22 WMR. Shot like a champ. Some years later, I managed to find another .22 RF cylinder for the little gun, and -----BINGO! -- Dual-cylinder convertible.

I nearly wore that gun out, between cylinders, and finally sold it to a neighbor for $30.00

[KSRtrd]

Had a single six once, would shoot 22 wmr right, wasn't terribly accurate with the 22 LR cylinder. Swapped it off for a nice duramatic. Always wondered why it had a preference for 22 WMR.

[shooter]

My uncle wanted a .22 mag cylinder for his Ruger Bearcat, so he found an extra cylinder for relatively cheap, bought a reamer from Brownells or Midway or somewhere, and reamed out the extra cylinder himself. Works like a champ.

[Buck Elliott]

Had a single six once, would shoot 22 wmr right, wasn't terribly accurate with the 22 LR cylinder. Swapped it off for a nice duramatic. Always wondered why it had a preference for 22 WMR.

Because the bore was oversize for the .22 rf bullets.
Matched to the larger .22 WMR slugs.
(see above...)

[tman]

not to hijack the thread, but i'm looking for a magnum cylinder for my colt new frontier

[Rusty]

MY son had a Ruger Bisley Single Six that only came with one cylinder. When I got it home I realized this and called the store where I had purchased it. the guy said he'd check. after checking he called me back and said that the Bisley is considered a target pistol and it only comes with the LR cylinder. After a little checking on Ebay we found a magnum cylinder for around $35. When we got the cylinder it dropped right in and worked fine. IIRC someone on this board bought it. Extraction when using the magnum cylinder was a little stiffer than with the LR's but not impossible. I doubt it would ever be a problem with a Ruger or a Colt as both are overbuilt for a .22.

[Lefty Dude]

They still make Ruger's, Colt has not made a 22 Snake in years.

If it were my piece, I would not subject it to the added stress of the 22 mag. pressure.

[RJM52]

I own several .22/.22 Magnum (S&W, USFA, Ruger) combo guns and all of them shoot both rounds very well. Back in the 1970s a friend had a Ruger with two cylinders that shot .22 Magnums like a house a fire and .22 Long Rifles like a shotgun pattern... I did have one 4 5/8" blue Ruger Single-Six that shot Magnums very well and .22 LRs just ok... But not rear as bad as my friend's gun would....

Bob

[John in MS]

Out of curiosity, does anyone here have any experience with re-chambering a .22LR rifle to .22 WRM?

John

[shooter]

Out of curiosity, does anyone here have any experience with re-chambering a .22LR rifle to .22 WRM?

John

I don't personally, but I was there for a good part of the process when my uncle did his Bearcat. He just used a hand reamer with the lubricant for that type of cutting. It was a time consuming process doing it by hand, but you have more control if you're not that experienced in that type of work. If you're using a power tool with a reamer, you can open it up too much if you're not careful. Just takes time and patience, but his works and shoots great.

[Lefty Dude]

I own several .22/.22 Magnum (S&W, USFA, Ruger) combo guns and all of them shoot both rounds very well. Back in the 1970s a friend had a Ruger with two cylinders that shot .22 Magnums like a house a fire and .22 Long Rifles like a shotgun pattern... I did have one 4 5/8" blue Ruger Single-Six that shot Magnums very well and .22 LRs just ok... But not rear as bad as my friend's gun would....

Bob

Yes; and they all have .224" bores, not .220". One of the reasons Colt/Snakes are more accurate is they have tight bores. I have slugged .38/.357 Colts with .355" bores. I have a S&W Model 13, old style that slugs .3545". I reload and shoot 9mm bullets, otherwise the recoil is great from the back pressure. I got it cheap, I can see why now.
That 22 Snake might be tighter than .220",depending on age.

[mescalero1]

Yes,
I have done rifles, works fine.

[Modoc ED]

I didn't read every post above so maybe this has been said.

The rim of the .22 Magnum is a bit thicker that the rim of the .22LR so it may be necessary to remove a bit of metal from the back plate of a revolver. Not too much -- just a hair's width -- and then polish it.

[Buck Elliott]

Rechambered an old Winchester Model 69 to .22 WMR. Of course that made it a single shot ftom then on, but it worked fine.

As to the question of headspace, a lot of .22s seem to run a little long in that dimension. I have never encountered headspace problems in older guns so converted.

[Modoc ED]

As to the question of headspace, a lot of .22s seem to run a little long in that dimension. I have never encountered headspace problems in older guns so converted.

Doesn't mean others haven't.

[Buck Elliott]

Nope -- it doesn't. Just MY experience.

[RJM52]

Friend purchased a new S&W M63 just about the time they were discontinued. First time it was fired was during a NRA Basic Pistol class. The instructor who was using the gun brought it up to me because it was splitting brass...I knew right off what was wrong...and was right. The 63 had been shipped from the factory with a 651 .22 Magnum cylinder. My friend ordered a new 63 cylinder fro Brownells with all the parts and had a local gun smith install it.. The gun is accurate with both cylinders.

When gun smith Austin Belhert passed away his daughter sold everything off on one of the auction sites. I was lucky enough to get two M651 cylinders with the stars. Sold one to a friend in Oregon who fit it to a M63 that he had bought from me some years before...shoots just fine with Magnums.. This spring when my local Smith Mechanic comes back from Florida I plan on having him get the rest of the parts to do mine...

Quite frankly the difference between .220, .2225 and .224 when you are talking about a low power cartridge like rimfires, Magnum or not, with the amount of steel that surrounds them, nothing is going to happen but the bullet go down the barrel...

Look how much steel is used in a North American Arms Mini-Revolver...and some of you are worried about a Diamondback made to shoot .38s because of 4/1000 of an inch...

My friend received a reply from the above listed smith...can be done... Thank you 1886 for that lead...

Bob

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I don't think anyone is worried about the Magnum blowing up a cylinder. I think the issue that people are pointing out is that a barrel sized .224" for a 22 Magnum won't likely provide match accuracy for a 22 LR bullet which is undersized. I'm sure the LR ammo will travel generally to where it's pointed. In the reverse, people are pointing out that a Colt Diamondback probably has a .220" or so tight bore which may be the reason they are considered a rather accurate .22 revolver. I think that squeezing a .224" jacketed bullet (not copper plated lead) down a .220" bore is probably OK, but also not conducive to accuracy. There are probably some copper plated lead .22 Magnum rounds that may show better performance down the .220" barrel simply because they will deform to fit easier than the jacketed slug.

Though I'd be intrigued by a .22 Magnum Diamondback conversion, I've got a .22 Jet to cover that 22 standard/magnum area. Of course, it takes those crazy .222" Hornady pills to reload it in lieu of normal .224" jacketed stuff. It shoots pretty well with both the .22 LR and the Jet cylinders probably because of the bore being sized properly for both rounds. It's trigger is not in the same class an any of my Colt Diamondbacks though.

I'd suggest getting this cylinder and start to cuttin' with plenty of tap oil.

[Buck Elliott]

IF you run into headspace problems when rechambering to .22 WMR, it's an easy "problem" to solve... The WMR chamber reamer will have a step to cut a relief for the rim, if needed. So don't sweat the small stuff....

[RJM52]

McNutjob...100% agree....Bob

[John in MS]

Thanks, guys, for all the info! I was wondering if older .22's such as the Win 69, etc. could
be turned into .22 WRM, and if so, whether they'd be accurate. Interesting!

John

[Buck Elliott]

You give up the "repeater" part of the rifle, in almost ALL cases, but the 69 I had was wonderfully accurate out to 150 yards. It accounted for many a rabbit over the years.

[RJM52]

..an old post but those of you who responded may want to know that my friend successfully had the operation done on the Diamondback and it is now a two cylinder gun.

The only problem is that since the Magnum rounds have a little harder brass there has been some misfire problems... That is still being worked on.

On the matter of my 63, I finally got the gun over to a very long time local Smith smith and he installed the 651 cylinder I had. Works 100% and is very accurate and shows no abnormal pressure signs.

Bob

[Hobie]

Thanks for the update!