I'm thinking about rebarreling a 22 magnum with a quality barrel and am wondering how a 14" twist compares to a 16" (std) twist?

Has anyone had experience with using a gun with a twist faster than 16"?

Mark, unless you plan to experiment with reloading the rimfire with heavier than normal weight bullets I can't see it worth the effort. Talk to a barrel amnufacturer and get their opinion of the gains and loss possibilities.

1:14 is a standard twist for .22 WMR. For instance, it's what Ruger uses on their Model 77.

CZ uses 1:16.

All of the Lilja custom .22 WMR barrels are 1:15.

John

I would recommend the 1-14 twist. There is no real point in the 1-16 twist unless it is a 22 short.

There is an older thread here about "reloading the .22 WMR" for better accuracy. Basically you pull the crummy factory 40 grain bullets and replace with a decent bullet.
You can shoot decent groups at 50 yards with some factory ammo but they suck at 100 yards.
If you go after a quality barrel think about a custom match chamber or maybe design your own chamber reamer and get it made. I have a 640K Mossberg that shoots much better with 45 grain Sierra SMP (discontinued) and 40 gain Soerra HP bullets than it does with the factory bullets. It requires the bullets to be seated much longer than the magazine to touch the rifling. I ran the numbers on the bullet length and it is easy to get a bullet too long for a 16" twist. You can see the bullets are not overly stable if sharp pointed at 45 grains and above.

OPEN to FULL PAGE to read the chart

.22 Winchester Rimfire Magnum




SF < 1.0 Bullet is not stabilized
SF > 1.0 Bullet is marginally stabilized
SF > 1.3 = Bullet is fully stabilized
SF > 1.5 = Bullet is maximally stabilized




Bullet Stability


BULLET BULLET EST Stability Min
Brand Desc FORM Weight Length VEL TWIST DIA Factor Twist

WIN 22 WMR FACTORY FMJ 40 0.455 1783 16 0.224 3.98 31.93
SIERRA Hornet Semi point 40 0.496 1783 16 0.224 2.70 26.30
SIERRA HIGH VELOCITY HP 40 0.575 1783 16 0.224 1.39 18.86
SIERRA HIGH VELOCITY SMP 45 0.596 1655 16 0.224 1.29 18.16
SIERRA HIGH VELOCITY Spitzer 45 0.632 1655 16 0.224 0.99 15.91
SIERRA HIGH VELOCITY SMP 50 0.643 1650 16 0.224 1.02 16.12
SIERRA HIGH VELOCITY Spitzer 50 0.680 1650 16 0.224 0.79 14.22
WIN 5.56 FMJBT 55 0.743 1550 16 0.224 0.57 12.07


IM me if you would rather have the Excel file.