Never heard of it! - Obscure Firearm Calibers

Rockrivr1

Rockrivr1

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While I'm not exactly a caliber aficionado, I had thought I knew most of the calibers and models of S&W Revolvers. That was until today when I ran across a particular model in a caliber I'd never heard of before. Was a little surprised and to be honest, a little interested.

The Model - S&W Model 53
The Caliber - 22 Remington Jet Magnum

The 22 Rem Jet Magnum is one interesting looking round. Never seen this before. Probably never see it again.

22_Rem_Jet_1.jpg

The S&W Model 53 is also interesting. Back in the day they used to sell inserts for the cylinder so you could also fire 22 Magnums through it as well. This setup nowadays runs for over $4K with the inserts. Not to mention that 22 Rem Jet Magnum is nearly unobtanium. Gunbroker has round going for ridiculous money. While I love collecting S&W revolvers, I think this particular model is a pass!

SWJM.jpg
 
Lennypeters said:
I remember reading about it in Cooper on Handguns. Pretty sure the case is based on a necked down.357. Mr Cooper wasn't impressed.
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Correct - .22 Remington Jet - Wikipedia
And the dies are readily available

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Broc Tuah said:
There is a Contender barrel for it.
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I'm still biting myself in the a$$ for that I didn't buy a 10" TC barrel in .221 Rem Fireball, along with several hundred Rem factory cartridges from an estate.
I had bought 5 pistols and several thousand rounds from this estate on that day already and decided to let the TC barrel and ammo go. Damn!
 
JuergenG said:
I'm still biting myself in the a$$ for that I didn't buy a 10" TC barrel in .221 Rem Fireball, along with several hundred Rem factory cartridges from an estate.
I had bought 5 pistols and several thousand rounds from this estate on that day already and decided to let the TC barrel and ammo go. Damn!
Click to expand...
You can still have a barrel made.

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Broc Tuah said:
You can still have a barrel made.
Click to expand...
I know and SSK is a known capacity when it comes to Contender barrels. It's now the cost of ammo holding me off as I'm not reloading and my go-to guy has passed 3-4 years ago.
R.I.P. Alfred, this would have been a challenging project for you. I'm resorting to the 14" BBL in .223 instead.
 
I'm kinda retarded so I'm posting on purpose so someone can laugh/and or call me out but one revolver I inherited a while back is a 30 caliber pistol (?) like the big 30 caliber WW2 catridge but a pistol cartridge, if that makes sense?
I also got another my buddy said "oh you'll NEVER find that caliber"..and I opened the fire cabinet and there I had two boxes, I forget, I'll check tonight.....
 
Saw a couple of model 53s for short money recently. One of the members here wants one. Apparently the 22 jet backed up and locked up the cylinder. Ruger makes the Super Redhawk.in 22 Hornet.
 
My Uncle has/had one that I shot. It had quiet some blast, but recoil felt like nothing.

The benefit of a .22 bottleneck in an L frame with only 6 shots is, well, nonexistent and I can see why it never caught on.

.218 Bee makes more sense, but its parent case (.32-20) is far less popular than .357 Mag.
 
Years ago there was a guy at the ranges with a Model 53 muzzle blast and flash was quite impressive. How about the 22 Johnson an M1 cabinet case necked down to 22 cal.
 
PaulR said:
I'm kinda retarded so I'm posting on purpose so someone can laugh/and or call me out but one revolver I inherited a while back is a 30 caliber pistol (?) like the big 30 caliber WW2 catridge but a pistol cartridge, if that makes sense?
I also got another my buddy said "oh you'll NEVER find that caliber"..and I opened the fire cabinet and there I had two boxes, I forget, I'll check tonight.....
Click to expand...

.38-55 Winchester I believe is the one.
 
kingson said:
I looked and I only had shorts. Didn't know they made extra shorts. Looked it up in "Cartridges of the World" book and the extra shorts are really short.
View attachment 924927
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They fit a Chicago Palm Pistol c. 1890

An old school friend, passed now, hand made a few rounds for me by cutting down .32 rf blanks and casting balls to seat. They're the cutest little rounds. They'd probably smart real good if you were shot at close range.

But sooooooo cool!


 
I have an out of print manual on wildcat cartridges. There are some interesting flavors to choose from.
 
Ones that I'd never heard of that stuck out to me

,25 and .32 NAA. Novel idea, but a faster .25 is still just .25, however .380 necked down to .32 made all the sense in the world for tiny micro pistols 20+ years ago and still does today.

.17 HM2. Unlike the .17 HMR which is a .17 necked down from .22 Mag, the HM2 is a .17 necked from a .22 LR case. Still get the same quality jacketed .17 bullets, just going slower, but the ammo costs a third of what .17 HMR does.

5.45x18. Since the PSM pistol is so rarely seen the cartridge for it is too. Ian McCollum did a video of the PSM pistol and I was impressed by both the pistol and the caliber.
 
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