Choosing .22 Long Rifle Ammunition, Part 1

There are probably more varieties of .22 Long Rifle rimfire ammunition made today than any other caliber, and the newcomer is often puzzled as to which to buy. There's solid point and hollow point, subsonic, standard velocity, high velocity, and hypervelocity.Some .22 LR rounds are as cheap as 3 cents each; some cost over  half a dollar each.

Some shooters just buy the cheapest, and for many uses that's probably not a bad idea. This post is for those newcomers who would like a bit of advice in deciding what to purchase. First, a little background.

Budget .22LR Ammunition

Let's start with the budget or bulk-pack .22LR,  like Winchester "white box," Remington  bulk pack or CCI Blazer .22:

This ammunition typically comes bulk packed, with 500 or more rounds in a box. The Blazer seen above can be had as cheaply as $17 for a box of 525 rounds. Most budget .22LR is reliable, which means it'll go off every time you pull the trigger. Some cheap .22LR doesn't do that. The primer compound isn't fully distributed into the rim, and there can be dead spots in some rounds. I've never had that problem with Blazer, but I have seen it in some very cheap ammunition.

Performance wise, the typical budget round propels a 40 grain round nosed lead bullet at around 1100 feet per second in a rifle barrel, generating around 1100 foot-pounds of energy.

What's the budget stuff good for? Plinking, casual target shooting, practice, anywhere high accuracy isn't a priority. A friend uses it in practice for .22 "pin shooting," and switches to CCI Standard Velocity for actual competition.

Standard Velocity Ammunition:

Like the budget .22, this ammunition pretty much duplicates the ballistics of the original .22 LR cartridge; the biggest difference is tighter quality control. Velocity is also generally just under 1100 feet per second, and the bullet is a 40grain round nosed projectile. Standard velocity ammunition is good for informal target shooting where extreme accuracy isn't needed, or for small game hunting of smaller animals at moderate ranges. It's not too loud and generally has a muzzle energy of around 100 foot-pounds.

High Velocity

Moving up in energy, we come to high velocity rounds, like the popular CCI MiniMag and Winchester Super-X:

These come in both solid and hollow point version, with velocities in the 1200-1300 fps ranges, and muzzle energies (in a rifle) of 120-130 foot-pounds. Typically they're copper plated in order to prevent leading, as the standard wax-type lubricants used on .22 rounds lose effectiveness at higher velocities. These rounds are the choice of most hunters, as they carry more energy than standard velocity rounds,  and they shoot a bit flatter. The downside is that the higher pressures make them significantly louder than standard velocity rounds. They're a good choice for small game out to 50 yards, or perhaps a bit farther. The hollow point versions are a god choice for hunting, as they transfer more energy to the target.

Hypervelocity

Next are the hyper-velocity rounds, a category that was introduced by the CCI Stinger, though just about every .22 maker offers a version now. Some, like Aguila, offer two versions. Hypervelocity ammunition typically has a muzzle velocity in a rifle barrel of between 1400and 1750 feet per second, and muzzle energies from 180 to 200 foot-pounds. That's .380 territory:

There's a limit to how much pressure a .22 rimfire care can withstand before bursting, so hypervelocity .22s typically attain their high velocity through the use of a lighter bullet, typically 30grains. The lower mass of the bullet helps keep pressure down.

The CCI Stinger uses a 32grain bullet and a non-standard longer case to keep overall cartridge length of the round the same as the standard .22LR. This can lead to problems, as illustrated by the caution from Ruger:

Hypervelocity .22s are sold as hunting cartridges, as they have a flatter trajectory than high-speed .22s, and higher initial muzzle energy. There's a trade off, though;  the light 30 grain bulllets also lose energy faster than the standard 40 grain bullets, and aren't as effective at maximum ranges. Accuracy usually suffers when compared to slower rounds, but this can vary from gun to gun.

Another popular use for these cartridges is personal defense for those people who for reasons of age or health cannot handle the recoil of a heavier weapon. A hypervelocity .22 in a small revolver is more effective than a lot of the standard defensive cartridges of the past, like the .32 Long or the .38 S&W.

Those are the most common types of .22LR ammunition today. In Part 2 we'll look at some of the specialty rounds available.