.22 magnum velocity in short barrels?

W

waddy

New member
Has anyone had the opportunity to put one of the short barrels across a chronograph? I'm thinking of the North American Arms little revolvers chambered in .22 magnum, but more especially one of the Smith J Frames.

I would be really interested in knowing if the magnum velocity generated out of such short barrels is actually great enough to be significantly better than a standard .22LR.

I don't want to start a discussion over whether a .22 is or is not a self defense round. Sometimes (very seldom, but once in awhile) a very small revolver is the only thing that makes sense for me to carry. Much better than nothing! The rest of the time, which is pretty much all my waking hours, I carry either a full size 1911 or a 4 1/4" 1911, so a self defense caliber discussion is not relevant to my question.

Is there a significant difference in velocity between a .22LR and a .22 magnum out of one of the short barrels? Is there even enough velocity generated to allow one of the .22 magnum hollow points to mushroom? If anyone has had the opportunity to run this over a chronograph, I would really appreciate your input. Thanks.
 
Welcome to The Firing Line!

I don't know for sure about a "short barrel" but I imagine the .22mag will have a significantly higher velocity and a better bullet to boot. At least you could tell the difference with the old Single Six my brother has.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome Sport45. I also have a Ruger Single Six with a .22 magnum cylinder, and like you said, there is a significant difference there. I am just curious whether the advantage is lost for practical purposes in such short barrels with extrememly short powder burn time for the magnum loads.:confused:
 
velocity loss likely follow the...

100fps per 1" of barrel length reduction.

I'll try to chronograph correlation between box of .22LR from 77/22, to 10" to 6", then a 4"


[I kmow too much time on my hands!] :D
 
I've chrono'd 22 Mag out of a Smith and Wesson 351 pd (almost 2" barrel).
The barrel is too short to take advantage of the cartridge.
The almost 2" barrel had similar velocities as my Ruger Mark III and S&W 63 - both of which are 22LR. The barrels are longer on the 22 LR handguns.
 
New self-defense .22 Magnum ammo from Speer and Hornady may improve the situation for short barrels. I'd like to see more real-world chrono and field testing results, but I'm using the Speer Gold Dots in my NAA Black Widow for now.
 
Welcome to the forum Waddy.

If you will look on the NAA website they have the chono results for several 22/22mag loads listed. And the 22 mags do get higher velocity than the 22LR rounds.
 
Rat beat me to it on the NAA site but except for a deep conceal, you don't want to even know it's there guns like the NAA revolvers the .22M is a complete waste of space in the handgun world. Just get a .38 and be done with it.

LK
 
As a rough rule of thumb, a .22 WMR from a short barrel produces roughly the same velocity as a .22 LR from a rifle.

Box of Hornady Critical Defense .22 WMR 45 gr I have claims 926fps at the muzzle from a 1 7/8" barrel. They claim 1222fps from a 24" barrel.

The new Hornady and Speer loads are designed to achieve maximum velocities from short barreled pistols.
 
A .22LR fired from a two inch barrel ten feet away will penetrate four layers of denim and +five- inches of wet newsprint. That translates to 7.5 inches of penetration in gel. This is enough to hit vitals and cause big problems. Contact fired up a nose or into an ear, it gets even worse. Trust me. I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and lived to tell about it.
 
Box of Hornady Critical Defense .22 WMR 45 gr I have claims 926fps at the muzzle from a 1 7/8" barrel. They claim 1222fps from a 24" barrel.
Click to expand...
The 1224fps is the velocity at 100 yards. They show the muzzle velocity as 1700fps from a 24" barrel.
 
22mags out of a NAA mini revolver have a "value added" effect due to the large fireball that comes out with the bullet.


DSC00380.jpg
 
Thanks Rat for the information on the forum. I hadn't even thought about there being a forum on the site. There are some prettying interesting results posted there. Thanks again.
 
I chronographed the new Speer 22 MAG 40 GR GDHP-SB ammo:
From my 1 7/8 " barreled S&W 351PD - 1087 fps.
This is an improvement over 40 grain (same weight) CCI Maxi-Mag HV Total Metal Jacket which I have chrono'd at 1008 fps.
 
The NAA web site has a velocity section for each revolver that gives the speed of many loads. Good, but not necessarily up to date re the latest ammo available.
 
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