.22LR and different velocities.

P

Pond James Pond

New member
I am about a week away from picking up my reserved Ruger MkIII 512.

I have looked around and my preferred ammo shop has great prices on .22LR by Fiocchi and S&B. Prices are good, but with some variation.

Presently, I don't have a silencer and won't do for some time.

So is there any point in getting ammo with a particular velocity, aside from use with silencers, or should I just go with the cheapest of those two brands when shooting at the range?

Thanks
 
Shooting at the range...buy both and more if you can get it. ee which you and the gun prefer. You have many years to look forward to trying various .22 ammo.

tipoc
 
Ok, so for purely target shooting fun, and more precise practice of my form, trigger release, aim etc, there is no particular benefit in slower or faster rounds...

Cool!
 
At normal pistol shooting ranges, there's no benefit to subsonic ammo. Rifle match ammo is subsonic mostly because a bullet experiences maximum wind drift while going through the sound barrier, form supersonic to subsonic, usually at around 40 yards from the muzzle with high velocity ammo. To avoid that, the bullets are loaded to start off subsonic.
If a pistol barrel is short enough, it may be subsonic at the muzzle even with high velocity ammo.

Match ammo is still higher quality than regular ammo and that counts too, although few people can shoot a pistol accurately enough for match ammo quality to be apparent.
 
Thanks, BLE: very informative!

That does put things in perspective. Mine is a short barrel (5") in .22LR terms, and it is a tiny indoor range, so i'll just go for the cheaper end for now.

The brands on sale are reputable so, that side should be less of a gamble...
 
I use a Ruger 22/45 as a chore gun on the farm and for a trapline gun(I carry and shoot this pistol more than any other). Last year I tried several lower velocity types trying to find something a little easier on the ears/fur than normal HV ammo. Of the types commonly available here in the midwest(USA), Winchester subsonic was the best/easiest to use. The downside is it has almost enough power to cycle the slide and reload. What this means is sometimes it fully cycles and is ready to shoot again and sometimes ejects but doesn't pickup another round-you never know which. Colibri/Super Colibri never ejects but only feeds from the mag if only 2 rounds are loaded and I've had it fail to penetrate the skull of a big coon. Remington LV has potential but not common here. I think I'll round some up on the internet to try next fall since it is closer to what I need for the trapline than the Winchester.
Federal bulk pack copper plated HP is what I'm running otherwise but I still have a bunch of older Remington bulk pack from the 90's. In my various 22's, the Remington works well counter to what a lot of folks are reporting.
 
One thing that has been a concern for me is how clean the ammo shoots since these guns are a pia to break down and clean compared to a glock at least-its all relative. I have found that the CCI ammo seems to shoot cleaner than any of the bulk stuff and most other brands that I have tried. I usually CCI mini mag round nose at the range in my ruger semi autos including 10/22 (that's easier to clean). I use the bulk stuff (federal, winchester, whatever) in my bolt action rifles. They are easier to clean.
 
A new .22 auto pistol will need higher velocity ammo when it's new to help with break in.
Bulk high velocity ammo like Federal Auto Match or Blazer is the way to go.
 
That does put things in perspective. Mine is a short barrel (5") in .22LR terms, and it is a tiny indoor range, so i'll just go for the cheaper end for now.

The brands on sale are reputable so, that side should be less of a gamble...
Click to expand...
If you're not in the US, almost every ammo brand you have (Eley,RWS,SK,Lapua,S&B,Fiocchi,etc) is reasonably reliable. Try a small amount of everything you can get your hands on.
A 5" barrel is just on the edge of allowing high velocity ammunition to remain supersonic. Anything under 350 mps should be subsonic out of that barrel.
 
It's like Mobuck said,,,

The downside is it has almost enough power to cycle the slide and reload. What this means is sometimes it fully cycles and is ready to shoot again and sometimes ejects but doesn't pickup another round-you never know which.
Click to expand...

No matter what other factors you consider,,,
Dirty ammo, noise, etc,,,
This is crucial.

I have seven .22 semi-auto pistols,,,
Only one of will cycle reliably with sub-sonic ammo.

All of them cycle reliably with CCI-MiniMags,,,
The advertised velocity is 1,235 FPS.

All of my guns cycle reliably with Federal Bulk Pack,,,
It's advertised right at 1,200 FPS.

I occasionally try other brand names,,,
It seems that as long as I stay in that 1,200 FPS range I'm okay.

Fiocchi and S&B both make good ammo by my experience,,,
Stay on or above 1,200 FPS and you should be fine.

Have fun with that Ruger. :)

Aarond

.
 
Good news, really.

Faster seems to means cycles better and faster rounds are the cheaper ones here!!

Sweet!!

Once I get my sports shooter licence, I'll experiment with subsonics as it is then that I can buy a Silencer!

All-in-all, really looking forward to this .22 fun and foolishness!!
:D
 
Pond said:
Ok, so for purely target shooting fun, and more precise practice of my form, trigger release, aim etc, there is no particular benefit in slower or faster rounds...
Click to expand...
.22 rimfire firearms are notoriously "picky" about ammunition. Rather than obsess about velocity, buy one or two boxes of as many brands and types as you can find, shoot them all under equal conditions and record the results (or save the targets), and let the gun tell you what it likes.
 
I'm all for trying different ammo types.

However, I can only buy 100 rounds from a shop, at a time, with my existing licence class, so all I want to do is start my search off in the right direction.

It costs me €10 for an hour at the range, and about €9 for a hundred rounds of .22LR. So if I try all sorts without trying to narrow down my choices (about 8 varieties from Fiocchi and S&B alone), I can buy two types at a time, then shoot them at €10 a time. This would make it much more expensive than trying to narrow down my choices first. Hence my question.

Given that, between the two brands in my shop of choice, Fiocchi and S&B, the only difference is seemingly price and velocity, so i thought I might garner some idea of which would be best to start with...

Next Friday will be my test day!!
:D :D
 
The RUGER
®
MARK III pistol is chambered only for the .22 caliber Long
Rifle cartridge, standard velocity or high velocity, manufactured to U.S. Industry
Standards. Do not attempt to load .22 Long, .22 Short, or any other type .22
caliber cartridge into the magazine or in the chamber of the pistol. Use of .22
shot shells is not recommended. See “Warning - Malfunctions,” p. 21.
 
The RUGER
®
MARK III pistol is chambered only for the .22 caliber Long
Rifle cartridge, standard velocity or high velocity, manufactured to U.S. Industry
Standards. Do not attempt to load .22 Long, .22 Short, or any other type .22
caliber cartridge into the magazine or in the chamber of the pistol. Use of .22
shot shells is not recommended. See “Warning - Malfunctions,” p. 21.
Click to expand...

The worst that will happen is that the ammo won't feed and the gun won't cycle. It won't blow up the gun or even damage it.
I have shot lots of shorts, BBcaps, etc, in guns labeled "Long Rifle Only" one bullet at a time.
Super Colibris will even feed in my S&W model 41 but I have to cycle the slide manually after every shot.

Ruger is known for its "lawyer proof" CYA instructions. If I listened to Ruger, I wouldn't be able to shoot reloaded ammo in half my guns.
 
Pond said:
Given that, between the two brands in my shop of choice, Fiocchi and S&B, the only difference is seemingly price and velocity, so i thought I might garner some idea of which would be best to start with...
Click to expand...
I understand your problem, but the fact remains that there is no reliable predictor of which ammo brand and type will shoot best out of any particular rimfire firearm. Given your limitations on how much ammunition you can buy at one time, all I can suggest is that you choose a target that you like and that you know you will always be able to buy, shoot the one or two brands you can get during each range session, and mark and save the targets with date and ammo type so that, as you collect more targets, you'll begin to get a snapshot of which ammunition your pistol likes and doesn't like.

As an example: I am also a member of the forum at M1911.org. Their electronic magazine has recently tested two .22LR "1911" pistols, one by Umarex and bearing the Colt logo, the other the GSG 1911-22. Their reviews give their accuracy results with an assortment of ammunition, and it can be seen from the results tables that accuracy velocity alone is not a reliable predictor of accuracy.

GSG
http://ezine.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=124

Colt
http://ezine.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=86
 
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You need to stay away from bulk ammo anyway with a semi-auto. I know you said you can't buy in bulk and that's just as well. Try each brand and just check out the results. I like high velocity for the 22 auto's. All I shoot in mine are CCI mini-mags. I save the cheap bulk ammo for revolvers.

You have picked out a nice 22 auto give it the ammo it deserves, try and match it up to the CCI Mini-Mag velocity and it should give you years of plinking pleasure.
 
22 auto pistols

22 auto pistols can be finicky about amo. I wouldn't buy a very large quanity untill I have tried that brand amo in that pistol. I also think the light hyper velocity type rounds are a poor choice for a auto loading 22 pistol. There are two isues first which rounds will cycle and feed then acuracy. I have not seen a 22 auto loading pistol that didn't run well on cci minimag. I run my mark 1 ruger on cci standard velocity. I also suspect but don't know for sure that most or all 22 cal. rounds out of a pistol length (4 or 6) inch barrel are in fact subsonic especialy down here at near sea level now that I've said that someone will prove me wrong I don't have a crony to test velocity. I think the recoil impalse from the 40 or 36gr rounds are best to cycle the bolt.
bb
 
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