.22Mag Ammo test

Rangie

New member
Decided to do a little armature testing to find the best carry load for my 2" barrel .22mag snubbie. I picked these as the most likely candidates-

CCI Maxi-Mag +V HP 30gr.
CCI Maxi-Mag TNT 30gr.
CCI Gold Dot 50gr.
Remington Premier Ballistic tip 30gr.
Winchester Supreme JHP 34gr.

All rounds were fired into a stack of newspaper that had been soaked for about 36 hours. Distance was about six feet. Sorry no Jell-O test. I was going to try it, got the recipe went to the grocery store then figured what it was going to cost. The stuff I read on the web seems to indicate that wet newsprint is decent second choice and should give about 75% of the penetration of ballistic gelatin. For what that's worth.

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*Winchester Supreme JHP 34gr.
Penetrated- 5"
expansion - .362
Bullet expanded and held together nicely. Large wound channel with expansion within the first inch.

*CCI Maxi-Mag TNT 30gr.
Penetration- 5"
Expansion- Frag.
Bullet/Jacket separation. Only the jacket was recovered, large wound channel expansion within the first inch

*CCI Gold Dot 50gr.
Penetration- 10"
Expansion- .223
No expansion, bullet appeared to yaw in the last few inches.

*CCI Maxi-Mag +V HP 30gr.
Penetration- 6"
Expansion-.285
Jacket/Core seperation jacket not recovered

*Remington Premier Ballistic tip 30gr.
Penetration- 8"
Expansion- .223
Plastic tip not recovered

Most of the rounds seemed to penetrate more than I thought they would. I don't know if that's because the .22 Mag. kicks or maybe the newspaper was a little too wet. I meant to do the testing two days ago but got sidetracked.

The wound channels from the Winchester and TNT rounds were very impressive. I never would have guessed a .22 did that. :what:

The TNT round has been my carry load for awhile now but I might switch to the Winchester supreme if more testing indicates good ignition reliability and accuracy in my gun. I've thought about switching for more penetration but the JHP's are pretty impressive. Or maybe mixing rounds in the cylinder ?
 
hmmmm, i like the looks of the winchester. i may go away from the tnt's for the winchesters. thanks for sharing......
 
I got basically the same results as you with my 4" Colt Trooper and 6" Colt diamond Back. I use 40 grain Winchester HP, which gave pretty much the same results as the 34grain load. The Federal 50 grain BARELY starts to open in the longer barrels.
 
Nice report! Thank you! And it was fun too, I'm sure.

Go for the Gold Dot!

Remember, penetration is key. Especially with a small bullet like the .22 Mag.

A mere 5" if penetration is not enough IMO (translates to about 6.5 in gel).

Remember that in SD the name of the game is enough penetration to reach a vital, blood filled organ. To me, that translates into enough power to reach the far end of the thoractic cavity to ensure enough "reach".
 
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