reduced velocity .22's

[Rimfireboy]

If you need something more than a sub 12 ft lbs air rifle but a full power subsonic bullet is too much, for whatever reason, what's available if you don't have fac air? I thought I'd try out a few of the reduced velocity .22 rounds that are available. CCI cb longs are a solid bullet at 29 grains, they left my 14 inch anshutz barrel at an average of 719.5 fps/ 33.4 ft lb energy. At 20 yards I could put five shots into one ragged hole and by 30 yards they were around an inch but beyond 35 yards accuracy became too poor for shooting live quarry. At 30 grains, again a solid bullet in .22 long is the copper coated remington cbee. These gave a slightly higher average energy reading 742 fps/ 36.6 ft lb energy with accuracy on par with the CCI's. These .22 long cartidges, being slightly shorter than lr's, tend to stack up on each other as they can slip forward slightly in the magazine. I found that if I only loaded 4 into the magazine at a time they would feed and cycle ok. Filling the magazine caused too much spring tension and consequently, the case rims would slip, move forward and cause a jam. For this reason I tried the remington cbee 33 grain hollow points. With a truncated cone these have 4 cuts in the bullet head to aid expansion at the reletavely low velocity. The box states a muzzle energy of 40 ft lb which I thought was at the upper end of what I was looking for in terms range and strike energy. First impressions were of much better long range accuracy even out to 80 yards I achieved consistent hits. The full length cartridge allowed perfect cycling of the action but as I suspected, on the chrono I got and average reading of 876.6 fps/ 56.4 ft lb energy. A bit more than ideal for shooting confined areas but worth a look if a bit more distance is required. Maybe they like the short barrel and that's why their performance was higher than expected. Overall, I don't think any of these rounds that I have tried are really a substitute for a good fac air rifle. The .22 long solid bullets are ok for power but limited by their longer range accuracy and the cbee hollowpoints were just too powerful for most situations where fac air would be ideal. They all have their uses.

[Underdog]

Good range report

 

Good for squirrel and rooks. Bet they good for rabbit in large country gardens or infested copses.

 

Underdog.

[drut]

Tried them in my CZ452 & grouping past 20yds was rubbish,good idea if they suit your rifle but I was not impressed.

[Rimfireboy]

Your'e right underdog. The solid ones I tried are ideal for squirrels and rooks. The hollowpoints are too powerful to shoot into trees though.

[gixer1]

The magazine issue could be cured with an underlever

 

I tried some 22 piston ammo and it seemed a bit less punchy, have you tried shorts??

 

Regards,

Gixer

[Rimfireboy]

I haven't seen any shorts for years. They used to cycle ok in the old style tube under the barrel magazine but I don't know if they would work in more modern clips. If I find any for sale I will give them a try. If you don't try em you never know. Thanks for the input gixer. I also like my suzuki's .

[kent]

Never found shorts worth much in accuraccy terms myself. With the limited accuraccy they render themselves less effective than a std air rifle. Always been tempted to try a short chambered gun though, fac pre changed are such a faff with the bottles etc., if you could get good accuraccy to 50yds and energy at about 30ft lb there is great potential- never managed it with the ammo available in a .22LR though

[deershooter]

Rimfireboy

 

If you visit Grantham any time you can have a couple of boxes to try no charge just put something in a charity box

 

 

 

 

Deershooter

[Rimfireboy]

Never found shorts worth much in accuraccy terms myself. With the limited accuraccy they render themselves less effective than a std air rifle. Always been tempted to try a short chambered gun though, fac pre changed are such a faff with the bottles etc., if you could get good accuraccy to 50yds and energy at about 30ft lb there is great potential- never managed it with the ammo available in a .22LR though

[Rimfireboy]

I know what you mean Kent. I think it's the jump from the chamber to the rifling that does it. The remington hollow point cbee's are full lr length and I found the accuracy much better than the other two types I tried. Problem with those is, they are too powerful to use as a substitute for fac air. 50 yards is no problem for them ,shooting from my barrel anyway. I think it's just a shame nobody makes an accurate .22 round at around 30-35 ft lb energy. That would be useful. Thanks for the offer of the .22 shorts deerstalker, I look forward to trying them out.

[Castaway]

Does anyone know where I can purchase some Remington 22LR CBees?

[Jaymo]

Winchester 'Z'

Seem to remember them being of reduced velocity?

[oowee]

Very useful report I have now found a useful gun shop in Midsommer that has a good range of bullets so want to try out a few different types. I can't understand why there does not seem to be a range of energy full length shells running at 1050 fps?

I have been using up some ammo to make space to try a few more rounds including some hyper velocity stuff. What is the fastest .22 lr round?

[Whitebridges]

This is a bit of an old 'un. RFB's post was over four years ago albeit a very good review.

 

I got low on Cbee's which are as rough as it comes but they do the job. They have a huge hollow point.

 

Recently I found myself in Derbyshire and bought a couple of hundred RWS Z lang to try. They are a 29g bullet which does just under 40ft lb. They are a round nose target bullet that works very well on small game.

 

Try 'em and you'll know what I mean !

Edited May 1, 2016 by Whitebridges

[Castaway]

Thanks Jaymo, but couldn't find any Winchester 'Z'. Could find Winchester 'X' and Winchester 'Zombie', neither of which are low energy.

 

Thanks for trying.

[Jaymo]

I just googled Whinchester Long Z and came up with some results.......

 

As said, long time ago that I used them