Cutting Edge 22LR Ammo Is Here
- Thread starter wedgy
- Start date
Not everyone shoots 22lr only inside 100 yards.
This is the cart racing or mini moto of shooting. Super competitive on the small scale, and the only hand loading I can think of that doesn’t require primers. Perfecting (or increasing) hand loading steps, like constructing model ships in a bottle or solving crossword puzzles, is the more challenging path from a to b. Plus it keeps the snow bound guys engaged in the sport 4 months a year.
linebaugh
Silver $$ Contributor
Including everyone in PRS/NRL22X and various 22 outlaw series. Trust me we shoot to 300 at most matches and I have set COFs up to 400. All this with factory lead bullets that feed through mag fed guns under significant time constraints and equipment constraints. It's going to take a lot to impress me but I am absolutely interested in seeing enough consecutive data points that do it. So far that's not anywhere near the case.
In my club outlaw series I would need to exclude copper solids due to target damage as we use aluminum for some of the longer range targets for reactivity and report.
My bullet loaded in a 22lr case feeds just fine for a magazine. And can be don’t under time constraints. That’s nothing too difficult. The prs/nrl matches, in my opinion is not where the most benefit from copper solids will be. There’s a reason the guys winning don’t need to be shooting Midas+, Tenex, or other top tier ammo. That’s not what makes the difference. Close enough is good enough for all the prs matches I’ve ever shot. What separates the winners from everyone else is being able to master the positional stuff. Not a lot of sub 1/2 moa targets in that sport.
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
Who? Winners, if it’s a better result. The lengths that top rimfire shooters go now wrt ammo testing and lot purchasing is quite extreme.
There is always a market for tinkerers who enjoy the process and developing optimal setups.
Where allowed? I haven’t checked the regs but that’s important for sure.
Technically, using sorted or very high quality bullets, precise charges, hand pressed bullets and crimps are all a step in the right direction. I’ve heard that the amount and brisance of the priming compound is a major variable but if velocities can be kept in single digits then there is improvement.
The velocity and twist question is important. A friend has this kit on order already. Not sure how that will go in standard twists.
Current prs rules only state a 22lr chamber. That’s it.
I know the bullets that ce are releasing first are designed to work in standard twist barrels
Yeah, I respect the innovation and find it interesting but I hope I never have to do it to compete.
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
It looks like my Sako .22lr barrels are 16.5”, Anschutz are 16-1/8”, and Lilja are 16”. Of course stability also depends on altitude temperature and velocity, so it seems many “standard” barrels don’t quite have the twist. Something to monitor for sure but easily spotted in testing.
That’s interesting. Both my Sako quad barrels are 1-16. If you have a quad, you’re just a mag and barrel swap away from being able to run mine as mag fed. My current test platform is a Quad
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
Just going by this. https://cdn1.sako.fi/sites/default/files/QuadHeavyBarrel.pdf I have a new Sako Quad factory .22LR barrel on the way, so I will push a patch to confirm its twist.
David
I could have sold you a 16” or 20” cheap
Sporter or Hunter or Varmint? Thanks!
Perhaps there's a misunderstanding. My remarks were in reaction to Geno C's statement about the silliness of thinking that hand loaded ammo could be equal to factory ammo.
Geno said "To think that hand loaded ammunition would be able to meet or surpass the consistency of factory loaded is silly. What other round would anyone not be laughed at for even suggesting it? A simple test you can do yourself to see the inconsistency in factory ammo is, pull apart a box of ammo and weigh the charges. Pretty easy to see the first place there can be improvement."
I read his remarks as implying that handloading .22LR ammo would be able to match or improve factory ammo because he said that the inconsistency of factory ammo could be tested by pulling apart a box of ammo and weighing the components. The results of such a test of factory ammo, he said, makes it easy to see that it has room for improvement.
Quite simply, I thought he meant that his test showed that factory .22LR ammo left enough to be desired in terms of weight inconsistencies that handloading would be an improvement.
Handloading centerfire ammo can produce much improvement over factory centerfire ammo. There should be no doubt about that.
Handloading rimfire to produce superior ammo, however, is another question. Unfortunately, the idea of reloading .22LR ammo is without a long, successful history and there's little or no evidence that handloading .22LR ammo produces superior result over factory .22LR match ammo. If I'm overlooking evidence that reloading .22LR ammo produces better shooting ammo, I've missed something significant and would appreciate more information.
Thank you, Geno C.
Handloading can produce much better ammo than factory ammo -- for centerfire. That is clear and needs no further discussion. Of course, there's no guarantee that all handloaded centerfire ammo is better than factory ammo.
It's less clear that handloading .22LR ammo is superior to factory .22LR match ammo. Reloading .22LR is relatively new and information is not abundant or widely available.
Do you have reproducible results to show how your handloaded .22LR ammo performs? Such evidence would go far to support a contention that handloading .22LR ammo can produce better results over .22LR match ammo. I refer to .22LR match ammo because there's not much point in comparing results with bulk .22LR ammo.
If I'm ill-informed about reloading .22LR and there is considerable evidence that handloading .22LR can produce better ammo than .22LR match ammo, I would welcome further information.
I do have results actually. Those just happen to be the only days I took pictures of the chrono, because I was communicating with my bullet maker. I’ve sent a decent number of these bullets down range with quite a few different loads and it can be seen that it finds a node that is stable and speeds stay stable. Now the wild card in all of this is the priming mixture. I have taken a few steps to get as close to perfect batches of brass as I am able and it is almost completely without fliers that are the normal occurrence with rimfire ammo.
As for handloaded 22 ammo not having a history of being better than factory.... there’s a reason it’s already against the rules in some shooting disciplines. I am far from the first to do this. Some figured it was worth the effort years ago and we told they could no longer do if by the FUDDs that didn’t want to put in the time and effort to have the best possible ammunition.
22lr is a funny thing in shooting because it is where quite a few go with the main reason of cutting costs. Once you go against that cost, whether with top of the line ammo like Tenex and Xact, or got to custom bullets and handloading, they feel the need to try and shut it down because it will go against them trying to shoot inexpensively
As for handloaded 22 ammo not having a history of being better than factory.... there’s a reason it’s already against the rules in some shooting disciplines. I am far from the first to do this. Some figured it was worth the effort years ago and we told they could no longer do if by the FUDDs that didn’t want to put in the time and effort to have the best possible ammunition.
22lr is a funny thing in shooting because it is where quite a few go with the main reason of cutting costs. Once you go against that cost, whether with top of the line ammo like Tenex and Xact, or got to custom bullets and handloading, they feel the need to try and shut it down because it will go against them trying to shoot inexpensively
The regular thinner barrels. One is the original that came with the gun and the other is a Sako factory barrel that I bought to chop down slowing for testing.
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
Not likely: it was $270 base price with 30% off of that. I wasn’t looking to buy one but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
David
Bill Rodolph
Silver $$ Contributor
From the current NRA smallbore rule book:
3.17 Ammunition - Rimfire cartridges commercially catalogued as the .22 Short, .22 Long, or .22 Long Rifle which have an over-all length not more than 1.1 inches and loaded with a lead or alloy bullet of not larger than .23 inch diameter. Hollow point, tracer, incendiary or explosive bullets are specifically excluded from ammunition authorized for match use.e current NRA smallbore rule book:
3.17 Ammunition - Rimfire cartridges commercially catalogued as the .22 Short, .22 Long, or .22 Long Rifle which have an over-all length not more than 1.1 inches and loaded with a lead or alloy bullet of not larger than .23 inch diameter. Hollow point, tracer, incendiary or explosive bullets are specifically excluded from ammunition authorized for match use.e current NRA smallbore rule book:
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