.22LR Ammo Test Results

[whippeter69 88]

I have recently been testing some ammo for longer range shooting and close range fox where a sub ( I know will drop a fox at close range ) is not what i want to shoot a fox with, id prefer a faster, stronger traveling bullet that hits hard on impact. NOTE i was just testing these rounds and do not go out deliberately with my .22 foxing OK, just to get that across.

 

My rifle (.22 SAKO Finnfire Varmint weighting in at about 10.5lbs in total) that i use has a Leupold VX-1 3-9X50 with a duplex reticule. I have this rifle zeroed at 65-yards on Winchester subsonic bullets. They are VERY accurate i find (As you will see) and i have shot many rabbits and the shots have not zinged off when hitting the rabbit (Has once or twice when shooting targets in the field but I had a very good back stop so dont worry)

 

So, heres a picture of my Winchesters that i have been using. Picture 1 shows the zero at 50-yards and the drop after that. I was aiming at the pink dot ever shot and the drop is measured in mm. There was a slight left to right wind, which did make the bullet drift a bit but nothing to worry about.

 

Picture 2 is a picture of my re-zeroing my rifle to 65-yards. The two dots on the left and right of the main dot are a test to see if the gun was zeroed (Il let you be the judge of that) the holes either side are about the diameter of the bullet, not very big! The hole in the middle is the zeroing hole i used to zero the gun. (The ground above the larger dot i will talk about later)

 

Picture 1

 

Picture 2

 

So, conclusion. I can shoot rabbits out to 100-yards in the head with this rifle (If wind is'nt an issue) which makes it very handy and very quiet!

 

 

Test 2 was the High Velocity bullets, Remington Yellow Jackets and CCI Stingers.

 

The Remington are 32-Grains and travel at 1500ftps at the muzzle and according to Remington with a 50-yards zero drop 4.1 inches at 100-yards, but as we all know, different guns, different results!

 

The CCI's travel about 1600ftps and weight 32-Grains. They are a very fast bullet and the case length is slightly longer than most .22 ammo.

 

So, i did some test and found the below. I walked out to different distances to see the POI and the reliability of the round, as you can see, its not very good. They are not very consistent and do not hold a very good group. Very poor, if they gave a good group they would probably be the .22r/f fox shooters fave but unfortunately they are not. They have the power. well enough to kill a fox, but not the accuracy.

 

Test 3 was the Remington Yellow Jackets. Now these are a lot better that the Stingers. I find that they produce a very good group for being High-Velocity and have a good amount of stopping power ( I have shot a fox with my mentors .22lr rifle with these at a fox at 70 yards in the chest and it dropped to shot. They work very well in my rifle, considering that i have seen many people say they are crap

 

So here are the pics of the tests.

Pic one is a picture of the group they give at 5 yards, i fired 5 shots and was aiming for the centre of the black dot. Wanted to see their POI compared to the zero of my winchesters. The squares are 1" squares so as you can see, they give a hell of a good group.

Pic 2 is a picture of the group they give at different ranges. Here i started at 50-yards, then 60, then and finishes off with 110-yards. The aiming point of the duplex crosshairs was about 1" below the nose, which is about 4 inches about my POI at 50-yards. 60-Yards i aimed just above the nose of the fox picture then at was smack on.

 

Then at 110-yards i was aiming for the chest of the fox at the very top of the chest, the bullet 4.5 inches and due to a left to right wind drifted 3.5 inches to the right (I was aiming at the top left sorry do compensate for the wind)

 

So, if i were out and a fox was within the range of -yards i think i would be confident enough to place the bullet on its head, would you ?

 

The final picture is the POI different of the Yellow JAckets compared to the Winchesters. I am aiming at the black centre dot when shooting the yellow jackets and they shoot about 3.5 inches hight at 65-yards. With VERY slight windage change of about 1/4 of an inch.

 

So, please have a careful look at the pics and feel free to ask any questions.

 

By the way, ALL shots were taken off bi-pod.

 

Thanks, Whippeter

Edited June 14, 2011 by whippeter69

[Tobias 0]

Very good test there im a big fan of the winchester super x hollow points subsonic, Just curious what barrel length you have on that gun ive got a CZ 452 American with a 16" barrel and done some testing back in april but only with the subsonics got onto a A4 sheet of paper at 200 yards but the slightest breeze and it moved alot as i was shooting over a valley. Also what mag are you shooting on as most of my shooting is done on 4.5 x 50mm and i go upto 6 x if its past 60yards.Once again good read up.

[RicW 67]

The trouble is that supersonics are, so to speak, not very super sonic. By ~100 yds max, they drop below the speed of sound, and as they pass through the transonic zone the ballistics go to hell-in-a-handbag. They can yaw, tumble and keyhole and at least they just plain lose accuracy. The extra hitting power tends to be offset by inability to put 'em where they'll do most good.

 

Ric

[elvolcan 0]

The trouble is that supersonics are, so to speak, not very super sonic. By ~100 yds max, they drop below the speed of sound, and as they pass through the transonic zone the ballistics go to hell-in-a-handbag. They can yaw, tumble and keyhole and at least they just plain lose accuracy. The extra hitting power tends to be offset by inability to put 'em where they'll do most good.

 

Ric

 

that ^^

[RicW 67]

The trouble is that supersonics are, so to speak, not very super sonic. By ~100 yds max, they drop below the speed of sound, and as they pass through the transonic zone the ballistics go to hell-in-a-handbag. They can yaw, tumble and keyhole and at least they just plain lose accuracy. The extra hitting power tends to be offset by inability to put 'em where they'll do most good.

 

Ric

 

that ^^

 

?? I am referring to supersonic .22lr, not s/s in general

[whippeter69 88]

Very good test there im a big fan of the winchester super x hollow points subsonic, Just curious what barrel length you have on that gun ive got a CZ 452 American with a 16" barrel and done some testing back in april but only with the subsonics got onto a A4 sheet of paper at 200 yards but the slightest breeze and it moved alot as i was shooting over a valley. Also what mag are you shooting on as most of my shooting is done on 4.5 x 50mm and i go upto 6 x if its past 60yards.Once again good read up.

Hia mate. My rifle barrel is 21.5" long (Varmint, so its quite thick and heavy)

 

The mag i zero and shoot mostly on is 6, some times i go up to 9 or 8, but only so often.

[andyf 144]

Very good test there im a big fan of the winchester super x hollow points subsonic, Just curious what barrel length you have on that gun ive got a CZ 452 American with a 16" barrel and done some testing back in april but only with the subsonics got onto a A4 sheet of paper at 200 yards but the slightest breeze and it moved alot as i was shooting over a valley. Also what mag are you shooting on as most of my shooting is done on 4.5 x 50mm and i go upto 6 x if its past 60yards.Once again good read up.

Hia mate. My rifle barrel is 21.5" long (Varmint, so its quite thick and heavy)

 

The mag i zero and shoot mostly on is 6, some times i go up to 9 or 8, but only so often.

Hey GOOD POST, it seems I'm not the only one Far~ing about checking ammo out etc.

One thing though I have a chronograph and look below:-

 

(1) The Remington are 32-Grains and travel at 1500ftps at the muzzle and according to Remington with a 50-yards zero drop 4.1 inches at 100-yards, but as we all know, different guns, different results!

 

(2) The CCI's travel about 1600ftps and weight 32-Grains. They are a very fast bullet and the case length is slightly longer than most .22 ammo[/i].

 

This velocity data is a LOAD of TOSH, they DONT not even close , although thats what the 'box' says neither of these get close to 1200 fps let alone 1500, also the CCI Stingers dont like chambering in a SAKO Finfire (Ive got one to)

the case is longer the 32gr bullet shorter, so the case grabs the chamber end and the bolt sticks momentarily as you force it in, I'm sure this doesn't aid accuracy! Mine is like a shotgun!

However lets have more of this, I may upload some of my stuff, at leat the rimfire stuff as more folks have the chabce to play around with these? AndyF

[f.a.c.sam 1]

Great write up Whippeter, makes for interesting reading. Out of curiosity what made you choose the stingers over the velocitors, when I tried them both back to back I found the velocitors gave significantly better grouping than the stingers. Maybe see if you can pick up a box of them to pit against the yellow jackets. But as a general view on supersonic rounds I have to agree with the above comments relating to the speed dropping off below supersonic and getting the key holing. Myself I like to call them in a bit closer and use standard subs if I haven't go the 223 to hand, rather than taking the longer range ones with the supersonics.