The Long And The .22 Short Of It...

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

Always willing to try different ammo, if anybody's interested, I picked up a couple of lower powered .22 offerings from RWS. I bought a couple of boxes of Z Longs and Shorts. Both loaded with a 29 grain solid bullet. At 25 yards both gave acceptable accuracy and pretty much 1p sized groups were easy to achieve. The Z Longs left the muzzle of my 14 inch barrelled anschutz at an average velocity of 858.8 fps / 47.5 ft lbs energy and arrived at 25 yards with a retained velocity of 770.4 fps / 38.23 ft lbs. the .22 shorts were faster at 983.9 fps / 62.35 ft lb at the muzzle and retained 927.8 fps / 55.45 ft lbs energy at 25 yards. Moving back to 50 yards, I was surprised to find the Z Longs still grouping well. Just resting on the door of my truck I could shoot squirrels head sized groups quite easily. The .22 Shorts didn't do so well though, opening up to around two inches, so not much use at 50 yards. Both of these would be good for short range pest control when a full power 40 grain subsonic bullet would be too much.

[shropshire dan 467]

Interesting figures mate. I was looking at trying some cci quiets in the short case on the rats last winter. My air rifle decided to pack in but just ended up using normal winnie subs. May well do my own little comparison test as this winter I'd like to use my .22lr on the rats again made for some good sport to be honest.

[Cedric 132]

Was there a big difference in the POI of the different rounds?

[Coypu Hunter 486]

I've tried Winchester Long Z through my 22-inch Zastava barrel. 765 fps and 37.75 fpe. They printed a 3" group at 65 yards, and one-inch groups at 33 yards, with a POI drop of around two inches @ 33 yards compared to Winchester Super X subs.

 

Haven't tried Shorts through it yet, although I have some in store. The problem with shorts apparently is the larger gap between the round and the start of the rifling, which can affect accuracy.

 

Mind you, the Long Zs through a SAK silencer were totally silent -- all I could hear was the click of the firing pin.

[charlie caller 3,654]

I have tried a few of these offerings in the past when I had my Anschutz and thought they were all crap really, not an option now I have a semi auto, but even if I still had the bolt action, I would prefer to use the air rifle out to 45 yards or so, as it is so accurate, unlike the short cartridge offerings I tried.

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

The rws z longs are the most accurate I've tried of these 29/30 grain reduced velocity loads. They have around a two inch drop at fifty yards with a sixty yard zero for sk subs. I've tried the cci quiets, found them accurate as well, but slower and heavier so they have a more loopy trajectory. The .22 shorts were faster and didn't seem to drop any lower at fifty yards than standard subs at sixty yards but accuracy wasn't good enough at that range.

[andyf 144]

I bet you had 'fun' feeding shorts into the chamber??

I tried once as I was given some old shorts, they just flicked up and away from the mag out into the wild blue.

I think a tube mag rifle is the best/only way to use these little booogers.

[Cedric 132]

It must have been 50 years ago I had a BSA Ralock semi auto in .22short. Tube magazine in the stock, take down barrel - what a great little rifle. When I got posted abroad I had to hand it in and the gunsmith cut it up on a chop saw !

[Brickhill 28]

No one stocks the Z lang around here. Where can you buy them?

[Coypu Hunter 486]

Armurerie Gilles, Flers, Normandy.

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

No one stocks the Z lang around here. Where can you buy them?

 

I got some from southertons guns, called in on the way back from cleethorpes. Also got them at nevilles but I don't know about Norfolk. They work well enough in my anschutz, better than expected to be honest.

[Brickhill 28]

 

No one stocks the Z lang around here. Where can you buy them?

I got some from southertons guns, called in on the way back from cleethorpes. Also got them at nevilles but I don't know about Norfolk. They work well enough in my anschutz, better than expected to be honest.

 

 

 

 

Cheers RFB, i'd love to try them. I'm currently using some Remington Cbee as this is all I could get in a low power .22lr. They are pretty crap to be honest.