{"id":417355,"date":"2024-02-12T11:00:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T17:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/?p=417355"},"modified":"2026-01-19T13:52:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T19:52:35","slug":"rimfire-madness-part-1-comparing-22lr-solid-ammunition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunmagwarehouse.com\/blog\/rimfire-madness-part-1-comparing-22lr-solid-ammunition\/","title":{"rendered":"Rimfire Madness: Comparing .22LR Ammunition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The .22LR (Long Rifle)<\/a> has been around for more than a century. With roots dating back to the mid-1850s, the .22LR was first officially introduced as a standardized rimfire cartridge in 1887 by the J. Stevens Company. Since then, the .22LR has become a staple of the American shooting diet among young, old, new, and experienced shooters alike. Rimfire cartridges are a fun plinking and target round with .22LR solid bullets (round nose, not hollow point) being the ideal loading for range days. However, few of us have sat down and dug through the semantics of .22LR solid bullet performance.<\/p>\n

Anyone who\u2019s shot .22LR for a minute knows some cartridges are more reliable than others. Since it\u2019s not practical for most of us to spend a day comparing .22LR solid bullet brands and loads, I went ahead and did it for you. For our purposes, I evaluated accuracy, velocity (consistency of loading), and reliability as the main factors for comparing .22LR. For now, here\u2019s some guidance in comparing .22LR solid bullet performance!<\/p>\n

.22LR Solid Bullets \u2014 Brands and Loads<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s a massive variety of .22LR available on today’s market. A quick internet search yields 37 different load options for .22LR on Winchester<\/a>\u2019s website. Meanwhile, CCI<\/a> has 31 options, while Federal<\/a> carries 19 different .22LR loadings. In the course of just three manufacturers, that\u2019s nearly 100 cartridge loadings. The reality is comparing every possible .22LR solid or hollow point cartridge produced is beyond the realm of most financial and time commitments. However, that doesn’t mean a few can’t be selected and tested for evaluation. I tested seven common .22LR solid bullet offerings from three companies: CCI, Winchester, and Federal.<\/p>\n

\".22LR
Seven brands of common target and plinking ammunition were tested (with a popular subsonic loading) to determine how they performed over a range of categories measuring performance, quality, consistency, and accuracy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tested .22LR solid bullets spanned several velocity ranges. .22 velocities are roughly categorized into four ranges: subsonic, standard velocity, high velocity, and hypervelocity. Subsonic cartridges operate below the speed of sound (1,125 feet per second) and tend to err on velocities below 1,000 feet per second (fps). Standard velocity cartridges overlap into the subsonic range, measuring between 900 to 1,110 fps. High-velocity .22LR cartridges normally exceed 1,200 fps. There are a few hyper velocity cartridges available, like CCI Stinger hollow point<\/a>, that exceed 1,300 fps and push into 1,600 fps. In most cases, higher velocity cartridges are copper jacketed.<\/p>\n

For most .22LR solid cartridges, velocities range between subsonic and high velocity. None of the cartridges reviewed here had an advertised velocity exceeding 1,300 fps. However, as you\u2019ll soon learn, there isn\u2019t always truth in advertising. Advertised ballistics occasionally don\u2019t translate to real-world results due to a multitude of factors such as barrel length, weather conditions, and barrel twist rate.<\/p>\n

Rifle and Testing Parameters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In a perfect world, I\u2019d test several hundred rounds of each cartridge. While a lot of fun, time, finances, and logistics limit such tests (for now). Nevertheless, the chosen .22LR solid loads evaluated several parameters :<\/p>\n