When it comes to buying .22 ammo, the available choices can be overwhelming — if you don’t take time to understand them. When I was a kid, 50¢ bought a box of .22 Shorts. Those Shorts were great for plinkin’ with my High Standard Double Nine revolver or Remington 514 single-shot rifle. For something serious like squirrel hunting, I opted for .22 Long Rifle hollow points.
Sometimes, I shot .22 Longs simply because that was what was on the shelf at the hardware store. Some days, I bought .22 Shorts, because Longs or Long Rifles would have cost 10¢ or 15¢ more. Shorts are great for short-distance target practice, and they’re relatively quiet. We never used hearing protection in those days. Fifty cents for a box of ammo! Those days are long gone, but prices are coming down again.
Why Three Lengths?
Ever wonder why there are three different lengths? The .22 Short was developed in 1857 for the Smith and Wesson Model 1. The Model 1 was Smith and Wesson’s first revolver, and the .22 Short round was the first rimfire cartridge to replace the cap & ball in commercial revolvers. That first .22 cartridge had a 29-grain bullet pushed by four grains of black powder.
It wasn’t called Short until the .22 Long came along in 1871. I find it interesting in these days of “it has to be at least a 9mm to stop a bad guy” that the .22 Short was originally developed for self-defense. As stronger handgun cartridges became popular, the .22 Short was relegated to recreational shooting in shooting galleries at fairs and arcades.
When the .22 Long was developed, it also used the 29-grain bullet but with more powder than the .22 Short. It was still originally a black powder cartridge, and although it was designed with revolvers in mind, several rifles were developed to use this cartridge for hunting small game.
The J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company added a 40-grain bullet to the Long cartridge to produce the .22 Long Rifle, commonly called LR. The .22 LR cartridge was available beginning in 1888 and was used in Stevens Arms #1, #2, #9, and #10 break-top rifles. The superior hunting and target shooting characteristics of the LR round initially rendered the .22 Long obsolete, but mystery of mysteries, we still have them today.
Some of the popular pump and lever-action .22 rifles were historically chambered in either .22 Short, .22 Long, or .22 Long Rifle. Of course, most single-shot rifles would handle whichever you choose to shoot. As the rifle models matured, some of the tube-fed rifles began to handle all three, even mixed together.
Examples were the Winchester Model 1906, Marlin Model 20, Marlin Model 39A and Remington 572 Fieldmaster. Today, I have a Henry lever-action rifle that will handle Shorts, Longs, and Long Rifles interchangeably. However, I’m perplexed as to why I would need that capability unless facing an end-of-ammo scenario and still needing dinner.
The .22 LR is by far the most popular today with bullet weights ranging from 20 to 60 grains and all kinds of styles: lead, copper plated, round nose, hollow points, and even shot pellets for dispatching rats or snakes. You can buy them in boxes of 50, 100, 333, 500, or tubs of 1400. There may be more options I’ve yet to discover.
Magnum, Too
Most discussions about .22 cartridges include the big brother of the lot, the .22 WMR or .22 Winchester Magnum, also called the .22 Magnum or .22 Mag. There is often confusion due to the different names, but there is no difference. They’re all the same; it’s just marketing/branding.
You can’t chamber a .22 Magnum in a .22 rifle, and you can only shoot them in a .22 revolver if you swap cylinders. While the bullet diameter is nearly the same, the cartridges are bigger. Bullet weights in the .22 Magnum range from 30 to 50 grains with velocities ranging from 1,500 to 2,200 feet per second.
The magnum cartridge hits harder over longer ranges, with more muzzle energy, making it a better choice for varmints (unless they’re very close). I love shooting .22 Magnum handguns with my grandkids because they are loud, have a lot of muzzle flash, but very little recoil. The .22 Magnum handguns I have are accurate, too.
So Much Variety
I have quite a stash of .22 cartridges, some of them going back years. When I lived at my parent’s home many years ago, I stored my ammo in some of dad’s old cigar boxes. I was away in Vietnam when my parents sold the old homestead and moved to the state capital because of my dad’s job. Because they had discarded so much of my stuff, I never thought to ask about my ammo.
I found it many years later in one of my dad’s closets. There were some old boxes of .22 Shorts made by Remington and Winchester and a box of Federal Hi-Power .22 Longs. The Federal cartridges boxes were used from 1967 to 1972. These cartridges are copper plated, wax lubricated and manufactured in Minneapolis.
I’ve since added many more brands and types. I have more .22 firearms in my collection than any other caliber several reasons. Some of that is because I really enjoy shooting with my grandchildren, plinkin’, the affordability of rimfire guns offer, and because I test and write about guns for a living. That means I gotta shoot ’em, and shooting .22s is both cheaper and easier on my high-mileage anatomy.
Things have changed a bunch since the days when I only needed to choose between Short, Long, or Long Rifle. My Shorts include CB primer-only Shorts and primer-only Longs by CCI. I also have a box of .22 Longs made by Aguila that are primer-only. Somewhere I picked up a box of Shorts by Vostok, a Russian company. These are branded as Super Match ammo.
My CCI stash has CB Shorts and CB Longs. Some of the boxes are labeled high velocity and others low velocity. I found a box of Longs that were primer-only with a 20-grain bullet. These were made by the Aguila, a manufacturer in Mexico. Speaking of Aguila, I have several boxes of .22 LR branded as Colt with the Rampant Colt on the box. These were made by Aguila.
It’s interesting to me that a manufacturer, say Federal or CCI, will have the same basic cartridge packaged under two or more names. When you digest it all, .22 LR ammo consists of copper-plated hollow points or round nose bullets that are lead or copper plated. None of the packaging tells us how much powder is in the various cartridges, but some catchy marketing names help with understanding performance. Names such as Hyper Velocity, High Velocity, Champion, Match — many with a velocity number associated — differentiate the ammunition from Standard Velocity cartridges. Then we have Sub-Sonic, Quiet, and Suppressor rounds on the other end of the spectrum.
Range Time
When it comes to shooting .22s, choosing the right ammo can make the difference in whether you’re having fun or being frustrated. This is especially true of semi-automatic .22 handguns. Because of the need to self-cycle, many of the available .22 semi-automatics are known to be finicky.
I’ve learned to limit the failures to cycle by using high velocity .22 ammunition. Let me give you a rundown on the ammo I’ve learned works in practically all my semi-auto handguns. I’ll start with CCI because it has the most variety.
- Target Mini-Mag .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 1,235 fps
- Mini-Mag HP .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 1,260 fps
- Copper-22 .22 LR (they call this one MeatEater) – Muzzle velocity 1,850 fps
- AR Tactical .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 1,200 fps
- Mini-Mag Segmented HP .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 1,235 fps
- Blazer Rimfire .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 1,235 fps
CCI ammo that is more suited to revolvers and bolt-action rifles includes:
- Quiet-22 .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 7,10 fps
- Sub-Sonic HP .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 1,050 fps
- Standard Velocity .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 1,070 fps
- CCI Suppressor .22 LR – Muzzle velocity 970 fps
I know we’d love to have the Quiet and Suppressor ammo work in our semis, but with rare exception, it doesn’t. My one pistol that has a threaded barrel that will drive those ammo types okay is the full-size .22 M&P. Also, my HK416 with the suppressor handles them well.
Other brand/types of .22 ammo that I’ve found work well in semi-automatics are:
- Aquila Supermaximum – Muzzle velocity 1,700 fps
- Federal Lightning – Muzzle velocity 1,240 fps
- Norma ECO POWER 22 – Muzzle velocity 1,706 fps
- Remington Golden Bullet – Muzzle velocity 1,255 fps
You can tell by making these comparisons that the breakover point for successful operation in most of the .22 semi-autos is 1,200 fps. There is some added fun with some of these. CCI Stinger, for example, spits fire and makes a lot of noise. It’s like shooting a higher caliber without the recoil. CCI Suppressor on a M&P 22 is like those in the movies. It produces a spit sound rather than a bang. Three of my newest additions to the .22 arsenal: the Glock 44, Taurus TX-22, and SIG P322 all do well with suppressor ammo.
There’s lots of fun shooting .22 revolvers and rifles. Single-shot and bolt-action rifles will handle practically any brand of .22 LR while the semi-automatics may be a little picky. I’ve found the ones I have, a Ruger 10-22, Winchester Wildcat, and Remington Nylon 66, are all pretty forgiving. The revolvers will handle anything from .22 Short up.
If you’ve been dealing with finicky .22 semi-automatics, try some of the ammo types I mentioned. My go to is CCI Mini Mag or CCI Stinger when dealing with any gun that is picky about ammo.
If you’re not shooting .22s, I encourage you to jump in. There are decent .22s available for under $300, and this includes semi-automatics, revolvers, and rifles. They are good for fun and for keeping your skills updated.
You may have a different perspective or additional tips. If so, we would love to read them in the comment section.