Thread: Winchester (USA) 22 40 gr subsonic vs Winchester (Aus ) 40gr Subsonic

With all the ammo shortages these days its hard to get the ammo you want sometimes. Australian made Winchester 40 gr subsonic is no longer being made but American Win 40gr sub is available.
By all accounts and reading about the American ammo it appears to be suffering from a bit of quality control and most people are complaining that it doesn't compare with the old Aussie round.
I bought a box the other day to compare the two and thought I would post up the results here so here we go.
I still have a small supply of the Aussie subs which are in the white packet then later a blue box, the USA made ammo comes in a plastic container with the slide lid.

I took them out today to run through the chronograph and see how they would group but conditions were less than ideal with misty rain and a bit of wind. I decided to set up the target at 25 yds due to the conditions.
First up the USA made subs went through the chrono at 1113 , 1093, 1148 , 1134 fps for an average of 1122 fps quite a bit faster than other subsonic rounds I have used.
The Aussie subs went through at 1023, 1057, 1030, 1042 fps for an average of 1038 fps, a lot more consistent and more in the subsonic velocity range.
USA made ammo had an ES of 55 fps while Aussie made ammo had ES of 34 fps.
The difference between the two comparing the highest speed and lowest speed was 125 fps and the difference between the two averaged speeds was 84 fps.

I have used the Australian made ammo since it first came out which was in the mid 80's (?) and have fired hundreds of thousands of rounds and never had a dud or one go supersonic as far as I can remember. The USA made ammo was different and several in the few I have tried were on the verge of going supersonic.
I only shot a 5 shot group with each as weather wasn't nice, the USA made 21mm group and the Aussie did 14 mm. Rifle was a Krico 5 shot B/A.


USA made Aussie made

I took both rounds out the other night for a night shoot after rabbits and possums, I ended up with 16 rabbits and 3 possums. The American ammo killed rabbits well and one of the possums as did the Aussie stuff. I did have several American made rounds that were once again close to supersonic in noise.

Some of the rabbits from the night shoot

Rabbits shot with USA made ammo

Rabbits shot with Aussie made ammo

The Aussie subs have a good reputation for double there size mushrooming effect which can be seen in the next photo, if they bullet hit bone they still tend to break up but when soft tissue is hit good mushrooming usually results, I haven't as yet recovered a USA made bullet to compare them.

Aussie subs

The next picture is of numerous bullets taken from Rabbits, possums, wallabies etc some are subsonic rounds and some are supersonic rounds but you can see how some break up and others mushroom well depending on what they encounter in the animal



So for this so far limited trial I think that these American made rounds aren't as good as the Aussie made rounds, they are faster and have a louder report, accuracy for a hunting round is OK ( might be able to improve on that on a better day). At about $13 a box I think it needs to be improved on.
If noise isn't to much of an issue these USA made rounds will be OK for general hunting purposes but the inconsistent speeds won't help with shooting tight groups. But if you have limited ammo to choose from I would still use them.