Thread: 22lr sub amo

For small game, nothing I've ever used over decades comes close to the ammo @Tentman put me onto. Sellier & Bellot 40gr subsonic HP.
Dirty but insanely consistent, I'm routinely bowling over bunnies and hares at 130-150m, dialing with a 4-16x44 FFP scope. How much the excellent wee CZ455 Varmint has to do with it I don't know, it is a sorted little rifle. But when I switched to S&B it was instantly noticeable.

The S&B rimfire plant was upgraded a while back and makes ammo with miniscule variation. It shows - way better than anything I've tried from Eley, Fiocchi, CCI.

Well interestingly I did a small trial with proper CCI subsonic a couple of years ago and they were a bit all over the shop. Velocity wise at least. Some were quiet, some weren't. Tried some CCI standard velocity in the BSA but not so good but it did seem to like the 45gr CCI suppressor. Really have to get another packet to try.
Haven't tried SB

are we using Standard Velocity ammo or Subsonic ammo - cause they arent the same

Originally Posted by csmiffy

Well interestingly I did a small trial with proper CCI subsonic a couple of years ago and they were a bit all over the shop. Velocity wise at least. Some were quiet, some weren't. Tried some CCI standard velocity in the BSA but not so good but it did seem to like the 45gr CCI suppressor. Really have to get another packet to try.
Haven't tried SB

i will give you few types to try

Std velocity shoots well in my rifles and is quiet to shoot. Thats all I know without getting all scientific about it

Originally Posted by fawkes

are we using Standard Velocity ammo or Subsonic ammo - cause they arent the same

@gonetropo look forward to the catch up. @fawkes you are right. For my test I was seeing what lower velocity ammo the old target rifle liked. It certainly didn't really like eley subs or the cci standard

The Norma subs I'm running haven't gone supersonic yet in the 40 rounds I've fired. The Winchester were 1 in 10 or thereabouts.

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CCI SV for me, both hollow and solid nose, dialling on rabbits to 200 yards

Tikka T1X Roughtech 16 inch, VX5 HD

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

CCI SV for me, both hollow and solid nose, dialling on rabbits to 200 yards

Tikka T1X Roughtech 16 inch, VX5 HD

Bloody hell, how much drop us there at 200? You must be dialing up like crazy.

He sets it up like a mortar

Originally Posted by Danger Mouse

Bloody hell, how much drop us there at 200? You must be dialing up like crazy.

I've still got all my drops data from testing small game ammo here on my PC. With my 16" CZ455 Varmint, at 200m the average drop was 30MOA or 8.7 MRAD, and surprisingly narrow vertically. But the horizontal dispersion in the very light breeze was way too much for a rabbit imo. You'll end up with lots of gut shot rabbits. Drop test groups opened up a lot after 150m. How much of that is down to me I do not know, but I back myself to hit the front half of a rabbit at 130-140m no problem. YMMV etc.

Originally Posted by Danger Mouse

Bloody hell, how much drop us there at 200? You must be dialing up like crazy.

Somewhere in the range of 38 MOA from memory. It's quite a poke, and definitely throwing a long range bomb out there. Bit like shooting past 60 with a bow. I've shot a steel plate at that range I couldn't physically see except for a small top corner, it was over a small rise and down the other side - impossible to do with a centrefire because I would have been shooting through the top of the hill but the subsonic arc of the 22 went over the top and back onto the steel.

Also shooting with CCI subsonic out of a T1X. I was using the winchester 42 and 40 grainers, the 42's are a little long and stumpy and often didnt feed well for me. The round would punch into the breech face and not chamber, which would flatten out the lead a bit and then it would never chamber at all. had to flick the round out and try again. I did like the extra thump of the 42 grains but gave up, also found that the red box winchester ammo in general just wasn't very consistent. On the range the odd super is not a problem and doesn't actually effect the accuracy too much but annoying for when you're trying to be sneaky and quiet.
CCI SV seems consistent enough for the price and availability, CCI sub 40g maybe slightly less but better than the winchester for me and I prefer the hollow point for hunting so that's what I plink with. Tried a few others a while ago and never noticed any benefit from the Eley for me, aguila was meh as well but could well have been the combination of slap happy shooting, cleaning a rifle way too much and an average scope. I have since improved slightly.

Originally Posted by Jt89

Somewhere in the range of 38 MOA from memory.

That's quite a big difference to what I got. I set the BC to match the drops out to 150m. What BC did you use?

Originally Posted by Flyblown

That's quite a big difference to what I got. I set the BC to match the drops out to 150m. What BC did you use?

Ah yep, just checked the data in strelok - it was 28 ish moa birds not 38 my bad. I was lazy and punched in the standard data for my ammo on strelok and it spat out a number, was on target by the second shot (resting on a fence post, pretty wobbly) Was also using the 42 grain winchester at the time so my rainbow might still be a bit different to yours. I have no intention of trying to whack bunnies that far yet but I should definitely do some ballistic trueing on the app and get it more precise. Have just put a 6-24x50 Element Helix scope on the 22 so a good time to sort that stuff out.