Hit or miss with 22LR ammo!?!

[5.56Geo]

Why is most 22LR ammo so finnicky when it comes to accuracy, feed, and ejecting consistencies? ...in comparison to centerfire ammo? I have been shooting 22LR for years and have seen improvement, but its still lacking a bit in my estimation, in compared to say .380, 9mm, etc... What has been your experience, thoughts? Thanks- George

 

[RustVendor]

i think it's a matter of you get what you pay for. Even if you buy Eley look at how janky the bullet is, it's not aerodynamic at all and not even smooth. The more a bullet drops or experiences wind drag before it it's the target the greater the error. Even if the bullets were consistent in BC, which they clearly aren't, just having so much drop and wind correction makes the entire platform fairly inaccurate. Powder consistency from round to round matters, primer consistency etc. I don't think the manufacturers are putting a lot of QC into 22lr because it's cheap and they sell it cheaply. I'd much rather shoot 223 or 22 arc at a minimum

 

[Plenty_Pack_556]

In my opinion, 22lr depends heavily on the gun/equipment versus centerfire.

For example, if I shoot my 3-4cpr aguila 22lr out of my past ruger 10/22, I used to get like 3in or maybe more at indoor 25yd range.
Out of a dedicated 22lr AR, it was under 3in.
Out of my CZ 457 Precision Varmint MTR, I could shoot into the same hole or less than 0.25in.

 

[Technical]

I watched a YouTube video that offered a possible explanation for the inaccuracy of a 22 round. The discussion applied to 22 rounds that travel faster than the speed of sound. As the round slows down en route to the target, it may slow to the point where it drops below the speed of sound.

The disturbance to the bullet’s trajectory is significant due to the light weight of a 22 round. The effect of the air movement then causes the bullet to become less stable, thus more inaccurate.

I have no idea if this is true, or how much of an effect it would be, but it is an interesting concept and food for thought.

 

[Mxridr]

Reason why I stopped Nrl 22. Too much testing and hard to buy quality ammo.

 

[jclusin]

I thought I had an ammo problem with my ruger mkiii but it was a parts issue.

Got rid of the loaded chamber indicator, replaced springs and got an aftermarket extractor.

After that I found all 22 ammo would seat and indeed it would yeet.

As for accuracy, I don't shoot well enough to notice much of a difference

 

[Davis378]

I watched a YouTube video that offered a possible explanation for the inaccuracy of a 22 round. The discussion applied to 22 rounds that travel faster than the speed of sound. As the round slows down en route to the target, it may slow to the point where it drops below the speed of sound.

The disturbance to the bullet’s trajectory is significant due to the light weight of a 22 round. The effect of the air movement then causes the bullet to become less stable, thus more inaccurate.

I have no idea if this is true, or how much of an effect it would be, but it is an interesting concept and food for thought.

(I am an absolute layman so take this with a handful of salt) While there is something to this, the best scientific paper I could find on it, "Aerodynamic Characteristics of Caliber .22 Long Rifle Match Ammunition" does not accord with the fuddlore that there is some wall of transonic effects at mach 1. These effects start well below that speed and are already acting on a bullet going 950 fps. And they are not even the primary cause of destabilization relative to velocity. That study suggests way more of the blame goes to increased wind sensitivity as a result of higher velocity. Aerodynamic drag increases with velocity of a given projectile, which comes with an inherent POI shift (not imprecision), but also exaggerates any instability from other causes. Needless to say, bullet shape plays a big role in the ability to deal with aerodynamic/transonic effects, but I understand that even less and it doesn't affect the core principle of the sound barrier claim.

I think there is another phenomenon here, where the best, most accurate 22lr ammo is loaded subsonic, so people make an even bigger association there. One could load extremely accurate supersonic 22lr ammo if they really wanted to, but they don't, so they don't.