" Maximum Effective " 22LR Bbl Length
I don't know where I read this, probably here, but is there a maximum 22 LR barrel length, beyond which you have no powder burning ? Even if your burn time is over, you can still have pressures greater than atmospheric...Yes ?
I ask because I had heard of cautions when shooting the 60gr sub-sonic rounds in rifles. I can understand if you could get a projectile 'stuck' in a barrel, and not 'notice it' if it was as semi-auto. My favorite 22's are Marlin 39's, and being a lever-gun, I will know if no projectile exits the relatively long barrel.
I've never had a SS 22 LR get stuck in the barrel. Am I lucky or is this a lot of hot air...no pun intended.
Thanks, as always.
I ask because I had heard of cautions when shooting the 60gr sub-sonic rounds in rifles. I can understand if you could get a projectile 'stuck' in a barrel, and not 'notice it' if it was as semi-auto. My favorite 22's are Marlin 39's, and being a lever-gun, I will know if no projectile exits the relatively long barrel.
I've never had a SS 22 LR get stuck in the barrel. Am I lucky or is this a lot of hot air...no pun intended.
Thanks, as always.
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The 60 gr. sub sonic ammunition is designed for specially rifled, suppressed weapons. Why everyone insists on using it in their regular .22s is beyond me. That said, I doubt you will get one stuck in your barrel. This can be a problem with the Colibri and other primer-only rounds though. 0 -
I was told at 16" all the powder's cooked. And I reckon doubley true with a sub-sonic round. 0 -
Is there any danger firing the 60 grain sub-sonics in a revolver ? On the topic of firing Colibri primer only ammo in long barreled rifles,I have fired hundeds of rounds of it in my Winchester model 67 bolt action rifle and my Browning BL22 lever action with never a problem.Nice and quiet too.
EvilDr2350 -
A club member here chronographed .22s through five different CZ 452s, barrel lengths from 16.5" to 28.6". About as similar as you could get short of taking a hacksaw to a long barrel an inch at a time.
He didn't shoot any of the gimmick loads but a CB Long was fastest (701 fps) out of the 20.7". Most other .22s gave higher velocity out of the 22.5" barrel, but not by much. Bullets were NOT "slowing down" in the 24.8 and not by much in the 28.6".
At BallisticsByTheInch.com most of the highest velocities from standard guns were from a 22" Kimber. The hacksaw test starting at 18" showed a loss in velocity with most loads at nearly every inch of reduction.0 -
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/22.html
most .22s are not really going faster after 14-16"
60gr aquila prob does better in 6-10"
I have stuck their colibri (less poweful) in 16" rifles before0 -
This is like four different topics rolled into one.
1. Yes, there is a maximum barrel length beyond which you won't see velocity increase with ordinary .22LR ammo. Its going to vary from barrel to barrel and ammo to ammo, but its about 16". Beyond that you may see very slight gains in velocity, but not much. . .depending on ammo, and ambient temperature.
The "hypervelocity" rounds use slower burning powder and more of it, and can benefit more from longer barrels. In general, match/target ammo uses lesser amounts of fast burning powder, and velocities with this ammo will top out in shorter barrels.
In theory, eventually rounds will get slower with increasingly long barrels, but in practice, I don't think any .22s are actually made with barrels that long. In PRACTICE, long barrels give you three things:
a. Longer bullet "dwell" time, potentially decreasing accuracy.
b. QUIETER rounds (and this effect IS noticeable, especially with subsonic ammo).
c. Longer sight radius, useful for us dinosaurs who still use iron sights.
3. The only "danger" in using the SSSS ammo in a revolver is to your wallet. The stuff is pricey, and unless you're using a fast-twist barreled gun, not very accurate. Some people think that a heavy unstabilized .22 makes a better defensive projectile than an ordinary .22LR. I say heavy. . .maybe. . unstabilized. . .definitely not. IMO the best "defensive" .22LR ammo for handgun use is actually ordinary 40 grain solid target ammo, because (contrary to popular misconception) it typically gives the best ballistic performance from really short barrels.
4. The label on the Aguila primer-only colibri and super colibri ammos warn against shooting these through rifles because of the risk of sticking bullets in the barrel. Despite that warning, I've shot several BRICKS of each through a variety of .22 rifles, and never seen a stuck round. But I was doing this in a setting where it was quiet and I was carefully monitoring each shot. Definitely would NOT do this on a loud range where you might not know if your round exited the muzzle or not.
I wouldn't worry too much about shooting another colibri after a stuck one, because operating pressures are pretty low. But if you shot a REGULAR .22 after a stuck colibri round, that could ruin your gun (and your day).
Edit: On colibri/super colibri, those basically turn a .22 rifle into something like a .22 air rifle. The Super-Colibri fires a 20 grain .22 caliber hollow base bullet at about 500-550 fps, which is comparable to the kind of velocity you would see from a decent .22 air rifle with a super-heavy 20 grain pellet. The Colibri rounds crawl out of the barrel at only 350fps, which is slow enough that under the right light conditions you can actually see the bullets in flight!
These colibri rounds do make a bit of a pop from a handgun, but they're dead silent in a rifle (sounds just like a dryfire). They do have several serious real world limitations. There is significant bullet drop, limiting practical range to maybe 15 yards. In my experience, the rounds simply aren't that accurate (though good enough for cans or such), and if you are after pure accuracy for training purposes or maybe shooting small game, you'll probably do better with a good .22 airgun. Obviously, the Colibri rounds won't cycle semiautomatic guns, but more important, in my experience even if you're cycling them manually, the short bullet length will still cause jams in certain semi-autos.0 -
I agree with the Super Colibri rounds, I have shot 2+ bricks through a Remington 514 and an old rolling block remington with no hiccups. Just enough oomph to dispatch a cottontail without alerting the neighbors. 0 -
I have also shot the Colibri and Super Colibri through many of my rifles and never had a problem. Fun to shoot in the back yard without peeving off the neighbors! 0
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