CAST PT 3...22RF

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CIRCA 1849 AT THE FRENCH WORLD’S FAIR

A man named Henry became the plant supervisor of the new Winchester company... he rebuilt the Rocket Ball handgun into a rifle...a leveraction called the Henry Rifle, named after him by the owner of the company...Oliver Winchester. And that evolved into the great Winchester Arms Company. Henry up scaled the little 22 RF S&W had, to 44 caliber for the Henry rifle...it became known as the 44 Henry Flat...it too was a rimfire round. And self contained ammo took a great leap forward in two areas, rifles and handguns. And a world revolution in arms manufacture was to begin.....

With 152 years of development the 22 RF is still with us. Chambered in probably every conceivable fire arm possible over the century and a half. It has been the starter cartridge for many hunters and shooters...it still is so incredibly popular that the amount of 22 RFs sold in this country last year reached nearly 3 BILLION! I must admit I have had thousands and thousands of that 3 Billion go thru my guns. And I’m always on the look out for ‘another 22'....I have them from a little 10 ounce Phoenix auto loader, to a new/used revolver I found a day or two ago which weighed in at 3.5 lbs.

Rifles from an old Winchester pump to a new bolt action import I found a very short while back manufactured in the Czech Republic/ a model CZ452-ZKM. A 24 inch lite tapered barrel...very nice straight grained black walnut cut in European Continental style...clip fed but not showing or hurting the profile of the rifle. With a full size six power scope, the whole rig weighs 6 pounds. Looks like a baby Mauser...Nice.

Back in the early 1980s a friend traded a Colt Trooper MK3, the 357 frame chambered in 22RF, to me for a 44 Special clone Colt S/A I had. The big 22 RF was a lot of gun for the round it fired. But it had a certain charm about it.

Unfortunately I didn’t realize it until I had traded it off for some other siren song not half as nice. And I missed it ever since. Colt only chambered a small number of them...so when I saw one used for sale a day or so ago, it didn’t take me long to make the deal. So now I had two new 22RFs...the rifle and the revolver.

Paco's .22 Trooper

And what is the best way to test new guns...??? With new ammo. Aguila of Mexico has put several new 22RF offerings on the market. But the one that intrigued me was their 60 grain "SniperSubSonic" or SSS. They developed a 60 grain swaged soft bullet and to keep it within length for autoloaders and clips and such...they loaded it into 22 short cartridge cases. Funny looking round...but that’s where the ugly stops...it is accurate, quiet..but not silent...and deadly on small game at reasonably short range.

I have an old S&W Target 22 RF autopistol from my contest shooting days in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This gun is real finicky about the ammo it uses..not only will it not group what ever it doesn’t like...but will stove pipe the cases to get your attention about it’s dislikes. The Aguila 60 grainers functioned fine. The accuracy wasn’t target grade, but it was minute of squirrel. It also ran thru a Ruger handgun (autoloader) without a hitch, so autoloaders function fine with this ammo.

On the way home from velocity and group testing, a very large black crow/raven mix was sitting on the top of an old signal pole...along an abandon railway cut. At about 80 yards one of these 60 grainers with the SGB nose from the rifle, took him low in the chest, and exited his back. I could see the feathers blow out of his back in the scope...the recoil is non existent.

I don’t particularly like hunting squirrels with 22RF ammo. The 40 grain bullets and under don’t make it for me. The hollow pointed hyper velocity ammo ruins too much meat, the round nose standard velocity doesn’t always stop them in their tracks...making for a lost animal. I think with the noses SGB cut, under fifty yards this ammo, will work well on squirrels and small vermin. Only with head shots is it a rabbit load. If Aguila would only load some this ammo up to 1250 to 1300 fps from a rifle, it then would be superb. I find the 50 grain swaged lead Federal 22RF Mag load at 1450 fps from a rifle, is excellent....so this 60 grainer at 1250 to 1300 would be just as good.

One of the 22RF specialty loads I like best is the CB caps...Eley gives me good accuracy...but I’m sure CCI is just as good. I like these because from my rifles they are silent. I removed a number of rats that had moved into our back yard because of the bird seed that got put out this winter....not even the house hold cat we have, heard a report from my rifles and CB Caps.

But she sure enjoyed nailing the rats I would hit. She’d see the rifle come out and run to the back door...better than a bird dog. Eley CBs I have are marked on the box wadcutter shape...and they are. The are/were made in Birmingham England. I have about five boxes and they are what’s left from the 1991 purchase of three bricks. I have not checked lately so I don’t know if they are still on the market...or if they are, what they cost. I’m sure they are not cheap. But a box or two are worth having. Again CCI makes it’s brand, they are round nosed...I’m not sure of their accuracy, but they would need to have their noses cut flat.

Remington produces a ‘Gallery Load’ it is a 15 grain bullet made from a substance like pencil lead...graphite...from my rifles it runs close to 1750 fps, round nosed but a sharp shoulder...clean cut holes in target paper and small critters. What is nice about this load...it will not ricochet, if it touches something in flight it comes apart...and it will not go a long way because it is so light...very safe close range vermin load. Last box I bought 2 or 3 years ago was 250 rounds, that’s how they come. You usually have to special order..most small stores don’t know about them. I hit a ½ lb desert rat at the range one day at 50 feet...no exit, it blew up inside the little critter...deadly.

The Colt/Trooper 22 RF at 3.5 lbs doesn’t recoil. I blew tufts of fur off a sitting jack rabbit one day, with standard 22s when I had the other gun. I whacked him...he just sat there and didn’t move...if the gun had recoiled I would have missed the fluff. So the next shot, I took careful aim and head shot him...this time he fell over and kicked a lot.

This Colt Trooper I now have is the same as that one from back in the early 90s. But this one is coated with what Colt called Coltguard...an electroless nickel finish. Also I didn’t buy it just to get back the lost gun...I have a purpose for this one. I’m going to ream it out to 22 RF Magnum. With it’s six inch barrel..which I’m going to set back to a minimum gap...it should be a real mini bear killer. But I’m wringing it out with 22RF first. And then comparing the ammo to it’s performance in the rifle.

The fastest 22 RF ammo out of this 6 inch gun was CCI Stinger, which should be no surprise. It averaged 1389 fps for five shots...but what was a surprise was the groups at 25 yards...from the bench...7/8ths of an inch. Stingers reputation seems to be that it is high velocity but not very good accuracy...out of my 8 inch Ruger auto (custom gun, only thing Ruger about it is the grip frame)...velocity was 1440 fps and an 1.25 inch group. I don’t know about reputations but the two target 22 RF rifles I have, put Stingers into less than 1.75 inch groups at 100 yards. The 20 inch barreled Anschutz mod.64 Silhouette was 1710 fps and in the 24 inch CZ it was 1688 fps.

It is generally known that 22RF Long Rifle ammo reaches it’s top velocity in 16 inch barrels...22 RF short ammo in around 12 inch barrels...shorts fired in a 22 Long Rifle chamber will get lower velocity than one fired in the same barrel length but in a 22 Short chamber. As the barrel length gets longer the velocity actually goes down...kind’a like the bullet is running out of gas..and literally it is..So the 20 inch Anschutz scored higher velocities with every brand recorded, than the velocities in the four inch longer CZ.

The third highest velocity ammo from the 6 inch revolver was CCIs Mini Mag +V...don’t confuse this ammo with CCIs Mini Mag standard. The +V solid went a little over 1170 fps and just under an inch...actually not as accurate as the Stinger...it’s 36 grain bullet is not as frangible as the Stinger’s bullet and they are truncated cone shape.

In wet phone books the Stinger expands very well and fragments a little, from the 6 inch Colt...from either rifle it comes completely apart...from the handgun the +V solid doesn’t expand as well as the Stinger...but from the rifle they do very well......the +V is trucking right along from the Anschutz at 1431 fps...from the CZ it was close at 1412 fps. But the CCI Mini Mag +V hollow point gave substantially better velocity than it’s solid +V brother, and was the second highest velocity tested. From the handgun it was running 1254 fps, from the Anschutz 1466 fps and surprise from the 24 inch CZ it still held on well at 1450 fps. Accuracy was on par with the solid +V.

CCI makes a 38 grain Small Game Bullet 22RF load. This is a direct copy of the SGB bullet that is made from Allan Taylor’s tool and came out after Allan’s tool was written up in a number of national gun magazines.....Hummmm makes one wonder, since CCI never even acknowledged Allan’s contribution.

Personally I’d rather have the tool and make my own SGBs...not because I feel allegiance to my good friend Allan. But the accuracy of the CCI/SGB wasn’t that good. I got about 1.5 inches @ 25 yards with the Colt and 3.5+ inches from both rifles at one hundred yards. And for accuracy testing both rifles had 12 power Tasco target scopes mounted. The CCI/SGB velocity wasn’t too bad at 1130 fps from the Colt and 1301 fps from the CZ. I didn’t test it in the Anschutz...ran out of ammo by then.

Best accuracy from field ammo came from two different brands....both tied from the Colt. PMC Target and CCI Green Tag Competition...both gave .36 inch groups...that’s almost one third of an inch at 25 yards....certainly my eyes can’t do any better. Green Tag hit under 1000 fps around 995....and PMC Target surprisingly went over the 1000 fps mark at 1055 fps. I ran both these loads thru my Hanned SGB tool and the accuracy stayed with the same fine groupings....both at 25 yards and out of the rifles at 100 yards. At 100 yards both went into the magic inch.

I am really happy with the Czech CZ...it’s grouping ability is nearly as good as the Anschutz Target Rifle...and it is several pounds lighter. Plus the Anschutz is a single shot...made for range and contest shooting. In the field hunting things that like to run and zig-zag like jack rabbits...the five shots the CZ holds comes in handy.

Winchester puts out the best field and range accuracy heavy 22RF ammo in the 50 grain Silhouette load. From my CZ it only hit 1222 fps with the nose SGBed...but the accuracy was under and inch at 100 yards...from the Anschutz, it performed like a show pony going under 3/4ths of an inch. The Anschutz loves target ammo..except for Canadian Dominion brand...for some reason Dominion was worthless in my guns. PMC Sidewinder 50 grain was a little higher in velocity at 1301 fps from the CZ...but wasn’t as accurate at 1.25 inch@100. But in the field hunting squirrels, if you had to use a 22RF, this could be a good choice when the noses are SGBed.

One of the strange ammo offerings on the market is Quick Shok. This ammo separates into three sections when it hits and it is very deadly in a 22RF handgun, if needed for personal protection. I don’t recommend 22s for personal protection but lets face it some folks that are old or infirmed or both, just can’t handle the heavier calibers. And at across the room distances this stuff is nasty. I have a very small Phoenix 22 RF auto loader. With this gun and ammo, I wacked a feral cat that was causing a good deal of problems...hit him at 40 feet as he was heading for ‘elsewhere’. The entrance was behind the ribs on the right side at a sharp angle going forward thru his lugs. The bullet even from such a short barrel performed as advertised and shredded the near lung and heart.

This is a varmint class bullet from the rifle...out of the CZ it went 1689 fps, from the Colt 6 inch revolver it almost broke 1500 fps at 1498. I have not had the chance to catch a varmint in my sights with this ammo in the rifle...but time will tell. Also it is expensive, taking it out of general shooting for me, and very hard to find in Tucson....I’m not sure why, it’s great stuff.

So cast, swaged, and gilded in the 22 RF, the 22 RF is still as wonderful as it has been over the last 150 years or so....one of the things I enjoy most about the 22s is seeing the target hit when fired on....no recoil and little or no noise...neat!