One of the first surprises was the comparison of the 4 and ½ inch barreled AMT 22magRF auto to a 4 and 5/8ths inch Ruger S/A. The revolver has a barrel that is nearer to 5 inches, because it is the barrel length and a little more of the cylinder. Where the chamber inside the 4 and ½ inch AMT takes 1.06 inches from the 4.525 inches of the barrel. Giving a real total of 3.465 inch barrel length. And with the 6 inch AMT the real length is 4.905 inches.

Why am I being so specific ? Because the short barreled AMT beat the velocity of the Ruger in ever category of ammo tried! Back when I used to carry the little 4.5 inch AMT as a off duty light defense weapon, and woods loafing gun...I carried RWS 40 grain HP ammo in it getting 1650 fps velocities. I never chrono’ed the Ruger thinking it would get a 50 or so more fps with the longer barrel. I did measure the velocities today...and I’m getting a 47 fps average LESS....than the AMT. The gap in the Ruger is not that bad, or I would have set the barrel back a long time ago. Just points out again, when you think you have this ballistics business all figured out it throws you for a loop.

And the other loop I got tossed for was the bullet performance....I fired them into some heavy dry phone books, to really put strain on the bullets at point blank range....let me digress for a moment to the 1970s....

Back in 1972 I purchased a then new 22 rimfire S&W kit gun with a aluminum frame. It had a three inch barrel if I remember, might have been four. I had it customed tuned with a 2 lb cocked trigger pull, and a five lb double action pull...and all slicked up inside. I had a set of ivory grips made that filled in before the front grip with finger grooves. And had the cylinder reamed out to 22 magRF. It was ultra/light, slick as a whistle, easy to tote and hide...put all bullets into an inch and a ½ at 25 yards...SIDEWAYS! Yup...they tumbled thru the air with accuracy!

Out to forty yards they would stay in about three inches.....It was a shame, it was perfect in all other respects. I had a young state policeman that transfered into my Drug Control Agency. While my men were at a day long, department sponsored shooting contest. We used to hold them once a year and it was a family thing...picnic and all. As the state commissioner I always gave a commissioner’s award to the top gun. I was chatting about the little gun to a number of them, and this new young man asked if he could shoot it...so I let him. Next thing he wants to barrow it for a few days...no problem.

Some time later he came to my office and handed me a holster blue worn , but in excellent shape S&W mod.19, with the round butt and 2 ½ inch barrel. And wanted to know if I would trade him for the little 22 magRF kit gun. He tells me he use the kit gun and WW 40gr HP 22 magRF ammo on a bullheaded feral cat that was always causing mayhem on his property just outside of Richmond. That at 30 paces he hit the cat in the head and the damage was impressive. Next he shoots a few wild dogs at ranges out to 30 or so yards, lung shots and they all expired quickly. He wants the little gun badly. And he wants to carry it on undercover operations. My rules for handguns in my agency was any good solid handgun you can qualify with that will get 500 lbs of muzzle energy, any caliber, no reloads...the agency bought all the ammo. But in undercover operations where a gun’s appearance would hurt the operation a small caliber/frame handgun could be used...only restriction was no 25 ACPs. (At the time 25 acp ammo was terrible...not sure it’s any better today). Since the kit gun had a good deal of ‘smithing and ivory on it, it was a fairly even trade for the mod. 19, and I let him have the little gun.

He never had to use it on anyone while I was his Chief...but he did tell a pimp to get out of a car one night in Richmond...and the jerk turned the engine over. My young policeman shot the front tire out with the little kit gun, blowing the sidewalls out...one shot... and then screwed the muzzle into the pimp’s ear....and the pimp suddenly thought getting out of the car might be the best advise he had heard after all.

I thought of all this when I started shooting the new generation of ammo into phone books this morning...why? Four of the six brands tumbled. They tumbled from the 4.5 inch AMT. Winchester’s new Varmint round, CCI’s MAXI-TNT (not the Maxi-V) Federal’s 30 grain varmint load and their 50 grain load. They didn’t tumble from the Ruger, the 6 inch AMT or the two rifles. But they sure did from the short AMT autoloader...see photo of tumbled bullets.

Surprisingly they went thru approximately a phone book and a half, starting their tumbling after entering the books...which is about 2500 dry pages. From the 6 inch AMT they went thru 2 phone books about 3600 pages without tumbling. From the rifles they pretty much came apart in the third book. The accuracy at 25 yards with all four from the short AMT was under two inches for an average, with clean holes in a standard bullseye paper target. I am soon going out with my varmint whistles and this short AMT and try them on some yotes....to see if they continue to tumble in flesh and bone. I won’t assume...all I know is compressed paper like dry phone books are a tough test.

The absolute star of the day was CCI’s MAXI-V...this is not the 30 grain CCI/TNT bullet. It is CCI’s older varmint bullet which measures .224 not the .223 of some of the others. And it was the velocity champ when you discount RWS which is hard to find and even harder to part cash for...the box I bought a year ago was 13.99 (Yup 14 bucks...good ammo but not that much better to rate that price...except for defensive situations...it’s 40 grain HP bullet is jacketed not gilded and performs very well).

From the short AMT this CCI MAXI-V bullet averaged 1599 fps for five shots with SD of 7 fps (standard deviation) ...and 1668 fps from the 6 inch AMT with a 12 fps SD. From the 19 ½ inch barrel of the Henry levergun it went 2415 fps and the bullet stayed together enough to retain 41% of it’s weight and went thru four and a half phone books! And I have lung shot yotes with this ammo and it is just as impressive putting 2 and ½ inch radial wound 12+ inches thru these little dogs.

The playing card in the photo, is the 9 of spades, with five of these CCIs into .609 ths of an inch from far edge to far edge...subtract the caliber and it is .385 ths of an inch. A little over a 1/3 of an inch from the Henry at 25 yards (small scope used to test potential), my is this good stuff. And it was excellent in all the guns except the Ruger...there it went into just under two and ½ inches...still acceptable.

From the rifle this 22 magRF ammo has about three quarters of the punch of the Hornet with 45 grain slugs and commercial ammo from my 20 inch Ruger bolt action. The hyper 22 rimfires velocity CCI Mini-Mags from my Rossi pump levergun goes 1545 fps and less than half the muzzle punch of the CCI Maxi-V loads. Some one say the 22 magRF isn’t a good step up from the standard Rimfire....the facts sure show otherwise.

But to be fair it hasn’t always been totally so, as the velocity of the first 22 magRF ammo on the market, the Winchester X 40gr HP 22 magRF ammo shows. From the short AMT it went 1260 fps, and from the Ruger S/A even less at 1225 fps. From the 6 inch AMT if went 1310 fps and my old records from a few years back show this ammo went 1390 fps from my 8 and 3/8ths inch S&W mod. 48 revolver. It went 1990 fps from the Henry levergun and 1977 fps from the Winchester 9422M. So from long barrels it is quiet acceptable and remember it is a 40 grain bullet that is jacketed not gilded. It expanded and went 2 and ½ phone books from the short AMT...so it’s performance is good.

The low velocity runner was the Federal 50 grainer..with 1000 fps from the short AMT and 1588 fps from the Winchester levergun. But this ammo is designed to do this...it’s not substandard. It was made to take fur animals without tearing up pelts...and it does that well.

Out of the short AMT and even the 6 inch it is a good load for squirrels and rabbits you want to eat....unlike the high velocity offerings that makes mixed grill out of small critters. Federal’s 30 grain new varmint 22 magRF ammo is very good stuff...it went 1570 fps from the short barrel autoloader and 2310 fps from the Henry...not bad..bad at all. CCI’s new MAXI-TNT is for vaporizing vermin and small varmints. You want to see the feathers explode into a round ball and float away in the breeze leaving nothing but the feet of the crow still on the limb, then this is the ammo that will do it.

Winchester’s VARMINT ammo gave near two inch groups from the three handguns...and a 1 ½ inches from both rifles at 25 yards...the old 40 grain Winchester HP gave a little tighter than those figures...but penetrated extremely well. CCI’s MAXI-V was the champ in accuracy, velocity (except for the expensive RWS), and surprisingly held together very well in the tough phone books. And as I have said it is excellent on coyote sized animals...

The CCI MAXI-TNT is a SX type varmint/vermin bullet from the rifles...it’s accuracy is acceptable to good. I had to take the Ruger’s average accuracy out of the equation it is just not shooting very well...I might use it for a trade down the road. Federal’s 30 grainer was very much like the CCI-TNT in velocity and performance...

The accuracy of the RWS isn’t fish nor foul...2 inches average from the handguns and about the same from the Winchester, a little better from the Henry at 25 yards. It’s velocity isn’t that much over the CCI-MAXI-V...except for it’s weight...it now has little to call on, for the price it costs...even if you could find it.

So when I throw it all in a jug and stir it up and the fizz settles...what’s my conclusions....1\the 22 magRF is a fine small animal cartridge with good accuracy. 2\ It’s power is closer to the 22 Hornet than in between it and the standard 22 rimfire. 3\ In a handgun with ammo like the CCI MAXI-V it has more than the power of the 22 hyper 22RFs from a rifle. 4\ Everyone needs one rifle and handgun where he can’t always be changing the loads and such...a pair that will always put the bullet right where we aim, the first time every time.....whether it’s 2 days or two years between shoots fired.