SHOT Show: New .22 LR 45 grain Subsonic Pistol Load from Browning

AmmoLand ^ | February 4, 2023 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

At the SHOT Show, Browning ammunition has introduced a subsonic, 45 grain, suppressor optimized .22 Long Rifle load for pistols. It uses the heavy, 45 grain bullet to increase energy from a pistol at subsonic velocities. It is loaded to reliably stay subsonic from pistols. If fired in rifle length barrels, it may reach supersonic velocities, with the resultant sonic barrier snap produced by bullets exceeding the speed of sound. A rough estimate of the price is about 10 cents a cartridge. The market for ammunition is fluid, so prices are difficult to forecast.

Browning ammunition is produced by Winchester, which does the research, testing, marketing, and production, branded with the Browning name.

This is the first introduction, of which I am aware, of .22 Long Rifle rimfire being produced for optimum subsonic energy from .22 LR cartridges for pistols.  It is optimized for suppressor use, with black copper plated bullets to reduce fouling. According to my calculations, a 45 grain bullet at 1060 feet per second produces a bit more than 111 foot-pounds of energy. That is about 9% more energy than a CCI standard velocity 40 grain bullet produces at the muzzle of a .22 rifle.  On the boxes produced for the SHOT Show, the graphic designers mistakenly placed an energy number of 100 foot pounds. The error will be corrected before the new ammunition is shipped out.

This makes the cartridge an interesting contender as a self-defense cartridge for .22 pistols. In my opinion, what is wanted in a .22 for self-defense, is penetration. The 45 grain bullet is 12.5% heavier than the standard 40 grain bullet. It is not a hollow point, so it should penetrate about 12.5% more than the 40 grain bullet, at the same velocity.

[Jumper]

I shot squirrels all the time with subsonice .22 ammo. I think I might be using paper boxed CCI or maybe Aguila rounds. If the first shot doesn’t kill them I give a second shot to the head - which is usually necessary.

[Jewbacca]

I do, too. They’re not native here and a very invasive and destructive species.

Some idiot apparently thought they were cute and released them.

Fair number of houses burn down from these rodents chewing electric lines.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Marketing gimmick. Ordinary target ammo as intended for pistols, except for the bullet and the packaging.

[Jewbacca]

So is “ordinary target ammo” subsonic and have similar power?

[CodeToad]

More importantly, air density, which atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity are factors. The speed of sound is affected by the density of the material it is traveling through. Best to simply use a Standard Atmosphere of 29.92 “Hg and 59°F, look up the speed of sound at sea level and your altitude and subtract 5%. Just forget tying your brain in knots figuring the true speed of sound.

Speed of sound is about 1,100 fps at sea level to 8,000 feet, and 1,000 fps above that for Standard Atmosphere.

Subsonic at 5% below Standard Atmosphere would be 1050 fps below 8,000 feet and 950 fps above 8,000.

I just remember subsonic is 1,000 fps, to keep it simple as I live in Florida. In Colorado at 6,000+ feet, where I used to live, I remembered it at 950 fps.

[P8riot]

The pistol load is loaded to a higher energy to get the most out of a pistol barrel, without going supersonic.

And so that it has a better chance of cycling the action. Some subsonic rounds will hardly, if at all, cycle the action of a lot of semi autos without modifying the weapon.

[PROCON]

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[moovova]

My wife doesn’t like guns. Still, I wanted her to have access to a simple weapon, should the need arise. I bought her a Ruger hammerless LCR 22LR. I’ll have the CCI Mini-Mag hollow-point in the cylinder. It’ll be meant only for up close and personal. She has yet to shoot it. But...normally a quiet person, I’ve taught her to yell at the TV when Fox News is on, so there’s hope.

[Grognard49]

I’ve been using the Aguila 60 grain in my “barn gun”, an old Mossberg 142, for several years. I’ve had good luck with it as long as the little critter is about 25 yards or less. At any longer range there seems to be a lot of bullet drop so I have to apply a little “Kentucky Windage” to get on target.

And the neighbors haven’t even noticed.

[Big Red Badger]

SUB-22 .
Cheap and Plentiful?
There are clubs all over that shoot .22s’
Long Range say 300 yards and subsonic Is
Preferred as it doesn’t ‘wobble’ when
Slowing from Supersonic.
LAPUA Match grade .22 LR is Tops.
.
It’s a Cult.

[Paal Gulli]

"I wonder how the Aguila SSS 60 grain round stabilizes in a pistol...."

GREAT! So long as the barrel has a 1:9 twist. The problem is the standard twist for a .22LR is 1:16. The bigger problem is the 60-gr Aguila is horrible ammunition. Extreme spread is more than 10% of average muzzle velocity. Shoots groups the size of a bowling ball at 50 yards, even from a 1:9 twist barrel.

I would have my suspicions about whether a 45-gr bullet would be stable from 1:16, but bullets need more twist to stabilize when they're supersonic, less when they're subsonic.

The elephant in the room is that basically all standard velocity .22lr ammo is subsonic when fired from a pistol-length barrel (https://ballisticsbytheinch.com/22.html). The point of the heavier bullet is to give the projectile greater momentum to make up for some of the penetration it might otherwise lose from the subsonic velocity..

Mr Weingarten gets into the matter of muzzle energy, and ignoring for a moment that muzzle energy is the most talked about and least useful numerical value in shooting, that 40gr CCI would only need 1120 fps (from a rifle mind you) to have ME equal to Browning's specs for the .45-gr load. And 1120 fps isn't much to brag about but it will come equipped with its own sonic boom.

Muzzle energy issues aside, the velocities are close enough that the heavier bullet will penetrate deeper because penetration favors mass (and doesn't give a rip about muzzle energy).

[Paal Gulli]

"So is “ordinary target ammo” subsonic and have similar power?"

Crossing the transonic region never helps precision and usually degrades it so most if not all match-grade .22 ammunition is subsonic.

It's not advertised in bright red letters but competitive shooters (who know their butt from a hole in the ground) are aware that not flirting with the transonic region is better for precision.

World champions' ammo of choice, MV 1040-1085 fps.

https://eley.co.uk/eley-match/

[Travis McGee]

Here, quality matters GREATLY.

CCI, nearly centerfire reliability. Very consistent.

But the “box o bullets” for cheap practice, but when it matters, load CCI.

[Travis McGee]

I could not agree more.

The main value in this thread, IMHO, is passing on the accumulated knowledge of yesteryear to the newbies.

Some of it is subtle, but very significant.

[MosesKnows]

Can this round be used in a .22lr pistol?

[marktwain]

It is specifically designed for .22 LR pistols.

[Paal Gulli]

If you want to get technical about it, 1040-1085 fps. isn't subsonic, it's transonic. Part of the airflow around the bullet will still be supersonic because the air has to move really fast -- faster than the speed of sound -- to get out of they way of a bullet that itself is going 1000 fps, and at that speed air is no longer compressible, which means it's creating a shock wave.

Same goes for exceeding the speed of sound. Some areas on the bullet will begin to experience subsonic flow (and so enter the transonic region) before the bullet slows to the speed of sound.

The first time a concerted effort was made to study compressibility effect was with Kelly Johnson's P-38 Lightning. It was experiencing control problems in power-on dives at about 0.67 Mach. Even when the aircraft itself was yet far below the speed of sound, airflow over small regions of it were reaching the speed of sound, which created shock waves that were monkeying with the control surfaces.

Basically it was bumping into the bottom of the transonic region (a speed known as the lower critical mach number) and it wasn't designed to deal with the complications that caused.

Here's an image from the P-38's operator's manual admonishing the pilots not to exceed 0.67 Mach:

The evil compressibility was waiting for you if you dared exceed Mach 0.67.

Chuck Yeager and the builders of the Bell X-1 knew to expect problems when they had reached the lower critical Mach number but there were no wind tunnels that could reproduce the speeds of the X-1, so Yeager was making it up as he went.

It's not the speed of sound that's the problem, it's the transonic region that surrounds it that's the bugbear. A bullet never goes from supersonic directly to subsonic, it always slows from supersonic first to transonic and then to subsonic, literally never having any idea when it crossed the "speed of sound."

You'll have seen evidence of that if you've ever looked at the drag curve diagram for a bullet.

(diagram sourced from Bryan's Litz's "Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting")

Going from left to right, the drag begins to climb steeply well before reaching the speed of sound, which is an indication that the bullet is above the critical mach number and so is experiencing a new type of drag, the wave form drag that always accompanies a shock wave.

Which also brings up another reason why match .22LR ammunition is usually subsonic. Most .22LR projectiles have round or elliptical noses, not the spire-point design that would benefit supersonic flight. If you drove them to slightly supersonic speeds, because of their aerodynamic inefficiency, they wouldn't remain supersonic very long anyway. Drag tends to be so much lower at subsonic velocities that it's more economical to give up that 150 fps or so and start out subsonic.

So it turns out the world isn't as simple as black and white, supersonic or subsonic. There's a lot of degrees of gray in between.

[marktwain]

Correct. But, as you pointed out 1050 fps to 1085 fps is considered subsonic for .22 projectiles.

In my experience, you do not get the supersonic "crack" in that velocity region.

You might get it in temperatures below freezing

There is a difference between having instability and producing the sonic crack.

[marktwain]

A bullet never goes from supersonic directly to subsonic, it always slows from supersonic first to transonic and then to subsonic.

It has to achieve supersonic before it can slow to subsonic.

If it never reaches supersonic, it never has to slow to go subsonic. It is already there.

[Big Red Badger]

SSS 60 gr. Shoots Bowling ball size
Groups at 50 yds..I can relate.
.
I’ve shot Quarter size groups at 50yds
Using CCI 40 gr Standard Velocity.
Dime size groups Using Lapua pistol.
Both are subsonic.
5 dollar a box compared to 25 a box!!
.
Sorta like Racing.
How Fast you want to Go depends on
How much you want to spend.