Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Budget bulk box subsonic

Why isn't this a thing? Is there not a market for it?

Walmart sells the Federal Automatch 40gr 1200fps loads in 325ct boxes for $19. You can still find the big boxes of Thunderbolts or W-W bulk or Fed Blue Box, but it's all supersonic. Is there that much more effort or quality control required to turn out a 40-45gr load that makes 950-1000fps that can be sold in bulk for a bit more than the cheap, bulk 1,200fps stuff? Curious, as it seems like folks would buy it.

If you look at a lot of good target ammo, most are in the 1000-1100 FPS range, so I could see some good subsonic bulk ammo being a good practice ammo.

I suppose I'm wondering why there aren't more subsonic "plinker" offerings out there. Bullet weight might go up a tad, powder charge might go down just a bit, but it seems like it would be easy to make and sell.

Subsonic ammo is usually rated around 1,050 fps. CCI rates their standard velocity ammo at 1,070 fps. Close enough and CCI Standard Velocity can be bought in bricks or by the case if you want.

The bulk .22rf market caters to semiautos. Reliable cycling is priority one, ahead of accuracy.

Aquila had an option listed as their SE standard velocity hp. It was a 40 grain hp rated 1060fps, if I remember correctly. They used to sell it very cheap and comparable to bulk ammo. The stuff shot lights out for me.

When Aquila realized what was going on they listed it as subsonic and quite a bit more expensive