Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires bullet design for 22lr

why dont they make 22lr bullets like they do for the 17cal.rim fire? I think the copper jacket with the point would improve accurracy and speed.

They don't because of the legal liablity?.....There are too many "in line" type magazine rifles that would place the point of that sharper bullet aganist the rim of the cartridge next in line in the tube and the jar from the recoil of the shell and the bolt/action would allow the primer compound in the rim of the shell to be ignited by the point of the other shells...and likely cause a chain reaction setting off many of the shells in the magazine tube......and since there are hundreds of thousands of existing guns for the normal 22rimfire no matter how many warnings and what dangers are proven for use of the new pointed bullet ammo SOMEONE would have to try it and get their hand blown off or blinded and would sue and WIN in todays climate of "get money anyway you can and it's ALWAYS someone elses fault" .......that is why the 17rimfire with no prior commerical guns available could use a different style bullet and design........the same question is already being ask for the 22mag which also is in the same situation......this is just my opinion and limited knowledge from talking to some fellow shooters and gunsmiths and experience with firearms and caliber interchange problems.....good luck and good shooting!!!!

Sorry, but you are mistaken. It is only centerfire cartridges in tube mags where this is of concern. It is not a problem with rimfire rifles because the point of each bullets bumps into the center of the cartridge and the primer for a rimfire is on the "rim".



Also, the 17 HMR is exactly the same situation as the 22lr. Both cartridges are rimfires and have the point of the cartridge resting against the center of the cartridge in front of it in tube mags.



Conrad

As an addendum, Remington already makes a carteige with the V-Max bullet for the .22WMR, a 33 grainer I believe. There should be no problems with the exception of possably deforming the pointy tip thus effecting accuracy. There is no safty issue as stated above by conrad.



BTW, Taurus already produces a .17HMR in .17, the 62 series pump with tube magazine!



http://www.taurususa.com/products/gunselector-results.cfm?series=PA3

Look carefully and compare a 22LR bullet with that of a 22 Mag or 17. You will see that the LR bulet is the same diameter as the case it is in. A Mag is in side of the case as all other modern centerfire cases are. The LR bullet design goes back to the days of the large bore rimfire cases of the 19th century. LR and family cases are the only ones left using this design. To make a copper jacked LR would be a monumental undertaking. Secondly the velocity of a LR would suffer if a gilding metal jacket made of copper were employed. Friction between barrel and bullet would increase by using copper or to compensate the bullets would have to be of a smaller diameter thus reducing contact with the lands and grooves imparing accuracy. The Ruger 22 convertable six gun suffers accuracy problems when shooting LR as the barrel is made for the larger diameter 22 mag, it shoots fine with mags and not as well with the LR. I have a couple and have proven this several times. The 22LR has got to be the most efficiant cartridge around powder volume for weight of bullet. this says a lot about the design of the bullet. And finaly lead is a good lubricant when used against steel. I see no reason to change things now after several billion rounds of ammo down range and over 150 years more or less of a proven design.

Bullwnkl.

The bullets have to be soft enough for the rebated bases to "obturate" or bump up bore size upon firing. There wouldn't be much gained by going to jacketed spitzer type bullets in the .22 long rifle, the velocity is not high enough to be affected much by bullet shape, plus the bullets probably wouldn't expand any at all at the low velocities. It would be like FMJ in centerfires. There have been experiments done over the years with sharply pointed bullets, very little improvement in ballistics was realized. If the .22 WRF had replaced the .22 long rifle, there would be real jacketed bullets available in a long rifle velocity cartridge. I always thought the .22 WRF should have obsoleted the long rifle, but it didn't and faded out itself. So, if you want jacketed spitzer type bullets, it's .22 WMR or .17 HMR. I thought the 5mm Remington was superb, for some reason it bit the dust also. Cool cartridge, no demand, bye bye. Probably the major reason was price, the long rifle is just so cheap nothing else comes close to being as affordable.