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Ammunition

Rimfire Ammo

Rimfire is where most shooters start and where the cheapest useful practice lives. The priming compound sits inside the rim of the case rather than in a separate primer, which makes the cartridges inexpensive to manufacture, impossible to reload, and manufactured to looser tolerances than anything centerfire. That last point explains most of what is odd about buying rimfire: rifles have strong individual preferences between brands and even between lots, cheap bulk ammunition will not always cycle a semi-automatic, and occasional duds are simply part of the deal.

Before you buy

What to know about rimfire ammo

What people buy it for

  • Teaching new shooters at minimal cost per round
  • High-volume plinking and steel practice
  • Small game hunting and pest control
  • Rimfire benchrest and precision rimfire competition
  • Suppressed shooting with subsonic .22 LR

High velocity cycles semi-autos; standard velocity often does not

Most .22 semi-automatics are simple blowback designs sprung around high-velocity ammunition. Standard-velocity, subsonic and some inconsistent bulk packs do not generate enough energy to work the action, giving failures to eject that look like a broken gun and are not. For a 10/22 or a .22 pistol, buy 36 to 40gr high-velocity. Save the quiet stuff for bolt actions and suppressors.

The three rimfire cartridges do not interchange

.22 LR, .22 WMR and .17 HMR are separate cartridges. .22 WMR uses a larger case than .22 LR (a .22 LR round in a .22 WMR chamber sits loose and can rupture), and .17 HMR is that magnum case necked down to .17. Some revolvers ship with two cylinders to shoot .22 LR and .22 WMR; that is the only correct way to do it.

Individual rifles have opinions

Two rifles off the same line can prefer different brands, and the same rifle can shoot one lot better than the next. This is normal for rimfire manufacturing tolerances. Serious .22 shooters buy several boxes, test them, then buy a quantity of whichever won, and note the lot number.

Rimfire is dirty and cannot be reloaded

Lubricated lead bullets foul faster than jacketed centerfire ammunition, particularly in a semi-automatic action. Plated and coated bullets help. And because the priming is spun into the rim during manufacture, there is no primer pocket and every case is a consumable, which is exactly why cost per round is the number that matters most in this category.

Questions

Common questions

Why won't my semi-automatic .22 cycle the bulk pack I bought?

Because blowback actions need a minimum amount of energy and inexpensive bulk ammunition is often loaded below it, particularly standard-velocity and subsonic loads. Switch to 36 to 40 grain high-velocity ammunition and most of these failures disappear. A fouled chamber and tired magazine lips are the next two things to check.

Can rimfire ammunition be reloaded?

No. The priming compound is distributed inside the case rim during manufacture and the rim is crushed by the firing pin, so there is no primer pocket to reprime and no way to restore the case. Every rimfire case is single-use, which makes the per-round price the whole comparison in this category.

Why is .22 LR 21+ when it is mostly shot out of rifles?

Because federal law treats ammunition suitable for use in a handgun as handgun ammunition regardless of what the buyer intends to fire it from, and .22 LR is chambered in a very large number of handguns. We apply the stricter reading deliberately: over-restricting costs a sale, under-restricting is a federal violation. The same applies to .22 WMR and .17 HMR.

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Further reading