Up to what range are my .22 bullets still effective?

About our feeds

From guns and gundogs to the latest shooting news; the complete online network for the British shooting community.

| Next

Up to what range are my .22 bullets still effective?

Zeroed at 70-75 yards the .22 LR subsonic has a useful trajectory out to about 85-90 yards.

By George Wallace

Monday, 16 June 2008

On the ammo box it says .22 LR subsonic are dangerous up to 1½ miles - can one of these bullets kill a long distance away?

I have just bought a CZ .22lr rifle and I was wondering what the killing range of this gun would be and is it fit to kill a fox cleanly? I only ever shoot if there's a safe backstop and I'm just looking at this in the worst case.

GEORGE WALLACE says:
It is clearly time I covered this subject in some depth, so look out for an article later in the year.

However, to keep you going until then I will answer your questions briefly here and now.

Zeroed at 70-75 yards the .22 LR subsonic has a useful trajectory out to about 85-90 yards. After that it needs good judgment of distance and a good memory for the bullet drop at the range in question.

The potential killing range is, of course, very much greater because the little bullet has more energy at 500 yards than an air rifle has at the muzzle, so you are right to ensure a safe backstop before every shot.

Opinions vary on shooting foxes with a .22 Long Rifle but the bottom line is that, with 100 foot/pounds of energy at the muzzle, it will most certainly kill a fox cleanly at short range provided circumstances allow precise bullet placement.

A danger area of 1½ miles? It used to say 1 mile on the packet so maybe we are in the grip of inflation?

I strongly suspect that both are a bit optimistic but until I can do some proper testing, I won't know for certain.

Rifle expert, Peter Frenette, tells me he has never managed to get a bullet from a .22 rimfire to go more then 800 yards and we intend to do some carefully recorded testing when I can make the journey.

The problem is that the round trip from here to Peter's is over 400 miles and the cost of fuel alone would be more than I get paid for an article. So don't hold your breath!