Short barrel specific 22 LONG RIFLE

[Onward Allusion]

Anything like that out there in the market? I know Hornady, Speer and I think even Winchester have short barrel loads for the 22 WMR. Never heard of any for the 22 LR, however.

[NoSecondBest]

SK makes a pistol match and so does Eley. I can tell you that from experience they don't shoot any better than the same brands produced for rifles. I'm guessing you're looking for best accuracy? If you're looking for best velocity, I'm not aware of any company making high velocity handgun rimfire ammo. I'm pretty much an accuracy nut myself and don't get too hung up on the velocity. If I think the ammo in the rimfire isn't up to the job, I use a centerfire.

[Onward Allusion]

Clarification - Looking for fastest, "hardest hitting" 22 LR round form a short barrel like the NAA Mini. There's info on the NAA site but those numbers are many years old. Is there newer stuff on the market geared for the SD market?

Not trying to start a debate on the merits of carrying 22 LR for SD. For the record, my EDC is a 40 or 357 Mag. My BUG is a NAA 22 mini or P32.

[NoSecondBest]

I've got a Freedom Arms mini revolver in 22lr and I've killed a bunch of critters with it out to 35yds just using Win 40g HP, Stingers, etc. Any high velocity HP is going to be better than any std. velocity. Nothing is going to make it a high performer in a 1" bbl. I think you're over-thinking this. If you need more, and probably do, get a different gun. Just not enough there to work with to begin with.

[ShootistPRS]

The ammunition that produces the highest velocity will nearly always produce the highest velocity regardless of barrel length.
The specialty loads for short barrels produce less flash and muzzle blast than the hot loads and they use light bullets to keep the velocities reasonable. If you want the fastest bullets then you are going to have to put up with the flash and blast of the slower powders.
The 22 LR cartridge can only hold a couple of grains of powder. The powders that will work in it are all very fast powders because you can't get enough powder into that small case to get the necessary pressures for higher velocity.
There are a few brands of 22 LR that use light bullets and produce velocities over 1300 fps. They are often referred to as "hyper-velocity" ammo. The "Stinger" and "Hornet" 22LR ammo are a couple of those. You are not likely to get reasonable accuracy from them and they may or may not cycle a semi-auto action but they will give you higher velocity.

[Jim Watson]

I never heard of a .22 LR Short Barrel load.

The selection of .22 LR for Ballistics By the Inch seems odd, but I would take the Velocitor if I wanted maximum power in a pistol.
The relatively new Browning BPR is pretty hot from a rifle but I have not seen pistol velocity for it.

My little Plastic M&P .22 Compact shoots CCI MiniMag so well that I don't give it much else. Reliability has to come first.

[Model12Win]

You want you some CCI Mini-Mag 36 grain hollow points:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyR1K92pyq4

Quality ammo and it penetrates amazingly deep for such a tiny gun. No, it does not expand but you do not want expansion from a .22 LR from an NAA. If it expands, it will not go deep. If it does expand, it won't expand much and with these tiny guns and small caliber round you just want to make sure that little pill get to the vitals.

I'm not aware of a more conclusive test than in the above video. I carry these CCI Mini-Mag 36 grainers in my 1 1/8" bbl NAA... speaking of which, I need to ship it off to NAA to have them put it back together!! I just HAD to try and take it apart to clean it but they are virtually impossible to put back together!!

I love NAA guns. They are extremely well made and mine has gone off every single time through hundreds of rounds of all brands, including several boxes of the above mentioned load. You can't go wrong with it!!

[jmr40]

I'd not worry about velocity, from a short barreled gun like that none are going to be fast. And faster HP ammo lacks penetration. I'd use reliable 40 gr solid ammo to get max penetration and not worry about anything else. CCI has always worked well for me and they make a version of the Mini-Mags with 40 gr solids. That would be my pick

[Onward Allusion]

Model12Win
You want you some CCI Mini-Mag 36 grain hollow points:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyR1K92pyq4

Nice. That was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks

[Bill DeShivs]

...Or, some high velocity .22 shorts.

[TruthTellers]

If this is for a NAA revolver, then the "fastest hardest hitting" that is available is going to be CCI Stinger, Aguila Supermaximum, CCI Velocitor, Remington Yellow Jacket.

If talking about a pistol with a 2 to 3 inch barrel, I think that the CCI Velocitor is hands down the best with CCI Stinger next and Aguila SSS third. Aguila SSS just penetrates deep enough and tumbles causing damage.

[Model12Win]

To the others in this thread, do yourselves a favor and watch the video I linked to in my first post.

OP, you could choose nothing better than the CCI 36 grain hollow point mini mags.

[T. O'Heir]

Nobody loads anything according to the barrel length. A .22 bullet doesn't really need to be terribly fast to, um disrupt a bad guy's day. The little fellows are usually cast and will break up upon impact sending wee fragments everywhere. Mind you, out of a novelty big kid's toy like a NAA Mini you'd have to be real close just to hit.
"...Remington Yellow Jacket..." SOB's discontinued it. sniff. My old Cooey M64 loves 'em. A Yellow Jacket will go right through an M1 Helmet. Forget how far. Some of the hanger's on at the gun shop got playing when the hypervelocity stuff first came out, 35 plus years ago. Other brands at the time were Stingers and Expeditors. Those penetrated one side of an Army hard hat.

[Bill DeShivs]

Come on- .22 bullets are not cast. They are swaged out of lead stock.
What a hypervelocity .22 will do out of a rifle, and what it will do out of a 1.5" barrel are two ENTIRELY different things.

[rep1954]

Can't really say how many Velocitors I've shot but not one memory of one not firing in a properly running gun. Now there was a time when I could say that about MiniMags and it stretched many years but in the last five years I've seen more than I care for.

[bassJAM1]

I'll have to watch the video at home. But I did an experiment with a phonebook and my NAA .22 with a 1-1/8" barrel. I shot several types of ammo into the phonebook, recorded the page the bullet stopped at, recorded the page past the stopping point where pages were still ripped, and measured the diameter of the extracted bullet. Based on my slightly scientific experiment, you either want a very fast light bullet, or a very heavy slow bullet. Aguila SSS subsoni 60gr and Aguila Hyper Velocity 30gr performed the best for penetration while still doing OK with expansion.

[ShootistPRS]

Penetration in paper has no correlation to any real world use. Bodies are made of elastic fibers and salt water. Paper is a brittle fibrous product that has clay added to it. (that's why it dulls knives so fast)
Running the same test in a Fackler box will give entirely different results showing the high velocity bullets penetrate less than the heavy moderate velocity bullets.

[Cheapshooter]

The ShootingTheBull video is quite interesting. I guess from his results the extra four grains of mass with the Minimag solid is negated by the increased velocity of the 36gr. hollowpoint.Never really thought it would penetrate that deep, and consistently that deep as well.
His tests are very inclusive of everything others here have posted, and without doubt the CCI MiniMag HP comes out on top out of that tiny revolver.
Considering it also works flawlessly in my Taurus 22Poly if I ever have need to use it for CCW I know it will be loaded with the MiniMag hollow points.

[Model12Win]

Penetration in paper has no correlation to any real world use.

+1.

Just like shooting into a bucket of water, phone books tell us nothing about how a bullet is going to act in tissue. By far the best and most realistic test medium is ballistics gelatin that is properly spec'd and that really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Is ballistics gel perfect? Far from it, but it's the best thing we have at the moment to provide a consistent test medium for wound ballistics.

Shooting the Bull does an excellent job and I urge all to watch his video in my OP.

[benEzra]

With a barrel that short, the 60gr Aguila might be better than some of the lighter loads, if the rifling is fast enough to stabilize it.

[Cheapshooter]

With a barrel that short, the 60gr Aguila might be better than some of the lighter loads, if the rifling is fast enough to stabilize it.

If you watch the excellent video from ShootingTheBull posted earlier (post #7) you would see it makes the "unsuitable" list when fired in the NAA Mini. A big disappointment to the guy that did the video.

[Cheapshooter]

Shooting the Bull does an excellent job

ShootingTheBull, and scubaoz both do great videos accessing the performance of self defense ammo. Scubaoz has done some 22 rimfire tests, but I don't think he has done any with a short barreled handgun.