Five .22 Cartridge Velocities: as
Advertised, in Rifle and Three Pistols

By Dean Weingarten. Mar 13, 2023

Published Velocities for .22 cartridges are easily available, and are usually measured in rifle length test barrels. Lapau reportedly uses a 660mm (26 inch) test barrel for .22 rimfire rifle ammunition. RWS uses a 650mm (25 inch) test barrel for rimfire rifle ammunition. US manufacturers are said to use 24 inch test barrels. It makes sense manufacturers would use the longest commonly available barrel to test their ammunition. Velocities of .22 ammunition in the US are seldom given for pistol barrels.

In a previous article, information was published about the velocities from three pistols for five subsonic and suppressor ready loads. KevinC, in a comment, asked for a test of common rounds in the advertised 1200 fps range. This correspondent had a number of them handy, as well as some older (1970) Remington Standard Velocity ammunition, recently tested for a different article.

One difference in this article is the reported length of the barrel on the Kel-Tec P17. Earlier, it was reported as 3.93 inches. References to the 3.93 inch length are still found on the Internet. References to the barrel length as 3.8 inches were found as well. The 3.8" barrel length is now on the Kel-Tec web site. Measurement beats speculation. The Kel-Tec P-17 barrel measured 3.814. Measuring a pistol barrel to the hundredth of an inch seems overkill. 3.8 inches will be used going forward. The pistols were fired with a suppressor.

The results are shown in the chart: .....