Shooting a .22 like a air rifle? with low power ammo

Uinseann_16

Hi all ive been thinking about this recently i know its quite obvious not to shoot a crow or squirrel out of a tree with a standard .22lr
But i cant help but wonder why is it acceptable to shoot air rifle which has similar energy to one of these but not a 22?

If you were shooting lower power ammo like .22 long or .22 short or even CCI Quiet its basically air rifle level power
I mean
- CCI quiet is only about 45ft/lb not too far ahead of a PCP

- CCI CB long is only about 33ft/lb

- CCI 22 shorts are 32ft/lb

My question is this lads would it be acceptable to use a .22 like a air rifle with ammo like this in the same circumstances youd use a air rifle?
If not why would you consider a air rifle suitable where a low power 22 isnt?

Cass

Good question. Now someone will have to correct any mistakes i make in regards air rifles and pellets as my knowledge is limited at best.

An air rifle in 22 cal firing a 14.5g pellet with a muzzle velocity of 725fps has a muzzle energy of approx 17ft/lb.

A rifle in 22lr firing a 40gr bullet with a muzzle velocity of 725fps has a muzzle energy of approx 45ft/lb.

There are other differences such as max. distance with a pellet achieving a max of 450/500 yards with about 0.5ft/lb at that distance. Whereas a 22lr can fire to almost 2 miles or over 3,200 yards and still retain a speed of over 150fps while the energy would be about 5ft/lb.

However if we keep it to the max range of the air rifle then look at it like this. The 22lr at 500 yards has a velocity of over 400 fps and an impact energy of 16 to 20 ft/lb. The air rifle has no impact energy or barely above zero (but not breaking into single digits) and its velocity is all but nothing (maybe 5 to 7 fps).

That is working on the basis of a rifle with the CCI quiet. If you use a standard round in your 22lr then the max distance, energy, velocity, etc. all increase. For example a standard 22lr (sub sonic) has a muzzle energy of 100+ft/lb, and maintains the same energy at 700 yards as an air rifle does at its muzzle.

Another aspect would be the ammo itself. Regardless of all the other data above an average 22 pellet is what, 15g, compared to the 40gr 22 bullet. The pellet will dump most if not all it's energy on impact, and for the most part so will some 22lrs, but if you're talking about pigeons, etc. with little body density to stop the pass through of a bullet then a 22lr will, well, simply pass through.


Lastly i don't know any legal way to shoot any bird out of a tree. Air rifle or otherwise. A squirrel i suppose, but that is why we have shotguns.

Uinseann_16

That's for the CCI quiet and a .22 air gun
The CB long seems to be very comparable to a .25 air rifle
https://ardeesports.com/products/cci-cb-long
And it's a available in Ireland ;-) so it is relevant
https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfire/cci/cb/6-38.html
According to CCI themselves it has 32ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle with a 29 grain projectile at the muzzle
This drops to a meager 24ft/lb at 100 yards
I plugged the CB long into strelok and at 500m its energy retained is 8.0 joules or 5.9 ft/lbs

Now for comparison to an air rifle that's hard because there's so many types pcps Vs springers etc 17ft/lb is very much on the lower side for an air rifle the majority of the time we think of air rifles as the sub 12ft/lb licence free variety in England but their FAC air guns are much more powerful than that , and the fact they need to be licensed here means they don't have to be limited to that 12ft/lb
So I'll pick a random set up PCP
I found a video of a FX Impact x .25 cal shooting a 25.4 grain pellet at 910 feet per second
So I plugged that into strelok pro , that gives it 46.5 ft lbs at the muzzle at that same 500m mark it drops to just 1.5 ftlbs

So I guess I awnsered my own question it's because they retain energy much better than a air rifle

I'll stick to the shotgun too :-)

Cass

Uinseann_16 wrote: »

That's for the CCI quiet and a .22 air gun

I only went with the quiets because they were the same MV as the others and that was all you mentioned.

The CB long seems to be very comparable to a .25 air rifle

Thing is this is where they start to differ. A .25cal rifle pellet is closer to a 6.5 caliber rifle than a 22lr. We tend to compare all air rifles to a rimfire or 22lr rifles but they're not. So comparing a .25cal air rifle to a rifie is like comparing a 223 to a 308 because they both centrefire.

Now for comparison to an air rifle that's hard because there's so many types pcps Vs springers etc 17ft/lb is very much on the lower side for an air rifle the majority of the time we think of air rifles as the sub 12ft/lb licence free variety in England but their FAC air guns are much more powerful than that , and the fact they need to be licensed here means they don't have to be limited to that 12ft/lb

The 12ft/lb thing doesn't enter my thoughts because (like you said) its not relevant to Ireland and i don't think about it like that as i'm not into air rifles.

So I'll pick a random set up PCP
I found a video of a FX Impact x .25 cal shooting a 25.4 grain pellet at 910 feet per second
So I plugged that into strelok pro , that gives it 46.5 ft lbs at the muzzle at that same 500m mark it drops to just 1.5 ftlbs

In air rifle terms, its not comparable to a 22lr. It'd be like comparing the 22lr to the hmr again because they're both rimfire.

So I guess I awnsered my own question it's because they retain energy much better than a air rifle

Exactly.

I'll stick to the shotgun too :-)

Good choice.