22lr penetration test on aircraft aluminum

[saturno_v]

It's interesting to note that, as far as I know, nowdays the vast majority of the commercial offering of 22 LR rifles peaks at 18-20" of barrel length.

This wasn't the case in the 60's or early 70's...I still own quite few catalogs and 22 LR rifles with 22" and even 24" barrels were common.

Personally I still own from my dad's collection a beautiful semi-auto Weatherby Mark XXII in 22 LR made by Beretta with a 24" barrel.

 

[Gryffydd]

apologize for the omission...usually I always hammer down about SD all the time with "pure momentum" proponents!!!

No problem--I know you do, especially in .40 S&W vs. .45 ACP debates
I have a problem with pure [ANYTHING] proponents. You can never narrow something down to one factor. I think energy, sectional density, bullet weight, bullet construction, velocity etc. all have a place in determining penetration. And one combination of all the above may penetrate well in a sheet of aluminum, and poorly through a living body or vice versa.
Looking at pure energy for example, being a combination of velocity and mass, does not necessarily weight the two proportionally to how they will affect penetration in certain test media. This, I think, is what the pure momentum people are trying to oversimplify.

 

[saturno_v]

have a problem with pure [ANYTHING] proponents. You can never narrow something down to one factor. I think energy, sectional density, bullet weight, bullet construction, velocity etc. all have a place in determining penetration. And one combination of all the above may penetrate well in a sheet of aluminum, and poorly through a living body or vice versa.
Looking at pure energy for example, being a combination of velocity and mass, does not necessarily weight the two proportionally to how they will affect penetration in certain test media.

I could not agree more...

 

[chrissmallwood]

dom1104-

Gryff is right, pretty much widely accepted that 16 is the ideal.

There is a pretty wide range in 22 ammo tho, as this test does show.

So not sure really. But I would assume a 16 incher would do everything a 22 would.

I will say that the 4 inch pistol failed miserably tho, so there is definatly a sweet spot between 4 and 16.

What the longer barrels are good for, is smooth swinging and stability offhand, and most of all for me, low noise.

<and personally I think they look cool>

Theres another thread somewhere down the page abit and it showed a test where a 28" barrel was cut down in increments to 14". The results showed that even though velocity peaked between 16-18" the loss at 24" was only about 40fps, not a big difference. Granted that will change with different ammo but it was interesting to see how little difference there was over a wide variety of barrel lengths. Noticeable losses werent noted until the barrel was 26" or longer.

 

[sammy_adams]

The slower the bullet, the more time the Al has to get out of the way (dent) over a larger area, absorbing the bullet energy. You can see the highest velocity rounds make a hole but no significant dent on the back side. The Al had no time to get out of the way.

There is a heat transfer aspect to this as well. The point of impact is heated by the bullet. That heat is carried away by the Al. The faster energy can transfer from bullet to Al, the higher the peak temperature will be at the small spot where the bullet hits. Al is much weaker at high temperatures.

 

[Gryffydd]

Theres another thread somewhere down the page abit and it showed a test where a 28" barrel was cut down in increments to 14".

They didn't do .22 LR, but here's a good start.
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/results.html

 

[chrissmallwood]

Quote:
Theres another thread somewhere down the page abit and it showed a test where a 28" barrel was cut down in increments to 14".

They didn't do .22 LR, but here's a good start.
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/results.html

Heres the results I was talking about. They are for .22lr.
Ruger 77/22; Remington Standard Velocity .22 LR ammunition
Barrel Length/ Velocity
28 1095
26 1107
24 1119
22 1129
20 1138
18 1149
16 1157
14 1149

 

[trickyasafox]

Thanks for doing these tests dom! any chance federal bulk pack is available by you locally, or winchester xpert? those are my preferred 22 bulk ammo. i'm surprised by the golden bullet. I used to shoot a lot of it a few years ago and always thought it was warmer than the other bulk ammo packs.

as for lead poisoning- I don't think you have anything to worry about. the lead in the bullet isn't what is dangerous, its the lead in the priming compound (or so I hear, some ubber bio-chemist person please feel free to correct me)

I think about it this way- I eat squirrels shot with lead bird shot and spit it out on the plate. no harm there. I don't think a 22 will do any damage to you either.

the only thing I would think that might get you is if the coating on the bullets came off in the meat. I don't know about you, but that crap on remington golden bullets does not look at all tasty to me

I'd say try mini-mags, but I'm sure they will penetrate if the other stuff did. Can I ask what pistol did you use?

 

[dom1104]

sure thing it was a CZ Kadet 22lr upper on a CZ P01 frame.

And yes I have a box of federal here, I will try that tonight hopefully.

I did not like the golden bullets myself. I bought a few boxes to try em, and my fingers turned a sick yellow after loading a few mags.

The yellow then got on the CT lasergrips, and was a bear to wash off.

blech. I will just use em in the rifle with a speedloading thingy untill they are gone. I will post the effect of the federal 550.

And the dual layer test. shooting is a fun thing indeed.

 

[dom1104]

the 550 federal was so close to the Golden Bullets I am not even going to bother taking a picture. it looks indentical. A big dent with some cracking but no penetration.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Nice test thanks!

 

[LAK]

Velocity is one of the keys to penetrating harder materials. The effect of velocity is most graphic when one looks at how readily many rifle bullets of the simple lead core copper jacket design with drill through substantial thicknesses of steel plate.

 

[dom1104]

As far as the "mass vs velocity thing" I have also tried shooting various calibers at water, and the heavy slow bullets go MUCH much further thru the water than the fast high vel bullets.

I think water is most likely far more similar to game or flesh than any hard material, so I would assume the heavy slow bullets would be far better penetration wise.