For other .22 calibre variants, see .22 (disambiguation)

.22 (disambiguation)

.22, or "22 caliber", is a small, extremely common size of ammunition..22 caliber rimfire variations include:*.22 Long Rifle , the most common variety of .22 caliber ammunition, often referred to simply as ".22 caliber"*.22 BB...

.

.22 Long is a variety of .22 caliber

Caliber

In guns including firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel in relation to the diameter of the projectile used in it....

 (5.6 mm) rimfire ammunition

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

. The .22 Long is the second oldest of the surviving rimfire cartridges, dating back to 1871, when it was loaded with a 29 grain (1.9 g) bullet and 5 grains (0.32 g) of black powder, 25% more than the .22 Short

.22 Short

.22 Short is a variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition. Developed in 1857 for the first Smith and Wesson revolver, the .22 rimfire was the first American metallic cartridge....

 it was based on. It was designed for use in revolver

Revolver

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

s, but was soon chambered in rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

s as well.

In 1887 the .22 Long case was combined with the heavier 40 grain (2.6 g) bullet of the .22 Extra Long

.22 Extra Long

The .22 Extra Long is a .22 in American rimfire rifle and handgun cartridge.Introduced around 1880, the .22 Extra Long was used in Remington, Ballard, Wesson, Stevens, and later models of Winchester's M1903 and M1904 single shot bolt action rifles, as well as in Smith & Wesson revolvers.Using the...

 of 1880 to produce the .22 Long Rifle

.22 Long Rifle

The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as .22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have...

 giving a longer overall length, a higher muzzle energy and superior performance as a hunting and target round, rendering the .22 Long and .22 Extra Long obsolete. For a time there was a price difference between the .22 Long and .22 Long Rifle and the .22 Long held on with budget minded shooters until the price advantage finally disappeared. No new firearms are designed specifically to use .22 Long and the largest 3 producers of .22 Long ammunition ceased production (although it continues to be made by CCI, Aguila, and others). Many .22 Long Rifle guns will chamber and fire the shorter round, though the .22 Long generally does not generate sufficient energy to operate semi-automatic

Semi-automatic firearm

A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...

 guns. The one prominent survivor of the .22 Long is the .22 CB Long, a long-cased version of the .22 CB

.22 CB

.22 CB Cap is a variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition which has a very small propellant charge , resulting in a low muzzle velocity of between 350 and 700 ft/s...

.

While the original .22 Long loading used the same powder charge as the .22 Long Rifle, the .22 Long bullet was significantly lighter, and the combination did not result in higher velocities for the .22 Long when fired from a rifle. The large barrel volume to chamber volume ratio of a .22 rimfire rifle means that the powder gasses have expanded as far as they can well before the bullet reaches the muzzle of a normal length rifle barrel, and the light .22 Long bullet has less inertia

Inertia

Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to...

 than the .22 Long Rifle. This means that the .22 Long bullet (and to a lesser extent the .22 Long Rifle in most loadings) actually slows down significantly before it exits the barrel.

Since the .22 Long Rifle performs as well in a short handgun

Handgun

A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....

 barrel as the .22 Long and outperforms it significantly in a long rifle barrel, the development of the .22 Long Rifle assured the .22 Long's path to obsolescence.

In a sense, though, descendants of the .22 Long still live on, though they are not sold as such. Modern Hypervelocity

Hypervelocity

The term hypervelocity usually refers to a very high velocity, approximately over 3,000 meters per second . In particular, it refers to velocities so high that the strength of materials upon impact is very small compared to inertial stresses. Thus, even metals behave like fluids under hypervelocity...

 loadings of the .22 Long Rifle use bullets as light as 30 grains (1.9 g), and special blends of powder to make full use of a rifle barrel to generate velocities far higher than normal loads, and chamber pressures high enough to cycle semi-automatic firearms reliably. The most well known of these is the CCI Stinger, which actually goes so far as to stretch the case length slightly, so that with the short, light bullet, the overall length is still within the max overall length for the .22 Long Rifle.

Specifications

• Length:
  • Case: 0.595 in (15.1 mm)
  • Overall: 0.880 in (22.4 mm)
• Bullet weight: 29 gr (1.88 g)

See also

• List of rifle cartridges
• List of rimfire cartridges
• .22 Short
  .22 Short
  .22 Short is a variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition. Developed in 1857 for the first Smith and Wesson revolver, the .22 rimfire was the first American metallic cartridge....
  
  
• .22 Extra Long
  .22 Extra Long
  The .22 Extra Long is a .22 in American rimfire rifle and handgun cartridge.Introduced around 1880, the .22 Extra Long was used in Remington, Ballard, Wesson, Stevens, and later models of Winchester's M1903 and M1904 single shot bolt action rifles, as well as in Smith & Wesson revolvers.Using the...
  
  
• .22 Long Rifle
  .22 Long Rifle
  The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as .22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have...
  
  
• 5 mm caliber
  5 mm caliber
  This article lists firearm cartridges which have a bullet in the to caliber range.*Length refers to the cartridge case length.*OAL refers to the overall length of the cartridge.All measurements are in mm .-Rimfire cartridges:...