I have a rant! Hopefully of general interest.

[Rule3]

I guess standard and high, hyper, sub sonic, warp speed velocity is not acceptable.

I have never seen barrel length on any rimfire or center fire ammo.???

 

[Thomasss]

Ever think of contacting the manufacturer?

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Man some of y'all need a hobby... As long as it does what I need, I don't care what they tested it with.

Heh!

"Hey, lookie here! It's consistently hitting where I'm sighted in!"

 

[Seedy Character]

The reloading manual gives an approximation.
Not going over pressure and having accurate, consistent groups matter more than actual velocity to me.

I have noticed, on center fire rifle cartridges, the velocity on the box, typically is higher than what is obtained in my rifles.

 

[Dibbs]

They are probably chronographed from a SAAMI spec (pressure) test barrel.

Well, then, they could say that, but they don't.

 

[DustyGmt]

Yes ,but you can figure the test barrel was between 14" -18" .

Don't they usually do 18"-20" for .22lr. I could be off on that, I just have a faint recollection of seeing that, I'd have to check some of my .22lr boxes.....

 

[illinoisburt]

The reloading manual gives an approximation.
Not going over pressure and having accurate, consistent groups matter more than actual velocity to me.

I have noticed, on center fire rifle cartridges, the velocity on the box, typically is higher than what is obtained in my rifles.

The main thing I noticed is numbers have gotten a whole heap more realistic with the proliferation of reasonably priced accurate chronographs. Used to be we had to take someone's word for what a round would do. Now we actually know and the knowledge is shared pretty widely thanks to the interwebs.

 

[Jim Watson]

The Speer manual has a chart headed why ballisticians' hair gets gray.
It tabulates velocity from about a dozen different .357 magnum revolvers with several Speer FACTORY loads. The spread is amazing.

I was seeing some unachievable revolver velocities on the Hodgdon www. Then I noticed they were shot in a 7.7" barrel, probably a single shot test fixture, even though SAAMI provides for a 4" vented barrel to simulate a revolver with cylinder and gap.

 

[fxvr5]

Well, then, they could say that, but they don't.

Tell the manufacturers. Complaining about here won't do any good.

 

[Gone Hiking]

As much as like to see printed data, ultimately I chrono anything that I'm curious about. Here's the results of various CCI .22 LR ammo I did this past Spring. Some of it was spot on. The biggest deviation averaged 39 fps. (Side note: The two 710 fps Quiet-22s do not cycle in my gun. The 835 fps Quiet-22 does.)

 

[mondocomputerman]

Try the Ballistics by the Inch website- very interesting stuff!
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/

The ammo manufacturers are probably being vague on purpose- Im sure their lawyers have final approval of everything on the box.

And looking at ballistics by the inch, sometimes the .22 will slow down in those longer barrels.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

And looking at ballistics by the inch, sometimes the .22 will slow down in those longer barrels.

9mm too....

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Well, then, they could say that, but they don't.

This is kind of silly.

A box of ammunition only provides a very limited amount of space to print information on, especially a box of .22 like what the OP is talking about. Unless, of course, you're recommending that every box of ammo come with a leaflet which provides every bit of information anybody could possibly want about the ammunition of concern.

The information is out there, very easily found. I even provided a link in my post back at #6. SAAMI sets the industry standard in the United States and those standards are easily found and in great detail.

 

[jmr40]

In the real world you see far greater differences in actual bullet speed from individual rifles of the same length than a few inches of barrel will make.

With common barrel lengths used my most manufacturers velocity won't change enough to matter. With most 22 rifles common barrel lengths vary between 16" to 22". A 22 develops about all the speed it will get at about 16"-18". From 16" to 22" there is virtually no difference and a real possibility that a 22" barrel could be slower than 16". Anything longer than 22" will almost certainly be slower since all of the powder burned up long ago and the bullet is now being slowed by the extra barrel length. But virtually no one makes barrels that long.

Even if they listed the barrel length they used to test the ammo that doesn't mean you'd get the same speed from YOUR barrel of the same length. The only way to know how much difference barrel length makes is to start with a long barrel, chronograph the ammo, cut the barrel 1" shorter, and chronograph again. Then repeat by cutting the SAME barrel shorter.

I've not shot a lot of 22 over my chronograph, but with centerfire rifles have found 25-50 fps variance between different barrels of the same length is normal. And 100fps or more isn't unusual. I've seen as much as 130 fps difference between two 30-06 rifles both with 22" barrels. And my 20" 308 rifle shoots faster than my 308's with 22" barrels.

 

[Riomouse911]

Ammo charts from manufacturers used to list the barrel length used to get velocity numbers, like “4” vented test barrel” for .38 Special loads for handguns or “ 24” test barrel” for .30-30 results (One reason why published numbers were often very optimistic!)

Ballistics by the inch is cool because they not only show the results from their test barrel as it’s cut down, but real world gun results that they chronograph, too.

Stay safe.

 

[Slamfire]

The ammo shoots well out to fifty meters or so. Actually shoots about three to four inches at 100 yards, but I don't plan on attempting that much.

That is fine for over the counter, cheap stuff. To improve, you will have to spend more than a thousand, sometimes two thousand a 5000 round case for match ammunition.

My gripe is I have nothing on which to base an expectation. Further casual investigation shows most all ammunition has a velocity shown, but no mention of the length of barrel. Nor am I expecting ammunition suppliers to test every conceivable arm so chambered and print that on the carton. But the addition of something like "... in a 24" barrel" would shed a ray of light for the user.

Or am I just too nit picky?

Twenty two rounds start to slow down after 16 inches of barrel. Longer barrels are mainly there for sight radius, balance, etc.

I looked at my data, out of a bunch of match 22lr rifles, all with 26" barrels. Std Velocity ammunition runs around 1080 fps to 1100 fps. Forty grain SK HV HP, 1165 fps.

Velocity does depend on the barrel, some old 22lr's, 1050 fps for standard velocity.

 

[Dibbs]

The information is out there, very easily found.

Not at the point of sale, it isn't. When you are looking at ammo, at the counter. Bear in mind you're looking at dozens of these different boxes, when you're out shopping ammo, and to be kind, some don't even give FPS specs.

I have to agree that it isn't an inelegantly large amount of information to add, to any box.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Ammo charts from manufacturers used to list the barrel length used to get velocity numbers, like “4” vented test barrel” for .38 Special loads for handguns or “ 24” test barrel” for .30-30 results (One reason why published numbers were often very optimistic!)

Ballistics by the inch is cool because they not only show the results from their test barrel as it’s cut down, but real world gun results that they chronograph, too.

Stay safe.

When did they last do this?

SAAMI standards were finally accredited by ANSI sometime in the 70s, which is when they published their standards. I imagine it was shortly afterwards when the industry implemented them.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Not at the point of sale, it isn't. When you are looking at ammo, at the counter. Bear in mind you're looking at dozens of these different boxes, when you're out shopping ammo, and to be kind, some don't even give FPS specs.

I have to agree that it isn't an inelegantly large amount of information to add, to any box.

The information on a lot of stuff we buy isn't available at the point of sale, either.