Aguila .22 SSS review

[oldsmellhound]

Hi everyone - I know this is a firearms review forum, but I thought I'd do a review on some ammo. I went and picked up some of Aguila's Sniper Subsonic ammo (SSS) at Cabelas awhile ago. I was intrigued by the 60 grain bullets in a .22 long rifle and I had to see how they performed. Here is a target I shot the other day at 40 yards. I used some CCI subsonic ammo as a comparison. I've shot better groups than are posted in the pic with both types of ammo, but not too much better - the Marlin .22 bolt action I've been using hasn't proved to be a tack driver, at least not compared to my old Savage that I had to retire.



The accuracy of these was slightly better than the CCI ammo I used. What really impressed me was the impact power and penetration that the 60 grain bullets have, even at a slower velocity. I've shot these SSS rounds through several different mediums, and I'm getting great penetration every time. In the picture you can see I shot through a 3/4" layered oak board, and the rounds penetrated halfway through a second 3/4" board. On a different day at 25 yards, I was shooting through 3 - 1/2" solid oak boards sometimes. Another time I shot through the 3/4" layered oak board, then the bullets continued on to pass through both sides of 2 tin 1 gallon empty paint cans and end up in a mulch pile.


I've yet to try it out on varmits or game animals, but I think they might be ideal rounds for larger varmits for those who want to get a bigger "punch" out of their .22. The only downside is that I don't think the rate of twist in my barrel fully stabilzes these 60 grainers. They are still accurate out to 70 yards (shooting 5" low), but when I tried them out at 100 yards, I was shooting 8" groups, and some of the rounds were key-holing into the target. I think that the rate of twist in most .22 barrels isn't optimized for these heavier bullets.




I forgot to mention that these rounds are quieter than regular high velocity or hyper-velocity rounds, lacking the supersonic "crack" of these rounds. This makes them ideal for those that want to keep the noise level down. Also, here are the ballistics for this setup:

20 yards - 2" low
40 yards - 0
70 yards - 5" low
100 yards - 16" low and key-holing into the target

[oldsmellhound]

more pics

[oldsmellhound]

Penetration through the boards

[oldsmellhound]

The rounds I dug out of the board mushroomed nicely without fragmenting.

[kdvollmer]

I've played with some of these rounds as well. if nothing else, they can be fun, good for shooting the pests in the neighborhood without the neighbors cryingabout it. I bought them when I was in california to shot large mice in the garage. Nice and quiet.

[arcticap]

I recall reading othersreport thatthese rounds keyholed at a closer range than 40 yards. So your Marlin seens to stabilze themfairly well.
It wouldalso be interestingto test them in a revolver to compare their performance &accuracy since pistols usually produce even less velocity than a rifle.
Goodreport, thanks.