Again, it was superbly quiet, with just the slap of the action working, plus it produced decent 0.55” groups at 30 yards. The achieved velocity/ energy came in at 1018 FPS | 92 ft/lbs. I also tried the ammo in a fully suppressed Ruger 10/22 rifle that is ported at the muzzle. The rifle is unbelievably quiet and all you can hear is the firing pin dropping and a gentle hiss as the bullet exits! Even though the ported barrel bleeds off gases just in front of the chamber, it still managed to produce 72.6 ft/bs energy. With the Norma ammo, it shot superbly well, with tiny cloverleaf groups at 30 yards and a velocity of 904 FPS. I also shot some loads through my fully suppressed Sako SSR rifle, which has a ported barrel and a full-length silencer shroud. It’s old and well run in but that light oil lube does not gum up magazines like wax would, and this certainly helps. The Browning semi-auto produced 1008 FPS, plus still loaded and ejected fine. To check velocity, I also tried it through a new Ruger American with an 18” barrel (1022 FPS) and a Mauser with a 26.5” barrel (1045 FPS). I tested the ammo in my bolt action Sako and then the reliability through a Browning semi-automatic rifle. The powder charge is only 1.2-grains of a small, greenish, extruded powder and you also have a very uniform light green primer mixture to the rim portion only, this greatly improves consistency. The case is RWS, as it has the same shield logo and ‘R’ stamped into the centre. Of course, this design gives a good terminal ballistic effect for expanding the bullet, unlike a round nose design that will have a better ballistic coefficient. The oil lube filled all the hollow points on the sample rounds. The driving bands (compression/lube rings) are of three equal sizes, with a thinner, fourth top ring that makes way to a truncated nose shape and a HP. This helps lubricate the passage of the bullet down the bore and increases reliability in semi-automatics too. If you take one of the rounds apart, you first notice the oil-based lubrication on the lead bullet, not wax. The diameter measured 0.224”, which is standard for this type of lead rimfire round, plus showed a typical long rifle length of 0.9675” The actual weight for an average of ten was 40.4-grains and as you will see, the velocity varied depending on the barrel length and the action type of the rife used (bolt or semi-automatic). The bullet specifications on the box show a lead, 40-grain hollow point (HP) that moves at a velocity of 1017 FPS. The bullet trajectory was run through the QuickTarget ballistic program, having computed the BC by measuring the true velocity down range. The accuracy tests were conducted at 30 and 50 yards. The ballistic media was set up at 30 yards, which is my typical rabbit range. 22LR sound moderator and a Hawke Vantage scope. I set the chronograph up 15ft away from my Sako rimfire custom, which has a 14.5” barrel and is fitted with a Schultz & Larsen (S&L). The aim today is to see how they perform both ballistically and downrange in terminal and trajectory conclusion. As you would expect, they are very well made and packaged. 22LR round on test is part of a range from Norma that includes four rimfire rounds: Jaktmatch, Match, Subsonic and Tac-22. Here, Norma USA gets RWS to make rounds that are distributed by the RUAG group. If they do not have their own facilities, then they will commission others to make the ammo. The company has started to market rimfire ammunition, something that many manufacturers of centrefire ammunition are now doing. 308 Win 150-grain ammunition got me through the old Woodland Stalking certificate many moons ago, so anything new from Norma and my ears pricks up. Norma is one of my favourite centrefire rifle ammunition manufacturers as their factory ammo is always consistent and accurate, plus the brass is excellent for reloading.
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