went to an indoor shooting range yesterday to compare three smaller ruger 22lr handguns and 500 rounds of various ammo. two semiauto pistols: sr22, lcp22 and one single action revolver: bearcat. ammo: aguila super extra, cci standard, cci minimag 40g solid, cci minimag 36g hp, cci poly hv, federal lrn bulk, remington viper, winchester super x.
my personal handgun winner for reliability, accuracy, comfort and usefulness remains the sr22: no hiccups with any ammo, easy to load, comfortable to use and grip, tighter groups.
the absolute best ammo by far in all three handguns was the cci poly, rated at 1260fps (rifle barrel): no smoke, no flash from excess unburned powder, accurate, no hiccups, healthy ejection of spent rounds. federal lrn was smokey and low powered, barely ejecting spent rounds from the two semiauto pistols. otherwise in general cci anything outperformed the others, even the standard. i had some lcp22 squibs with aguila, winchester and remington ammo. surprisingly the bearcat touched off only the aguila.
as much as i want to like my new lcp22, i'm becoming less enamored of it. its actual execution is less attractive than its concept. the lcp22's mags are sharp and really uncomfortable to load since they have no follower as do the sr22's mags. in fact i soon was loading only five rounds per mag to spare my fingers. the loader that comes with the lcp22 is worthless. its shorter barrel equals less accuracy and more flash from unburned powder. the lcp22 had some failures to feed with aguila, winchester, federal and cci mm 40g ammo.
being a single action revolver the bearcat is a different beast. i still really like the bearcat but this time, having shot it next to the sr22, the bearcat's smaller grips showed me that it is less fun as a plinker. the bearcat is a sturdy mechanical jewel useful more as accessory tool for outdoors activities or teaching, or if a small or heirloom handgun is sought, than as the one and only, go-to, multipurpose rimfire handgun.
fwiw, the range and store were crowded, but customers seemed to be focused on 9mm and 223/5.56 offerings. i had zero trouble selecting 22lr and 38sp ammo.
my personal handgun winner for reliability, accuracy, comfort and usefulness remains the sr22: no hiccups with any ammo, easy to load, comfortable to use and grip, tighter groups.
the absolute best ammo by far in all three handguns was the cci poly, rated at 1260fps (rifle barrel): no smoke, no flash from excess unburned powder, accurate, no hiccups, healthy ejection of spent rounds. federal lrn was smokey and low powered, barely ejecting spent rounds from the two semiauto pistols. otherwise in general cci anything outperformed the others, even the standard. i had some lcp22 squibs with aguila, winchester and remington ammo. surprisingly the bearcat touched off only the aguila.
as much as i want to like my new lcp22, i'm becoming less enamored of it. its actual execution is less attractive than its concept. the lcp22's mags are sharp and really uncomfortable to load since they have no follower as do the sr22's mags. in fact i soon was loading only five rounds per mag to spare my fingers. the loader that comes with the lcp22 is worthless. its shorter barrel equals less accuracy and more flash from unburned powder. the lcp22 had some failures to feed with aguila, winchester, federal and cci mm 40g ammo.
being a single action revolver the bearcat is a different beast. i still really like the bearcat but this time, having shot it next to the sr22, the bearcat's smaller grips showed me that it is less fun as a plinker. the bearcat is a sturdy mechanical jewel useful more as accessory tool for outdoors activities or teaching, or if a small or heirloom handgun is sought, than as the one and only, go-to, multipurpose rimfire handgun.
fwiw, the range and store were crowded, but customers seemed to be focused on 9mm and 223/5.56 offerings. i had zero trouble selecting 22lr and 38sp ammo.
