The first time out, I fired the following .22 LR ammunition out of my Mossberg Model 144LSB rifle. It has a 27.25" long barrel and a Simmons 6-18x40 ProHunter scope. I had the scope set at 6x when I clocked the loads through the CHRONY (so I could see my reference points and avoid shooting my chronograph!), and at 18x for maximum precision when shooting groups. The 27.25" barrel length I cited is the total barrel length, including the chamber. I used a CHRONY Beta Model (Master) that was set up about 12 feet away from the muzzle. These tests were run at an outdoor range on a sunny (I had to set up a shade over the chronograph), somewhat gusty, warm (temperature was about 70 degrees) day. I was careful to keep the ammunition out of direct sunlight to avoid heating it. These velocities should be considered relative to each other, as your firearm will certainly produce velocities differing from those produced by my rifle. Accuracy in my rifle is discussed below.

Well, I made it out to the range again, this time with 3 new .22 LR loads, and the 'Davey Crickett' from Keystone Arms that I bought to teach my children, nephews, nieces, and friends children firearm safety, marksmanship skills, and responsibility with a firearm. The 'Crickett' is a neat little rifle. It is about 30" overall in length, weighs 2.5 lbs., has a 2.5 lb. trigger pull, front blade and rear peep sights, and a 16 1/8" barrel - just over legal minimum. It is fun to shoot, and is pretty accurate. After sighting in, we were consistently hitting an 8" circular target at just over 100 yards offhand. These tests were run at an outdoor range on an overcast, fairly calm, warm (temperature was about 80 degrees) day.

I expected that the velocities in the 27.25" barrel would be relatively slow compared to .22 LR rifles of "standard" (16" - 20") barrel length. Maximum velocities for the .22 LR are usually produced by firearms with barrels between 16" and 18". Once the barrel gets much longer than this length, friction takes over and actually slows the bullet down. This occurs due to the very small case / bore volume ratio. Relative to most ceterfire rifle cases (e.g. .223 Remington, .308 Winchester, etc...), the case volume of a .22 LR is dwarfed by its bore volume. Therefore, in longer barrels, the powder is completely burned long before the bullet exits the barrel, and the expanding gases literally 'run out of gas' - no longer providing an efficient 'push' on the bullet. The following table is for the Mossberg with the 27.25" barrel ...

A data given are velocities in feet/second.

* eliminating this seemingly anomalous data point yeilds:
Mean : 1387.5
S.D. : 24.30
Extreme Spread: 54

Here is the data for the Mossberg on the second outing, with the three additional types of ammunition:

Here is the data for the 'Davey Crickett', taken on the second outing, with 9/10 of the original ammo:

... and the three additional types of ammunition:

I realize that 5 shots is not a very large sample size, but I think it still gives a pretty good indication of velocity and consistency of the ammunition tested - certainly better than nothing. With all the ammunition I'd like to test (for both velocity and accuracy in my rifle), I didn't want to devote too much time to this task.

The accuracy produced by the ammunition above in my Mossberg rifle is listed below. I fired all types of ammunition at 50 yards, and then tried the most promising at 100 yards. Unfortunately, I believe that the wind gusts really took their toll on accuracy. I'll try it again on a calm day. The impact points are above or below the point of aim of my rifle (this is just the way my rifle happens to be sighted in). All group sizes and impact point measurements are in inches.

I was very pleased and surprised at the performance of the 'promotional' American Eagle HPs (Federal) and the Winchester Wildcats. Both gave very good performance, especially when you factor in price. None of the high-speed hollowpoint ammunition in this group would be a bad choice for varmints, depending on the size and range of the varmint. The PMC Match Rifle and PMC Target gave good results accuracy-wise, but lacked hollow points and were on the low side for velocities. For pure velocity, you can't beat the Super MAX, Stinger, Spitfire, Yellow Jacket, or Viper (in that order). All were within about 160 fps of each other. I don't know if some of these loads are still made (I haven't seen Vipers or Spitfires for a while), so some of this testing may be pointless.

I realize that 27+ inch barrels are not commonly found on .22 LR rifles, but I wanted to find out how they fared in my rifle. Now that I've run the velocities in my little 16 1/8" barrelled .22 LR, here are some observations:

• The difference in velocity between the 27.25" (slower) and 16 1/8" (faster) barrels was not enough to worry about. In fact, in some cases, it was not even significant.
• You've gotta love those Winchester Wildcats! Standard deviations of 7.19 and 5.31 put it in two of the top 3 spots (1^st and 3 ). Considering the fact that this ammunition is among the least expensive, this is outstanding consistency.

Also - here is a list of ammunition that I have in my coffers, but did not test yet. I will test these for velocity and accuracy also in the 'not-so-distant' future:

• Remington TARGET 22
• Remington 22 High Velocity
• Winchester T22 Target
• Winchester Super-X HV RN