One of the things I enjoy doing is testing new ammunition as it becomes available. Contrary to what many inexperienced shooters think, ammo does NOT all perform the same. Nor does it perform the same in different weapons.
This is due to many variable factors in the weapon itself, such as barrel length, twist rate of the barrel, whether muzzle brake or suppressor is used, etc. The type of powder used in the ammunition also makes a difference, with some powders burning faster or slower than others, and of course the amount of powder, the shape and weight of the actual projectile, etc., etc., etc.
For this post, I recently tested the new .22 rimfire ammunition from CCI. They've called it "Uppercut" The main claims for this new ammo was apparently designed especially for pistols, to reduce the amount of powder still burning after the projectile leaves the barrel. It was also designed with a special type of pentagonal hollow point, making it expand more rapidly and at lower velocities than ammo designed for longer barreled rifles.
For today's testing, I chose my favorite plinker pistol, a Ruger Mark IV Tactical 22/45 model that has had multiple customizations. This includes a Volquartsen spring kit, a Tandem Kross flat trigger, Tandem Kross grips, a Vortex Venom red dot sight, a Silencerco Switchback suppressor, and a handy Atlas Bipod. A bipod on a pistol you ask? Yes, absolutely. While the bipod is not used most of the time, I find it extremely valuable for a stable, solid platform when first sighting in a pistol, and also for ammo accuracy testing, or even just supported longer range shooting at distances normally reserved for rifles.
Here's the ammo, the brick that I bought for testing came in smaller 50 round plastic holders vs. the standard 100 round holders for normal CCI "Mini Mag" ammo. This reminded me of how the high velocity "Stingers" used to come.
The box of 500 rounds cost about $120 U.S. or about .24 cents per round. Not the cheapest, but also not as expensive as some of the fancy match grade target ammo out there.
Not the best picture, but you can see the Uppercut on the right has little groves cut into the hollowpoint to help it expand more easily.
Even though it's a silver color like the Stingers, it does not have the slight additional length that Stingers have, which should help it function more reliably in some close tolerance weapons.
The Results:
So now for the results:
While most folks start pistols at 7 yards, I'm interested in a bit longer performance for varmit hunting and target shooting. So, I started at 15 yards.
This is the target, a normal piece of paper with 5 one inch squares which I found very acceptable for that distance. 10 shots at each of the 1 inch squares. Almost all the shots under 1 inch size grouping.
I then pushed it out to 25 yards, and was also pleased with the results. May not win target trophies, but this is hunting or self-defense ammunition, and certainly fits the bill for that purpose in my eyes. Many folks would struggle to even hit the paper at this distance with a handgun.
Now for the unexpected un-pleasant surprise. I normally like to find ammo that shoots well in both my pistol and rifle, so I save by buying the same ammo in bulk, and don't have to keep multiple types lying about. Well, I was quite surprised to find out that my 18 inch barrel rifle (A Ruger 10/22, also with custom mods) did not like these at all.
This group below was the first attempt at 25 yards with the Rifle. Yikes! Not good at all!
In fact, I couldn't believe it after shooting such nice groups with the pistol. I put up another target. I first shot 10 rounds of my normal CCI Mini-Mag ammo (the top right corner) with the Rifle, this grouped almost all in one hole, as expected. I then shot another 10 rounds at the center using the new Uppercut ammo. Yikes again. The uppercut ammo was all over the place in the rifle compared to the normal Mini-Mag ammo. The longer 18 inch barrel rifle definitely does NOT like the new Uppercut ammo.
Top right CCI Mini-Mag, Center CCI Uppercut from rifle.
Ballistic Detail:
The Uppercut ammo is designed for shorter pistol barrels, which means less powder and muzzle flash. It is also designed to be subsonic (slower than speed of sound). This keeps the ammo from making that large bang and crack sound, making it also very safe to shoot without hearing protection when using the suppressor.
Uppercut ammo is rated on the box for 950 fps. Making it a great choice for pistols rather than buying special subsonic ammo which is hard to find in hollowpoint.
The normal CCI Mini-Mag is rated at 1260 fps.
Using the Labradar LX Chronograph, I actually got an average of about 1115 fps. Still just under the subsonic limit of 1125 fps. My extra speed over the box rating I'm sure is mostly to using the suppressor and making the barrel nearly double the length of their 3-4 inch testing and ratings barrel.
It also showed a decent (for factory ammo) standard deviation or STD Dev of 23.9 fps. This basically tells us how much deviation in velocity from one round to another. Remember, that slight difference in powder can have a result on our grouping.
I just love this new Labradar LX chronograph, it is such an improvement over the older, much larger version, and also has an improved bluetooth app to manage and pull data, but I'll reserve larger review for another post.
Performance Summary:
Yes, I'll be buying more of these for the pistol. They were fantastic, functioned flawlessly, and good accuracy for hunting/self defense round. It will become my exclusive use in my pistol. Rifle will stay on the old ammo.
On a side note, the stabilized binoculars I wrote about last month were fantastic for viewing the targets at 15 and at 25 yards without having to walk down the line to the targets.
Until next time, stay safe and happy practice!