Review: Aguila Sniper SubSonic
Summary: Don't waste your money unless the rifling on your firearm has an unusually fast rate of twist.
I first noticed this stuff at a gun show, but it has started popping up all over the place. Its sales and distribution has undoubtedly been fueled by the panic resulting from the election of President Obama. These cartridges are interestingly unique because they have a very long bullet seated in a fairly short case, possible a .22 Short case. My initial thought was that it is a cute novelty, but not my kind of thing.
Aguila Sniper SubSonic (.22 Long Rifle Ammunition)
Later, I was looking for target ammunition of all sorts to see which produced the best results in my rifle. Back at another gun show, I mentioned this goal to the guy sitting at the biggest ammunition booth, and he actually pointed to this stuff. It does have the word "sniper" in its name, and the box claims (in English, right below the Spanish) "Maximum Accuracy!" So for five dollars, I picked up a 50 round box.
When I finally got to the range, I also had some ELEY Match EPS ammunition (which produced fantastic results) and some Winchester T22. I fired five-round groups of the other two before I fired the Sniper SubSonic. I tried to pay attention to differences in the felt recoil as well as the sound of the report. The difference in either was so slight that I could have imagined them.
Out I went to retrieve my target. A big 11" by 17" piece of paper 50 yards from the bench. A reasonable 0.543" group for the T22, and a 0.505" group for the EPS. And the Sniper SubSonic? There were no holes. Well, actually, there were two (out of five shots). There were two keyholes in the target, one 4½" low and to the left of the target, and one 7¾" high and to the left.
Yikes.
Okay, well I knew what I was dealing with anyway. Just for grins, I fired a second group. Four holes on the paper this time, one as far away as 10½" from the point of aim.
Obviously, these bullets aren't coming out of my rifle with enough spin to stabilize them, and they are tumbling all over the place. Back at home, I pulled a bullet to measure its length and calculate the optimum twist. It turns out to be a hollow base bullet about 0.680" long. The ballistic calculator recommended a twist of 1 in 11 inches.
My rifle, a CZ 452 American, has a twist of 1 in 16 inches. I would assume that just about any other .22 LR, either a rifle or a handgun, will have the same rate of twist, or very close to it. The only exception I can think of would be the .22 LR conversions for AR-15 rifles. AR-15 rifles chambered in .223 Remington or 5.56x45mm come with a variety of twist rates, perhaps the most common being 1 in 9 inches.
By this reasoning, these cartridges should perform just as poorly in 99% of the .22 LR firearms out there. Yet there is no hint of this anywhere on the package. This all leaves me wondering, how can a manufacturer can convince themselves to sell such a product, and how can they sleep at night after making claims of "maximum accuracy?"
The answer to this is that it does seem to stabilize in some barrels, even with a 1 in 16 inch twist. Among the user community, some people say they get good results, and others experience the same thing I did. I am still searching for an explanation.
I knew when I bought them that the "sniper" in the name was kind of silly. Seriously, snipers don't use rimfire ammunition. Well, except for basic practice and in the movies. However, I was still expecting that I could hit the paper. I can almost throw rocks more accurately than this. The scarey thing is that the guy at the gun show wanted me to buy a 500 round box of the stuff.
Aguila Ammuntion is made in Mexico.