The Rimfire Report: CCI Quiet-22 40 gr Segmented Hollow Point
Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and its many different types of guns, gear, and ammo! Last week we talked about one of Federal Ammunition’s most popular hunting cartridges. The 38-grain copper plated hollow point is a fairly decent budget rimfire pest control round. When it came to my testing, I found it to have acceptable accuracy at 50 yards for small game applications, and it had a decent standard deviation in the velocity department of about 17 fps. This week we’re moving on to one of CCI’s more obscure 22LR loadings – Quiet-22 40-grain Segmented Hollow Point ammunition. Another round designed for small game hunting and pest control duty, CCI Quiet-22 takes the opposite approach to the 38-grain Federal CPHP and goes well below the subsonic threshold – but how does this approach translate to accuracy and consistency out of our B14R test platform? Let’s find out in this next ammo test!
More Rimfire Report @ TFB:
The Rimfire Report: Federal Game-Shok 38gr CPHP 22LR The Rimfire Report: The Legendary Ruger Standard .22 Pistol SILENCER SATURDAY #332: Quiet Summer – M&P 15-22 And Gemtech Integra
The Rimfire Report: CCI Quiet-22 40 gr Segmented Hollow Point
Product Link:
https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfire/cci/quiet-22-segmented-hp/6-970.html
Product Overview
Quiet-22™ Segmented HP generates 75 percent less perceived noise than a standard velocity 22 Long Rifle round. However, its Segmented HP bullet splits in three on impact, with each section creating its own distinct wound channel to bring down small game fast.
40-grain Segmented HP bullet breaks into three pieces on impact75 percent less perceived noise than standard 22 Long RifleNo hearing protection needed when fired in locked-breech firearmsStandard 22 Long Rifle caseExcellent accuracyMuzzle Velocity: 710 fpsBallistic Coefficient: .118Usage: Small Game
I’d consider the CCI Quiet-22 Segmented HP 22LR to be a “boutique” rimfire cartridge. Much of this has to do with its per-box asking price of $10.99. All of the marketing and information provided by CCI about this cartridge offering is all about its use as a small game hunting round with the major added benefit that you don’t need a suppressor to keep it hearing safe. This means that CCI Quiet-22 SHP is great for pest control duty with a relatively cheap, and probably lightweight bolt gun.
Velocity Testing Data
Since this ammo was tested and metered on the same day as our last ammo test, we’re still using the Bergara B14R, Vortex Venom 5-25x56mm, Garmin Xero C1 Pro, and a rear bag. The Xero C1 gave us the following data from our 1-box (50-round) test in which we shot 5 consecutive groups of 10 rounds only stopping to reload the magazine in-between strings.
CCI Quiet-22 40 grain gave us an average velocity of 735.7 fps over a 50-shot string. This is slightly higher than the advertised 710 fps and lines up perfectly from last week’s data where we saw a similar increase in velocity over the advertised data. CCI Quiet-22 40 gr SHP also seems to be tested at the factory out of a 16” barrel.
Unlike last week with the Federal 38-grain SCHP small game ammo, the CCI Quiet-22 this week has a much lower extreme spread and standard deviation. With an extreme spread of 51.3 fps and a standard deviation of 13.3 fps, I can say that this ammo is very consistent, at least on the velocity side of things. Our highest velocity was 760 feet per second and our lowest was 708 feet per second, both of those velocity differences are enough to have quite a drastic difference in impact point due to the relatively low velocity of this loading.
Accuracy
Once again we’re using the same Champion 1” sight in targets from before to put one box on paper on 5 different targets at 50 yards – the same order as before. Unfortunately, while the velocity data looked promising, the relatively low velocity of the bullet means that the smaller SD and ES numbers actually translate to bigger groups. You’ll notice that our first group is entirely absent from the point of aim area – that’s because a 300 fps decrease in velocity from the ammo we zeroed it with (CCI Standard 40 gr) translates to a much lower point of impact. After we shot the first group, we dialed the scope so that our point of aim was the point of impact (about 5MOA).
Sadly, it seems that the best group we could get measured is at just a hair under 3” from edge to edge. While we did see a lot of vertical stringing, there was also a fair amount of stringing from left to right which indicates to me that this loading may not be the best fit for this barrel length and or twist rate. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on whether better accuracy can be obtained with this ammo out of a different rifle, or if the inaccuracy is largely due to the numbers we saw in the velocity data.
Final Thoughts
CCI Quiet-22 is certainly quiet and 100% earns the claim that it is hearing safe, without a suppressor when being shot from a bolt gun. The fact that we had a massively oversized 45 caliber suppressor on this gun only added to how quiet the setup was, but I think the main demographic of shooters for this type of loading isn’t running around with a $2,500 rimfire PRS gun. Instead, this ammo is likely to be fired out of a single-shot, bolt-action, or lever-action rimfire gun at targets that are probably only 25 yards away and likely close to your house, including your family and your pets and or livestock – all of which would probably appreciate not having hearing loss.
The ammo certainly metered well but sort of failed the accuracy test for me. However, I’d like to revisit this ammo in the accuracy department again when we go to test it in ballistic gelatin – perhaps there are some readers out there who might have suggestions for a better barrel and or rifle setup that is more conducive to the CCI Quiet-22s specific loading. I’ll be interested to see if this ammo does indeed segment itself at such low velocities, and if that works at distances like we shot at today. Looking forward to getting to test that out and share all the results with you in another edition of The Rimfire Report. Let me know what you think of today’s test results and thanks for stopping by to read!