Which .22 pistol cycles subsonic rounds best?
 

I am interested in a target/plinker semi-auto .22 pistol that cycles subsonic ammo well to keep peace with the neighbors. Any suggestions?

you know you still need a suppressor right? and in a pistol the barrel isnt really long enough for subsonic ammo to make any noticeable difference(when using a suppressor)

I don't need it that quiet, I just want to be able to say I am doing my best (without paying the tax stamp for a suppressor).

You might have a point about barrel length in a pistol, but I have a rifle with a 20 inch barrel and there is a pretty significant difference between subsonic and ordinary ammo even without a suppressor. The subsonic rounds don't have the loud "crack" as the bullet breaks the sound barrier.

Some target pistols (Ruger, Buckmark) come in 6 and 7 inch barrel lengths. Is this long enough to hear a difference? I don't have any experience with subsonics in a pistol, so I'd appreciate some advice.

Thanks

You might want to ask over at www.rimfirecentral.com

FWIW, I haven't found any .22 subsonic ammo that will cycle either a S&W 22A, Walther P22, or Ruger 22/45.

I suspect it might be possible to "tune" a .22 pistol to cycle with subsonics, by changing the recoil spring, but that's just speculation on my part.

I agree that changing the recoil spring will be the solution. I recommend that you call the manufacturer and confirm this. They might even tell you what spring weight works best for a certain ammo brand.

On the Browning Buckmark I took 2 coils off the main spring to help it cycle some standard velocity Federal ammo I have. It helped it cycle them correctly, but I was getting a lot of light firing pin strikes. Had to get a new spring for it. I just use the high velocity ammo in it now and save the standard velocity for my internally suppressed 10/22. I have already tuned it to cycle them correctly.

The Walthers won't cycle correctly on anything less than high velocity either. I haven't tried any spring mods yet.

Go the revolver route, and shoot anything you want.... You can even get them with 7.5inch barrel, but for what it's worth I can definately hear the difference between HV and sub-sonic in my single six with the 5.5 inch barrel....

I had a ruger MKIII with 6 7/8" barrel. I never found any subsonic ammo that would cycle it. They were still pretty loud too.

never have any problems with my Walther p22 using Remington subsonic ammo

I was going to suggest revolver also. Ruger Single Six comes in models up to 9" barrel length.

Thanks for all the input.

do subsonic rounds even break the sound barrier? I thought that was the whole purpose of them being SUB-sonic

that being said i run sub sonics in my suppressed mosquito alot. I did some tweaking with a spare recoil spring and that seems to have cleared it up.

Anybody have any experience with the Sig Mosquito Sport?
Looks tempting....

I am pretty sure that even standard-velocity .22LR's are subsonic, when fired from a 3.5" or even 5.5" barrel... Super-high-velocity .22LR's, like CCI Stingers or Remington Yellowjackets, might be supersonic from pistol barrels though.

It would be a great research project for someone with a chronometer.

They are supposed to be subsonic when fired from a rifle, but I chronied some .22 Remington subsonics one time and the velocity varied a lot between rounds and some of them were supersonic.
RWS subsonic was extremely consistent and always stayed below the sound barrier. I hear that only the Remingtons are badly inconsistent.

Not the sport model, but I do have a Skeeter. It's ammo finicky and prefers certain brands of higher quality ammo. Mine won't run anythhing in bulk except thunderbolts and they are dirty as all get out. It loves Federal Auto Match the best.

I use the light (white) spring because the heavier spring won't cycle anything reliably. even then, when I use underpowered ammo, it is jam city and often will not even start to load the next cartridge.

GREAT GUN though and not as picky on ammo as I originally feared.

Splitter

I am suprised to hear from so many folks that guns which are often supressed (Ruger MK series, P22, etc.) have cycling/feed problems with subsonic .22 ammo. Isn't the whole point of these guns (at least when a supressor is added) to use subsonic ammo? For those of you with experience with supressors, do you typically expect to modify the recoil spring to reliably cycle subsonics? Is there something else one does to modify the gun to reliably cycle subsonics?

With the shorter barrels on pistols, the high velocity ammo doesn't have enough barrel to reach super sonic speed. So the use of subsonics doesn't really decrease the sound signature by much. It does help to some extent, but isn't worth the hassle to tune the springs to them.

Every Gun is different but I have had no problem with subs in my S&W 22A.

My Ruger Mk ll won't cycle .22 shorts, have no idea of what the pressure difference is.