While boasting 30 percent increased energy, the new round makes a significant departure from early hypervelocity developments in that the bullet weight is the same as that of the traditional Long Rifle solid- three grains heavier than the 37 gr. Hollow Point and heavier by far than the Stinger and other hyper-V rounds. The possibilities in enhanced down range performance -not to mention consistency among the internal ballistics are obvious.

We set out to see if these advantages are in fact, present.

I picked out three known performers for the exercise. I would use my Remington 521 Target for the rifle-end and with it and come up with some reliable input for the ballistic table. I set up my Pro-Tach Chronograph first at about 7 feet and then again at 50 yards, obtaining five-round average velocities at each range and extrapolating a useable Ballistic Coefficient from the result. This turns up a BC of .105 plus or minus whatever error creeps in. It is good enough for government work.

I also chronographed the load in my 6” Barrel Smith 617,

and my 6.5” Ruger Bisley.

In accord with my usual drill, I fired all three into a 6” bullseye 100-yard rifle target at 50 yards. This was done while clocking the loads - one at a time setting the respective arm down after each shot to record. It was also done sitting on the ground with no support other than my bent knees. It is gratifying to note and predictive of how this thing would come out, that all of the rounds from all three guns were inside the 6” black center. All hit to the existing sight setting of the respective guns and each gun grouped a bit under 3”.

The 521 T laid in a velocity off the muzzle of 1411 fps which is well above the advertised performance of the High Speed Long Rifle - generally given as 1255 fps or thereabout. This is a generous estimate as recently I clocked some CCI Mini-Mag Hollow points from another rifle at more like 1150 fps. At 50 yards, the average velocity came to 1187 fps. This is a close match for the 7 foot velocity of the round from the two handguns and is the basis for my ballistic coefficient.

Compared to the generic Long Rifle performance, the Velocitor Tabulates like this:

Trajectory Remington 521 T Sight Height 1.5” Sighted for 75 yards MV= 1411 fps BC= 1.05

Trajectory High Velocity 40 grain Long Rifle solid Sight height 1.5” 75 yard zero MV= 1255.

0 yards - 1.5” 50 yards + 1.27” 75 yards 0” 100 yards - 3.31”

It is immediately apparent that the string is stretched tighter in the way of trajectory. Recall also that the 37-grain HP loadings have less in the way of BC and are likely to produce velocities somewhat short of the published data. All this adds up in the plus column for the Velocitor in its down range performance. In so far as consistency can be guessed from five round strings, there appears to be little deviation from the performance of the general run of High Velocity Long Rifle rounds. Extreme spreads were: 521T 43 fps; Ruger Bisley 49 fps; Smith 617 81fps. By contrast, Stingers and other Hyper Velocity rounds frequently show much wider spreads from some handguns.

Comparisons of velocity results among different handguns often turns up some surprises. I have regarded my 617 as a “fast” handgun with the usual run of rimfire ammunition. On this occasion the Bisley actually cranked up the volume significantly in the velocity/energy department(s):

0 50 100

Remington 521 T 1411 / 177 1187 / 125 1042 / 96

Smith 617 6” 1151 / 118 1020 / 92 935 / 78

I did my more or less formal bench shooting from the twenty five-yard bench using the 617 equipped with an aim-point electronic dot sight. Three five round groups averaged out at 1.03”. This is somewhat better than the 1.1” average I had recently obtained with Stingers and very close to the sub one-inch averages with Remington and CCI hollow points. Practically speaking, the accuracy results are: (1) extremely good; and, (2) do not come up to the full potential of the round since my imperfect shooting is part of the mix. I would not be prepared to say that the round is any more or less accurate than the others mentioned but would venture a strong guess that for any practical purposes it is every bit is good.

With the shooting light failing and the sights fuzzy, I fired one five round group with the iron sighted Bisley. It came in at 1.7” with four of the rounds clustered just a bit smaller than 50 caliber.

Given the high performance of the Velocitor load, it is ok to wonder about bullet performance. With this in mind I performed a quick and dirty, suggestive but not definitive test. This consisted of shooting two water filled plastic jugs at 50 yards with the 617/dot sight. My tables tell me that it arrives at ground zero doing 1020 fps. Neither water bottle showed any significant exit expansion - although the water did spray out in a generous manner. One bullet was recovered from a wet, but not soaked telephone book behind the target. Penetration was deep and bullet distortion was minimal. Another gallon water jug was hit at close range from the Bisley at about 1170 fps. This one did expand to .325 in the form of a pretty mushroom and likewise penetrated deeply into the telephone book- this after ripping a six-inch tear on the front and back of the gallon water jug.

Sectioning of a bullet revealed a vestigial, shallow hollow point on the order of the old Dyna-Point Australian rabbit killers. It leads to the conjecture that this load is designed with the thought of taking edible small game at somewhat extended ranges.

The Velocitor lives up to the advertised claims of enhanced energy and loses the finicky nature often observed in earlier hypervelocity rimfire loadings. I plan to add this one to my selection of .22 working loads.