There are times when I’m surprisingly disappointed by the items I review—and times when I’m just flat-out surprised. This is definitely one of the latter. As most of you who follow the series already know, Remington 22LR ammunition hasn’t exactly earned the best reputation for accuracy, cleanliness, or consistency out of any of my test guns (at least the old formula stuff). Their new 40gr Subsonic Hollow Point changes that. Today on The Rimfire Report, we’re putting a 50-round sample to the test at 50 yards using the impressive Ruger Precision Rimfire paired with the Angstadt Arms Vanquish 22 barrel. Let’s get to shooting!
More Rimfire Report @ TFB:
Now, like other subsonic 22LR ammo, Remington Subsonic 40gr HP doesn’t come cheap; it’s actually fairly expensive when bought directly from Remington, at least when you can get it, as it’s often out of stock. Each 100-round plastic sleeve is priced at $16.99, which is a full $2.00 more expensive than CCI’s closest comparable load. This pans out to about $0.17 per round, which is getting uncomfortably close to 9mm ammo prices from just a few years ago. Not exactly cheap plinking ammo.
Specifications: Remington Subsonic 22LR 40gr CPHP
Product Link: https://www.remington.com/rimfire/subsonic-rimfire/29-21137.html
Product Overview:
Subsonic delivers superior stealth and consistency below the sound barrier. Its tack-driving rimfire performance was developed through a joint effort of Remington and AAC team experts, manufactured with tight velocity control to eliminate supersonic cracks. Driving a copper-plated, hollow-point bullet optimized for reduced lead buildup in silencer ports and maximum effectiveness at lower velocity.
TIGHT VELOCITY CONTROL – Engineered to operate without supersonic cracks
SURPRESSOR OPTIMIZED – Designed to optimize the effectiveness of a suppressor
BULLET – Copper-plated lead hollow point, perfect for stealthy pursuit of small game or varmints
Specifications:
- Caliber: 22 LR
- Grain Weight: 40 gr
- Bullet Style: Copper Plated Hollow Point
- Muzzle Velocity: 1050 fps
- Ballistic Coefficient: 0.079
- Package Quantity: 100 rounds
- Usage: Small Game
I usually don’t put much stock in marketing copy on product pages, but this one caught my attention. Remington states that this ammo was developed through a joint effort with AAC. While AAC, under Kevin Brittingham’s leadership, was indeed one of the most innovative suppressor manufacturers of its era, this specific ammunition was developed under the revived AAC brand, now operating under the JJE Capital / PSA umbrella.
That said, it’s still reasonable to expect strong suppressor performance from this particular Remington rimfire ammo. The current AAC team has deep institutional knowledge and experience in suppressor design, and this round was clearly engineered with suppressed varmint control in mind. There’s even a picture of a little guy with a suppressed pistol on the front.
The ammo is copper-plated (washed), and this means that both before and after loading, you’ll have a nice sparkly copper sheen on your hands and on the interior of your action, and likely on any muzzle devices you have attached. While copper fouling is usually an annoying maintenance thing for centrefire guns, when it comes to 22LR, copper fouling is actually a boon to your system as it not only acts as a nice fine lubricant but also helps prevent lead buildup, which is the far bigger maintenance threat when it comes to rimfire guns.
Velocity Results
Like with our previous tests, I’ll only be running 50 rounds of this stuff through the Angstadt RPR. I used a handful of rounds to check my zero and then did my usual 5 sets of 10-round groups. Not to put too fine a point on it, Remington Subsonic 40gr HP so far is almost one for one with CCI Sub-Sonic – at least in the velocity department. The 50-round sample gave me an average velocity of 913 fps, a standard deviation of 29.2 fps, and an extreme spread of 120.5 fps.
The round certainly suppresses well out of the ported integrally suppressed Vanquish barrel, but even without it, it sounds pretty good out of my suppressed rimfire pistols, as it’s not getting anywhere close to supersonic out of any of my current rimfire platforms. This would qualify in my book as good suppressed ammo, but not quite match performance ammo. However, as is often the case, the numbers alone don’t always determine how accurate the ammo will be out of a given rifle, platform, twist rate, or suppressor. This is where the surprising part of the performance begins.
Accuracy Results
During these 50-round strings, I’m often not paying attention to most of the velocity readings outside of ones that sound either exiting the barrel much faster or slower. This time, the results were beyond impressive, with two out of the five groups just barely giving me sub-MOA accuracy.
This is for sure what I’d rely on if I were to be varmint hunting with this particular rifle. Even my worst group, the one on the upper left, was still just barely under an inch in size at 50 yards, which is still within the margin of error I’d be comfortable with for popping ground hogs at longer distances.
Final Thoughts
It’s worth noting that while this ammo has performed quite admirably compared to some of its other Remington Rimfire siblings, there is still the question of its terminal performance, which I plan to test in the future once I get my gel blocks re-cast. This ammo is moving so slowly out of this (ported) barrel that I’d seriously start questioning if this ammo is even mushrooming (as rimfire often does) as it’s going through the intended target. This is often why most varmint hunters will opt for faster hollow point ammo like Remington Yellow Jacket, which can at least enter the target at distance and still have enough energy to deform, thus giving you a better chance at a first shot kill.
That being said, on smaller pest critters, this is much less of a concern, especially if your aim is good. I was certainly not just surprised by this ammo, but so impressed that I went ahead and bought a couple more sleeves just to have on hand for when I need a sanity check on the Angstadt barrel. For now, that’s all I have for you on this ammo! I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on Remington Subsonic 40gr CPHP, and whether you’ve had similar or opposite results than I have in my testing. Thanks as always for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report, and we’ll see you all again next week!
Remington Subsonic 22LR 40gr HP CPHP Ammo
We are committed to finding, researching, and recommending the best products. We earn commissions from purchases you make using the retail links in our product reviews. Learn more about how this works.
