Thread: .22 Hollow Point not expanding

As many of you know, we can't get any more of the Aussie-made Winchester .22 subsonic.

And the problem I'm having is finding .22 LR HP subsonic rounds that expand.
Both the .22 LR USA made Winchester HP subsonic and the Fiocchi HP subsonic are punching straight through rabbits at between 110 yards and 150 yards (I'm using a rangefinder and dialing).

Can anyone recommend a NZ available .22 subsonic HP, that actually expands at those sorts of ranges?

If you have a press you could try
flaring the hollow point, you would need to make up a flaring die probably out of an obsolete die and there would be a bit of trial and error involved in not just getting it to expand but also with accuracy. If you really wanted to go number 8 wire approach, a ballpoint pen with the right type of tip might work.

Obviously with either approach, safety glasses are important.

I think you will find that at the range you are using them the speed has dropped off a fair bit which certainly wouldn't help with expansion. I found at normal sub sonic ranges the USA made subs worked well , no real difference to the Aussie subs.
As said above opening up the hollow may help a bit.

Yeah no expansion and they can run about 10 meters before falling over (some going down their burrows so I can't reach them)
So looks like at those ranges, with the velocity between 900 and 860fps, it just can't be enough for expansion.
So maybe it's like that for all brands of subsonic .22 ammo and I will have to open up the hollow point?

So rather than a flaring die or a ballpoint pen (?) what do you think about I just try drilling the tips with a 2mm drill? or even file the tips down a bit? (not sure how this will affect accuracy though... so will have to shoot a few groups).

I used to open up the Winchester Bushman HV ammo as it had poor hollows. I used the tip of a pocket knife and and it worked well, a lot more expansion.

Originally Posted by Mooseman

I I used the tip of a pocket knife and and it worked well, a lot more expansion.

Yeah good idea, I'll start opening the hollow points up with the Mercator now

The Mercator doesn't have the right angle on the tip to do a big opening of the hollow point.
However, I grabbed a Spyderco paramilitary 2 which really opens up the tips. These sized hollow points should expand now....

Thanks for the help.

Let us know how they work on rabbits and extended ranges.

Bumping this thread as run into the same issue with the 42gr Subs not expanding.

I had a couple of boxes of these that I'd bought a year ago and they killed very very well, will kill magpies, possums and rabbits (even tiny one) dead on the spot with no pass throughs at all.

I bought 2 boxes recently and tried them on a few possums and they are behaving like solids.
Have fired 15 of them now at possums and every single shot has been a pass through with the bullets ricocheting off a branch, certainly not getting that thud sound you usually get from the hollow point subs.

Even with good centre mass hit the bullets are just going straight through and requiring a lot of follow up shots.
The last two boxes of ammo lasted me ages as I pretty much got a kill with every shot I fired, not the case with this new batch.

My experience of CCI and winchester hollowpoint subs, is that they all pass through a broadside rabbit, regardless of where they are hit. The only recovered bullets have been when I'm shooting a rabbit from the tail to head, or reverse. This is the reason I started using CCI segmented subs. On a broadside shot, the 3 petals are still exiting, albeit with a lot less energy than a 40gn lump of lead.
The only round I have that does not pass through a rabbit is a 17 hornet with a 20gn frangible varmint projectile, but they render the animal useless to eat.

a 4" nail.poke tip in hollow point,give a quick twirl around,it will open the lips up and not change anything else...we did it for years ,before powerpoint came on market.

I made this up out of a 22 off cut, the top part of a lee 223 die that was stuffed. Works Well

Originally Posted by quentin

My experience of CCI and winchester hollowpoint subs, is that they all pass through a broadside rabbit, regardless of where they are hit. The only recovered bullets have been when I'm shooting a rabbit from the tail to head, or reverse. This is the reason I started using CCI segmented subs. On a broadside shot, the 3 petals are still exiting, albeit with a lot less energy than a 40gn lump of lead.
The only round I have that does not pass through a rabbit is a 17 hornet with a 20gn frangible varmint projectile, but they render the animal useless to eat.

The last lot of ammo I had must've been luck then.
I had a big rabbit clear out and even on some very very small bunnies only had a single one pass through which was on a particularly small one with a broadside shot.

I was surprised today I shot a bunch of magpies today and the ammo killed very well but had a fair few pass through.
Seems like it's only possums that I'm not having much luck with, have had to fill them with about 4 shots to get them to got down (good shots, not gut shots) whereas the old batch I'd reliably kill them in a single chest shot.

The winchester pills have a unique profile, that flaring tool made by Flock looks to be a good solution. I'm lucky enough to have a decent amount of the Aussie standard and also the subsonic powerpoint which will see me through my requirements at this stage. I've also got the aussie made superspeed load and it's subsonic twin - this has a much more rounded pill and both loads suffer the same issue passing straight through and leaving a pencil hole with almost no expansion. Had some success with reshaping the rounded tip and hollow point on the superspeed, but to be honest more work than it was worth at that stage. The only real benefit to the superspeed was it function better in some semi's.