Winchester New 21 Sharp Ammo. Anyone using this?|General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

Bert H. said
It is not interchangeable with a standard 22 Long rifle, therefore, I do not believe that it will be successful anytime in the near future… unless you live in Kommiefornia.

Bert 

  

Double negative, but the pejorative for the Granola Bowl clarifies it. 

If anything, the industry should just begin making regular runs of the .22 WRF/Special but return it to its original, quicker velocity. Makes an excellent subload for the magnum and has always been a great small game getter. Used to be loaded with a truncated cone lead bullet that was good for turkeys at modest range. 

Like.Faulkner said, “Sometimes the past isn’t even past.”

Chuck said
I have a couple 60 year old WRF cartridges.  Maybe I should shoot them and see if they are faster than the new, 1986 rounds.

  

Those would be what, 1964 production? Dad was talking about 1930s production but product liability law wasn’t as developed as it became by 1986.  I’ve got some of the 1986 stuff and a Kimber 82 WMR from which to chronograph it.   If you could chrono 5 rounds of the 1964, we could match velocities and see.  Of course I’d be firing from a longer chamber but likely a shorter barrel (22″) if yours is Model 90. Not sure what difference that would make. Maybe I should UPS you some the 1986 vintage to limit variables. 

When about 1989 I bought Dad a Model.90.in halfway decent shape, I bought enough of the 1986 run to last him. As it turned out, he found the gun too heavy and I wound up with the.rifle and ammunition. The rifle went down the road but I kept the ammo. 

It’s possible the ballistics of the cartridge never changed and I’ve just been influenced by my father’s tales of hunting in Louisiana with what he called his “22 Special” during the Depression.  He told his 10 year old son how much sharper the Special’s report was compared to a long rifle round. How it shot “further out into the lake” than his pal’s  25/20, etc

So, when I finally took a Model 90 and some 1986 ammo to the range,  my childhood expectations were that the muzzle blast would be more impressive, like a 22 WMR, I suppose. That I was wearing muffs didn’t help.but it sounded like my old Red Ryder BB gun. What a let down.

I was in my Forties at the time, when fathers who once seemed inerrant and infinitely wise, usually are reduced to human scale. But I still thought he hung the moon and blamed Winchester and the product liability bar. 

This is probably where the opinion of diminished velocity came from.