.22 Winchester Automatic
Encyclopedia
The .22 Winchester Automatic (also known as the .22 Winchester Auto and occasionally .22 Win Auto) is a .22 in (5.6mm) American
rimfire
rifle
cartridge
.
Introduced for the Winchester Model 1903
semiautomatic
rifle, the .22 Win Auto was never used in any other firearm. It will not chamber correctly in other .22 rimfire weapons, nor will other .22 rimfire ammunition, including the very dimensionally-similar .22 Remington Automatic
, interchange with it. This feature was to prevent use of black powder rounds, which were still popular when it first appeared, from being used in the M1903, resulting in powder residue rapidly clogging the action and rendering the weapon inoperable.
The power of the .22 Win Auto is comparable to the .22 Long
rimfire, and while it fires a heavier bullet, it offers no performance edge on either the .22 Long or the very much more common .22 Long Rifle
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rimfire
Rimfire ammunition
A rimfire is a type of firearm cartridge. It is called a rimfire because instead of the firing pin of a gun striking the primer cap at the center of the base of the cartridge to ignite it , the pin strikes the base's rim....
rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
cartridge
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
.
Introduced for the Winchester Model 1903
Winchester Model 1903
The Winchester Model 1903 was the first commercially available semi-automatic firearm firearm made by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.-History:...
semiautomatic
Semi-automatic firearm
A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...
rifle, the .22 Win Auto was never used in any other firearm. It will not chamber correctly in other .22 rimfire weapons, nor will other .22 rimfire ammunition, including the very dimensionally-similar .22 Remington Automatic
.22 Remington Automatic
The .22 Remington Automatic is a .22 in American rimfire rifle cartridge....
, interchange with it. This feature was to prevent use of black powder rounds, which were still popular when it first appeared, from being used in the M1903, resulting in powder residue rapidly clogging the action and rendering the weapon inoperable.
The power of the .22 Win Auto is comparable to the .22 Long
.22 Long
.22 Long is a variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition. The .22 Long is the second oldest of the surviving rimfire cartridges, dating back to 1871, when it was loaded with a 29 grain bullet and 5 grains of black powder, 25% more than the .22 Short it was based on...
rimfire, and while it fires a heavier bullet, it offers no performance edge on either the .22 Long or the very much more common .22 Long Rifle
.22 Long Rifle
The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as .22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have...
See also
- List of cartridges by caliber
- List of rifle cartridges
- List of rimfire cartridges
- 5mm caliber5 mm caliberThis article lists firearm cartridges which have a bullet in the to caliber range.*Length refers to the cartridge case length.*OAL refers to the overall length of the cartridge.All measurements are in mm .-Rimfire cartridges:...
Sources
- Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ".22 Winchester Automatic", in Cartridges of the World, pp.275, 282, & 283. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.