Ruger Vs. Henry - Aguila .22 cal. 90 gr SSS

**Brick** · June 24th, 2007, 01:51 PM

How strange is this? I had bought a brick of Aguila 90 gr. SSS to test on the rimfire silhouette course, but found no advantage over CCI Minimags. So now I am just looking to use the stuff up. My Ruger 10/22 shoots the Aguila ammo just fine all the way out to 100 meters, groups are very good. The odd thing is that my Henry lever action will not stabilize them much past 50 yards. At 100 yards, the bullets were going through the target sideways (if they cut paper)!

The Ruger has a standard factory barrel with 20 " long with 1:16 twist. The Henry has an 18 1/4" barrel and twist is unknown. At one time Henry touted using a rifling system similar to Marlin's "Microgroove rifling".

Any thoughts?

**JayBell** · June 24th, 2007, 03:09 PM

the problem here is the guns you have both wont properly stabilize the bullet weight...but the Ruger is closer to doing so than the henry.

Also, due to weight and low velocity, the ammo is really designed for closer ranges....as the henry shows.

Add that 'microgroove" style rifling is NOT rcommended for pure or cast lead bullets, it quickly leads up, and can require more cleaning than standard Ballard rifling or such.

the SSS stuff really requires a 1:8 or 1:10 twist to properly stabilize the bullet....and Aguila has custom barrels for some applications to do this.
be glad the Ruger is doing so well!!!

A couple notes of warning:
1.dont use this in a suppressed gun without checking if the bullet stabilizes, you will wipe the baffle stack
2. due to shortness of the case, and length of the bullet, CLEAN THE CHAMBER well before moving to another more standard ammo.

**jsb889** · June 24th, 2007, 05:33 PM

Usually, keyholes are from a bullet not having the right twist and being unstable, like Jay said. A 22LR is designed to stabilize a 40 grain bullet. The 90 grain must be much longer, and the 1 in 16 is too slow for it. Aguila has a 60 grain bullet too, if you'd like to try that. I haven't heard any reports of keyholes with it, but if the henry still keyholes, you can probably presume it has a slower than 1 in 16 twist.