Type of 22 ammo legal for NRA competition

I have recently been told that only 40 grain lead 22 ammo is legal for NRA competition.  I have read the rule book and see nothing mentioned that specifies 40 grain as the only legal bullet weight.  The only thing that makes me question this is under rule 3.17 (c), it says "Unless otherwise described in this rulebook, any ammunition of any description may be fired without danger to competitors, range personnel, or equipment".  That makes me wonder if 40 grains is specified elsewhere in the book.  I was told this by a reliable longtime competitor who is a HM and who is usually right about things like this.

40 grains was an old rule. Still has to be lead or "similar soft material" for NRA, can be basically anything 22lr for CMP.

Dave

EDIT: Should specify for CMP that it still needs to be single projectile.

Do you have any idea when the rule changed?

CMP changed from "not more than 40 grains" in 2023. Not sure on NRA, but I have a rulebook downloaded in 2021 that doesn't list a restriction, so had to be prior to that.

Dave

The 2020 and 2022  CMP Rules were:

4.4.2 .22 Rimfire Pistol Ammunition Rimfire Pistol competitors may use only .22 cal. rimfire long rifle ammunition with bullets weighing not more than 40 grains. 

CMP 2024 Rules say:
4.4 Ammunition Competitors in any CMP sponsored, or sanctioned pistol event may use any safe single-projectile ammunition appropriate for the pistol and cartridge that is being used.


The NRA Precision Pistol Rules have been since at least 2020-

3.17 Ammunition - 
 (a) Distinguished revolver – refer to Rule 3.3 (e).
 
 (b) Any .22 caliber rim fire long rifle cartridge may be used. Only bullets made of lead or similar soft material are permitted. 

 (c) Unless otherwise described in this rulebook, any ammunition of any description may be fired without danger to competitors, range personnel, or equipment. Tracer, incendiary, armor piercing, and similar ammunition is prohibited.

Thanks, just wanted to have my facts straight before I mentioned it to my source. I appreciate it.

Soon after Eley changed bullet weights to 42 grains for action pistol shooters. lol

This being the case, does anyone feel that a hollow point bullet in 22lr would outperform a round nose?
I ask due to the fact 40-42 grns is really light and my not benefit the hp stabilization properties.

No reason to think a lead HP bullet will outperform a RN. Much more cost efficient to swage a consistent RN bullet than a HP. That spud to form the cavity is small and likely gets replaced frequently.

JHP or OTM, on the other hand, is certainly the choice for accuracy when shooting jacketed ammo. Much easier to get consistent weight and ogive geometry when forming from the base-up.

Texasref wrote:This being the case, does anyone feel that a hollow point bullet in 22lr would outperform a round nose?
I ask due to the fact 40-42 grns is really light and my not benefit the hp stabilization properties.

Quality RN .22 ammo will shoot sub 1" ten shot groups out of quality pistols at 50 yards, so I doubt that that can be significantly improved upon. That being said, different pistols like different ammo and even different lot numbers. With a hollow point, you'd also introduce possible feeding issues. One would be better off in finding a quality pistol first and a reliable way to test it at 50 yards.

Texasref wrote:This being the case, does anyone feel that a hollow point bullet in 22lr would outperform a round nose?
I ask due to the fact 40-42 grns is really light and may s the bullet profil for ELEY TENEX.  not benefit the hp stabilization properties.

This is the profile of the ELEY TENEX bullet.  It does help in rifles and in free pistol.  It is NOT used in TENEX for pistol ammo because that is used in RF and Standard Pistol so they have round nose profiles.

I recently came across CCI's "quiet" ammo that is 45 grains. I will say, accuracy aside it's a godsend in a couple of my Hi Standards. It has a longer, tapered nose that seems to feed much better...

The CCI ammo you mentioned is exactly how this conversation started.  The person I was speaking to said that the 45gr CCI bullets were not allowed.

NRA rules:


This also means you are not supposed to use 22 short.

The rule appears to have been changed to the any-22lr-lead requirement in 2015, the same year they changed the name from "Conventional Pistol" to "Precision Pistol".

The NRA site doesn't link that far back, but the wayback machine grabbed this in September of that year:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150910161510/http://compete.nra.org/documents/pdf/compete/rules/rul_precision_pistol_15.pdf