The .22 LR Is 139 Years Old: How a Black-Powder Round Outlived Them All

It started life on black powder. Most of its contemporaries are museum pieces. The .22 Long Rifle is still the round almost everyone learns on.

If you bought a box of the brand-new .22 Long Rifle in 1887, it was loaded with black powder. A hundred and thirty-nine years later, a direct descendant of that box is probably sitting in your range bag.

Very few things from the 1880s are still made, sold and used in their original role at enormous scale. The .22 LR is one of them. Here is how a modest little rimfire built from spare parts outlived nearly every cartridge of its generation. This feature is drawn from published cartridge histories; specific figures are cited at the end.

The ancestors: BB caps and the .22 Short

The .22 LR did not appear from nowhere. Its family tree starts with the .22 BB Cap of 1845, a tiny parlor round, and the .22 Short of 1857. The Short is still sold today, which makes it even older than the Long Rifle. Then came the .22 Long in 1871, which stretched the case but kept a light bullet.

Each step tried to solve the same problem: more power and better accuracy from a cheap, self-contained rimfire cartridge. If you are curious how those three still differ on the shelf today, the Short, Long and Long Rifle are worth comparing side by side.

1887: Stevens puts it together

The breakthrough was a combination rather than an invention. In 1887, the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company took the .22 Long case and paired it with a heavier 40-grain bullet. The result had more length, more velocity and noticeably better performance for both hunting and target shooting than its predecessors.

The design kept one quirk that shooters still live with: the heeled bullet. The bullet is the same diameter as the outside of the case, with a narrower "heel" tucked into the case mouth and crimped in place. That is why .22 LR bullets are exposed and often lubricated on the outside, and why a dropped round can pick up grit. Later rimfires like the .22 WMR switched to a bullet held inside the case neck, but the Long Rifle kept the old way.

The .22 Long Rifle was not an invention. It was a good combination, arrived at early, that nobody ever managed to improve enough to replace.

From black powder to smokeless and beyond

The original loads used black powder, which is dirty, corrosive and smoky. When smokeless powders came in, the early smokeless .22 LR loads were simply matched to the old standard velocity. Later, "high speed" or high-velocity smokeless loads pushed velocity up about 8 percent, from roughly 1,200 to 1,300 fps, using the same 40-grain solid and 36-grain hollow-point bullets.

Then the category split further. CCI's Stinger was the first hyper-velocity .22 LR, using a lighter bullet and a slightly longer case. Remington's Viper and Federal's Spitfire followed. Today published references sort .22 LR into broad bands:

Category	Typical velocity band	A modern example
Subsonic	1,100 fps and under	Quiet backyard and suppressor loads
Standard velocity	about 1,120 to 1,135 fps	CCI Standard Velocity 40 gr
High velocity	about 1,200 to 1,310 fps	CCI Mini-Mag 40 gr
Hyper velocity	1,400 fps and over	CCI Stinger 32 gr

Commercial loads now range from 20 to 60 grains and from about 575 to 1,750 fps. The 1887 shooter would recognize the cartridge but not the menu. Our Mini-Mag vs Stinger comparison covers the high and hyper-velocity end in more detail.

The .22 goes to war (quietly)

The .22 LR was never a front-line military round, but it served. During World War II a full-metal-jacket version, designated T-42, was developed for the High Standard HDM pistol. A jacketed .22 LR load was also used in the Savage Model 24 combination gun, where it appeared as the M24. Militaries have long used the .22 for training too, for the same reasons civilians do: it is cheap, quiet and gentle on new shooters.

How it became the most common round on Earth

Here is the remarkable part. The .22 LR is described as by far the most common ammunition currently manufactured and sold in the world. Some sources estimate annual production at 2 to 2.5 billion rounds. It is also generally the least costly firearm cartridge worldwide, which is a big part of why.

Several things kept it on top:

Cost. Small case, small bullet, little powder. It has always been one of the most affordable ways to practice.
Mild recoil and noise. It is the round most people learn on, and many keep shooting it for life.
Accuracy. The .22 LR is used in Olympic precision rifle and pistol events. Its ballistics are limited, but at its intended distances it can be extremely precise.
Universality. Nearly every type of firearm has been made in .22 LR: bolt guns, semi-autos, levers, pumps, single shots, revolvers and pistols. That installed base keeps demand steady.

That last point creates its own momentum. Because so many guns exist, makers keep producing ammo, and because ammo is everywhere, people keep buying guns in .22 LR. Shortages have happened, notably in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but demand always comes back.

The 139-year-old round in 2026

Today the same basic cartridge covers a remarkable spread of uses: backyard plinking with bulk packs, small game with hollow points, precision rimfire matches out past 100 yards, and Olympic finals. Its limitations are well known. It is a rimfire, so ignition is less consistent than centerfire. Its official effective range figure is about 150 yards, and practical ranges are shorter. And because rimfire cases cannot be reloaded, it depends entirely on factory supply.

None of that has mattered much. For most shooters, the .22 LR is still the first gun, the training gun and the one that gets shot the most. If you are stocking up, Ammunition Depot's bulk .22 LR category is where cases live; our bulk .22 buying guide explains what budget packs get right and wrong.

Respect the little round. A .22 LR bullet can carry a long way past anything you are aiming at, especially when fired at an upward angle. Always know your backstop, never shoot at water or flat hard surfaces, and treat every gun as loaded.

The bottom line

The .22 Long Rifle was assembled in 1887 from a case that already existed and a bullet heavier than its predecessors used. It survived the switch from black powder to smokeless, spawned high-velocity and hyper-velocity offshoots, went to war as a training and special-purpose round, and became the most common ammunition on Earth. It has outlived nearly every cartridge of its generation by doing one thing well: being an affordable, mild, accurate way to put a bullet where you want it at short range.

Editorial note: This is an independent editorial overview built from manufacturer information, retailer listings and published reporting. We have not performed hands-on testing of the products discussed, and nothing here is a performance guarantee. Verify specifications, compatibility and legality for your own situation.

Frequently asked questions

When was the .22 Long Rifle invented?

The J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company introduced the .22 LR in 1887, combining the .22 Long case with a 40-grain bullet.

Was the .22 LR originally black powder?

Yes. The original loads used black powder. Smokeless loads came later, first matched to the original standard velocity and then pushed to high velocity.

Is .22 LR the most common cartridge in the world?

It is described as by far the most common ammunition currently manufactured and sold worldwide, with some sources estimating annual production at 2 to 2.5 billion rounds.

What is older, .22 Short or .22 LR?

The .22 Short is older. It dates to 1857, the .22 Long to 1871, and the .22 Long Rifle to 1887.

Why does a .22 LR bullet sit outside the case?

It uses a heeled bullet: the bullet is the same diameter as the case, with a narrower heel crimped inside. That design dates to the cartridge's 19th-century roots.

Sources and further reading

This independent educational article does not replace manufacturer instructions or legal guidance. Re-check sources before relying on time-sensitive details.