Rimfire Defender
CCI’s latest new .22 LR rimfire product launch—Uppercut Defense .22 LR—is built for short-barreled, self-defense handguns.
News Briefs - November/December 2023
The .22 LR remains the most popular cartridge in America, to the delight of target shooters, casual plinkers, and varmint dispatchers across the nation. The one task that this versatile century-old round was not designed for is for self-defense. But that’s all changed, thanks to CCI, the historic industry leader in rimfire ammunition.
It’s no secret CCW permit applications and guns sales have soared over the last several years. As a result, there are many new shooters looking for new ammo choices, some of whom may not be comfortable with the muzzle rise and recoil of a large-caliber centerfire pistol. CCI Uppercut, the company’s first product that falls in the personal protection ammo category, answers the call for more .22 LR self-defense ammo, delivering both power and performance.
Personal Choice
“Protection of oneself should always be personal. The decision should depend on how you prefer to carry. Your choice should be sized to fit your needs and built to defend you adequately and dependably,” says Jason Slinkard, CCI’s rimfire product director. “There are a lot of people that can’t rack the slide on a centerfire pistol, and most of those people can’t manage the recoil, either. This product is for them—and for anyone else for that matter—who uses a .22 LR pocket pistol.”
“At CCI we have talked about making a .22 LR defensive load for a long time. We finally decided that people are already carrying .22 LRs, so we might as well build a .22 bullet optimized for protection. And the robust design we finalized is certainly quite different than any traditional .22 Long Rifle ammunition designed for hunting and target shooting. For self-defense rimfire, it is quite impressive.”
A Defensive Bullet
Traditionally, .22 LR bullets have fallen into three primary categories: lead round nose, copper plated, and copper-plated hollow points. None of these consistently perform well in gel tests for self-defense ammo because they do not shed energy in a uniform and efficient manner. Over-penetration, under-penetration, bullet fragmentation, and other issues have prevented the .22 LR from being taken seriously as a self-defense cartridge.
“When we set out to build a defensive rimfire bullet for CCI, we took what we already knew about our jacketed hollow point (JHP) bullets, but we also worked with defensive ammunition engineers from our sister company, Speer, to achieve the best in terminal performance attributes,” says Slinkard.
Most .22 LR projectiles weigh around 40 grains and travel from the muzzle at around 1,300 feet per second (fps) out of rifle-length barrels. But when shot at lower velocities, such as when fired from short-barreled pistols, .22 LR still produces approximately 150 foot-pounds of energy. That energy can do the job for terminal performance, but the primary reason the .22 LR has never been adopted as a self-defense round has less to do with terminal ballistics and more to do with a lack of suitable bullets.
“From the start, we knew .22 LR was limited in performance, so we were not focused on barriers and the other technical elements that go into ammunition for duty guns,” says Slinkard. “By not being restricted by barrier-test results, our engineering team concentrated on a bullet that was ideally suited for common self-protection scenarios—one that would perform exceptionally well in bare gel or light clothing.”
The result of CCI’s exhaustive research and development was the creation of an all-new projectile. Unlike the simple lead round nose or copper-plated hollow points typical of most rimfire ammunition, Uppercut’s exclusive jacketed hollow point bullet has the thickest jacket of any CCI .22 LR bullet. It initiates full and reliable expansion through short-barreled handguns—and it does that while also retaining the weight needed to hit the critical penetration depths so necessary for adequate self-defense.
The CCI .22 LR bullet is designed to initiate full and reliable expansion through shortbarreled handguns while retaining the weight needed for critical penetration.
Protection of oneself should always be personal. The decision should depend on how you prefer to carry. Your choice should be sized to fit your needs and built to defend you adequately and dependably.
The Uppercut Concept
Other .22 LR ammunition designed for self-defense, such as Federal Premium .22 LR Punch, is designed specifically for deep penetration, not expansion. But the CCI Uppercut bullet is designed for expansion and weight retention.
“CCI Uppercut achieves eight to ten inches of penetration in ballistic gel with controlled expansion out of short-barrel pistols,” says Slinkard. “Upset results in a beautiful, deep, six-petal design.”
Uppercut features a 32-grain jacketed hollow-point bullet. Nose skiving on the bullet ensures petals peel back for uniform and consistent expansion. The load’s velocity is optimized for performance through 2.5- to 4-inch handgun barrels yet penetrates to effective depths. The load clocks in at 950 fps out of a typical short-barreled handgun.
“What makes this product stand out is its plating thickness. Typically, our .22 LR bullets, such as our popular Mini-Mag line, have a thin flash plate that requires wax to keep the barrel from leading,” says Slinkard. “The copper-jacket plating on Uppercut measures six thousandths inch, which is similar to popular .22 Win. Mag JHP bullets designed for self-defense from Speer. This design feature is a key to its overall effectiveness as a self-defense bullet.”
This thick plating helps deliver the expansion without petal loss. The robust copper plating on these bullets also replaces the wax traditionally applied to .22 LR ammunition. Because of the plating, Uppercut bullets don’t need to be waxed. That, in turn, reduces fouling and improves feeding at all temperatures.
And, like with all CCI products, Uppercut features dependable priming and propellant. Packed in 50-count boxes. SRP: $12.99. (ci-ammunition.com)
Uppercut features a 32-grain jacketed hollow-point bullet.