The Super Colibri .22 Rimfire

Most every hunter's gun collection includes a .22 rimfire. It is often the first or second gun we own. The .22 is easy, fun, and comparatively inexpensive to shoot.

Almost anyone can afford to shoot the basic twenty-two.
For plinking, practice, small game, and pest to at least fifty yards it is "hard to beat". The various .22 rimfires account for vast ammunition sales. Probably no other round is so popular and user friendly as the twenty-two.

There is a huge variety of different .22 rimfire loads. Bullets range from about 20 to 60 grains and their velocities from around 375 to over 1700 fps. The twenty-two magnum even faster.

The most used are probably the high velocity .22 long rifle rounds. They have a bullet of around 40 grains, and a velocity of around 1200 fps.

On this page we are most interested in the low velocity .22 rimfires, and especially the Super Colibri. These rounds are most useful for practice, and as an alternative to the pellet guns and air gun hunting we talk about on other pages.

I began experimenting with air guns and .22 rimfires, especially the low velocity CB rounds years ago. I was looking for a quieter, safer round to use around domestic animals, people, buildings... At that time I tried some adult air guns, which were just beginning to become popular in our country.

To make a very long story, short, I was never completely happy with the .22 rimfires or air guns I found. I was looking for something as quiet as possible, which would not shoot through the walls of barns and warehouses, but still take mice, rats, starlings, snakes, skunks, opossum...

Note that I was most interested in handguns at that time. I found most pellet handguns too limited, some rather complicated to use, and some surprisingly noisy. Several worked great for the smaller pest at very short range, but they were not very versatile.

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The CB is great, but it's loud when used indoors, and especially when fired in a revolver. Quieter when used in the 10" single shot contender handgun I had. But! The 29 grain bullet would shoot through many materials making it a little too strong for my purposes.

CB rounds usually fire a 29 grain solid bullet (the same weight as a .22 rimfire short) at less than 750 fps. I came to the conclusion that the best round, 'for me', would be similar to the CB., but with a lighter more fragile bullet, and a lower velocity.

I wrote to several companies asking them to make .22 rimfires with a fragile 15 grain bullet at around 600 fps. I explained that the CB bullet was too heavy and had too much penetration to be used in place of the adult pellet rifles shooters were beginning to buy.
No company responded in any way. Now many years later a Mexican company Aguila has come very close to the .22 rimfire I wanted. Their Super Colibri has a 20 grain bullet and a velocity of 575 (some say 500) fps. I continue to believe an even more fragile 15 grain bullet would be better...

WARNING! It is stated that the Super Colibri is for handguns only. Use them at your own risk in a rifle. I have fired about 300 Super Colibri rounds through a little single shot carbine with an 18 inch barrel with no problems. None of these low powered rounds mentioned here will cycle a semi-auto, they will have to be manually loaded and ejected.

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I like the Super Colibri, but discovered a problem when sighting in the first time. The first few rounds I fired from a rest went in one hole. But after only a few shots the group started to spread. All my subsequent groups were about an inch or a little more from center to center. This was firing out of the back door of my apartment at only 10-15 yards.

I am not 100% sure about this, but they leave some material in the barrel. It is very easy to clean out, but my theory is the build up affects their accuracy. When I run a dry patch down the barrel just once, the accuracy seems to come back for a few more rounds.

I can also fire a regular round after 3-4 Super Colibri shots and it will also clear the residue. This is disappointing because cleaning or firing a regular round every 3-4 rounds is not practical.

Even with this poor accuracy (after about three shots) the Super Colibri is useful for very short range, quiet shooting.

I zeroed the scope to be dead on at 20 yards with the Super Colibri loads, and found my Federal 38 grain hollow points shoot about 3.5 inches high at the same range. The good news is that there is little windage difference.

I reasoned that I'll only use the Federals on larger targets, or at longer range. I've found that I can hold low where the cross-hairs above the intersection thickens in the scope, and be almost dead on with the Federals at 20-30 yards. I haven't tried it, but I expect the Federals would drop and be at point of aim around 75 yards.

Out of my 18" barrel the Super Colibri are quiet inside, and when outside just a "POOF!" Quieter than many pellet guns. The bullet's impact often makes more noise than the muzzle blast outside. Fired from a short handgun barrel they would not be so quiet.

Most hunters already have .22 rimfires, so the cost of trying these can be very low. They are fun to shoot, and you don't have to cock, or charge the gun with air or gas like an air gun. I have taken many starlings, cans, bottle caps, and two skunks with them.

The first skunk hit between the eyes at 15-20 yards simply flopped over, feet in the air, kicked, and died.

The second skunk, at about the same range, dropped his head just as I fired. He was apparently hit in the neck or back just behind the head. He waddled away slowly, falling on his side several times.

He was stealing cat food on my daughters front porch, and I couldn't shoot again, safely... Even these low power rounds could shoot through walls... We never saw him again, and I feel confident he died also.

Aguila is not paying me anything, but none of the other companies ever built what I wanted. I feel a special connection to this round.

Aguila also has several other interesting .22 rimfires. One the Colibri (not Super) round which is even lower powered. It appears to fire the same bullet at only 375 fps. I doubt it would fire through a rifle reliably, but it could be good for quiet handgun practice. They also have some very fast .22 rounds, and some with 60 grain bullets.

A closing thought: Other rimfire cartridges are not nearly as versatile as the .22 yet. But! With their ability to handle even smaller, lighter bullets, the .17s could make a great low power round for plinking... A very low power .17 could be similar to an air gun.

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