Backyard plinking with Aguila Colibri 22 LR

[North Country Gal]

I've been pleased at the way I've been able to do my backyard plinking with my 22 rifles when using CBs or 22 Quiets. As long as I stay with at least a 20" barrel, it's not likely my neighbors hear anything when I'm shooting.

Shooting my 22 handguns with their shorter barrels with the above ammo is noticeably louder, though. Yup, 22 handguns with Quiets or even CBs are louder than I like, so I just reserve my 22 handgun shooting for trips to the club range. Not shooting my 22 revolvers is bad enough, but even my beloved Contender 22 LR rigs are louder than I like with CCI Quiet.


Many years ago, I remembered shooting some of my 22 LR handguns with Aguila Colibri, but that ammo hasn't been available for many years. Recently, though, I found some more, so thought I would give it another try. The Colibri is 22 LR with a 29 grain bullet and the velocity is rated at a measly 420 fps, compared to the rated 710 fps for CCI Quiet or CB Shorts.
How loud could it be?

Shooting the Colibri in my S&W Model 63 with a 2" barrel, I still get a noticeable "crack". My 6" revolvers with Colibri are quieter, but nowhere near as quiet as shooting Colibri in my Contender. In my 8 3/4" Contender 22 LR barrel, I can actually hear the bullet hitting the soft dirt in my back stop. I have air pistols that are louder than that.

What about accuracy? Shooting from my deck puts me at 26 yards from the target. At that distance, the hard truth is that even in my Contender, the accuracy of the Colibri is "miserable". Total waste of ammo. If you shoot Colibri in a 22 revolver at this distance, you better have a really large backstop. Not kidding, here.

Not ready to give up, today I went down in the yard and set up at a lasered 15 yard distance. Shooting from a lawn chair with one elbow braced on the arm of the chair, much, much better. After a rough adjustment of the excellent open sights, I started shooting this 2" bull and did some more tweaking of the sights. Still a long way from what a Contender can do with premium ammo, but good enough to let me shoot my Contender at home, so I am very pleased.

[Sir Henry]

I’ve found Aguila ammo in general to be fairly accurate. It’s great you can shoot something at home.

[North Country Gal]

Thanks, Gene. We really could use some warmer shooting weather, right? Maybe this weekend.

[Sir Henry]

I’m so tired of late winter here when it cold but not below freezing.

[BigAl52]

My 10/22 shoots Aguila high velocity ammo very good and right now its really cheap at Target Sports

[fortyshooter]

I shoot Quiets and even the 22 Short CB ammo more than regular 22 LR in my Henrys and revolvers. Still quiet enough in my revolvers with no ear protection needed. At typical plinking distance I find they hit my targets even small targets like spent shotgun shells easy enough. Just a pleasure to enjoy some fun shooting on a lazy range day!

[fortyshooter]

I’m so tired of late winter here when it cold but not below freezing.

Well not freezing down here BUT a very wet Spring so far. I had to go down to my place yesterday and cut the grass wet or not 2 days after heavy rain had moved thru. Was able to cut about 2/3rds of the grass rest was too mucky. More rain coming tonight and most of Friday too BUT I got to shoot yesterday after cutting grass! Had my Uberti .38 Special 1866 Yellowboy short rifle and Cimarron 6 shooter out! Plinking FUN!!!
Also cut the path to my little fishing hole at far end of creek. Water level was high and when next warm days come I will have my little 10 buck rod/reel ready for some fun! Was sunny and high 50's yesterday.

[daytime dave]

NCG, I have some of those Aguila Colibri .22 rounds. I did a little experiment with them as I had been asked to do a favor for someone who was anti-gun, but needed a few critters removed. The critters were ground hogs in a suburban neighborhood. It would have been legal shooting distance from other homes as this was a very large property, but no one wanted to be identified with shooting critters there.
The Aguila's were what I was planning to use. As I found, they were very quiet the longer the barrel of the firearm was. As you said, in a 2" model 63, noisy. Up to my 6" model 17, still too noisy. Very quiet out of my Henry H001. The only problem was, as you gained barrel length and quiet, you lost velocity and a round may not get out of the barrel. That was an issue in another .22 rifle I tried. Once I was confident they would come out of the Henry H001 without fail, accuracy was the next issue. It was not very accurate. When it did hit the mark, at 15 yds, it had little oomph left to do anything to a critter.
I still have some of those rounds as they are fun out of the 617's. For a no gun powder/primer powered only round, it is what it is.
Let me know if you find something that they are accurate out of.

I'm ready for Spring here too!

[BigAl52]

Like Dave just mentioned I shot some of those out of my Henry 22 rifles. But I never checked accuracy I used them to signal me of last round so I didnt dry fire the rifle. They always cleared the barrel. I now use 22 shorts for that.

[CT_Shooter]

I bought a box of Aguila Colibri 22 LRs several years ago. Like Dave, I hoped they might be useful to dispatch a pesky groundhog in my residential neighborhood, where it would NOT have been legal to shoot. To test the Db level, I fired one round from a single shot bolt action rifle at an 8" wide pine board 18' away. I watched as it bounced off and landed about a foot in front of the board. I donated the rest of it to my brother with a warning to watch for squibs.

Don't recall what became of that groundhog.