Rimfire Rifles: What and Why?

[WitBlitz]

Hi Guys,

Very new to the firearm world. Currently going through the process of getting my first ever handgun, a Glock 19X.

Obviously, that also means that I have been going down various research rabbit holes ranging from handloading and ammunition to rifle types etc etc.

For most of the questions that I have, I can usually find the answer on this forum or via a quick Google search. Then I came across what is called a rimfire rifle and I don't know why, but I cannot seem to find any nice explanations of what it is, how it works and why it exists.

I understand that the two main types are centrefire and rimfire now. Centrefire is pretty self-explanatory and, I assume, works in more or less the same way as a pistol does via striking a hammer to the centre back of a round and so forth.

Basically, I would just like to answer the following 3x questions:

1. What are rimfire rifles?
2. How do rimfire rifles work?
3. What makes them better/worse than centrefire rifles?

I apologize if this is a stupid question, I would just like to know out of pure interest.

[BehindBlueI's]

They work pretty much the same, the only difference is where the primer is located. Centerfire means there is a primer in the center of the rear of the cartridge seated in a primer cup. The firing pin strikes the primer, the primer fires, and that fire and touches off the powder in the cartridge. Rimfire doesn't have a distinct primer, it has priming compound located in the rim of the cartridge. The hammer hits the rim, which fires the priming compound, which touches off the powder in the cartridge.

Centerfire can generally be reloaded by pushing out the old primer and seating a new one, then loading powder and a new bullet. Centerfire is reloadable in the technical sense that it's possible but the level of bother and cost means that in reality it's not reloadable.

Rimfire in modern times is exclusively the realm of small caliber cartridges, predominately the .22 LR, .22 Magnum and .17 HMR. Historically, there are some larger rimfires like the .38 rimfire, but they've all fallen to the wayside over the years in favor of centerfire.

[Nephrology]

Welcome to the board and to the shooting sports at large! Glad you are joining us. the Glock 19X is a great first handgun, you'll be very happy with it.

Re: your questions, BBI already covered them pretty well. to #3, Rimfire ammo in general is a little less reliable than centerfire ammo all things being equal. They use a centrifuge to evenly distribute primer compound along the full circumference of the case rim, but as you can imagine this isn't always perfect, so failures to fire (ie pull the trigger, no bang) are fairly common with rimfire rifles and pistols. You also can't easily reload rimfire brass, so that is a disadvantage from the hobbyist POV as well.

[peterb]

“Rimfire” in modern rifles covers the common lower-power small-caliber cartridges, such as .22LR(by far the most common), .22WMR, and .17HMR.

Rimfire cartridges are inexpensive to manufacture because there is no separate primer, but they cannot be reloaded the same way centerfire cartridges can.

Current rimfire rifles tend to have smaller, lighter actions than centerfire rifles because they do not have to withstand the higher pressures of modern centerfire rifle cartridges.

One would choose a rimfire or centerfire rifle according to which cartridge one wanted to use.

In a rimfire rifle, the firing pin strikes the rim of the cartridge to ignite the priming compound. In a centerfire rifle, the firing pin strikes the primer located in the center of the cartridge base.

[TGS]

What are rimfire rifles?

Rimfire predates centerfire. I don't know how familiar you are with the American Civil War, but many of the first metallic cartridge designs that popped up around that time were rimfire, when designers were still trying new things. As you do more research on firearms, you might come across the Spencer repeating rifle and Henry repeating rifle from the US Civil War...these were the two most successful rimfire guns at the dawn of the metallic cartridge era.

This is opposed to pinfire cartridges which were much more popular in Europe, which each individual cartridge actually had the firing pin built into the side of the case rim and punctured the priming compound when hit from the side by the hammer. Centerfire cartridges as we know them today didn't come until the mid-late 1860s as technology progressed....you'll most often hear these referred to as boxer-primed and berdan-primed, which were patented in 1868 and 1866, if I recall. Many rimfire weapons at this time that were intended for serious use, such as the Swiss Vetterli infantry rifle, had a two-pronged firing pin to increase the chances of good contact on priming compound spread throughout the rim.

Rimfire remained in popular use throughout the rest of the 1800s, with most rimfire rifle/pistol cartridges going out of production (for good) during the Great Depression. Only a few have survived, most notably the .22LR (and it's interchangeable brothers, the 22 Short and 22 Long) as they can't use the popular centerfire primers due to the small diameter of their case heads. .22s are typically only used for target shooting and informal fun, so the fact they're insanely cheap and generally used for training and recreational purposes outweighs the loss of reliability compared to more expensive centerfire guns. The .22 Magnum was designed in the 50s for people wanting a cheap cartridge but better for varmint hunting than the 22LR. The .22 Magnum is the only rimfire cartridge introduced in the 20th century that has survived the test of time and still remains popular; the other rimfires introduced in the 20th century have all fallen into obscurity.

The most recent rimfire cartridge that has been successful is the .17 HMR, introduced in the early 2000s. It is essentially a 22 Magnum that has been "necked-down" at the case mouth to accept a .17 caliber bullet instead of a .22 caliber bullet. Its primary use is for varmint hunting, as its faster and has a flatter trajectory than .22 Magnum and especially 22LR. That's helpful when shooting varmints such from 100 yards or further.

[nycnoob]

I think you are getting too much detail from the other posters.
I will try to give you broad overview.

Rimfire rifles are cheap rifles that shoot cheap ammo (last time
I bought some rimfire it was 0.05USD per round for the cheap stuff,
223 was about 0.40-0.60USD at that time).

The bullets are small and recoil is soft and the noise is minimal.
they are great for target practice but not considered effective on any
animals bigger than a cat. This make the rifles good for practice and
competition but poor choice for defense. Rimfire cartridges are not
considered as reliable as centerfire.

I much prefer using rimfire rifles for marksmanship practice as I am
quite sensitive to the recoil/noise of my other rifles, and the ammo
being much cheaper makes it easier to spend an afternoon working on
marksmanship drills. (though 223 is a similar size it is particularly loud)
We have a program in the USA (appleseed https://appleseedinfo.org) to
teach marksmanship using mostly rimfire rifles with scaled targets at
25Meters which is intended to help simulate shooting centerfire rifles
at 500Meters.


Centerfire rifles, the firing pin strikes the primer in the center of
the cartridge. In rimfire the firing pin its the edge of the cartridge
and squeezes the rim of the cartridge. The priming compound
is in the cartridge rim and not a separate component. You can not
make a very large rimfire cartridge.



Here is a size comparison of 22lr (rimfire) and 223 (centerfire)
these two are frequently compared since the two projectiles
have nearly the same diameter, and both are popular cartidges
in their various areas

http://i0.wp.com/cagmain.files.wordp...pg?w=750&ssl=1

[alamo5000]

1. What are rimfire rifles?
2. How do rimfire rifles work?
3. What makes them better/worse than centrefire rifles?

I apologize if this is a stupid question, I would just like to know out of pure interest.

Any genuine question is not stupid.

Rimfire is a reference to the ammunition. Way back when 150 something +++ years ago they developed metallic cartridges. As part of that process of development (over time) was the creation of 'rimfire' ammunition. What this means is they take a single piece of brass and basically crimp a head on it. Inside that head they would put the priming compound. Generally speaking after the round is fired the left over case is discarded.

.22 Long Rifle is by far the most popular of the rimfire cartridges, but there are far more than just one.

Centerfire (pistol or rifle) is a different variation on ammunition. The primer is a separate component. You have the piece of brass, which has a hole taken out of the head of it that is just the perfect size for a primer to fit in. These primers can be punched out after the cartridge is fired and that brass can be used over and over again.

Centerfire is substantially more reliable in it's design and nature than rimfire. With rimfire (which are usually small calibers) if the ammo is jostled around a lot or subjected to a 'rough ride' of some sort the priming compound can come loose inside the case and it will create a dud round.

(Note: Priming compound is the stuff that creates the initial ignition. Hence the 'hammer' or striker of the gun hits the primer and it causes a chain reaction that leads to the gunpowder being ignited. The main difference between rimfire and centerfire is how that priming compound is introduced into the cartridge)

The discussion of better or worse is not really anything to get into yet (per se). It's more like 'different' rather than better/worse. That said centerfire has some very real advantages. Durability is one. Reliability is another. Also the ability to reuse the brass over and over is another. The last statement there also means you can reload (and tailor make) your ammo to your particular gun which is not really a thing with rimfire.

That said if I am hunting rabbits or squirrels a .22 LR is going to be far superior than trying to use a big centerfire. It just depends on what you are doing.

[peterb]

You can not make a very large rimfire cartridge.

You can, but there are none in current volume production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.44_Henry

Rimfire rifles are often inexpensive, which is part of the attraction, but as with any type of firearm, there are options at all price levels. There are many target competitions specifically for the rimfire calibers(usually .22LR), and the rifles built for competition are not cheap.

[nycnoob]

There are many target competitions specifically for the rimfire calibers(usually .22LR), and the rifles built for competition are not cheap.

A friend and I went to a rimfire competition a few years ago. We were hoping for some informal comp to improve our marksmanship skills. The people at the comp at 4,000USD rifles, and small weather stations to read the wind
and pressure. The targets were at 50 yards and about the size of a dime (2cm). we thought it was hysterical,
all that money in the equipment end of things. We wanted a more "practical" competition cheap rifles and
an emphasis more on time and ability to get into shooting positions. My rimfire rifles are only about (300USD)
Just some cheap Ruger 10/22's

[OlongJohnson]

In North America, at least, the Glock 19 of rimfire rifles is the Ruger 10/22. It's kind of the standard for teaching a young (or grown-up) person how to shoot. Cheap, ubiquitous, and good enough. They can also be modified for improved accuracy, to the point that there are multiple aftermarket companies supplying parts to build a whole rifle without using anything Ruger. Or you can even buy a whole rifle that looks and acts just like a 10/22, but performs a lot better - and costs a lot more.

I don't know how available a 10/22 might be in SA. You may be better off looking at European brands. CZ's current bolt-action rimfire is the 457, and the 512 is their semi-automatic. CZ rifles are very nice; I've owned several and still have a couple. Anschutz is the high-end German target rifle. Bergara makes a good one, but it's expensive.

My current sweet spot for price/quality/performance is the Beretta T1x. It uses exactly the same stock as the centerfire T3x rifles (just an insert is used to take up the space left by the different barrel), so the ergonomics will be exactly the same if you later hunt with a T3x. It is usually sold out in the U.S.

I have a Savage MkII FVSR, but the amount of time and money it took to make it not embarrassing made me into a CZ guy until the Beretta T1x came out. It's worth buying a level of quality in the first place, rather than buying cheap and trying to upgrade. Especially if you're in a country that doesn't have a large and price-competitive aftermarket for accessories.

There are a bunch of other good rimfire rifles that could be worth the time. Marlin, Remington and others have all made some excellent ones over the years, and you may find them available inexpensively.

There are also rimfire pistols, which we do discuss here from time to time. The same ammo is used and the same principles of low cost shooting are in action.

Ammunition is very expensive in the U.S. currently, but a few years ago, I stocked up on cases of .22LR ammo at $200/5000, or $0.04/rd. This was when the cheapest 9mm ammo was ~$0.18/rd. Rimfire .22LR is currently about $0.10/rd, but 9mm is also ~$0.40/rd. The least expensive centerfire rifle ammo in the U.S., by far, is .223/5.56x45mm. A few years ago, it was ~$0.30/rd, but the least expensive you can find it currently is about 2x to 2.5x that once shipping is included. So you can do a lot more shooting with rimfire.

The rabbit hole for all things rimfire is here: https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/