who sells these

[hunter87]

Hi all any ideas who sells or even if we can get the CCI volicitors round nose, Aguila colibri as I can't find them on the web anywhere

 

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/2506295321/aguila-super-colibri-ammunition-22-long-rifle-20-grain-lead-solid-point

[Andrew]

Just sifting through threads after an absence and came on this one. The Civilian Marksmanship Program in the US has been informed that shipments of Aguila rimfire ammo will he back ordered for upwards of 5 years. If you use it, and can find it, buy it. It's going to be a long drought. I use Aguila rimfire quite a bit and have some reserves, but will probably need to conserve. I expecially like their 60 grain Sub Sonic but that particular round is wholely unobtainable at the moment and probably will remain off the shelves for some time.~Andrew

 

PS: The Super Colibri is a good round. Very popular hereabouts for pest birds.

[hunter87]

?

[Laurie]

The long gone Howitzer Products briefly had Aguila rimfire ammo maybe 10, 12 years ago. Since then, I know that York Guns also imported some a few years back also for a very short time, but without Colibri or Super Colibri as they were unobtainable even then.

 

Aguila is from Mexico and all of its exports go to the US importers. Even back in Howitzer's days, it had great trouble extracting a US export licence from the Feds - they refused to believe that the relatively modest orders could be legitimate for the UK - after all, we're not allowed to have guns, so we can't have a need for ammo (I'm not kidding!) - so Howizter went round all of the retailers it supplied and asked them to fax the US authorities with what were in effect fake orders. In any event Howitzer never did manage to get any more and closed a year or two later.

 

I got samples of the entire range and still have part boxes of the two Colibris and the 60gn SSS (Super - something Subsonic maybe? - Sniper). The Colibris were fun but frankly didn't do anything a half decent air rifle would do. On the 50 metre range the lower power version's bullet could be seen plainly in flight and hit the ground long before it reached the 50 metre backstop when aimed half way up. Real rat in a barn ammo, or more likely pistol practice on paper in a suburban garage. There was some question about what it could be shot in. The US importer's website specifically warned it mustn't be shot out of rifles and should be limited to pistols - presumably because it was so low powered that it might leave a bullet lodged in a rifle length barrel. They all came out of the far end of my BSA Martini Internationals' 26-incher OK, and Howitzer5's MD was adamant it could be fired in anything. The Super version seemed a bit more usable and would be practical as a very short distance pest round - but a scope sighted in for even a standard 38gn sub would be way out beyond maybe 20 yards such was the curved trajectory. Very akin to the less powerful S1 .22 cal air rifles I would imagine.

 

The SSS wouldn't stabilise in a standard 1-16" .22LR barrel for me. At the time, they were very popular in the USA in custom Ruger 10-22s with fast-twist barrels, Dan Lilja having developed a three-groove 1 in 9-inch twist version just for this round. Keen American rimfire varmint-hunters couldn't get enough of this ammo even then.

 

All this was before the great US shooting panic buying epidemics started and it was difficult even then for any British importer to get Aguila USA to part with any product and send it to us as they could obviously sell almost everything they received. Given subsequent events, I can't see any escaping the US unless the factory has massively increased production and exports.

[Andrew]

The long gone Howitzer Products briefly had Aguila rimfire ammo maybe 10, 12 years ago. Since then, I know that York Guns also imported some a few years back also for a very short time, but without Colibri or Super Colibri as they were unobtainable even then.

 

Aguila is from Mexico and all of its exports go to the US importers. Even back in Howitzer's days, it had great trouble extracting a US export licence from the Feds - they refused to believe that the relatively modest orders could be legitimate for the UK - after all, we're not allowed to have guns, so we can't have a need for ammo (I'm not kidding!) - so Howizter went round all of the retailers it supplied and asked them to fax the US authorities with what were in effect fake orders. In any event Howitzer never did manage to get any more and closed a year or two later.

 

I got samples of the entire range and still have part boxes of the two Colibris and the 60gn SSS (Super - something Subsonic maybe? - Sniper). The Colibris were fun but frankly didn't do anything a half decent air rifle would do. On the 50 metre range the lower power version's bullet could be seen plainly in flight and hit the ground long before it reached the 50 metre backstop when aimed half way up. Real rat in a barn ammo, or more likely pistol practice on paper in a suburban garage. There was some question about what it could be shot in. The US importer's website specifically warned it mustn't be shot out of rifles and should be limited to pistols - presumably because it was so low powered that it might leave a bullet lodged in a rifle length barrel. They all came out of the far end of my BSA Martini Internationals' 26-incher OK, and Howitzer5's MD was adamant it could be fired in anything. The Super version seemed a bit more usable and would be practical as a very short distance pest round - but a scope sighted in for even a standard 38gn sub would be way out beyond maybe 20 yards such was the curved trajectory. Very akin to the less powerful S1 .22 cal air rifles I would imagine.

 

The SSS wouldn't stabilise in a standard 1-16" .22LR barrel for me. At the time, they were very popular in the USA in custom Ruger 10-22s with fast-twist barrels, Dan Lilja having developed a three-groove 1 in 9-inch twist version just for this round. Keen American rimfire varmint-hunters couldn't get enough of this ammo even then.

 

All this was before the great US shooting panic buying epidemics started and it was difficult even then for any British importer to get Aguila USA to part with any product and send it to us as they could obviously sell almost everything they received. Given subsequent events, I can't see any escaping the US unless the factory has massively increased production and exports.

 

Aguila actually sends containers of ammunition to Germany, and a good portion of their business is in Central and South America. They also make some low end lines for Fiocci and other non American companies. They comprised far less than 5% of the US market when they were shipping to the US.

 

The Colibri is about air rifle stuff but alot of American's don't own air rifles so it filled that zone when a 22 CB Short was too much bullet. They didn't work well some rifles but in most they were good for 10M pest control which is what they were designed for. The Sub Sonic Sniper 60 grain will remain accurate in some 1-16" guns to 50M and beyond; notably most of my Brno/CZ rifles. It will shoot well to 25M from my Brno 581 auto loader, even. They were designed for the 1-9" twist Poseidon Bolt Rifles built for for law enforcement on Ruger 77/22 platform. They came with a HAAKO scope with stadia set to match the 60 grain bullet's trajectory out to 200M. It is remarkable to note that these scopes and rifles were quite accurate at that distance. I can attest to this personally having spent much time engaging targets on the desert with this set up. A clay bird was not a tough target if the winds gods smiled.

 

In any event, the ammo will be non existant for some time while Industrias Tecnos, Aguila's non sporting parent division, gets caught up with priorities. ~Andrew

[Laurie]

As I'd read a great deal about the SSS ammo's performance (as detailed by Andrew) from American sources, I was very disappointed it didn't work in my rifle. It's a very innovative little round. For those who've never heard of it, the COAL remains as per standard .22LR, but a lengthy 60gn heeled RN lead bullet (as per normal .22 rimfire 'family' practice) takes up a large part of that length and is seated into a severely cut-down case. The case looks .22 Short length, but I can't remember if it's exactly that. In any event, that's what the SSS is in practice - a special-purpose Short on steroids. Apart from the limited quantity that Howitzer got hold of, I never heard any other mention of its use in this country, although that's not to say there wasn't any.

 

Dredging my memory, another thing I recall about the two primer compound powered Colibri variants was that they had very large MV spreads, whether due to an inherent feature of the propulsion, or more likely, to my firing them in a quite inappropriate (far too long barrel) weapon. I always thought that a good .22 revolver would be the ideal recipient, and legality / regulation issues aside would make a fun back-garden or farmyard gun/ammo plinking and target combination. For very short range pest control, an air rifle would be more economical.

 

Aguila is obviously a very innovative company. This trio aside, York Guns listed but never had in stock a .17 hyper-vel Aguila round which was developed and introduced about the same time as the .17HMR was launched, so presumably failed to gain traction. It used the LR case, so was similar to the .17 Hornady M2 cartridge.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.17_PMC/Aguila

 

The company also claimed the highest nominal MV of any .22 HyperVel round on the market. Looking at their present website, the Super Max is a 30gn copper-coated HP at 1,750 fps, but I can't remember now if that was the model.

 

York Guns hoped that Aguila would replace the PMC rimfire range it had previoulsy imported and distributed until its (PMC's) demise, and the trade and customers liked the Mexican Aguila ammo - good performance at very reasonable prices. But YGL only got one or two shipments before supplies became unobtainable. I think it now imports Sellier & Bellot ammunition including the rimfire numbers.

[Andrew]

Laurie: You hit the nail on the head. The SSS 60 grain is a 22 short cartridge the nominal velocity of the round is 950 ft/sec. I used to say that pretty much any CZ 1-16" would give good accuracy but my new 453 won't shoot them into a peach basket at 50M. My 1953 Brno will shoot clusters at the same range qand my son's newish 452 American will do likewise. I guess it's crap shoot. The Super Maximum 22LR does clock an honest 1750 from my 24" CZ but the accuracy is wanting. The best I've managed with any of my .22's is an inch at 50M tho I have shot a Finnfire that will shoot it into a half inch at 50M.

 

Aguila is an innovative company and I like their ammo quite a bit. They made all of PMC's rimfire ammunition with the exception of the 22 WMR which was made in Philippines. That said, they also make a 22WMR that was never exported to the US. I got to try a samplng of it and it was match-accurate from my CZ. They also make the 5mm Remington which is the #1 cartridge of theirs that I consume. A 30 grain JHP at 2550 really destroys vermin.

 

I hope they get up to speed on production. The little domestic ammo that is currently available to us it real crap; bulk boxed and expensive. It generally shoots as bad as it looks. I'm glad I kept a few cases ahead of demand over the years.~Andrew

[Laurie]

Yes, amazing to see you guys in the US being short of supply of the humble .22 rimfire! Desperado (of this forum fame) and I visted a newly opened Cabelas store off the I25 near Denver in August along with a chunk of the GB F-Class team last August en route from Denver Airport to Raton. It was strange to see a tiny collection of .22LR ammo on the shelves with notices saying sales limited to only so many (500?) per customer and most sold about 30 minutes after the doors opened!

 

Let's hope normality returns soon - (we're affected too being downstream in the supply chain)!

[Andrew]

Yes, amazing to see you guys in the US being short of supply of the humble .22 rimfire! Desperado (of this forum fame) and I visted a newly opened Cabelas store off the I25 near Denver in August along with a chunk of the GB F-Class team last August en route from Denver Airport to Raton. It was strange to see a tiny collection of .22LR ammo on the shelves with notices saying sales limited to only so many (500?) per customer and most sold about 30 minutes after the doors opened!

 

Let's hope normality returns soon - (we're affected too being downstream in the supply chain)!

 

I have never seen this before. Twenty-twos were always available. Now there are sporatic releases of ammo such as Federal "Bulk" 36 grain and American Eagle Bulk... all of which is second rate at best. It's just crazy. I'm sitting on many K's of rimmy ammo. I am glad I had some forethought. BTW: In case the Hmmr's are worried, they havent' stopped making HMR, it seems. Plenty of it everywhere. Now, the quality???.....~Andrew