Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

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Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by MtnMan » 04 Dec 2021, 8:32 pm

Bought a box of the Aguila 20gr powderless .22lr ammo today out of curiosity.
1st shot was super quiet, as in you hear the firing pin quiet. I smiled and thought, this is cool.
By chance I thought to myself I better check to see if it made it out of the barrel. Sure enough, when I looked down the bore there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The bullet lodged about 2½" from the muzzle of my LA101. Pushed it out with a cleaning rod and the 2nd shot was a repeat of the 1st.

So I gather this ammo is useless except perhaps for a pistol.
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by bladeracer » 04 Dec 2021, 8:43 pm

MtnMan wrote:Bought a box of the Aguila 20gr powderless .22lr ammo today out of curiosity.
1st shot was super quiet, as in you hear the firing pin quiet. I smiled and thought, this is cool.
By chance I thought to myself I better check to see if it made it out of the barrel. Sure enough, when I looked down the bore there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The bullet lodged about 2½" from the muzzle of my LA101. Pushed it out with a cleaning rod and the 2nd shot was a repeat of the 1st.

So I gather this ammo is useless except perhaps for a pistol.



All of those "CB" or "gallery" loads are better in shorter barrels.
S&B Short is rated at 920fps, but makes just over 600fps in my 18" rifles. It verges on barely making it out the muzzle. I've never measured anything under 275fps (a jacketed 173gn .303 bullet) on a chronograph, so I figure a bullet generally needs at least 300fps remaining by the time it reaches the muzzle for it to actually overcome the friction and exit. I had a 58gn VMax stop in a .243 with just the red tip poking out the muzzle once :-)
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by MtnMan » 04 Dec 2021, 8:58 pm

Just tried them in my old savage model 3B with 24" barrel. They clear the barrel though I'm not sure how far in front of the gun they land. May need to wear steel cap boots. :)
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by bladeracer » 04 Dec 2021, 9:08 pm

MtnMan wrote:Just tried them in my old savage model 3B with 24" barrel. They clear the barrel though I'm not sure how far in front of the gun they land. May need to wear steel cap boots. :)


Some of those S&B Club were hitting the ground midway to the 50m target, and I don't think it needs very much velocity at all to toss a 29gn bullet 20m or so. I think a really hot baseball pitch isn't much over 200fps?
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by Blr243 » 04 Dec 2021, 9:27 pm

Ammo like that should have big clear squib warnings on the packaging
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by rc42 » 05 Dec 2021, 5:46 pm

CCI Quiet ammo has a warning on the bricks that it shouldn't be used in firearms with barrels longer than 20", the is certainly due to the risk of the drag overcoming the pressure behind the projectile and creating a squib, I'd expect the super low energy Aguila rounds to have a similar warning, if they don't they should.

I've wrecked a barrel with a 22LR squib, even with the thickness of a bull barrel the pressure created when a new projectile slams into a squib is at crazy levels and can easily bulge any barrel and wreck its accuracy.
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by bladeracer » 05 Dec 2021, 6:38 pm

rc42 wrote:CCI Quiet ammo has a warning on the bricks that it shouldn't be used in firearms with barrels longer than 20", the is certainly due to the risk of the drag overcoming the pressure behind the projectile and creating a squib, I'd expect the super low energy Aguila rounds to have a similar warning, if they don't they should.

I've wrecked a barrel with a 22LR squib, even with the thickness of a bull barrel the pressure created when a new projectile slams into a squib is at crazy levels and can easily bulge any barrel and wreck its accuracy.


I've made some calls but still haven't found a source of Aguila here in Victoria.

I bulged my 10/22 with a squib, but it didn't have any effect on the rifle. Was easy to feel the bulge when pushing patches through, but was virtually impossible feel or see externally. It's actually from compressing the air trapped between the two bullets, the second bullet doesn't impact the squibbed bullet all that hard as the air compression rapidly slows it down.
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by Die Judicii » 07 Dec 2021, 9:19 am

Beats the F outta me why anybody would even bother to try em.
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by Oldbloke » 07 Dec 2021, 10:29 am

Die Judicii wrote:Beats the F outta me why anybody would even bother to try em.


My guess is: very, very, quiet practice.

Be very very quiet.jpeg
Be very very quiet.jpeg (28.23 KiB) Viewed 7035 times


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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by bladeracer » 07 Dec 2021, 1:40 pm

Die Judicii wrote:Beats the F outta me why anybody would even bother to try em.


I try them because I'll try everything :-)

They were originally designed as "gallery ammunition", the stuff you'd use at a fairground for shooting silhouettes, or in somebody's basement for some informal practice when the weather didn't encourage outside games. I think modern Flobert cartridges are still representative of the originals, but all the modern "CB" loads I've seen are in the 600-750fps region, so are hotter than .177" air-rifle pellets.

Nowadays, CB's are probably still used in basement galleries I guess, but they can be handy for taking rats in farm sheds, if you happen to have something that shoots them well enough. They're a significant step down from the low-subsonics like CCI Quiet and the Zimmer made by Winchester and European manufacturers - I think Zimmer translates to "indoor", or gallery shooting.
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Re: Beware Aguila colibri powderless ammo

Post by Empie » 26 Dec 2021, 9:48 pm

I'm not sure if the Aguila Super Colibri is available here, though from what I've seen from the US sites it is powderless but has more priming compound than the Colibri to produce a higher velocity to avoid lodging in the barrel.
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