Silencer Saturday #408: Beretta 71 Ammo Selection

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday, brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturers of the new YHM R45 Multi-Host Suppressor. This week, we are looking at the legendary Beretta 71. A new batch of surplus Berettas is available currently, so what ammo should you feed yours? Let’s take a look.

Silencer Saturday @ TFB:

• Silencer Saturday #407: Black Friday Suppressor Deals
• Silencer Saturday #406: Suppressing Picky Hosts With The BOE Mod1
• Silencer Saturday #405: SilencerCo Scythe STM
• Silencer Saturday #404: BOE Mod1 Review
• Silencer Saturday 403: Is Modularity Worthwhile?

Background & History

The Beretta 71 needs little introduction for most silencer nerds. This .22LR pistol has a fixed barrel that extends beyond the slide, making it easily threaded for suppressor use. The Beretta 71 is also a sleek gun with a decent trigger and is large enough to fit most adults’ hands. And it has that undeniable panache that Italian guns just seem to have.

TFB has looked at the Model 71 previously. Luke C. took a look at the gun and its operational history in a Rimfire Report article that is worth a read. I also wrote up a review of my Beretta 71 as one of my first articles here on TFB. My pistol was imported with a dummy silencer attached to the barrel in order to score enough points on a bureaucratic scoring matrix that dictates whether or not pistols are importable into the United States.

Our friends Josh & Henry at 9 Hole Reviews have an excellent video going over the history of the gun and some of the more interesting incidents it has been involved in.

Since that last batch dried up, these have been a tough pistol to find. Atlantic Firearms has some in stock as of writing, though, so if you missed out last time you do have another chance. Based on the pictures, these are also guns that have seen some use, so don’t expect a perfect finish.

Ammo Selection

Now, on to the ammo test. My Beretta 71 is a frequent companion when I’m in the outdoors. I have a small plastic case from an M1A scope mount that holds the pistol, a suppressor, and a box of .22 LR ammo perfectly. That’s an easy thing to throw in the truck when I am headed into the woods, and it has come in handy more than a few times. I typically shoot whatever ammunition is handy with this gun. The hammer seems to deliver a stout impact to the primer, and the gun has worked fine with almost everything.

For this test, I will be noting the reliability with each ammo type, the price per round at my local Scheels, and velocity information. Velocity data was collected with my Garmin Xero C1 chronograph (if you have been wanting one, just buy it already; it works so well and is incredibly convenient). Velocity numbers will be reported in feet per second as Average / Extreme Spread / Standard Deviation. The SilencerCo Sparrow suppressor on a 1/2x28 thread adapter was the can for all firing.

CCI Subsonic

First up is the CCI Subsonic with a 40-grain hollow point. This ammo lists a 1050 FPS velocity on the box.

Velocity Results: 884 AVG / 31 ES / 10 SD

Current Price: $0.10 per round

This was quite a bit slower than the advertised velocity, which means there is no risk of going supersonic if it is a hot day or anything like that. The hollow point projectile posed no feeding issues. This ran great in the gun, and the terminal performance may be slightly better with this bullet design.

CCI Standard Velocity

This 40-grain lead round-nose option is one of the better .22 LR ammo options if you are not looking for extra velocity. I often use this as training ammo in my accurate rimfires because it is good enough without breaking the bank.

Velocity Results: 817 AVG / 64 ES / 17 SD

Current Price: $0.08 per round

The Beretta 71 liked this ammo and fed it perfectly well. The extreme spread number was surprising, but as shown by the relatively low standard deviation, that was one round that was an outlier on velocity. As a cost-effective option, this is a good choice.

CCI Quiet-22 Semi-Auto

This specialized ammunition from CCI is supposed to be quiet and to cycle semi-autos. It features a 45-grain lead projectile at an advertised 835 FPS. It is advertised as feeling like shooting with a suppressor without shooting with a suppressor, so shooting it through a suppressor to get “suppressor squared” seemed like a fun idea.

Velocity Results: 773 AVG / 18 ES / 6 SD

Current Price: $0.12 per round

This load produced the most consistent velocity numbers of the day. A single-digit standard deviation is impressive for rimfire ammunition (unless you are an Olympic smallbore shooter or NRL22 enthusiast who shoots .22 ammo that costs as much as 9mm ammo). What was less impressive was the reliability. This ammo was powerful enough to eject the fired case and cycle in a fresh round, but not strong enough to reset the hammer every time. The Beretta 71 is a single-action pistol, so I had to cock the hammer manually when the gun failed to do it for me. Sound-wise, this seemed about like the other ammo tested.

CCI .22 Long

A box of 100 rounds of CCI 29-grain .22 Long ended up in my stocking on Christmas, a well-intentioned gift from my wife who does not study the vagaries of .22 rimfire cartridge history and variations. For the uninitiated, the .22 Long was the uncreatively-named longer development of the .22 Short. The added case volume meant more powder, and it could push heavier bullets faster. The Long was then followed by the .22 Long Rifle, the cartridge we all think of as “a .22” these days.

Manually-operated guns can generally fire Shorts, Longs, and Long Rifles as long as they are chambered for the Long Rifle. Introducing those shorter cartridges into a semi-auto does not usually work. But what better way to shoot some of this ammo that has been sitting on my basement shelf than in this project?

Velocity Results: 928 AVG / 169 ES / 60 SD

Current Price: $0.13 per round

Reliability was poor, and the velocity figures were wildly inconsistent. Most of the issues were with feeding rather than cycling. The little cartridge posted the fastest velocities of this test with that tiny 29-grain bullet, and that was enough to throw the slide to the rear. The issue was with the short cartridge length not presenting correctly to the chamber. The nose of the bullet would hang up on the breech face because it has so much wiggle room coming out of the magazine. This ammo may work in a pinch, but it is a poor choice if basically any .22 LR ammo option is available.

Winchester Super Suppressed

Winchester Super Suppressed is a 45-grain round-nose load intended for suppressor use. It comes in 100-round plastic packs and is copper-plated to reduce fouling. I would need to do some side-by-side testing to see if it really is any cleaner than the unplated options, but it stands to reason that it would be.

Velocity Results: 903 AVG / 33 ES / 12 SD

Current Price: $0.12 per round

Stepping up to the 45-grain projectile added a little “oomph” to the cycling of the gun over the 40-grain options. The velocity numbers stayed well below the supersonic threshold.

Federal Automatch

This bulk-pack ammo purports to be suitable for match use in .22 LR firearms. I bought some a while back because it was one of the cheapest options at the time, and it seemed to shoot well enough in several of my guns. While it has “match” in the description, it would not be my first choice for bullseye pistol matches. It is a 40-grain lead round nose.

Velocity Results: 918 AVG / 52 ES / 16 SD

Current price: $0.06 per round

Not terrible! This ammo was 100% reliable. It was also one of the cheapest options per round. For science (not really, it was just fun), I filmed some POV video to show this gun being used as originally intended. Video never really portrays silencer sound accurately, but when they are this quiet, it is decently good.

Conclusion

Almost all of the ammunition tested ran well in the old Beretta. It was also solidly subsonic in that short barrel. I intentionally selected ammo that was not advertised with supersonic velocities, but if I repeat this in the future with more ammo types, I will add in some faster options to see if they stay subsonic as well.

Thanks for joining us for this instalment of Silencer Saturday. We’ll see you back here next week for more suppressor news, reviews, and analysis.

SILENCER SHOP –     HANSOHN BROTHERS –     DEADEYE GUNS

MAC TACTICAL

ALL YHM PRODUCTS AT BROWNELLS

DEALERS: If you want your link to buy YHM suppressors included in future Silencer Saturday posts, email:   silencers@thefirearmblog.com