The Rimfire Report: The Vanquish AR-22 Integrally Suppressed SBR

Happy New Year to everyone! As we settle into 2026, many of us are probably either already in the process of acquiring or have already acquired some brand-new suppressors or, perhaps even other NFA items. Whatever it was on your wishlist, one that has been on mine for quite a while is Angstadt Arms’ Vanquish AR-22, which was announced just a few months ago in 2025. While no single component of this complete SBR is a “new” item, what Rich and his team have done over at Angstadt Arms is nothing short of awesome in my opinion, and today I’m happy to be able to give you my initial impressions on the SBR version of the new Vanquish AR-22 rifle.  

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: Round 2 With the KR-22
• The Rimfire Report: The Ultimate Kit Gun - Scoped S&W 617
• The Rimfire Report: Remington's "Ranch Hand" 40 gr CPRN

The Rimfire Report: The Vanquish AR-22 Integrally Suppressed SBR

In what is otherwise a fairly obscure market, the Vanquish series of barrels from Angstadt Arms is all integrally suppressed. What makes the Vanquish series and, by extension, the rest of Angstadt’s integrally suppressed barrels unique is the fact that they’re all more or less entirely baffle-free in terms of interior design. When it comes to one of the newest offerings in the Vanquish 22 series - the Vanquish AR-22 - the barrel itself is simply ported, and uses a sleeve to make up the main suppressor body. This is the exact same technology used in other Vanquish 22 barrels, this time just adapted for the CMMG Mk4 dedicated upper conversion platform.

The barrel, as I mentioned before, is a ported design made from 416R stainless steel, with ports strategically drilled closer to the chamber, with the intention of bleeding off a majority of the gas early, therefore reducing the velocity of the projectile leaving the barrel and hopefully making any ammo shot through the Vanquish barrel subsonic. While it might be way more effective to have an initial blast baffle or more traditional baffles built into the design, in my conversations with Rich, he’s said that the primary reason this isn’t done is that it reduces the amount of maintenance and cleaning needed for the entire suppressor setup - no baffles to clean or soak after being shot with dirty rimfire.

So essentially what we have here is a dedicated integrally suppressed 22LR platform, which to me is the epitome of what I want in a rimfire plinker. It’s based on the familiar AR platform, light enough to be handled by almost anyone, and is overall a rather compact package in its 12” barrel configuration seen here. That being said, this isn’t something you’ll just casually purchase, even with the $0 tax stamp. Extra paperwork/registration is required in this case, one NFA Form 4 each for both the suppressor and the SBR nature of the rifle. Exact pricing on the complete package seen here isn’t quite ready yet, but given that Angstadt sells the 12” Vanquish barrel for about $535, and CMMG sells the upper parts for another $450, you can expect to pay somewhere around $1,000 just for an upper without any magazines. Essentially, it’s going to cost about as much as a higher-end suppressor and will require double the paperwork.

The First 500 Rounds of Many

I’ve only had the complete package for a few weeks, and thus far, I’ve had some great and not-so-great performances out of the total package. That being said, this is by no means a comprehensive review of the package, but rather a first look as a primer for a series of articles I plan on writing about the Vanquish AR-22 series, as well as some of Angstadt’s other rimfire barrels and setups. For today, we’re just focusing on the two-stamp short-barreled rifle variant of the gun, which I happen to think is the most “optimal” setup for this type of rifle.

Mechanical Reliability

Both the dedicated CMMG 22LR AR uppersand the CMMG Bravo conversion kits (seen below) are pretty reliable in my experience, with the main point of failure often being the magazines - at least when it comes to the CMMG Bravo conversion, which uses a different bolt carrier group to force compatibility with regular AR-15 .223/5.56 barrels. For optimal performance, Rich Angstadt recommends using CCI Standard Velocity 40-grain ammunition, which will almost completely guarantee the best sound performance. However, in addition to a handful of boxes of CCI Standard, I’ve also run through an entire box of Federal Champion 36-grain 22LR ammo.

Rich has only sent over one single CCMG 22LR magazine, and therefore, I’ve had a pretty good experience in terms of reliability from this specific new generation magazine (older variants looked more Kel-Tec in nature with lots of visible hardware). I’ve had issues with these new-generation magazines in the CMMG Bravo conversions, but found them to be extremely reliable in other dedicated 22LR CMMG platforms, including our two-stamp review sample we’re looking at now. Of the roughly 500-plus rounds fired so far, only two of them have failed to fire, but both were able to be extracted from the gun without issue and were revealed to be genuine duds with restrikes resulting in no ignition. For reference, both failed rounds were from a single box of Federal Champion 36-grain, and out of other guns, including a brand new Ruger MK IV 22/45 tactical, the ammo has demonstrated to be not all that consistent when it comes to this specific box.

Thus far, I have had zero firearm-induced failures to fire and no jams out of the SBR variant of the Vanqush AR-22. This seems to track with my previous experience with the CMMG Bravo drop-in conversion kit, with the only points of failure and or out-of-spec performance coming from using the improper ammunition for the system. The Bravo, for example, will feed virtually anything besides CCI Quiet Subsonic ammo due to the already minuscule amount of velocity that the round pushes out of a regular firearm - often not cycling in any semi-automatic gun without specialized tuning.

Sound Performance

For optimal sound, Rich Angstadt recommends CCI Standard Velocity 40‑grain ammo, and after running a few hundred rounds through the Vanquish AR‑22 SBR, it’s easy to see why. With CCI Standard, the rifle is impressively quiet and delivers a soft “thump,” as he says, with no supersonic crack, even at close range. It’s the kind of sound signature that makes this feel like a truly suppressed .22 LR AR, perfect for long strings of fire and backyard plinking without drawing every neighbor and dog in the neighborhood, and most importantly, without the express need or requirement to wear hearing protection. In my limited velocity testing so far, the 12” ported barrel is reducing the velocity of the rounds by about 150 FPS due to the porting and reduced barrel length compared to a traditional .22 caliber barrel.

However, I also ran through a full bulk box of Federal Champion 36‑grain 22 LR, which is a bit hotter and lighter than CCI Standard with an advertised velocity of 1,260 fps at the muzzle. I conducted a full test with this ammo at the beginning of 2025, if you’re interested in checking out how it performed compared to other firearms. With this ammo, the Vanquish SBR becomes noticeably louder and starts to crack slightly, especially at the muzzle, but it remains much quieter than an unsuppressed .22 LR AR. That indicates to me that the porting is tuned for standard‑velocity loads, and while hotter ammo will still run and often still come out subsonic, it doesn’t guarantee that you won’t hear the occasional crack from a round exiting the short 12” barrel at supersonic speeds. Even if you do, however, it won’t be nearly as loud as shooting that load out of an unsuppressed firearm, and it is at a pretty low risk of damaging your hearing.

The takeaway so far for me, at least when it comes to the SBR variant and this ammo, is that the Vanquish AR‑22 SBR isn’t a “shoot anything and forget it” rimfire gun. It’s a more boutique rifle, and I think because of that, it’s tuned specifically for standard‑velocity .22 LR, and that’s where it performs best. If the goal is a quiet, compact, AR‑centric .22 LR SBR, then this setup delivers in spades on a budget. If the goal is to run every random box of 22 LR you can find, including hyper‑velocity or very light subsonics, it’ll still run, but the sound signature and reliability will suffer.

Thoughts Going Forward

So far, in my testing with this one review sample, the Vanquish AR‑22 SBR has proven to be a very capable, quiet, and reliable integrally suppressed .22 LR AR, but it’s clearly tuned for a specific type of ammo and perhaps even a specific role when it comes to a “functional” firearm. It’s 100% a compact, AR‑centric plinker or trainer that runs best on the golden standard of non-bulk ammo. It’s not an eat-anything rimfire gun, but it does scratch that itch for those of us who want a dedicated, low‑maintenance, two‑stamp .22 LR SBR that still feels like a real AR and can mount everything, including your favorite night vision compatible components. For that alone, I already think it’s a tempting package.

In the next installments of this series covering the Vanquish series of barrels, I’ll be doing more comprehensive accuracy testing with a range of standard‑velocity loads that run well through the system, as well as extended reliability testing on both the SBR variant and the longer 16‑inch Vanquish AR‑22 rifle. The reason I didn’t conduct an accuracy test in this configuration is that I think the package with a 3x magnifier and a red dot is that I believe it's more accurate than that optic can demonstrate, even with the “sporter” chamber that comes with the AR-22 versus the match-grade Bentz chamber found on the Ruger Precision Rimfire Vanquish 22 barrel. I’ll also be looking at how the two configurations compare in terms of sound, handling, and practical performance for different applications, like as a more vehicle-friendly varmint gun, or a dedicated 22LR training platform.