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.22 LR at Distance: Subsonic Ballistics, Wind and the RA4 Drag Model

Drop and 10 mph wind drift to 300 yards for a subsonic match load on RA4 drag and three CCI loads, why a .22 drifts like a .308 at several times the distance, and where high-velocity loads go transonic.

6 min readSolved with the Ballista engineUpdated October 2026

In a 10 mph crosswind a subsonic .22 LR match bullet drifts 15.5 inches at 200 yards. A .308 match load needs to reach about 430 yards before it drifts that much. At 300 yards the .22 has moved 36 inches, the same as the .308 at about 620. Rimfire at distance is a wind game first and an elevation game second, and the reason is the same lag time that sets drift for every bullet.

The CCI BCs are printed without a drag model and are treated as G1, the usual convention for these numbers. ELEY publishes its BC against RA4, a drag model built for .22 rimfire bullets, so we use it as published.

Drop: the numbers get big fast

A 50 yd zero is common for rimfire, and it keeps the subsonic loads within 2.6 in of the line of sight out to 75 yd. Past that, the curve steepens. The ELEY load needs 7.6 mil at 200 yd and 14.4 mil at 300. Check that your scope has that much elevation, in turret and reticle together, before you plan a 300 yd shot. A tapered scope base adds elevation travel when the turret runs short.

Velocity matters within a box. ELEY publishes a 45 fps band and tells shooters to enter the velocity printed on their box. The slow end of the band drops 3.9 in more than the fast end at 200 yd and 10.5 in more at 300 yd, 0.97 mil.

Wind: why the .22 drifts so far

Drift equals crosswind speed times lag time, the time the bullet spends falling behind the schedule it would keep at muzzle velocity. The wind drift article derives it.

A .22 bullet has a small ballistic coefficient. It sheds speed quickly from the first yard, so its lag time builds early and keeps growing. At 100 yd the ELEY bullet’s lag is 0.022 s, 7% of its whole flight. That small number is already a 3.9-inch drift in 10 mph. At 300 yd the drift is 9 times as large, at three times the distance.

Velocity doesn’t buy as much as it seems to. The Stinger leaves at 1,640 fps, 580 fps faster than the ELEY load, but its 32 gr bullet has the lowest BC of the four and starts at Mach 1.47, where its drag is high. By 300 yd it drifts 68.2 in against the ELEY’s 35.5. The Mini-Mag drifts 43.5 in.

What this means in practice: a 2 mph error in your wind call moves the ELEY bullet 3.1 in at 200 yd. That’s more than the 3-inch radius of a 6-inch plate. On a .22 the wind call decides the hit at much shorter range than on the .308.

Transonic flight starts at the muzzle

Centerfire match bullets usually go transonic far downrange. High-velocity .22 loads do it in the first hundred yards:

• Stinger leaves at Mach 1.47, drops below Mach 1.2 at 42 yd and goes subsonic at 84 yd.
• Mini-Mag leaves at Mach 1.13, already inside the transonic band, and goes subsonic at 44 yd.
• Subsonic loads like the ELEY and CCI Standard Velocity leave at about Mach 0.95 in 59°F air and never cross.

Match rimfire ammunition is loaded below the speed of sound, so its bullet never passes through the transonic band. Temperature moves the line: the speed of sound drops in cold air. At 20°F the top of ELEY’s band, 1,085 fps, is Mach 1.01. A box from the fast end of the band, on a cold morning, starts just supersonic and crosses back below Mach 1 at about 4 yd. Cold also slows the powder, so the real velocity will likely be lower; the chronograph decides.

Why the drag model matters

Fitting the wrong drag curve works at one distance and fails at others. We gave the ELEY bullet a G1 BC that matches its RA4 velocity at 100 yd. That BC is 0.142. Out to 100 yd the two agree. At 200 yd the G1 version predicts 0.2 in less drop, and at 300 yd 3.0 in, 0.28 mil. The G1 curve was built for a flat-based standard projectile with a pointed nose, and it slows the bullet at the wrong rate at subsonic speed. A rimfire BC is only as good as the drag model it was measured against, so use RA4 when the maker gives an RA4 number.

Ballista offers RA4 next to G1 and G7 in a load’s “Drag model” setting when the bullet diameter is .223 in, the .22 rimfire size. For ELEY bullets it asks for the velocity printed on your box, since ELEY publishes a band rather than one number.

A routine for rimfire past 100 yards

1. Chronograph the lot you’ll shoot, or enter the box velocity if the maker prints one. A 45 fps difference is 0.97 mil at 300 yd.
2. Use the drag model the BC was published with. RA4 for ELEY.
3. Confirm the scope has enough elevation for your longest distance.
4. Learn your 10 mph wind hold at 100, 200 and 300 yd. For the ELEY load that’s 1.1, 2.2 and 3.3 mil.
5. Shoot rimfire in the wind on purpose. At 200 yd its drift matches a .308 at about 430 yd, for a fraction of the noise and recoil.