Step Up Your Game With the 22 Nosler
By Kevin Madison

Keeping up with the company’s drive to introduce new and improved cartridges, Nosler recently introduced the 22 Nosler.

While it’s smaller than what they’ve introduced in the past, it’s big in many facets.

Prior to the 22 Nosler, the Bend, Oregon company shook up the gun industry initially with a 6.5mm offering, the 26 Nosler. They followed that with the 28, 30 and 33 Noslers. The new 22 Nosler allows hunters and shooters to transform a standard AR-15 into what Nosler is describing as the most powerful .22 caliber centerfire cartridge that will reliably function in the AR platform.

Unlike their previous offerings however, the 22 Nosler doesn’t come from a parent case. Instead, it is its own unique design. It shares the same bolt face and length as the standard .223/5.56 but the case is significantly fatter, giving it an advertised increased case capacity of 25 percent.

The upsides of this are many. First, with that increase in case capacity comes a significant jump in performance over the standard .223/5.56 rounds, producing nearly 300 fps more speed and 30 percent more energy. This will push the popular 55g Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets at 3,350fps and the 77g Custom Competition bullets at 2,950fps out of a typical AR-15 with an 18-inch barrel. Second, the new cartridge was designed to take advantage of both the popularity and modularity of the AR-15 platform. Switching from the standard .223 Remington/5.56 NATO to the 22 Nosler requires only a swap of the rifle’s upper. Lastly, making the 22 Nosler a SAAMI standardized cartridge means that there is a consistency in products across the industry and with its rapidly rising popularity, the number of rifle manufacturers already producing guns in this caliber is amazing.

The only downside to this is that the 22 Nosler won’t feed in your standard magazines, instead requiring magazines designed for the 6.8 Rem SPC.

Whether it is for competition where a fast, flat-shooting, and wind-bucking round is a must, chasing coyotes across the plains, or simply banging targets, this new 22 Nosler will help you step up your game.