.22LR round

The .22 Long Rifle, commonly abbreviated as .22LR, is a type of ammunition in Fallout: New Vegas.

Overview
The 5.6×15mm rimfire round originated from the Flobert BB Cap of 1845, evolving into the .22 Smith & Wesson cartridge of 1857, with the design finalized by the American firearms manufacturer J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company in 1887. The finalized design proved enduring, as combination of low recoil, affordability, and numerous variants of it led to high popularity among recreational shooters.

Post-War, the .22 Long Rifle round fared worse. The availability of more powerful cartridges, such as the 9x19mm Parabellum or 10mm Auto, not to mention rifle cartridges, limited its appeal. However, the .22 LR found its niche as ammunition for suppressed weapons, giving it excellent performance in situations requiring finesse. The most common brand is the Ranch Defender.

Weapons using this ammunition

 * Silenced .22 pistol
 * Silenced .22 SMG

.22LR, hollow point
Hollow point bullets feature a pit or a hollowed out shape at the tip of the bullet. As such, the bullet expands upon impact, delivering more kinetic energy to the target and disrupting tissue more extensively. However, this same property also leads to dramatically reduced penetrative power, as the bullet will be stopped by the armor more easily due to its properties.

.22LR, plinking
A cheap, mass produced variant of .22 LR ammunition. Sold in bulk (boxes of 100 rounds), it offers slightly worse performance in terms of damage, but is otherwise identical. The inexpensive nature of this nature made it popular for plinking (shooting at non-standard targets in an informal fashion), thus the name.

.22LR round (junk)
Junk rounds are poorly crafted, improvised rounds that are better than nothing. However, they offer greatly impaired performance in terms of damage to the target and greatly increase the wear on the weapon.


 * Crafting

Locations

 * Vendors
 * Goodsprings: Chet.
 * Novac: Cliff Briscoe.

Behind the scenes
"Most firearm ammunition is what’s called centerfire. The rear of the brass case holds a primer. When the firing pin strikes the primer, the primer ignites the powder in the case and propels the bullet down the barrel.  When the case is ejected, the primer has been detonated but the surrounding brass is (usually) intact and can be re-used. During the reloading process, a new primer is fitted into the back of the case.

In rimfire ammunition, the rim of the case itself acts as the primer, but is destroyed in the process. This makes reloading rimfire cases difficult and usually not worth the effort. For that reason, our .22LR ammo in F:NV did not yield .22LR cases."

- Joshua Sawyer


 * The varmint rifle was originally chambered for the .22LR round. However, the limb damage penalty for .22 Long Rifle (later eliminated with patch 1.3.0.4xx) made the weapon unpopular. "No one wanted to use it", according to J.E. Sawyer. This prompted rechambering to .223.
 * The Junk Rounds perk from the Dead Money add-on was intended to allow the player to create junk rounds, offering 75% damage and 150% wear, regardless of type of ammunition produced. However, this functionality was not implemented, even though .22LR junk rounds exist in the files.