Short Barrel Rifles and the New $0 Stamp - My Ruger American Rimfire is Getting SBRed Part 1

I think it's finally time to build an SBR or Short Barrel Rifle. For about 12 years, I've had a Ruger American Rimfire, or what I have referred to as the RAR, that has a 22 inch barrel. It mostly got used for bench shooting but got setup for small game hunting a few years ago. The barrel was threaded not long after and since then, nothing else happened. Then 2026 rolled in and the $0 stamps went into effect. 

I don't remember what restarted the bug I caught but I started looking up 10/22 SBRs again and integrally suppressed .22s. I saw some pretty nice 10/22s and even a CZ 457 but I remembered that I have the RAR. I don't want to register my 10/22 or the CZ 457 Scout as they have very functional setups and registering them adds complexity and cost to their specific use-cases. The RAR doesn't need iron sights added back and isn't intended for kid use. It's a perfect candidate for this project as it's inexpensive and in a good place for it. Admittedly, if the stamps had still been $200, I wouldn't have done this.

The plan simple: the RAR is getting registered as an SBR then chopped to 12 inches and threaded 1/2x28 to make a compact small game and varmint rifle.

The Plan

I would like to make good on my statements that the performance of a 22 LR with a shorter barrel isn't severely lost. In this case, I want a short rifle with a suppressor that could be quiet. As a result of the process, I will end up with a functional rifle that's much easier to carry around.

This chart from BBTI shows the velocity of the Remington 36 grain Golden Bullet load doesn't increase past 11 inches. The exception is the node at 13 inches with a slightly lower velocity.

Since the stamp is now $0, all I had to do is submit the Form 1 via the portal but after that, I still need to find a shop that can engrave the trust information on the receiver before you cut the barrel down then thread 1/2x28. Thankfully, Chad from Iraqveteran8888 has his own shop in Locus Grove, GA called Argos Ordinance that can handle the engraving requirements and the chop. At least that's the current process. 

As of April, a new ATF director has been sworn in and he is making a bunch of good changes. One of those Rule changes involves engraving and serial numbers. I would like to clarify if I will still need to engrave trust information. If no additional information needs to be engraved and I am able to use the existing markings then it saves time and money. It will take a while before the Rule goes into effect.

That works out fine for me as I am in no rush to complete this but also, it would save me $50 since that's Mr. Chad's cost for the service.

An ATF announcement can be found here  The Rule in question is under 17P. I haven't found the Proposed Rule on the Federal Register yet. I will post that once, available.

Linked from the ATF website.

Form 1 Approved

I followed the Form 1 process with Silencer Shop. They took a while to review my form, the certification process was completed quickly. I don't remember when I submitted the initial documents and image to Silencer Shop but it was right around SHOT Show 2026. I didn't hear anything until 02 FEB when I got the email that Silencer Shop had reviewed everything. Not long after, the Form 1 was ready for submitting. 

I had to go through a process to submit the form which I completed on my phone. The certification was a little clumsy but it went by quick enough. It probably only took about 15 minutes. 

Officially, the Form 1 was submitted to the ATF on 02 FEB around noon. There was a partial government shutdown at the time and I have no idea if the NFA stuff would have been impacted. I officially received the approved stamp on 30 MAR. That's 56 days per the Google search prompt.

The Silencer Shop process is simple and works well enough but the issue is they lock you into an ecosystem. You can submit Form 1's via the portal but you need the finger prints. To manually submit a e-form, you need to load a .eft file but Silencer Shop won't give you the one they have on file. 

There are services that will provide you with that file for you to upload.

Future

Once the Rule on markings is clarified, I will move forward. It takes around 90 days before a proposed Rule can go into effect. This works out fine since I'm not trying to put money into this at the moment.

There are a few changes that I would like to make to class-up this build. The first one that comes to mind is a Boyds wood stock. I very much want this to have a wood stock that's just pretty. Next, a lighter optic would be nice. The BSA Sweet 22 3-9x is a fine scope and all but it's chunky. I have a Simmons 2-7x sitting on a Marlin 60 that would be a good candidate but I was leaning toward Leupold's 2-7x as it's fairly light and could make for a good companion. Finally, I would like to dedicate a suppressor to the build like a Dead Air Mask or SiCo Sparrow. I do see that Silencer Shop has Resilient Suppressors' Jessie's Girl which is 3.1 oz and under $400. That could be a very nice add. I also found out about AAC Enterprise's new carbon fiber suppressor, the Pindrop XL. At $200, that would make for a great, dedicated suppressor. 

We shall see where this build goes!

Rock Island's Bolt Action 22 TCM is BACK but wasn't really gone

 If you aren't familiar with it, Rock Island Armory makes a bolt action rifle in a very obscure cartridge called .22 TCM. What makes the cartridge notable is that it's a .22 caliber projectile but in a bottlenecked case short enough to fit into a pistol magazine like the 1911. I won't go over performance metrics but it beats .22 Mag from a rifle by around 900 fps. That's not really the amazing part.

Many years ago, the smart guys at Special Interest Arms offered services to convert one of these rifles to 9mm Parabellum. By the time I had found out about them, I wasn't able to get them. It's partly why I wanted to get on the Rhineland Arms .45 ACP conversion kit for my Mauser 1893.

Anyway, the Armscor/RIA rifles are back. Sadly, SIA is gone and the supplies dried up in 2019 but someone could take up the mantle. That said, a good gunsmith should be able to figure it out.

If you're interested in a 9mm bolt action rifle for suppressed fun, make some noise because I would like to see the Novem return!

Henry's 2026 New Rimfire Releases

 At SHOT Show 2026, Henry teased a bunch of new SKUs for the classic lever action .22 rifle. In the email that went out, they have officially released 5 new versions. First, the naming/model conventions have changed for all models and the rimfire rifle is now the H1 instead of the H001. Of the 5 versions, two are in line with classic designs and 3 are suppressor ready models. All have wood stocks except 1 which uses X series type furniture.

First up are the Western and Western Frontier rifles. They are essentially the classic rifle versions but with a curved pistol grip stock instead of the straight wrist. The Frontier rifle maintains the longer barrel length at 20 inches and is still octagonal. The change in wrist design brings the rimfire offerings in line with the centerfire rifle stocks. 

The other 3 models are suppressor ready with picatinny mounts which are an X series rifle, the Bandit and the Sporter. The X series is the only one with open sights while the other two are optics only. They don't have open sights. All feature a pistol grip type stock but the Sporter and Bandit have a wood stock with a raised comb to bring the eyeline up for use with scopes or red dots. What separates the Sporter and Bandit are the length of pull. The Sporter is around 14 inch while the Bandit is 13 inch making it more of a youth rifle. The magazine tubes are pressed down a bit at the muzzle to make room for a suppressor up front if you were concerned about clearance.

They still aren't doing a wood stocked and threaded barrel version with open sights but you could swap furniture as desired. 

It needs to be said that we have finally entered a new norm where lever action .22 rifles are being offered with threaded barrels with Chiappa, Rossi and finally Henry offering realistic options. I still enjoy my Chiappa LA322 Takedown threaded though I wish I could get a wood stocked, threaded barrel with open sights. I will beat that horse until the day it finally happens. Maybe we can get Henry to offer a threaded version of the H1 Western Rifle. Still no news on the .22 Mag version of the Big Boy Revolver as mentioned in the manual.

Uberti is Teasing Bringing Back the Volcanic Pistol in 2027

 According to CapandBall on YouTube, Uberti is bringing back a Volcanic pistol that has been modified to shoot modern ammunition. If you can get through the Italian and Hungarian accents, they are talking about offering the pistol in .380 ACP while at the European Outdoor Show 2026. That's pretty cool!

.357 Magnum Open Source Data for Bullets - Compiling More Data Sets for Jacketed Soft Points and More Hollow Points

Since the .357 Magnum cartridge has been my primary thing to reload and I'm big on hunting whitetail with it, I've wondered about the various bullet options on the market. My most complete data sets are for the Remington SJHP and the Hornady XTP, both in 158 grain versions. Sierra's Sports Master jacketed soft point line up has been one of the hardest to find any sort of testing data on. I can find Hornady's XTP's just fine along with other jacketed soft points but not the Sierra stuff. Kentucky Range Time put together a good gel test on YouTube recently and found that from a rifle, the 158 grain JSP's do good. Unfortunately, the data set is incomplete. As usual, he tested with a series of shorter handgun barrels after the 20 inch rifle but the 6 inch barrel showed mid 1100 fps. The bullets did not perform well in expansion. 

The 20 inch barrel showed a velocity around 1735 fps with his handloads which is fine as the expansion and penetration were around 0.6 inch and 18 inch deep. A very respectable performance though I suspect a higher velocity can be achieved. Sierra's rifle load data for H-110 stops at 16.2 grain which is odd as the handgun data shows 16.4 grains. Hodgdon has a max load of 16.7 grains of H-110 but with the Hornady XTP. The 6 inch barrel showed around 1150 fps with basically no good expansion, sadly. That tells me that these bullets aren't really useful for my needs below 1200 fps range.

What data we don't have is what these bullets will do at the 1300 fps range in gel. My reasoning for that data is the rifle's muzzle velocity for those tested handloads put the bullet at 1300 around 115 yards. If it turns out that they still get good expansion and penetration at around 1300 fps, you would have a viable 100+ yard bullet for hunting whitetail. Without that, you have to limit yourself to shorter ranges under 100 yards. That said, seeing that 1200 fps is around the 150 yard mark from a rifle, it's reasonable to assume that the Sierra 158 grain JSP bullet would work at 100 yards on whitetail from a 1700+ fps velocity. I would still like the validation of seeing the data.

This confirms what I've been finding with other tests completed with other JSP's like the Federal American Eagle or similar that JSPs are fine from rifles but should be avoided when used with a handgun for hunting and defensive applications.

KRT also had good data for the Speer Gold Dot 135 grain but overall, I'm not impressed with that bullet for these purposes. It'll probably work just fine but they seemed to break up at the higher velocities.

While looking around for more, I found data for the CCI Blazer 158 grain JHP from Buckeye Ballistics. His testing indicated that the load achieves around 19 inches of penetration at 1200 fps from a 6 inch barrel revolver though I don't know who is carrying a 6 inch double action. The bullet expanded to around 0.6 inch. They also tested with a 3 inch barrel and achieved around 1120 fps with and expansion of 0.54 inch. Penetration was measured around 17.25 inches. This is fine but I still need to find rifle data for it. I can get the velocity from my Marlin but I'm not setup for gel testing. The CCI load doesn't seem be the great choice, up-front but might be fine if that's the only option you have available.

I would eventually like to have complete data sets for the Winchester Super-X 158 grain JSP, Federal Fusion and HammerDown and finally the Remington 180 grain JHP in the Core-Lokt line. Additionally, Remington's 158 gain JSP from the HTP line, the Federal Power-Shok loads, the Herter's 158 grain JSP would also be very nice. I have some data for a few of these but nothing close to complete.

Many of those loads can be had at an inexpensive cost and I think are worth the time for a rifle hunter looking for a common load. The Remington SJHP loads are not common but offerings like the Winchester Super-X or Hornady XTP Customs are. Someone wanting to hunt with a .357 Magnum lever action might have trouble locating suitable ammo at a Big Box store. Having good options would be helpful. I also think we need to start indicating that many of these JSP loads are not going to work the way we think from a handgun. The Federal American Eagle JSP's do not have adequate expansion from a revolver from any test I have seen and should be avoided for defensive and hunting purposes. They will expand when fired from a rifle but I have never seen any indication that there were intended to be fired from a rifle on the box. My sources for that information comes from videos from the Chopping Block/News of the Pews and GunSam videos showing very poor performance.

A minimally complete data set will include rifle velocity and the lowest known velocity that a bullet will still expand and penetrate. The minimums I set for myself regarding pentation and expansion are around 0.50 inch diameter along with 17 inches of penetration for hunting applications here in the East. Usually, a good .357 Mag load will do one or the other very well but the best ones will do both and usually exceed the margins nicely. The Remington 158 gr SJHPs will do both at around 0.60 in expansion and around 18 inch worth of penetration. The 158 grain XTPs favor penetration toward the 20+ inch mark and seem to meet the 0.50 inch expansion in most instances. If I needed a defensive load for in the woods, the XTPs are probably a better choice.

As for Federal's HammerDown and Fusion, I have been able to compile the following: 

HammerDown 170 gr:

Rifle - 1847 fps but another test got 1619 fps for 16 inch barrels; federal claims 1610. I've seen another publication say they got 1771 fps from an 18 inch rifle and I've seen a 20 inch barrel test claim 1864 fps. These numbers are all over the place. In this one instance, we'll take the lowest of 1610 which is factory claims. 

Revolver (4 inch) - 1209 fps / 0.63 inch expansion / 19 inch of penetration (similar velocities in other tests)

If we extrapolate the data from 1610 fps with a ballistic coefficient of 0.185 and assume the low to mid 1200 fps is accurate then the maximum distance would be around 135 yards with that 1209 fps. If the velocities are higher from a rifle than what the box says, the HammerDown load is suitable for hunting whitetail much further. I put my personal "stamp of approval" on the HammerDown load from a "paper perspective".

Fusion 158 gr:

Rifle - No rifle data is available at this time

Revolver (4 inch) - 1321 fps with no expansion in one test, 1224 fps with okay expansion from another test. 

Sadly, the Fusion doesn't appear to perform consistently well that I can see from a handgun but the rifle data is missing so I wouldn't write these off just yet.

One of these days, I will compile everything into a single post.