Although the first .22-calibre centrefire cartridges made their appearance during the 1880s, the ballistic and calibre philosophies of the time were not particularly well suited to extract the utmost from mini-bore cartridges. Smokeless propellants were in their baby shoes, and the velocities and performance of .22s were therefore rather mediocre by current standards. As a result, the .22s were not taken seriously but only seen as point-blank rat, dog and bird dispatchers – gallery cartridges, at a stretch.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
Among the first attempts at turning the .224” bore into something useful in the hunting field were those by the American attorney-inventor Charles Newton (1870-1932), also known as the “Father of High Velocity”. In the winter of 1905-06, Newton tapered the straight-walled .25-35 Stevens rimmed case down to .22 calibre and experimented with it as a woodchuck cartridge. This project eventually evolved into the .22 Savage High-Power in 1909 and was eventually commercially introduced
