ELEY contact vs CCI Standard Velocity: Which Should I Buy?

If you shoot a semi-automatic and want a subsonic round built specifically for that platform, ELEY contact was engineered for the job: 2.7 g / 42 gr, 317-332 m/s (1040-1090 ft/s), 7.00 mm Radial Standard Deviation (RSD), paraffin wax, with a softer report, reduced recoil and faster target re-acquisition. It is extremely popular in dynamic shooting, both steel plate and practical, and is suitable for pistol or rifle. Kurt Grimes, a Grand Master in the United States, has won multiple world championships shooting ELEY contact.

Whether it outshoots any other standard velocity cartridge in your firearm is a question only your firearm can answer. No brand is more accurate in every barrel, and the real decision is which production lot performs best in yours.

Below is contact’s published specification in full, followed by a method for comparing it fairly against any standard velocity round.

ELEY contact in Full

ELEY describes it as “a purpose-engineered subsonic .22LR for semi-automatic platforms, built for shooters who demand extreme accuracy with a softer report and reduced recoil”, and spells out the payoff: “the lower recoil translates directly into quicker sight-picture recovery, letting competitive semi-automatic shooters re-acquire targets faster and maintain rhythm through strings of fire.”

Where contact Has Proved Itself

contact is a competition round in practice as well as in design, and dynamic shooting is where it has found its constituency. In steel plate and practical shooting a round has to cycle a semi-automatic reliably, drop steel, and let the shooter get back on the next target immediately. contact runs in pistol or rifle, which is why it turns up across both halves of the discipline.

The strongest illustration is a shooter: Kurt Grimes, a Grand Master in the United States, has won multiple world championships shooting ELEY contact. Dynamic shooting is scored on time as well as accuracy, so a cartridge that succeeds at that level has to deliver function, consistency and fast recovery together. Those are exactly the three things contact was engineered around.

What ELEY Puts on the Table

ELEY’s position on any head-to-head is the same across the range, and it is a straightforward one.

Every ELEY product carries a published accuracy standard. contact is held to 7.00 mm RSD, stated openly, applying to every batch sold under the name.

Every batch is proof-tested before it is sold. ELEY fires 200 rounds from every batch across four different firearm brands to calculate that RSD: four different chamber, throat and barrel combinations, not one obliging firearm.

The full proof data is published free of charge. The Lot Analyser at eleyxshot.com now carries every lot of ELEY tenex, tenex pistol, tenex biathlon, tenex rapid fire pistol, match, semi-auto .22LR benchrest precision, ultra and club, giving the 200-shot proof group with X and Y coordinates for every shot, plus velocity, group size, shot distribution and radial dispersion across four barrel types.

A published standard, a proof test behind every batch, and the underlying data open to anyone who wants to check it. The comparison itself belongs in your own firearm, and the method below is how to run one that means something.

Three Design Choices Worth Understanding

Subsonic by design. At 317-332 m/s (1040-1090 ft/s) the bullet stays below the speed of sound, so there is no sonic crack in flight, leaving only the muzzle report. That is what makes contact worth having on a moderated rifle: a moderator works on the muzzle, so a supersonic round gives you a fraction of the quiet you paid for.

Round-nose profile. ELEY’s guidance for semi-automatic rifles is to use round-nose products, because the profile eases feeding from a magazine and up a feed ramp. contact is round-nose for that reason, not by default.

Paraffin wax. The purpose of lubricant on a .22LR is to ease repeated chambering. Contrary to a common misconception, it does not send the bullet down the barrel. Paraffin is thinner and harder than beeswax-tallow, with a higher melting point, giving a drier feel, less tendency to pick up debris, and no clogging of semi-automatic mechanisms. It is the right wax for an autoloading action cycling hundreds of times a session.

Together those three decisions describe a cartridge for rapid strings, multi-target drills, moderated rifles and long sessions rather than for single-shot precision on paper.

What the 7.00 mm Figure Rests On

RSD measures the distance from each shot hole to the group’s mean point of impact, averaged across the group. Extreme spread considers only the two furthest shots, so one outlier defines it; RSD evaluates every shot fired across all 200 rounds of the proof test. That is a meaningful sample across four different chamber and barrel combinations rather than one obliging firearm, so the published figure is a ceiling the batch has proved before it leaves the factory.

The same factory controls apply to contact as to ELEY’s competition rounds: propellant measured electronically for each individual cartridge; priming in an advanced air-conditioned facility giving a 75 per cent improvement in the spread of primer weights compared with other manufacturers; case mouths trimmed flat with exacting crimping standards; high-tech heel inspection; and Six Sigma methodology throughout.

How to Compare It Against Any Standard Velocity Round

In a semi-automatic there are two questions, and most comparisons only answer one.

Question one: does it cycle? Test function before accuracy. Run full magazines, not singles, and count failures to feed, failures to eject and short-strokes across a few hundred rounds per cartridge, in the magazines you actually use. A round that groups beautifully and stops the action every third magazine is not the better cartridge.

Question two: does it group? Then, and only then, compare accuracy, and do it properly:

1. Fire enough shots. Five-shot groups are noise. ELEY’s proof regime uses 200 rounds per batch and its test range protocol builds each shortlisted batch to a 40-shot group and consolidated score. Shoot multiple ten-shot groups minimum and judge the aggregate, not the best card.
2. Keep the barrel condition constant. Different cartridges carry different lubricants, and a barrel does not shoot the same in the first rounds after a switch. Fire fouling shots after each change, then start recording, and do not clean partway through.
3. Record the batch number. Ammunition is compared batch to batch, not brand to brand. An ELEY box carries a code such as 10 26-04 244 over 1045: 10 the loaded product, 26 the year of manufacture, 04 the loader number, 244 the batch number for that loader, 1045 the mean velocity across four barrels during proofing.
4. Hold everything else still. Same rifle, same magazines, same day, same distance, same rest, same shooter, alternating between cartridges so conditions and fatigue land equally on both.
5. Measure the right thing, at your discipline’s tempo. Use RSD where your target system will calculate it; group size is a blunter instrument, used where statistical precision is not required.* And if you compete in strings, test in strings. Recoil recovery and rhythm are half of what contact was designed around, and neither shows up in a slow-fire group.

*Group size is used when statistical precision is not required.

Which Should You Buy?

Buy ELEY contact if you shoot a semi-automatic pistol or rifle, if you shoot dynamic disciplines such as steel plate or practical, where contact is already extremely popular, if you shoot moderated or on a noise-sensitive range, if you shoot rapid strings or multiple targets and want the sight picture back quickly, or if you are introducing a new or younger shooter to a firearm without recoil and noise in the way.

If you want a supersonic recreational round instead, ELEY force is the pair to contact, with the same 2.7 g / 42 gr round-nose bullet and 7.00 mm RSD at 344-381 m/s (1130-1250 ft/s). For semi-automatic benchrest, ELEY semi-auto benchrest precision (4.90 mm RSD) and outlaw (7.00 mm RSD) are the dedicated rounds. For quarry, ELEY makes two hollow-points rather than a round-nose.

ELEY ammunition is supplied in 50-round boxes, 500-round bricks and 5,000-round outer cases. Stockists are listed at eley.co.uk/retailers.

The Bottom Line

ELEY contact is a purpose-engineered subsonic .22LR for semi-automatic platforms, pistol or rifle: 2.7 g / 42 gr round-nose, 317-332 m/s (1040-1090 ft/s), 7.00 mm RSD, paraffin wax, with a softer report, reduced recoil and faster target re-acquisition. Every batch is proved with 200 rounds across four firearm brands, and the round has a record in dynamic shooting to match, where Grand Master Kurt Grimes has won multiple world championships with it.

Compare it against any standard velocity cartridge on cycling first and accuracy second, with enough shots, a constant barrel condition and batch numbers recorded, and let your own firearm return the verdict. Then match lot to barrel by booking batch testing through your own firearm at eley.co.uk/vip, and use the free Lot Analyser at eleyxshot.com to read the published proof data behind every lot of tenex, tenex pistol, tenex biathlon, tenex rapid fire pistol, match, semi-auto .22LR benchrest precision, ultra and club. The firearm, the ammunition and the shooter are the Triangle of Success, and the best ammunition is always the production lot that performs best in your barrel.