It seems like just a few months ago, but it was actually almost 8 years ago. I was on the grass prairies of Northern Arizona shooting prairie dogs with my Remington 591. I was using the newer Centurion ammunition, made by Aguila Ammunition and having a ball. The 30 grain JHP Varmint bullet was making a mess of the prairie dogs I was shooting and making me a very happy varmint hunter! I can’t explain the feeling, but sitting in the wet grass, with the beautiful surroundings, shooting prairie dogs and breathing in the fresh air, mixed with the sweet smell of fired Aguila ammo, made me feel like I was in heaven. July in Northern Arizona is the monsoon season, so dodging thunderstorms, hail and the occasional lightning strike, was all a part of this wonderful hunt. Little did I know that a handful of months later, the shooting world would be in survival mode and ammunition would be scarce. Especially, rimfire ammo. Handling the massive orders of .22 Long Rifle ammo would become the main focus for most of the ammunition producing companies in the business. Unfortunately, “specialty” rimfire rounds, like the 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum, the 17 Mach2 (17HM2) and lead-free ammunition, would be shelved, with what seemed like no future in this newly evolved market.
New Aguila 5mm Rimfire Ammo!
The next six years were spent wondering when the madness would be over and if we would ever have a chance to replenish our dwindling stocks of 5mm rimfire ammo. 5mm shooters inundated Aguila/Texas Armament & Technology (Tx-AT) with emails, Facebook messages and phone calls, but we never got a firm answer on when ammo was going to be released again. However, that all changed at the end of 2018. A member of RFC, named Alan Aronson, reported that he had spoken to Aguila at the wholesaler trade show and Aguila/Tx-AT had told him that 5mm ammunition was coming soon. Fast-forward to a few weeks ago, when Alan posted up pictures of the ammunition he had just received from Aguila/Tx-AT. Aguila then made the new ammunition announcement publicly (which we covered here) and a week later, I received a shipment of 5mm ammunition from them and I knew the wait was over! Included with the announced 30 grain semi-jacketed HP, was a box of the 30 grain jacketed HP “Varmint” ammo. I had a chance to shoot this new ammo, both through a chronograph and at paper. Although we at Varminter tend to shoot ammunition for quite a while before we give our opinion, I felt it necessary to post up some preliminary results, so people would get an idea of how this new release of ammunition performs.
The testing was simple. Shoot some 5-shot strings through a chronograph and shoot some 5-shot groups, then post up the results.
CZ Model 452 Chambered in 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum
Chronograph Results:
Ammo: Aguila 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum – SJHP (Semi-Jacketed Hollow Point)
Firearm: CZ Model 452 single-shot (converted by Mic McPherson) with a 22″ barrel
Specs: High Velocity HP – 2200 FPS (listed)
2295 = Average FPS (4x – 5-shot strings)
145 = Average Extreme Spread (4x – 5-shot strings)
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Ammo: Aguila 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum Varmint – JHP (Jacketed Hollow Point)
Firearm: CZ Model 452 single-shot (converted by Mic McPherson) with a 22″ barrel
Specs: High Velocity HP – 2200 FPS (listed)
2425 = Average FPS (4x – 5-shot strings)
71 = Average Extreme Spread (4x – 5-shot strings)
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Target/Group Results (Note – These are Groups at only 75 Yards):
Ammo: Aguila 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum – SJHP (Semi-Jacketed Hollow Point)
Firearm: CZ Model 452 single-shot (converted by Mic McPherson) with a 22″ barrel
Distance: 75 Yards
0.946″ – Average (4x – 5-shot strings)
Typical Aguila 30 Grain SJHP 5-Shot Group at 75 Yards
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Ammo: Aguila 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum Varmint – JHP (Jacketed Hollow Point)
Firearm: CZ Model 452 single-shot (converted by Mic McPherson) with a 22″ barrel
Distance: 75 Yards
0.796″ – Average (3x – 5-shot strings)
Typical Aguila 30 Grain JHP Varmint 5-Shot Group at 75 Yards
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I only had a limited number of the JHP Varmint ammunition, so I was only able to shoot 3 groups.
Oddly enough, every group I shot had one shot that can be considered an “outlier”. If those single outliers were removed from the 5-shot group, every single group would fall well within 1-MOA. One reason could be the extreme spread of the ammo, which is something we experienced with the original re-release of the factory loaded rimfire ammo back in 2008.
Again, we understand that this is not a complete review and does not include any field work (hunting), or extensive range results. These will be forthcoming and once we have more time with this ammunition, we will publish a follow-up report. We also plan on meeting with Aguila at the 2019 SHOT Show and hope to discuss the future of the 5mm rimfire in more detail. In the meantime, buy the ammo and have fun shooting it! With the spring varmint season coming, you will have plenty of reasons to pull out your Remington, Contender, or any other 5mm rimfire rifle you happen to have. I plan to have it out for some local fox and rabbit hunting here in Idaho, rabbit hunting in Nevada, as well as rockchuck, ground squirrel and other colony varmints! It’s going to be an exciting year for 5mm shooters!
Editor’s Note: We have a LabRadar Chronograph on order and will be retesting this ammunition one last time to verify the numbers we have published above. – EM
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