Shooting a suppressed .22 LR rifle or pistol is probably one of the more “peaceful” shooting experiences you can have on the homestead or at the range. Today we're looking at a CCI load built for one job: feeding a suppressed .22 without packing the baffles full of lead. CCI Clean-22 Suppressor then, naturally, uses a black, polymer-coated 45-grain lead round-nose bullet with a 1,000 fps load, and it ships in a 200-round paperboard carton about the size of the half-pint milk cartons you got with your school lunch as a kid.
Clean-22 first appeared at SHOT Show 2019 as a 40-grain line in standard and high-velocity flavors, with CCI claiming the polymer coating cut lead buildup in suppressors by 60 to 80 percent. The Suppressor version followed at my first SHOT Show with TFB in 2020, with a heavier 45-grain bullet, and by June of that year CCI announced it was shipping to dealers in a new easy-to-pour bulk carton. I was recently able to pick up a handful of cartons, and I've been running these cartons through several of my suppressed .22s to see if anything can come close to beating CCI Standard Velocity in terms of overall value.
More Rimfire Report @ TFB:
The Rimfire Report: Got Milk? CCI's 45 Grain Clean-22 Suppressor Ammo
Product Link: https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfire/cci/clean-22-suppressor/6-980CC.html
Specifications:
- Part number: 980CC
- Caliber: 22 LR
- Grain weight: 45
- Bullet style: Lead round nose, black polymer coating
- Muzzle velocity: 1,000 fps
- Muzzle energy: 100 ft-lbs
- Ballistic coefficient: .140
- Velocity at 50 / 75 / 100 yards: 936 / 909 / 883 fps
- Package quantity: 200-round carton
- Usage: Target shooting
- Launch MSRP (2020): $28.99
- CCI direct price (October 2026): $39.99
Perhaps the most unique thing about this ammo, outside of its dead-even 1,000 FPS advertised velocity, is the packaging that it comes in. Most of my CCI rimfire comes in 100-round plastic sleeves with flip-top dispenser lids, and I like them, but a long range day leaves a small pile of plastic behind. The 200-round milk carton holds twice the ammo in a single paperboard box. You squeeze the marked edges to open the spout, pour what you need, and when it's empty, you're tossing one cardboard box instead of two plastic sleeves. Just like you remember as a kid, the carton also fails to properly open half the time, meaning you’ll have to use your finger or a tool to punch the rest of the sealing paper film away to get to the ammo. This might have the added benefit of actually sealing the ammo better than any other type of factory packaging currently on the market.
In the past, I did appreciate and take advantage of the fact that CCI's sleeves are reusable, but plastic is plastic. For a load meant to be shot by the carton rather than the box, one paperboard package per 200 rounds is the smarter way to ship it. CCI listed Clean-22 Suppressor at $28.99 per 200-round carton when it launched in 2020. As of this writing, CCI's own web store lists it at $39.99, about 38 percent higher, and shows it as currently unavailable. Retailers are friendlier: KyGunCo and Natchez both list it at $31.99, or 16 cents per round, while MidwayUSA has it at $36.99.
For comparison, a 100-round box of CCI Standard Velocity usually costs around $11 to $12, or roughly 11 to 12 cents per round. You're paying a few cents more per shot for the coating and the heavier, quieter bullet. Stock also comes and goes, and plenty of retailers showed this load sold out when I checked, and half the time I go to look for it, it's out of stock anywhere it's reasonably priced.
First Sips
The first thing you notice when you pour a handful of these out of the carton is the texture. The Remington-made Peters ammo I shot in my last article had a smooth, polished, unlubed bullet that slid into every chamber I own. Clean-22 Suppressor is the opposite. The black polymer coating has a rough, matte finish you can feel with a fingertip. This rough texture is carried across all of CCI’s polymer-coated Clean-22 offerings.
That coating is what keeps lead off the bore and out of the baffles, and CCI claims it cuts suppressor lead fouling by up to 60 percent. The trade-off is obviously going to be the increased friction it often causes. While probably more economical to dip or paint on, the textured coating doesn't slide into a tight chamber the way a waxed or polished lead bullet does, but it does indeed keep your hands from getting as dirty as they would handling uncoated 22LR ammo.
Reliability and Chamber Fit
In my testing thus far, Clean-22 Suppressor runs in most .22s that aren't picky about ammo, and in the guns it does run in, it runs well. I put it through both of Tandemkross' new rifles, the TKX22 Light Rifle and the ADX SBR built on the Manticore X lower, and both cycled it reliably. The ADX SBR was the surprise. Out of its 10.2-inch Comet barrel, it has shot this load more accurately than any of my usual plinking ammo; we’ll get to a full accuracy and reliability test of both these rifles in the coming weeks.
Part of that reliability comes down to the bullet. CCI Standard Velocity pushes a 40-grain bullet at 1,070 fps. Clean-22 Suppressor gives up 70 fps but adds five grains, so it carries about five percent more momentum at nearly the same muzzle energy (100 ft-lbs versus 102). That's enough to run a blowback semi-auto while staying under the speed of sound. From a short pistol barrel or a full-length rifle barrel, this load stays subsonic, and behind a good can that often means a hearing-safe shooting experience.
The Kel-Tec P17 is where things fell apart, at least for me. I will admit that the P17 pistol is picky with ammo to begin with. The pistol seems to either not have enough recoil spring pressure to send the very lightweight slide back home, or the chamber is far too tight to feed this ammo in combination with the light recoil spring. Similarly, chambering a round in the Angstadt Arms Vanquish 22 barrel on my Ruger Precision Rimfire also took noticeably more effort than CCI Standard. The Vanquish uses a Bentz match chamber, which is cut tighter than a typical sporting chamber you’d find on a 10/22, and a textured target-grade bullet isn't what that chamber was designed around.
I wasn't counting on this load for sound reduction in that host anyway, since Angstadt's ported barrel is designed to drop standard velocity ammo below the sound barrier on its own. In the remainder of the firearms I tested it in (TK rifles, MKIV, 21A Bobcat, etc.), the ammo cycled all of them, and also kept all of the suppressor-equipped ones nice and quiet. The ammo is obviously much louder without a suppressor on any platform.
How Clean Is Clean-22?
In my own guns, Clean-22 Suppressor leaves slightly less lead behind than waxed CCI Standard, but I shoot enough rimfire that the difference doesn't change my cleaning schedule. I buy it because it's a heavy 45-grain load that all but guarantees subsonic velocity, suppressed or not. At the end of the day, it’s still 22LR, and that means it's going to be a dirty affair no matter what you do.
From what I’ve read on various rimfire forums over the years, the original Clean-22 loads tell a similar story. Some Rimfire Central users found their cans wiped out easier, others saw little difference, and TFB's 2019 Silencer Saturday test found baffles just as dirty as usual but easier to clean.
CCI's claim of up to 60 percent less lead buildup in suppressors covers lead and nothing else. Priming compound, unburned powder, and carbon still end up in your action and baffles no matter what the bullet is coated in, so a name built around cleanliness promises more than a coating can deliver. A truly cleaner 22LR cartridge would probably require an entirely different, more expensive powder as well as a lead-free priming compound to be spun into the case rim. In short, don’t buy this ammo believing that it’ll magically keep your dirty rimfire habit cleaner for a lot longer.
Velocity Data
CCI Clean-22 Suppressor metered very well out of the Angstadt RPR at a nice low 15.9 fps standard deviation. I typically associate anything less than 20 fps SD as “good” in terms of consistency, as you’ll typically have less impact shift downrange because of it. The extreme spread was also good, at about 74 fps; for rimfire ammo, I’ll take anything less than 100.
I've come to expect consistent velocities from most CCI ammo, and for a bulk-pack load, that consistency adds some tangible value. The odds of a round going supersonic are never zero, but with these numbers, you're unlikely to see one much above 1,080 fps over several hundred rounds. At that point, Angstadt's ported, integrally suppressed barrel is extra insurance, or a quality-of-life upgrade, and you could get away with a much less expensive setup if your goal is to remain suppressed and subsonic 100% of the time.
Accuracy Data
Along with that consistency comes some decent accuracy. I wouldn’t call this on par with other CCI target loads I’ve tested, but it is for sure good enough for its stated job of target shooting or plinking. Round nose ammo isn’t particularly well suited to even pest control, and for that CCI already has the 45 grain SHB Suppressor Max offering, which I should be getting around to testing here in the next few weeks.
For virtually everything else I use rimfire for (fun), this ammo does a great job of being accurate enough, cheap enough, and also quiet enough to make it fun in almost any situation and in any suppressed setup. I would not dare use this ammo for anything where accuracy or terminal performance is the ultimate goal. The ammo is supposed to be clean and quiet, and it certainly meets the quiet criteria, though it doesn’t seem to be all that consistent in the accuracy department. Certainly capable, but not always reliable.
Final Thoughts
CCI Clean-22 Suppressor is a good suppressor load, but calling it “clean” oversells it. The coating cuts lead buildup a little, but that's the least interesting thing about this ammo in my opinion. What you're really paying for is a heavy 45-grain bullet at a dead-even 1,000 fps, a combination that stays subsonic out of nearly any barrel length and still carries enough momentum to cycle most blowback .22s.
What I don’t like is the coating's rough texture. Guns with tight match chambers or a reputation for being picky, like my P17 and the Bentz-chambered Vanquish barrel, will let you know they don't love it. This also means that an already dirty or rapidly fouling 22LR chamber will also suffer from this problem, usually in the form of the cartridge not seating all the way, leading to light primer strikes. If your suppressed host is that type of gun, buy one carton to test before you commit to a case of this stuff because it's a tad bit more expensive than CCI Standard, which is already subsonic in most guns.
CCI makes three other 45-grain subsonic loads rated for semi-autos. CCI Suppressor is a bare lead hollow point at 970 fps and is sold for $9.99 per sleeve of 50. Suppressor Max uses a segmenting hollow point at 970 fps in 100-round boxes and is aimed at small game; it is currently my favorite 22LR load for pest control. Quiet-22 Semi-Auto runs a soft point at just 835 fps for about 14 cents per round, which makes it more economical but leaves it less margin for cycling stiffer guns and has been one of the less reliable subsonic loads I’ve tried in recent memory. However, none of them is polymer-coated or comes in a 200-round milk carton.
That leaves Clean-22 Suppressor as the bulk plinker of CCI's subsonic lineup: the load you buy by the carton to burn through a suppressed 10/22 for an afternoon, not the one you hunt with. If your gun runs it, it's quiet, reliable, and in the right rifle. What's your go-to suppressor load for 22LR, and have you had any chambering trouble with coated rimfire bullets? Let me know in the comments below, and as always, thanks for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report. See you next week!
CCI Clean-22 Suppressor 22LR Ammo
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