The Rimfire Report: What's Different About CCI's Golden Boy Ammo?

Earlier this summer, CCI and Henry Repeating Arms teamed up to come out with a special limited-edition run of 36-grain .22 LR ammo said to be “optimized” for cycling within the Golden Boy rifle - which I happen to have handy, as I’m sure many of you out there also do. CCI is no stranger to collaborative ammunition branding deals; we’ve seen that in the past with 22 Plinkster’s “Stanger” Stingers and Steve Rinella's Meat Eater series of .22 LR ammo. The real question I’m sure everyone has is what actually CCI Henry Golden Boy Edition 22LR any different than any of CCI's existing offerings. The answer for today’s example might surprise you, so let's get right into it.

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: PMAC Supernova .22LR Tracer - Plink In Color 
• The Rimfire Report: Does Remington’s 22 Viper 36gr Have the Fangs? 
• The Rimfire Report: Is CCI’s Uppercut A Knockout 22LR Cartridge? 

CCI Golden Boy 22LR Ammo Overview

Product Link: https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfire/cci/cci-x-henry-golden-boy/6-HGB22.html

When one of America’s the most iconic firearms manufacturers teams up with The Leader in Rimfire Ammunition®, great things happen. CCI® has collaborated with Henry Repeating Arms, maker of the legendary Golden Boy lever-action rifle on a collector’s edition load. Offered in 275-round bulk packs, the loads feature a 36-grain copper-plated hollow-point bullet pushed at 1,260 fps—perfect for targets and small game.

Superior cycling through the Henry Golden Boy rifle

Great for targets and small game

275-count pack

Caliber: .22 LR

Grain Weight: 36 gr

Bullet Style: Copper-Plated Hollow Point

Muzzle Velocity: 1,260 fps

Ballistic Coefficient: .125

Package Quantity: 275 rounds

Usage: Small Game, Target Shooting

Unsurprisingly, this ammo, even though it only started shipping to customers at the beginning of August, is already sold out on the official CCI ammunition website. You can find it for about $30 a box or $0.11 per round at your typical big-box stores like Sportsman’s Warehouse, which isn’t all that bad for what seems like reboxed 36-grain CCI Mini mags on the surface.

Upon closer inspection, however, not only has CCI gone through the trouble of reboxing the ammo, but they’ve also gone through the trouble of giving this ammo its own special “HENRY” headstamp for the cases, which is very cool. The cases have some dry, particulate wax on them inside of the bulk pack, which was to be expected, and in my testing so far it hasn’t led to any adverse fouling or cycling issues out of the Henry Golden Boy or any of the other rifles I’ve tested this ammo with, leading me to believe this is really just 36-grain Mini-Mags but with a special Henry Headstamp.

For our standard 50-round test, the Henry’s 20” octagonal barrel produced a slightly higher velocity than advertised, with an average velocity of 1,311 fps, a full 50fps faster than advertised, likely because the Mini-Mag load data CCI is using for this ammo is meant to be shot out of an 18” barrel and CCI more than likely copy/pasted the data from one page to the other for convenience. The standard deviation and extreme spread were also in line with what I’d typically expect to see out of a good box of CCI Mini-Mags, which is always good to see.

Below is the group I shot at 25 yards with the Henry Golden Boy Rifle from a prone position using the factory iron sights. The group is about 2” in size (orange 2” dot for reference), and while on the face of things this might seem “bad,” it’s probably about as good as it was going to get given the quality of my Mark I eyeball optics, and the fact that the light on this day wasn’t playing particularly well with the gold bead front sight and black-out rear irons. Clearly I need more practice.

It’s for this reason that I decided to test the ammo out of the Ruger Precision Rimfire (pictured below), and I was pleasantly surprised that my assumption that this was just re-skinned CCI Mini-Mag was all but confirmed. This stuff is very accurate and produced an almost ⅓” sized hole in the same target at 25 yards (1” dot for reference). Out of the right gun, with the right optics, and in the hands of the right shooter, this is a very affordable way to get some good CCI Mini Mag in a unique package.

Where it does differ is the part I didn't expect. CCI put a dedicated HENRY headstamp on this run, and having walked the Lewiston plant, I know what that costs them, and for those who care about that kind of stuff, something as little as a special headstamp can improve the satisfaction someone might get out of owning or gifting a Henry Golden Boy Rifle. I know I rather like when my rifle furniture matches brands, or when my optics stack all comes from the same company - the same principle is being applied here but on a consumable scale. Pulling one to stamp a limited run of collector brass is a real commitment of production time and machine investment, and it's a lot more than a sticker on a box for a lot of customers.

That leaves us with the value question, which is where this gets easy for me. At roughly $0.11 per round, you're paying less than you would for a regular 300-count brick of Mini-Mag at MSRP, and you're getting a headstamp that matches your Henry Rifle on top of that. There's no premium being charged for the branding. If you own a Golden Boy, buy two boxes, shoot half of one, and keep the rest in a drawer for your kids or nephews. If you don't own a Golden Boy, you're still buying Mini-Mag at a fair price, and there are worse things to have 275 of. What I can't tell you is why CCI landed on 275 rounds instead of their usual 100, 300, or 325. If anyone from CCI wants to clear that up, I'm all ears.