V7 10/22 .22LR .20 Caliber Squeeze Barrel Review
There are hundreds of aftermarket 10/22 barrel options on the market including everything from fluted, carbon fiber, and aluminum sleeved, but how about a squeeze bore barrel? This is not a new technology, however there are a number of companies playing around with the idea of forcing a bullet down an undersized bore for a number of theoretical benefits. V7 Weapon Systems is the only one actually selling commercially a 10/22 squeeze bore barrel. The V7 Weapon Systems 10/22 barrel accepts standard .22LR ammo but forces a standard .22LR bullet down a .20 caliber bore and it may just be the most amazing barrel yet.
WHY A SQUEEZE BORE?
There are a number of reasons why this could be a game changer for the consummate 10/22 tinkerer and tuner in the .22LR rimfire market. Powder charge consistency is obvious, however one of the biggest challenges for the precision .22LR rimfire shooter is wildly inconsistent bullet diameter. The other is of course rim thickness. Match grade ammo does a good job minimizing this variance, however bullet diameter consistency it is a significant problem in the rimfire realm across ammo. I am grossly over-generalizing, however in most cases, .22LR ammo is all made the same, but just handled and graded to different tiers. Very generally speaking, there are typically sorted and unsorted ammo lots. The .22LR ammo sorted based on consistent velocity, rim thickness, maybe better machining and component quality, and bullet diameter goes into one box and the random bullet sized with varying rim and velocity ammo in the bulk ammo spec boxes.
Also smaller bullets are subject to and more sensitive to more nicks, scrapes, and deformation during manufacturing, handling, packaging and chambering. The more deformation, the more influence this tends to have on a small projectile vs a large caliber bullet. Add in bullet diameter variances, rim thickness and different powder charges and you have a recipe for wide accuracy, BC, and velocity variances.
In theory a squeeze bore minimizes all these variables by squeezing and reswaging the bullet down to a smaller bore diameter. The process, at least in theory, removes the most impactful bullet deformations which connect with the rifling as the bullet is smashed down to a marginally smaller size. There is also a pressure increase due to the extra force needed for this process to occur which can smooth out small pressure variances between rounds and also add a bit more back-pressure recoil to help extraction and bolt cycling. The idea of all this squeeze bore theory is a more uniform elongated lower BC bullet with more uniform pressure exiting the barrel which potentially has improvements in accuracy, and more power. Downrange that should all add up to more consistent accuracy from round to round, or even ammo to ammo, with potentially higher velocity and power. It's all pretty interesting physics 101 level stuff without any voodoo.
DOES THE V7 BARREL WORK?
So the question is does the V7 squeeze bore barrel perform? I will go out on a limb and say that it appears to do all the above to some degree, however I do not possess all the scientific equipment to positively validate the claims. Here was my testing and my perspective on why I believe the V7 10/22 barrel concept works.
In general, what I observed was that match grade rounds delivered excellent accuracy as would be expected from a Benz match chambered premium quality barrel, but the less expensive non-match ammo delivered better than average groups which is great, but less typical. Notably, I said “better”, but nowhere near as well as match grade ammo. Again, there is no voodoo here, so the V7 barrel will not magically transform a magazine of ammo with varying rim thickness, bullet diameter and velocity to suddenly shoot as well as $15 a box Lapua Center-X. The V7 barrel does seem to offer improvement over what is normally experienced with ammo such as T-22, Blazer, and bulk packed federal rounds. 
Doing some number crunching after a few range sessions, the average accuracy improvement experienced was around 25% over what I normally expect to see from non-match rounds - usually this is around a .5-.75-inch fifty yard group with bulk pack ammo shot from a match quality rifle and barrel. With that noted, I have had plenty of barrels that delivered life changing accuracy with match ammo, but just shoot really horrible 1-2-inch group with mid-quality ammo. Generally, yeah, the V7 seems to work great, but it is not particularly scientific. Really there is no real way to control all the variables other than to have V7 make a different standard .22LR bore and do barrel swap testing on the same gun, but even then one variable changes and the whole test is invalid.
This is so hard to do an apples to apples comparison because referring back to a spreadsheet where I was tracking all the groups I ever shot with 10/22s, I had a Magnum Research build that loved bulk packed T-22 delivering delivering consistent sub-¼-inch 50-yard groups and one especially amazing .167-inch group. That same range day my Kidd barreled build would not shoot the same ammo better than about .4-inch. The norm though was to expect T-22 ammo to deliver that +.5-inch group range. The V7 shot a few .4-inch and .5-inch groups with the T-22 ammo. Is that better, worse, did I use a different lot # of ammo, was there more wind or humidity, or did I have an extra cup of coffee before testing. There are so many variables. I think this is going to be more of an adventure exploring what this barrel can deliver and doing more side-by-side testing against other builds. The concept does appear to work and even if it doesn’t, the V7 barrel is still a tack driver of a barrel with my inventory of SK and Lapua match grade ammo.
LONG TERM TESTING - PLAN
What I would really like to test is to find a round that prints groups like total crap with every other build and see what those rounds can do in this V7 barrel. I “think” that is the test of how the V7 10/22 squeeze bore .20 caliber barrel can improve accuracy. The other test really should be longer 75-100-150-yard ranges where the elongated BC created by the reduced bore and higher velocities could both be measured based on actual bullet drop in a side-by-side comparison with other similar barrels. If the V7 delivers less bullet drop at those distances compared to a similar barrel, with the same ammo, the BC and velocity must be true. At those longer ranges accuracy improvements would also be obvious. All that testing is more than I have time for, however I think this barrel could be one of the most fun barrels to play around with that I own just to see what it can do.
PHYSICS OF SQUEEZE BORE
Obviously standard rifling lands score and deform bullets to some degree. If the bullet is made well, the rifling cuts into the bullet and the bullet diameter is large enough that it seals perfectly against the shallows of the rifling. If the bullet is not well formed, the bullet may not seal well or too tight against the shallows of the rifling and the result are negative impacts on consistent accuracy and velocity.
When we look at other 5R, polygonal, Glock’s hexagonal, and Feddersen’s SEPR Single Edge Polygonal rifling, they all were actually designed to overcome minor bullet variances by deforming the bullet in a way that tends to true up inconsistent bullets. Polygonal rifling actually deforms the bullets against a gentle hill and valley waveform rifling and tends to deform the entire bullet rifling facing surface versus just the lands cutting into a portion of the bullet.
Based on my experience, polygonal based rifling does deliver all the above noted V7 barrel advantages, but just in a different way. The squeeze bore concept also deforms the bullet. Actually the .22LR is .0023-inchs and considering the land diameter on .22LR is .212, it really is not much of a squeeze down to .20-inch. That gentle squeeze is enough to remove minor bullet variances. We see this in Pellet guns where the skirt is a little oversized and is pinched down tight to assure a good pellet to bore seal.
The one thing I noticed with the V7 Weapon System 10/22 barrel was that it displayed similar traits I have experienced first hand with polygonal based rifling. One of those traits was a more forgiving ammo preference and better accuracy with non-match and typically less-consistent ammo. Testing with match grade ammo showcased some really nice tight ¼-inch 50-yard groups, but not a lot of noticeable improvements over what I would expect to see from any other high tier match grade barrel. Especially with the 10/22 format, extraction and cycling in the V7 did seem to be more reliable with ammo that normally is on the fringe of the low power range and would typically require a lighter spring or acceptance of an occasional feeding bobble. I will say the extra backpressure of the V7 barrel does seem to really assure reliability of other often tight chambered match barrels.
BUILD SPECS
Initially I had this barrel mounted for testing in a Majestic - Power Custom billet receiver with their drop-in match trigger kit, match bolt, a KRG Bravo stock, and the V7 match barrel. Notably, this exact build with just the barrel swapped to a Proof Research barrel delivered one of my best three shooting builds ever, so I feel good I gave the V7 barrel the best chance possible. Obviously with sub-.25-inch groups, it is a great barrel. I moved the barrel over to the Volquartsen Summit receiver for some testing to see if it would influence the barrel and I did not see any issues.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you want a potential sub-¼-inch barrel, the V7 Weapon Systems 10/22 barrel is not going to disappoint with high tier match quality ammo. It is a player in the field of premier tier barrels while delivering boosted recoil to improve reliability of very light match ammo options.
With that noted, I think it can offer way more for the buyer who wants to potentially shoot a lot of less than match quality ammo and is a really interesting piece of kit to play around with on the range that is going to net a lot of “wow that is interesting” moments. If you are a tinkerer, and love the physics of all this or want something more unique “no it’s actually a .20 caliber 10/22” the V7 is 100% your barrel. More to come on this barrel.
V7 Manufacturer Provided Specs
- CALIBER: 22LR
- MATERIAL: 416 R STAINLESS
- LENGTH: 16.1 IN
- TWIST 1-:10 (Projectile length increases due to the 20 cal bore requiring the faster than standard twist for projectile stability.)
- SPORTER CONTOUR FOR SIMPLE DROP IN REPLACEMENT
- INCREASED WEAPON RELIABILITY/FUNCTION ESPECIALLY WITH LOW PRESSURE/BUDGET FRIENDLY AMMO
- 22 CAL PROJECTILE EXITS THE MUZZLE AS A 20 CAL PROJECTILE GIVING IMPROVED PROJECTILE BALLISTIC COEFFICIENCY & PENETRATION !
- HIGHER ENERGY LEVELS AT LONGER RANGES !
- ABOVE NOTED IMPROVEMENTS ARE GAINED USING STANDARD .22 LR AMMO!
- 1/2 X 28 THREAD PITCH FOR STANDARD .22LR MUZZLE DEVICES
- MATTE BEAD BLAST FINISH (BLACK KG KOTE OPTIONAL)
- FLUTING UPGRADE AVAILABLE
- STANDARD BARREL WEIGHS 26.3 OZ
- FLUTED BARREL WEIGHS 24 OZ
- MADE IN AMERICA
- LIFETIME WARRANTY