The .21 Sharp swaps the .22 LR’s heeled bullet for a smaller-diameter conventional one, which allows for better-performing projectiles. (Photo courtesy of Winchester)
August 22, 2025
By Richard Mann
The .22 Long Rifle cartridge has been training new shooters and satisfying everyone else for well over a century. But as prolific and perfect as the .22 Long Rifle cartridge might seem, it has a design flaw—one that, in the world of modern cartridges, limits its performance. Winchester designed the .21 Sharp to correct that flaw, and you could argue it’s also partly the product of government regulations. But is the .21 Sharp a cartridge you need, and should you ditch your favorite .22 Long Rifle for one? Let’s take a closer look.
AN UNFORTUNATE FLAW Have you ever looked at a .22 Long Rifle cartridge beside a .22 Magnum or .17 HMR cartridge? There’s a distinct difference. The bullets on the .22 Magnum and .17 HMR cartridges are smaller in diameter than the case and look just like bullets in modern centerfire rifle cartridges. The bullet for the .22 Long Rifle fits inside the case mouth, but forward of the case mouth, the bullet is the same diameter as the outside of the cartridge case. This is a heeled bullet, and it has two diameters: the diameter of the base that fits inside the case, and the diameter forward of the case that matches case and bore diameter.
Heeled bullets for the .22 Long Rifle are lead bullets. They can be copper plated, but they cannot be jacketed bullets like you’ll find in the .22 Magnum, .17 HMR or any modern centerfire cartridge. This limits the terminal performance of the .22 Long Rifle. It is also very difficult to manufacture a lead-free heeled bullet that has good terminal performance and that—even more importantly—will shoot with good precision. If you’ve ever tried lead-free .22 Long Rifle ammunition, you already know this.
A SIMPLE FIX The easiest way to correct for the heeled bullet in the .22 Long Rifle is to simply make a bullet that fits inside the case mouth, and for the .21 Sharp, that’s what Winchester did. The problem is this means the bullet would have a diameter—caliber—of 0.2105 inch. A .22 Long Rifle barrel has a bore diameter of 0.217 inch and a groove diameter of 0.222 inch. This means the smaller-diameter .21 Sharp bullet would not shoot with precision out of a .22 Long Rifle barrel. Could you chamber and shoot a .21 Sharp cartridge in a .22 Long Rifle firearm? Sure, but you probably wouldn’t hit anything.
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SAME BUT DIFFERENT Winchester’s goal with the .21 Sharp was to offer a rimfire cartridge as affordable as the .22 Long Rifle, though with better lead-free bullet performance, that would also work with jacketed bullets to deliver better terminal performance. They use the same cartridge case for the .21 Sharp that’s used for the .22 Long Rifle. The difference is they insert a 0.21-caliber bullet inside the case instead of using a 0.2255-caliber heeled bullet. This means that any rifle or handgun designed to fire the .22 Long Rifle cartridge could also work with the .21 Sharp cartridge, and that .22 Long Rifle magazines would be compatible with .21 Sharp cartridges. Of course, since the .21 Sharp uses a 0.2105-caliber bullet, it would need a different barrel—one with a bore diameter of 0.205 inch and a groove diameter of 0.210 inch.
The author found that the 34-grain jacketed hollow point .21 Sharp load will deliver better terminal performance than any .22 Long Rifle bullet designed to upset on impact. (Richard Mann photo) That’s the main difference between the .22 Long Rifle and .21 Sharp cartridges. Simply put, the Sharp allows for better-performing bullets. Current laws and pending lead bullet legislation were other driving forces behind the .21 Sharp. And when Winchester began the engineering process, they realized they could make these new 0.21-caliber lead-free and jacketed bullets with higher ballistic coefficients. This meant that the new .21 Sharp would shoot flatter than the .22 Long Rifle. The .21 Sharp has a rifling twist rate of 1 in 12 as opposed to the .22 Long Rifle, which has a 1 in 16 twist rate.
TESTING IT Winchester is currently offering four .21 Sharp loads. They have a 25-grain, lead-free Copper Matrix load, a 42-grain Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) load, a 37-grain Black Copper Plated load and a 34-grain Jacketed Hollow Point (JHP) load. I tested the lead-free and JHP loads in an affordable Winchester Xpert rifle, and out of its 16.5-inch barrel, the lead-free load averaged 1,800 fps and turned in groups measuring about three-quarters of an inch at 50 yards. Winchester advertises the lead-free Copper Matrix load at 1,750 fps. The listed speed of the 34-grain JHP load is 1,500 fps, but it averaged 1,590 fps out of the Xpert rifle, and five-shot groups clustered right at 8/10 of an inch at 50 yards.
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What really impressed me was the terminal performance of the JHP load. I fired a handful of these into blocks of Clear Ballistics gel from 25 yards. The bullets upset with a wide frontal diameter averaging about 0.37-inch and penetrated around 9 inches with 98-percent weight retention. You’ll not find this kind of terminal performance with the .22 Long Rifle.
SWAP OR STAY I’m not sure anyone ever needs an excuse to buy a new gun, but hunters are practical folk who don’t want to spend money if it doesn’t give them an advantage in the field. If you hunt with a rimfire in a location that limits you to lead-free ammunition, the .21 Sharp is a very good idea. There’s no question it will shoot lead-free bullets better than a .22 Long Rifle. Also, if you want to maximize the terminal performance of a rimfire cartridge, without stepping up to the .22 Magnum or .17 HMR, the .21 Sharp is similarly a good idea.
Since the .21 Sharp uses the same .22 LR case, rifles and magazines are compatible. A new barrel is all that’s needed. (Photo courtesy of Winchester) Though I’m sure this will change, right now there aren’t many options for .21 Sharp rifles or ammunition. Savage currently catalogs four bolt-action rifles in .21 Sharp, including their B21F rifle and Mark II rifles with heavy- and sporter-weight barrels. They also offer the .21 Sharp in their 5.68-pound Mark II Minimalist rifle. All new Savage .21 Sharp rifles retail for less than $400. Winchester is offering the .21 Sharp in nine variations of their Xpert rifle. The least expensive has a suggested retail price of $329, and the most expensive is their Thumbhole Target SR model for $579.
As for ammunition, the average cost of .21 Sharp ammo is around $0.20 per shot. The average costs for .22 Long Rifle ammunition—not counting the expensive match-grade stuff—is about $0.16 per shot. That’s a 25 percent difference. You’ll have to decide if your lead-free or terminal performance needs are worth that extra four cents per shot.
This article was featured in the August 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
