I don’t think anyone would deny that rimfire is equally as valuable as a training cartridge as it is as a recreational one. While tracers are primarily designed for military use, most often in automatic guns, they are neither impossible to find nor illegal to purchase in the civilian world. More relevant to this series, I’ve been waiting for a long time to test out Piney Mountain Ammunition Company’s (PMAC) 22LR tracer loads, now sold under the Supernova Brand name. I’ve spent the last month or so testing out this ammunition in a variety of different 22LR firearms, and today I’ll give you my overall impressions of Piney Mountain Supernova 22LR tracers, along with some of my typical range data (velocity and accuracy), to see if this stuff is worth keeping around for some special range sessions. More Rimfire Report @ TFB:The Rimfire Report: The FarrowTech Ruger Mark IV 22R PDW Kit The Rimfire Report: Does Remington’s 22 Viper 36gr Have the Fangs? The Rimfire Report: Is CCI’s Uppercut A Knockout 22LR Cartridge? Piney Mountain Ammunition was founded by Cary and Linda George, reportedly after Linda's earlier work at Georgia tracer-maker Southern Ballistic Research left the .22LR tracer problem unsolved and Cary cracked the formulation himself (a detail from a single forum account I couldn't independently confirm), and sometime after the company's post-fire Texas relaunch, that same tracer line began shipping under a second name, Supernova, alongside the original Piney Mountain branding, so this particular ammo is part of a rebrand rather than a reformulation, aimed at wider retail placement rather than any change to the product itself it seems. However, my ammo was likely manufactured in Texas, at PMAC’s Liberty Hill location. They also offer the same green and red tracers in 9mm and .45 ACP. Official Product DetailsProduct Link: https://pineymountainammunitionco.com/Supernova Tracers 22 Long Rifle 40gr LRN Rimfire Ammo - 50 Rounds - The Supernova Green Tracer by Piney Mountain Ammunition stands out, not just in its performance but in its visual appeal. These rounds feature a green or red tracer that illuminates the path of the bullet, making it especially captivating during dusk or dawn shooting sessions. With a non-corrosive formulation, the ammunition promises reliable ignition and a longer shelf life.Made with quality components, the brass casing ensures consistent chambering, while the 40-grain lead round nose bullet provides accurate ballistics ideal for target shooting or range practice. With a muzzle velocity of 1070 fps and energy of 102 ft lbs, these rounds offer a balanced performance suitable for various applications.Vibrant red and green offer superior bullet trajectory visibility that can be seen over 100 yards and reportedly up to 300 yardsIdeal for military training exercises, recreational shooting, and improving accuracyOffers a muzzle velocity of 1070 fps and a muzzle energy of 102 ft. lbs, ensuring consistent performance PMAC 22LR Supernova is available from a variety of online retailers and is typically a painfully expensive $26 per box of 50 regardless of color. A pretty penny, but one that I think is well worth the price of entry compared to centerfire tracers if you’re willing to put up with the sometimes frustrating consistency of these loads. There are no direct sales of Piney Mountain tracers to customers, as they indicate on their website that they’re a wholesaler/manufactuer only. I ordered about $500 worth of the ammo (1,000 rounds) from SGAmmo.com in anticipation of the 4th of July, but local burn bans and fire concerns meant that I had to wait a good while to find not just a suitable location, but suitable weather for this particular ammo that would comfortably mitigate the risk of fire and to avoid violating any active burn bans. Even then, I had fire extinguishing equipment on hand just in case, as I would recommend you do if you use this ammo. Even though it seems the charges used in this ammo are minuscule even compared to the tiny tracer charges found in military tracer ammo, they can still set stuff on fire if you aren’t layering in some practical safety measures. A Dissection Of The CartridgeNormally I wouldn’t do this part in a standard ammo review. But, being the curious type, I wanted to see how Piney Mountain puts this ammo together. A quick external look will reveal that Piney Mountain, at a minimum, uses CCI brass, but likely an entire CCI Standard Cartridge. Having recently seen CCI’s entire rimfire operation in Lewiston, Idaho, it's no wonder Piney Mountain chose to use CCI Standard as a base for their ammo; it's some of the most consistent and prolific 22LR available in the country. According to some unverified claims on various forums, Piney Mountain is, in all likelihood, just taking standard off-the-shelf CCI Standard 40gr, pulling and reusing the bullets with primer charges, and then recharging/seating them and then dipping them. Most of the bullets have distinct drag marks on them that often have part of the bullet's lead smeared and stretched over the case mouth, which is a telltale sign to me of a rotary crimper being used by Piney Mountain likely right before they’re dipped in their respective colors but without the final cutting step which would eliminate that tiny bit of overhang that you see on about every other round of ammunition. This one feature, in my opinion, is likely the core and cause of this particular ammo’s touchy reputation with reliability. More on that later. The bullets are all very dry and appear to be unwaxed and unlubed, which is contrary to most 22LR ammunition. Instead, each round has a small dab of paint in either red or green denoting which color tracer charge is attached to the back of the bullet. The exclusion of any type of lube is likely due to the desire to have the cartridges externally marked with the tracer color being used, similar to how the US Military uses Orange or Red Tips for M62 (7.62x51) and M196 (5.56x45) red tracer cartridges. Inside our 22LR Supernova cartridges, we find that each of the red- and green-heeled bullets has a small pocket drilled out of the rear of the bullet and filled with the tracer compound. In the case of the red tracers, the charge appears to be made from a similar compound to fireworks, in that it’s a solid powder and could be closely related to the strontium-nitrate (for the red) charge the military uses. Strontium is one of the brighter-burning reds that is used for pyrotechnics, as the magnesium powder makes up a majority of the charge in both colors and is essentially used as “fuel” for the burn since it burns white. When it comes to the green tracers, we see the same uniform magnesium charge in the back, but with a distinct darker core in the very center of the lighter colored charge. This, in all likelihood, is an amorphous boron-based core, which is one of the few ways in pyrotechnic chemistry to get a bright green burn. Controlled Test Burn: PMAC Supernova 40gr Green Tracer Controlled Test Burn: PMAC Supernova 40gr Red Tracer Field TestingUp front, this ammo is neither accurate nor consistent unless your only goal is to have some fun plinking - at least out of any of the guns I’ve shot it through. For velocity and accuracy testing, I used a common plinking candidate, the humble 10/22 sporter as a test platform and got results that give me mixed feelings about the ammo. But I also used about half a dozen other 22LR firearms, including pistols, to give the ammo a fair shake in the reliability department. VelocityPMAC says the ammo is metered at typical CCI Standard velocity (1070 fps), but I saw an average of about 1,040 fps instead out of most rifle-length barrels. While the standard deviation wasn’t bad, the fact that we had such a massive extreme spread (combined with the accuracy results) is just one of the reasons that I’d probably only rely on this ammo for plinking, as it did tend to induce failures to cycle/extract and, in other cases, was much louder than expected. The shot record only reads 49 shots because I was forced to exclude one round that read at nearly 5,000 fps for my official metering using the 10/22, an obvious technical error on the Garmin Chronograph’s part. Practical AccuracyAccuracy was nothing to write home about. I’m not exactly sure what the problem is with this ammo, but seemingly out of any gun, it’s incredibly inconsistent in its point of impact, with almost none of the guns producing a group that was anywhere close to as accurate (or as close to the point of aim) as plain old CCI Standard. Add this to another one of the reasons why I’d consider this a fun boutique ammo rather than anything for serious training or competition use. Various Groups with the Ammo. The most accurate was through a 10/22 sporter, which produced the group in the bottom left at 25 yards using a red dot. A close second was the Agnstadt Arms/CMMG Mk 4 Same firearm, same distance, CCI Standard for comparison (Targets by Re-Nine Safety) (use code “UINPXQE1X5” at checkout for 10% off. ReliabilityFinally, when it comes to reliability, this ammo is some of the worst I’ve ever experienced, at least in terms of actually going bang. A malfunction will occur, even in a freshly cleaned gun, about once or twice every magazine, regardless of the gun it is being shot out of or fed into. The most common problems you’ll run into are feeding and extraction, which get worse as the gun gets dirtier, and this is very dirty ammo since the bullet is completely uncoated where it contacts the barrel, and is also burning a pyrotechnic charge as it travels down the barrel and suppressor, leaving a lot of burnt material in the barrel and any attached accessories. If you do manage to get off a full 25- or even 15-round magazine, consider yourself fortunate. Thankfully, on the pyrotechnic side of things, the green and red charges both seem to be very reliable in terms of both ignition and burn length, at least when the ammo successfully feeds and fires. So when it does go off, you get a very cool and very crowd-pleasing green or red streak. Both colors burnt bright enough to see even during the day, although you’ll obviously get the maximum effect during your twilight/after dark range sessions. I typically alternate the colors in my mags, which makes for a fun fireworks show at the range. Although Piney Mountain says they won’t reliably function (as in ignite) in very short-barreled guns, I was able to get these to work just fine in a TX22 Compact, which has a 3.6” barrel. Your results will obviously vary depending on your firearm and luck skill check. Red Tracers easily show up at midday in direct sunlight from a downrange perspective When fired back to back/ or with an FRT, the distinct red and green become blended into bright white/yellow Although I’ve shot this ammo through everything from an FRT-equipped Taurus TX22 to some of my fancier Integrally Suppressed Angstdt rimfire rifles, the ammo seems to run best in “known quantity” off-the-shelf 10/22 rifles or similar 22LR sporter rifles like the M&P 15-22 or any of the CMMG 22LR conversions/uppers. The ammo was clearly meant to be plinked with, not to win matches or hunt critters with. The experience is double fun under night vision, although you’ll notice even these pint-sized tracers will leave some (cool) temporary burn in on your tubes when you observe them directly. Final ThoughtsAt $0.60 per round, PMAC Supernova .22LR is bordering on the absurd in terms of price relative to the performance I’ve seen out of it. I really do wish it were more reliable, and perhaps even a bit more powerful than it is. If Piney Mountain were able to get this ammo to run more reliably, perhaps on par with factory-fresh CCI Standard, I think the price would be more palatable. However, to be fair, photos and even video don’t do the experience of shooting the ammo justice; this is something you should, and can, experience for yourself if you have the spare cash to burn on some mindless fun. As it stands, unless you're dedicated to the bit like I am, $26 a box of 50 is a bridge too far for most people chasing a pyrotechnic experience, especially when actual centerfire tracers can sometimes be found for only 20 cents more and run close to 100% reliable, a metric this .22LR load doesn't touch. About 600 rounds in with another 400 or so squirreled away for a special occasion, I can say it's been money well spent for me: both as material for this piece and as an entertaining break from an often dull corner of the firearms world. Supernova Red Tracer 22LR Ammo Buy on Optics Planet Supernova Green Tracer 22LR Ammo Buy on Optics Planet Your thoughts and experiences with this ammo are welcome in the comments below, and as always, thanks for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report, and we’ll see you again next week! We are committed to finding, researching, and recommending the best products. We earn commissions from purchases you make using the retail links in our product reviews. Learn more about how this works.