Hank,

We kinda gotta know which black powder era 22 cartridge you are referring to before we can make a recommendation.   

Hank your being too general in your question... Which cartridge are you referring to? 22 short, 22 long, 22 longrifle, 22extra long, 22WRF, 22cbcap, 22BBcap, you get the idea?
  Don

Hank,

Something that should be kept in mind is that back in the black powder era, there were far more manufactures of the 22 LR cartridge, with more varieties and subsequently more variations than what we see available today. Also, there were a lot more manufacturers of black powder back then, and likely a large variation in the specific formulation and amount of the priming compounds used as well. 

All of these variables make it pretty much impossible to say that the velocity of the 22LR black powder cartridge was xxxx fps. 

We haven't even considered the additional variable between the ±40 grain solid bullet loading and the ±35-38 grain hollow point round. 

My SWAG is that you are probably looking at something along the lines of the current "target" or "standard velocity" class loadings of the 22 LR cartridge to approximately duplicate the old ±5 grain black powder loading. 

Regards,
BP

The .22 LR was developed from other .22 rimfire variates by Stevens in 1887. Stevens version was the one that became the cartridge we know today. Townsend Whelen's "The American Rifle" 1918 fixes the 5 grain Black powder  40 grain bullet  .22 LR cartridge at 970 FPS, He goes on to say the Smokless loadings are higher velocity and much less accurate. His best result was with Lesmoke and Semi Smokless powder, did not mention there velocity.  

Whelen had access to the best ballistic facilities in his role as an ordnance officer. He did a lot of testing with the .22 lr cartridge as well as quoting other well known authorities of the day. However considering the large amount of ballistic data in his book no doubt took a lot of the information from the Manufacturers. 

As BP says there were and still are many varieties of .22 LR, I would guess the Black powder 970 FPS cartridge could be considered the base load. My opinion only.

Boats

Don't know, last I knew most 22lr was BP.

Hello, I remember my dad telling me how he used an old Remington pump .22 for taking rats in back alleys of Flint, MI.  in the early to mid 1920's, for the bounty on them.  He said every once in a while a bullet would get stuck in bore & he would have to take it to the local blacksmith for drilling out..I can only imagine what that bore looked like.  Anyway..he said he used mostly shorts, and they smoked quite a bit compared to modern ones..so I am assuming they were B.P.  He was probably buying the cheapest stuff he could find.  Interesting stuff..Could you imagine a 12 year old kid roaming the back alleys of a major city these days with a loaded .22...AND being perfectly legal?