Been catching up on my reading over holidays, in Shooting &Fishing vol.1V 1889, there are a few articles on the new .22 long rifle ctg.  Even as far back as then, there were suggestions on improving the round.  Most had to do with the lack of crimp allowing de-buletting when extracting an unfired round..though the lack of crimp was thought to improve accuracy.  One article though took a different view, they thought a straight bodied bullet would be an improvement over the heeled base..though they admitted this type would no longer work in the original chambered .22 rifles.
    It seems to me when Winchester came out with their .22 WRF., or Special, using a std. one dia. bullet, a shorter case length to better ballance bullet to powder for max. accuracy would have been a perfect time to do this.
    Although the old .22 WRF as well as the newer .22 mag. utilize a straight sided bullet, accuracy has been inferior to the long rifle ctg. 
    Then too, there probably hasn't been the $$$ spent on research as has been on the LR.
    But I think it would have been interesting if development had been made on a true .224 dia. .22 rim fire ctg.  Just a thought.

The .22 Long Rifle cartridge, introduced by J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company in 1887, became the world's most popular rimfire round by combining the .22 Long's case with the heavier 40-grain bullet from the .22 Extra Long, offering improved power and accuracy for hunting, sport, and training, evolving from earlier Flobert designs and remaining ubiquitous today due to low cost, minimal recoil, and versatility in various loads. 

Adolph Otto Niedner (1863 – 1954) Mr. Niedner enlisted in the United States Army in 1880 and fought against the Apache uprisings led by Victorio and Geronimo. He was discharged in 1883 with a scar from a scalp wound and subsequently found his way to the Boston MA area. He was an active member of Massachusetts Rifle Association for more than twenty years. In addition to building Patridge's first sight, Niedner also experimented in developing and improving rifle cartridges. Once Niedner complained to Major Dooley of the U.S. Cartridge about the lack of accuracy of the .22 long cartridges available at the time. Major Dooley provided Niedner with 10,000 primed .22 long cases and 25 pounds of powder. Niedner's subsequent experiments led to the eventual development of the .22 long rifle cartridge, one of the most popular calibers ever invented. Niedner also developed the “25 Niedner” around 1920 (more commonly known today as the “25-06 Remington”).

When the enterprising J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., aided by the Union Metallic Cartridge Co., originated the .22 Long Rifle cartridge (brought to UMC by A.O. Niedner), it was necessary to increase the twist in the rifles in which this cartridge was shot, from one turn in 25 inches to one turn in 16 inches, to stabilize the extra ten grains of lead. By increasing the bullet from 30 to 40 grains, and increasing the twist from 25 to 16, the range and accuracy of the cartridge were wonderfully increased, so much so that shooting declared to be impossible with the old .22 short cartridge was readily performed with the new .22 Long Rifle. As the increased accuracy secured by this change became known, calls came for other makes of rifles to take the new cartridge... and the world's most popular cartridge was born. -Gould, Modern American Rifles 1892

Come on Jack, you know that you love to pay forty dollars for a box of 22's!

Little history for you. In the early days of modern RFBR it was mostly group shooting.
A very innovative shooter/ bullet maker named Billy Brawand was well along making BR capable LR rounds sourcing primed cases, loading jacketed BR grade bullets fired in match barrels with much early success,
This ultimately lead to rules for sanctioned RFBR mandating , lead bullet rounds sourced from mfr’s making at least 1 million rounds/year, thus the entire enterprise abandoned.
Billy was a sharp guy also having a fair amount of input on the elegant Swindlehurst RFBR actions made by Kelbly’s.

bpjack wrote yesterday at 2:35pm:

It is a viable option but, is way to slow for BR 50 matches. I shot mid pack in the regional matches but, at the one 200 yard match we had, I was 2nd to the winner (Tommy) in that match.

I never understood why people would pay so much for Match, 22's but, have put a lot of work into the BSing. I guess it's a trade off between work and money

.22-5-40 wrote yesterday at 5:39pm: