Bad .22 ammo - what's good?

[marty8587]

The guy at Bi-Mart recommended the American Eagle (by Federal) with a "definitely". Comes in a 400-round brick for about $17 (sometimes $15 on sale). It's all I've ever shot through my 10/22...so I don't know any better

Now thats what I'm talking about, I like that ammo and I think it is on sale now.

 

[FIDO6]

I have been shooting the Federal Automatch for years. I have run it through anything I could, with good results in 90+% of them. The last 2 cases have produced maybe a dozen that failed to fire in weapons in good repair without a second strike. I run a snake down the bore every few hundred rounds, and clean thoroughly after every range session. It is clean enough for me and there is no nasty Eley stink.

 

[marty8587]

If you go to the Gun Room, Their golden bullets are specially made with hand picked brass and thats why they cost so much more than anywhere else!

 

[bugeye]

Putting in a plug for Blazer HV 22LR, it is made by CCI and in 500 bricks, and as near as I can tell both by visual exam and firing them side by side with CCI minimags, they are the same. The Blazer even has the same CCI logo on the case, is cheaper, and comes in nice 50 round paper boxes rather than the annoying plastic pack used for the mini mags.

I pretty much agree with what others have said, Remmington 22 in bricks (golden bullets worst, thunderbolts slighly better) is the worst, federal bulk is pretty good, Winchester bulk is about as good as federal.

Considering the bulk 22 runs less than 4 cents a shot I guess I can't complain much, most of it is amazingly good.

 

[coyote223]

CCI mini-mags are very good, and very expensive. Federal bulk packs seem to be very consistent in my guns. My AR .22 conversion likes them as well. Remington has too many duds. The only gun I have that will eat the remmy golden bullets bulk pack, is a 10/22.

 

[marty8587]

STARTING 12-5-10 fISHERMANS MARINE will have the fed. champion 525 rd. bulk packs on sale dor $12.88 each.

 

[kenno]

My OLD Stock of Thunderbolt ammo is great and I'm saving it!
I've been buying at Bi-Mart. Rem golden, 333 packs, Peters Brown pack, what ever is on sale. None of the new ammo makes me happy.
I have a private reactive target range with distances from 20 to past 100 yards. With my old ammo I fire and can hear the Clang of a hit immeaditly. With the new ammo I can actualy start counting before I hear the bullet strike. To me that means the bullet is traveling around 800 FPS! I have FTF and FTE on most ammo but especialy on the Rem Gold. For consitantly good results I recomend Mini-Mag

 

[Stick]

STARTING 12-5-10 fISHERMANS MARINE will have the fed. champion 525 rd. bulk packs on sale dor $12.88 each.

bi-mart had the same price day after thanksgiving. I went up to the counter paid for one box and some other small thing then thought that seemed cheap, looked at the receipt and went back and bought another box

 

[laney1566]

CCI Mini Mags are the best IMO.
For bulk quantities I would say I have had good luck with Remington Thunderbolt. Also some old Winchester Xpert I have left worked good. I have a brick of American Eagle I have yet to try.

 

[Gunner3456]

Sometimes I think it's the gun. I put more than 100k rounds through a Remington Nylon 66 and can't recall a single balk regardless of ammo. Then I figured maybe it was getting enough miles on it so I found another NIB on gunbroker and it's the same. Most accurate iron sight 22 I ever fired, too.

Bi Mart has Savage .22 removable-magazine-loaded 22 autos on sale this weekend for $99. I've heard good things about them for the price.

BTW I HATE Ruger 10/22 jam-o-matics. They are too ammo picky and not all that accurate until you get around $1,000 in them.

$.02

 

[UncalledForGabe]

My 10-22 really likes the federal "target" lrn you can get at bimart for like $15 for 500. As for my challenger II, only eats mini mags.

 

[tionico]

Three Appleseed shoots using the same Ruger 10/22, all firing Remington bulk pack, total above 1500 rounds for the three weekends.... total of three, count em THREE failure to fire. Picked them back up, reloaded, fired next time. The disgusting part, the rifle was not cleaned at all thorugh the three weekends. And, once the scope was dialed in and so was I, it maintained less than one inch groups at 25 meters, (sub one MOA) not using a benchrest.


Having attended now about 8 Appleseeds as first a shooter, then, after scoring Rifleman, as an instructor, I've watched what works, what doesn't Mosst shoots, we'll fire about 550-600 rounds for the weekend. The Remington Green Box (but not Thunderbolts) seem to be accurate and reliable, Federal bulk pack the same. CCI are accurate (but not significantly more so than the other two), reliable... and expensive. Some have used Peters with good success, others had problems. Remington Thunderbolt seem to misfire a lot, questionable accuracy. Blazer seemed to work well, too.....

I'd say, having instructed at half a dozen appleseeds so far, watching up to twentyfive people firing five hundred or more rounds in a weekend, the above results are fairly solid. We've had people shoot a Rifleman's score with just about anything out there... from the junk Aguila right up to match grade Wolf or Eley.... and everything in between. Being a safety officer most of the time, I see what tends toward misfires. So far, we've had a few apparent squibs but none stuck in the barrel. I do recall one round, had five pin strikes on the casing, still had not gone off.. I think it was a Thunderbolt. A few others with three strikes.....

for myself, I'll keep buying the Remington green box, and the Federal 525 bulk packs. And I won't hesistate to use up the three remaining bricks of Peters, if I run out of the others. Regular trips to the Portland area Bi Marts should suffice to keep me 'seeding for some time to come.

 

[never2many]

all 4 of my .22 hate the rem golden only gun i have ever seen shoot it was my dads star .22

 

[Swedish K]

I accidentlly got a case of 38gr Aguila SS vs the 40gr SS and it would not run in my semi that I wanted it for.

I'll never buy aguila 22 again - several years ago I got a batch that was way unstable - a friend dropped the slide on some pocket 22 piece of junk and it went runaway - I thought it was a screwed up gun (jennings I think) but had a few doubles in my mark II - the remainder went into my old BSA bolt action 22 one at a time as I didn't trust it enough to load the tube mag. - neat gun btw - got it at a shop in Sacramento - old kinda beat up Brit gun that was factory threaded barrel as once upon a time in England you were required to have a suppressor so you wouldn't disturb the neighbors when shooting on the family estate.

 

[Taurus 617 CCW]

My single shot will eat anything I feed it, except the few cases of Winchester bulk pack that were primed with no bullet or powder. I will be sticking to Federal and CCI from now on.

 

[marty8587]

I have one of the Rossis' with the 410 and 22 barrels, at the range I can shoot for hours out of the dud can. Gotta love a single shot!

 

[Nwcid]

I'll never buy aguila 22 again - several years ago I got a batch that was way unstable - a friend dropped the slide on some pocket 22 piece of junk and it went runaway - I thought it was a screwed up gun (jennings I think) but had a few doubles in my mark II - the remainder went into my old BSA bolt action 22 one at a time as I didn't trust it enough to load the tube mag. - neat gun btw - got it at a shop in Sacramento - old kinda beat up Brit gun that was factory threaded barrel as once upon a time in England you were required to have a suppressor so you wouldn't disturb the neighbors when shooting on the family estate.

My silenced 77/22 loves the stuff, that is what I will keep feeding it. I shoot ground hogs out to 150 yards no problem. I shoot out to 300 yards on my 6"x8" gong frequently as well.

Like any .22 ammo just cause it is not good in one gun does not mean it is not in another.

 

[olyshoots]

Nothing really new here, but my experience in .22 rifles and pistols:

Good: All CCI including Blazer, Federal bulk, Rem Target, Federal Target

Bad: Remington Bulk, American Eagle.

 

[phathom]

I just shoot federal bulk :shrug:

+1 on these. I shoot the federal bulk all the time, 550 rounds per box, and in my experience maybe 1 or 2 ftf per box.
Definitely not the Remington Golden Bullets, I bought a box of those and had about 300ftf out of a 550 box.
Remington Thunderbolts are good, I'll buy them if they are on sale or they don't have federal, I get around 3-5ftf per box of 500.

 

[BaronVonEvil]

Hi Telfon,

For a stock 10/22, the Federal bulk ammo blu or red box seem to function consistantly. It is available most everywhere ammo is sold. However, the accuracy of the bulk stuff seems to depend allot on the individual rifle/pistol you are using.

Next is the CCI Mini-Mag .22 ammo. It is a bit more but seems slightly better accuracy wise. BiMart had them on sale last week for 4.99 a 100rd box for the 40gr solid points.

Both the above choices will give decent performance for plinking/ tin can assasination.

For accuracy the first thing to do would be to put in an aftermarket trigger kit to reduce the effort to pull the trigger. 10/22's have lousy stock triggers.
I think the term is "Lawyer Trigger".

Once the trigger is lightened up then, I would try a selection of standard velocity ammo (Usually less than 1100 fps) until you find one that works for you.

The one thing good about a 10/22 is it is like a vw engine, you can build a full custom 10/22 rifle and not have a single Ruger part in it.

Here is a very good site, rimfirecentral.com that caters to .22's and had very good info regarding 10/22's.

Hope this helps.

BaronVonEvil