Federal Black Pack 22lr ammo, anyone else having problems?

[SavageGerbil]

I picked up 2200 rounds of this stuff on sale, and good lord... I've had more problems with this stuff than I've ever had with anything. Light strikes galore, often having to rechamber a round and strike it in a different spot, full on duds. This is in my TX22, in other pistols it's either worse, or I'm just having worse luck with the handfuls I'm grabbing.

Wanted to start a thread and see if anyone else is having similar troubles.

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[Muggs919]

I have a TX22 and I've gone thru 525 rounds of Federal value pack and not a single problem! I have 325 rounds of the Federal Automatch that I'll try this weekend. Fingers crossed it's as good as the value pack. Love the TX22 so far!

 

[Kruel J]

Maybe this sounds dumb but can you provide a picture of the box? I ask because as some know I'm not a .22LR aficionado and I'd like to avoid it after reading your issues. Too many other options out there to risk it.

 

[SavageGerbil]

I'm maybe halfway through the first brick, and I've probably had to restrike or trash 50 rounds so far
It's making thunderbolt look like solid gold

 

[Kruel J]

I'm maybe halfway through the first brick, and I've probably had to restrike or trash 50 rounds so far
It's making thunderbolt look like solid gold

View attachment 623790

Yikes! Thank you for doing that. If Thunderbolts outperform these I'll avoid them like the plague.

 

[SavageGerbil]

Well, I went through my last brick of Thunderbolt in the little Taurus without a jam or a dud, so comparatively....

 

[41mag]

I ran a carton thru my 22 revos without issue. Haven't tried autos

 

[SavageGerbil]

I ran a carton thru my 22 revos without issue. Haven't tried autos

It's entirely possible I just got part of a bad batch, but I'm not trying again. I'll burn up what I've got, and I'm done

 

[JadeFox]

Might want to contact Federal. I had a bad batch of Fusion once and they took it back and sent me a voucher. If it is worse that Thunderbolt, I don't think it meets Federal's standards. On the other hand the last batch of Rem Thunderbolt we burned, there were no problems.

 

[Heyjoe]

Runs fine in all my guns, accurate too. Bad lot, I'd guess.

I bought several packs when they first hit the shelves last year.

 

[DLS]

Stop shooting the stuff before you ring your barrel. Call Federal right away, they will take care of you. I had a bad batch once and they refunded the purchase price for the whole case plus my shipping costs. Great customer service that way.

 

[SavageGerbil]

Stop shooting the stuff before you ring your barrel. Call Federal right away, they will take care of you. I had a bad batch once and they refunded the purchase price for the whole case plus my shipping costs. Great customer service that way.

No squibs so far, but thanks for the advice everyone. I'll call 'em up tomorrow.

 

[P7M13]

Bulk pack 22 ammo is on sale at BiMart for anywhere from 3.3 - 3.8 cents/round.

• Fed Black 38 & 40 grain 275ct $9.97
• Rem Thunderbolt, 500ct, $16.88
• Fed Eagle, 500ct, $18.88

Of those three, the Fed Black 40gr was the most accurate. Haven't tried 38 yet.
The Fed Eagle wouldn't cycle the gun (High Standard)
Thunderbolt shot very well too.

 

[CLT65]

That's a different black pack than what I was expecting. I bought a bunch of the 1600 round packs last year, with the generic looking 50rnd white boxes inside a cardboard box. It's been some of the best bulk .22lr I've ever tried, comparable to Mini-mags for reliability and accuracy.

I've seen the 1100 round boxes of "Black Pack" ammo like you have, but haven't tried any. I assumed it was the same ammo in a different box; apparently not.

 

[SavageGerbil]

That's a different black pack than what I was expecting. I bought a bunch of the 1600 round packs last year, with the generic looking 50rnd white boxes inside a cardboard box. It's been some of the best bulk .22lr I've ever tried, comparable to Mini-mags for reliability and accuracy.

I've seen the 1100 round boxes of "Black Pack" ammo like you have, but haven't tried any. I assumed it was the same ammo in a different box; apparently not.

This stuff is loose packed. Never got around to calling Federal on it

 

[CLT65]

I bought one of the 1100 round "Black Pack" boxes, and got around to trying it out today. You're right; it's terrible. Some shot fine, while others barely popped. I only fired 30 rounds, but several barely cycled the action, one didn't at all, and one ruptured or something, blew smoke in my face. I didn't have any duds though.

I was very impressed with the 1600 round cases, but the loose pack stuff is not good, at least not the box I bought.

 

[Member 5605]

I picked up 2200 rounds of this stuff on sale, and good lord... I've had more problems with this stuff than I've ever had with anything. Light strikes galore, often having to rechamber a round and strike it in a different spot, full on duds. This is in my TX22, in other pistols it's either worse, or I'm just having worse luck with the handfuls I'm grabbing.

Wanted to start a thread and see if anyone else is having similar troubles.

It's garbage. I'm sorry you have so much.

I bought quite a few boxes and have never had so many low charges, misfires, hangfires. I can't count how many times I've had to take apart the MKIII Ruger and MKIV to ensure the bullet made it out of the barrel.

I'm so glad my last box is done.

 

[grapo13]

I have the same 1600 boxes that CLT has, cased up but then comes in individual white boxes. Its great haven't had any problems at all with that ammo so far, it has been excellent.

 

[jg rider]

I bought

That's a different black pack than what I was expecting. I bought a bunch of the 1600 round packs last year, with the generic looking 50rnd white boxes inside a cardboard box. It's been some of the best bulk .22lr I've ever tried, comparable to Mini-mags for reliability and accuracy.

I've seen the 1100 round boxes of "Black Pack" ammo like you have, but haven't tried any. I assumed it was the same ammo in a different box; apparently not.
[/QUOTE

I bought the same 1600 rnd cases as you did and haven't had any issues. Some one told me that they are possibly made by CCI. And I believe it.
Here's why, the wife has an Advantage Arms .22 conversion for her Glock 17. The manual say to use either Golden Bullets or CCI Mini Mags. Any Federal ammo I've tried won't work with a full mag. All fired cases stove pipe. This stuff works for her without a glitch.
The bullet shape looks to me as CCI. And the 50 rnd plastic bullet holder in the white box looks like a CCI product.
This is IMHO

 

[DLS]

Any commodity product that is manufactured in the millions of units can and will have some problems crop up, even for tightly managed production processes.

That's why one batch of .22LR can be flawless and the next not. Anyone who shoots accuracy based competition with the rimfire will continually test different numbered ammo lots, and when they find an accurate lot will do everything in their power to buy up all of that lot they can find.

Sometimes the problem is not just lower accuracy but the performance issues we are talking about in this thread.

For instance, I typically buy American Eagle 38gr. loads for the kids and my steel challenge type shooting with our 10/22s. I can't tell you how many bricks we have gone through over the last few years. It would be at least 50 to 60. All have performed perfectly for our purposes except a batch I posted about earlier.

I purchased 7 bricks during a Bi-Mart sale (all they had in stock) and it shot awfully. Just like OPs batch. So I called Federal and without hesitation they asked for the lot number, how much ammo I had and provided return shipping instructions. About two weeks after sending the ammo I had a check covering my purchase price and shipping.

Since then I've continued to use the same ammo (different lot numbers of course) and it's back to the same level of performance as before.

So, a long post just to say you can from time to time get a bad batch in otherwise good ammo.