Reliability of .22 ammo

[Jay Walk]

Decided to move this ongoing testing to the Ammo section.

Ruger sr 22 semi auto pistol - shooting 60 rounds of each unless otherwise noted.


Failed
Rounds

3 - Federal 800 count range pack 40 grain round nose

0 - CCI mini mag 40 grain round nose

0 – Federal PUNCH 29 grain flat nose

3 – Blazer 40 grain round nose

1 – CCI stinger 32 grain hollow point

0 - CCI mini mag 36 grain hollow point

3 – CCI Velocitor 40 grain hollow point

3 – Federal automatch 40 grain round nose

1 - CCI meateater 36 grain hollow point

1 – Aguila supermaximum 30 grain round point

0 – Armscor 40 grain round nose (100 tested)

0 – Norma Tac 22 40 grain round nose (100 tested)

15 – Sellier &Bellot 36 grain hollow point. ABSOLUTE GARBAGE (100 tested)

3 - Winchester super x red box 40 grain hollow point (100 tested)

0 – Aguila Prime Super Velocity 40 grain round nose (100 tested)

1 – CCI AR Tactical 40 grain round nose (100 tested)

0 -- Fiocchi Range Dynamics 38 gr LRN 1050 fps (100 rounds shot)

3 -- Fiocchi 38 gr Copper plated hollow point 1250 fps (100 rounds shot)

0 -- Fiocchi 40 gr Copper plated round nose 1250 fps (100 rounds shot)

0 -- Aguila Supermaximum hollow point 30 gr 1700fps (100 tested)

0 - Remington Thunderbolt 40 gr round nose 1255fps (100 tested)

1 - Norma match 40 gr round nose 1083 fps (100 tested)

5/26/23 Ran four more through the Ruger this week, Aguila usually runs good but not these.

6 - Aguila Hollow point 40gr Interceptor 1470 fps (100 tested)

1 -Browning rifle ammo 40gr lead round nose 1255 (100 tested)

1 - Winchester 333 white box 36 gr copper hollow point 1280 (100 tested)

1 - Browning 40 gr copper jacket hollow point 1435 (100 tested)

Read More

 

[sikhed]

Surprised at the Remington Thunderbolt.
In the past, they were widely considered crap. Good for clearance drills. I remember back in the day (when they were $.99 for a box of 50) passing them up for something else. Would always get a few duds with Remington 22lr.
Glad to see they've improved their product.

 

[AirgunAce]

Thanks for the list!

I got turned on to Eley branded .22LR & haven't used much of anything else since. 1000s of rounds in rifles and pistols and never a failed pew pew pew (yet).

 

[sikhed]

Thanks for the list!

I got turned on to Eley branded .22LR & haven't used much of anything else since. 1000s of rounds in rifles and pistols and never a failed pew pew pew (yet).

View attachment 1427753

RWS subsonic too. Thousands of rounds (got a case of 5000 a long time ago) and don't recall any duds. They do have a slimy thin wax all over the bullet, and often the case too. This wax melts and holds the carbon fouling during shooting, and your 22 autoloader will look like it's shot black powder after a few hundred rounds.
Don't have a match chamber on anything, except for maybe the ruger competition mk2, but fouling has never caused an issue. It's a soft, oily fouling that wipes right off.

 

[PORSCHE928S4]

Thanks for the list!

I got turned on to Eley branded .22LR & haven't used much of anything else since. 1000s of rounds in rifles and pistols and never a failed pew pew pew (yet).

View attachment 1427753

The Ely subs suppressed are something special !

 

[Capn Jack]

I tested Remington, Winchester, CCI, Federal and Armscor in my AR with a DPMS Bull Barrel.
The CCI Stingers, (the most expensive) and the Armscor, (Cheapest at the time) were the most accurate, (ragged 1" groups) .

The rest, just "patterned" and some shots sounded funny and POI was 4-5" off of POA
I don't remember any of them failing to fire.

 

[Longwalkhome]

Some years back my nephew brought his 22 to me and said he had bullet stuck in the barrel of his Marlin.

Had to find out like pulling teeth but he really screwed up. Tried to shoot it out with another round so two bullets in it. Then tried to drive it out with a steel cleaning rod and got the rod stuck.

Told him to take it to a gun smith.

 

[po18guy]

22 semis have always been very ammo sensitive. Then, add in the unknown of magazine reliability and one must find a consistent load and then brick up.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I remember some old Filipino stuff.. it was so unreliable the pop can walked off in disgust.

 

[Dungannon]

Over the years, nearly all my .22lr failures have been FTF and FTE [in semi-auto pistols and rifles]. On the few occasions where the round didn't fire, a second strike worked. Fiocchi is the only brand I haven't tried, of those listed above by @Jay Walk

 

[Knobgoblin]

Get a Ruger single six and I bet you could pop over half those " duds ". Just be sure you hit an unmarked part of the cartridge rim on the second go around.

 

[Jay Walk]

Exactly, this is not scientific by any means. My Beretta M9 and Ruger10/22 would likely have less failures.

However, some brands are making it 100 rounds and some are not.

 

[Jay Walk]

Get a Ruger single six and I bet you could pop over half those " duds ". Just be sure you hit an unmarked part of the cartridge rim on the second go around.

SR-22 is a single double so as a rule I have not counted the double trigger pulls as a failure to fire.

 

[Jay Walk]

22 semis have always been very ammo sensitive. Then, add in the unknown of magazine reliability and one must find a consistent load and then brick up.

This particular gun did not work for crap when I purchased it new, it turned me into a real gun smith though.

 

[Jay Walk]

RWS subsonic too. Thousands of rounds (got a case of 5000 a long time ago) and don't recall any duds. They do have a slimy thin wax all over the bullet, and often the case too. This wax melts and holds the carbon fouling during shooting, and your 22 autoloader will look like it's shot black powder after a few hundred rounds.
Don't have a match chamber on anything, except for maybe the ruger competition mk2, but fouling has never caused an issue. It's a soft, oily fouling that wipes right off.

Haaa. I did not include Norma eco-speed or eco-match on my list. Those are so slimy that the cases would not blow back but just sit in the barrel.

Like they're covered in vaseline.

 

[Jay Walk]

Surprised at the Remington Thunderbolt.
In the past, they were widely considered crap. Good for clearance drills. I remember back in the day (when they were $.99 for a box of 50) passing them up for something else. Would always get a few duds with Remington 22lr.
Glad to see they've improved their product.

I thought the thunderbolt were going to suck too.
Much of this is like a lottery when you pull 100 rounds out of a box.

Equally this has made me less inclined to purchase cci when some of the Aquila works better. I really like the Tac-22

 

[Certaindeaf]

Oh, and that ammo above, I used an H&R 999 revolver exclusively.. worst. ammo. ever.

 

[Jay Walk]

Thanks for the list!

I got turned on to Eley branded .22LR & haven't used much of anything else since. 1000s of rounds in rifles and pistols and never a failed pew pew pew (yet).

View attachment 1427753

I will have to try those. I am all caught up with testing my current supply.

 

[Jay Walk]

Oh, and that ammo above, I used an H&R 999 revolver exclusively.. worst. ammo. ever.

Which ammo?

 

[Certaindeaf]

Which ammo?

That Filipino ammo I mentioned.