Reliability of .22 ammo

[Jay Walk]

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.

I've done worse

 

[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.

My magazines need cleaned for sure, I do clean the barrel and feed ramp every 100 rounds and the entire gun after each outing.

I had a sticky magazine today, first time in many thousands of rounds. I did not count that as a cartridge failure.

 

[Jay Walk]

Going by sound, some of the Aguila variants are quite loud. Powerful?

 

[Longwalkhome]

A clean gun really makes a difference with rim fire. The wax off the lead and carbon fouling in the rim area of the barrel makes it so the rim can't be hit hard enough.

Wax in the chamber slows down the cycle too. Just attention to the chamber area before you go out saves a lot of grief.

 

[po18guy]

My magazines need cleaned for sure, I do clean the barrel and feed ramp every 100 rounds and the entire gun after each outing.

I had a sticky magazine today, first time in many thousands of rounds. I did not count that as a cartridge failure.

Lately, after thorough degreasing, I have taken to spritzing the interior of the mag body with Hornady OneShot case lube. Leaves a thin, dry, slightly waxy coating.

 

[Alexx1401]

A clean gun really makes a difference with rim fire. The wax off the lead and carbon fouling in the rim area of the barrel makes it so the rim can't be hit hard enough.

Wax in the chamber slows down the cycle too. Just attention to the chamber area before you go out saves a lot of grief.

THIS! I have LONG found that using good ammo the "problems" with .22 ammo show up when the gun starts to get dirty. Wife has a couple EDC guns that are .22's. They are cleaned as soon as they are shot for just this reason. I never see them fail when clean, only after they have been shot a while. So I will often come back from the range and not bother to clean the "fun guns" till later. The guns that are used for carry are cleaned well as soon as we get home.

 

[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)

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)

8/16/2023

0 - Remington golden bullet PRN 1255 fps 40 gr 100 tested

18 - Winchester target and plinking 40 gr LRN 100 tested

0 - Federal premium Gold Medal Target 40 gr LRN 100 tested

4 - Winchester silver tip 37gr segmented hollow point 1060 fps 135 tested

4 - CCI subsonic small game 40 LHP 100 tested

 

[Natty Bumpo]

You don't specify what kind of "fail" you experienced. There are failures to feed, failures to extract, failures to eject/stovepipes, and failures to fire. That would be helpful to know.

For those that failed, it would be interesting to re-test those in another semiauto pistol.

 

[Jay Walk]

failure to fire, eject or feed.

stove pipes are rare and not counted as a failure.

 

[Knobgoblin]

How many rounds fired between cleaning? And were magazines cleaned when the pistol was?

 

[dangerranger60]

I mostly shoot an old Marlin bolt action. I cant remember the last dud I have had. I do remember a few years back getting a bucket O bullets with Remington Golden 40 gr HPs that after a few duds I pulled the bullets to find priming only on about half the rim. That was late 90's or early 2000's.
I no longer shoot the lowest forms of bulk bullets. About the cheapest I shoot are Federal AM. Or 40 gr Fiocchi. DR

 

[po18guy]

You don't specify what kind of "fail" you experienced. There are failures to feed, failures to extract, failures to eject/stovepipes, and failures to fire. That would be helpful to know.

For those that failed, it would be interesting to re-test those in another semiauto pistol.

As well, only accuracy, consistency and cleanliness apply to revolvers. In a revolver, any misfires can be rotated in the chamber and tried again. Regardless, keeping a 22 chamber/magazine clean is paramount to performance.