22 LR ammo observation

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Life is too short to waste time with poor quality 22 ammo. Over the years I have settled on CCI std vel for most of my shooting. Recently, I have also bought a lot of Aguila both std and high velocity and have had good luck with it, much better than with the bulk stuff. For cheap plinking, the CCI Blazer is a very good buy. I have seen it for $2.00 per box which is right there with the bulk stuff.
 
someguy2800 said:
When I was a kid we squirreled away mini mags like they were gold plated. Mom would rarely spring for them being 5 times the cost per round as wildcats. It had to be a real special occasion to get out the minimags, like a raccoon or a crow. My brothers and I had to hide them from each other.
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I love this. I can totally see you kids keeping a box of "mags" on hand for real serious situations.
 
Has anyone else had experiences like this with Winchester 22 LR?

With the Bulk Winchester Wildcats it turned my 1911 Kimber .22 into a single shot. Load with Federal or CCI and it ran flawless. Not all Winchester .22 ammo is the same function wise. I have a 100 pack of Winchester Super x Power Point 40 grain HP marked 1280 fps and it is as good as any .22 ammo I have ever fired! Very deadly for small game hunting and I have yet to have a malfunction with it.
 
Bill B. said:
Has anyone else had experiences like this with Winchester 22 LR?

With the Bulk Winchester Wildcats it turned my 1911 Kimber .22 into a single shot. Load with Federal or CCI and it ran flawless. Not all Winchester .22 ammo is the same function wise. I have a 100 pack of Winchester Super x Power Point 40 grain HP marked 1280 fps and it is as good as any .22 ammo I have ever fired! Very deadly for small game hunting and I have yet to have a malfunction with it.
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Similar experience as me. The winchester ammo in 100 round plastic packs is very good ammo. The Winchester bulk packs are garbage.
 
OK, I found some more Winchester bulk HP in a ziplock yesterday. Took it to the range. It worked fine in a 30 year old 10-22 and a very old nylon 66. Thoughts?
 
FL-NC said:
I have a Ruger standard model 22 pistol, that I shoot 86 rounds per week in. Last week I finally cleaned it well for the first time in a long time. It was dirty, and having lots of malfunctions (FTF, FTE, misfires-you name it). Like many people here, I prefer to buy the cartons of ammo that has 500 or so rounds. I have been using the Winchester hollow point in the bulk packs from wally world. Last week I noticed I was almost out, so I went to replenish my ammo, and all they had was a Remington round nosed lead pack, about the same price. Today, I started by finishing up the Winchester (with a clean, well-lubed gun) and it acted just like before, for about 3 mags. Several stoppages of different types, and typically 1 or 2 misfires per mag (with what look like good strikes to me). Now, I'm thinking I need new springs. Switched to the Remington, and it ran flawlessly. I could also detect an increase in slide energy and recoil (such as it is in a 22). I only fired about 50 rounds of the Rem. Has anyone else had experiences like this with Winchester 22 LR?
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In the end, what your gun likes is what you should feed it.

In an ideal would, every gun would shoot all ammunition flawlessly. Buuuuuuut...it's not an ideal world.

This is why, whenever I buy a new gun, I run several brands and types of ammo through it. Hopefully, if its a gun of the same caliber as others I have, it'll end up liking the same ammo I already have stocked up. If not, then I'll be stocking up another brand/type.

Now...why are they different? Who knows. There are any number of reasons, or combinations of reasons. Perhaps the ammo doesn't develope the peak pressure needed to cycle the action. Perhaps you need to run a few thousand rounds through it. Perhaps different springs are needed. Perhaps it needs a good cleaningmor a different lube. Perhaps the ammo is "dirty" shooting. Perhaps the bullet design doesn't work in your gun. Perhaps it's just a poor quality ammo. Perhaps the gun is defective.

Hard to say without the necessary details.
 
Acquiring economy grade ammunition with expectations of perfection is a bit much. When shooting competition, I would test samples of premium grade ammunition. When I found a lot number that shoot with exceptional accuracy I'd place an order specifying that lot number.
 
Hangingrock said:
Acquiring economy grade ammunition with expectations of perfection is a bit much. When shooting competition, I would test samples of premium grade ammunition. When I found a lot number that shoot with exceptional accuracy I'd place an order specifying that lot number.
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I'm not looking for perfection- just reliability would be great.
 
Yup, whenever I get a new gun I grab a few of those sheets with five targets on them. Sight it in, then shoot a group with every style of bulk I have, label, and make notes. If it jams up or won't cycle with one, that gets written and circled.
I like to do the same with 'premium' rounds, but it's tough to get those consistently around here.
 
I brought the Browning ammo out yesterday and be darned if I could put them into one hole at 5 yards with the S&W 2206. Was mentally breaking to see that, was feeling that this was one of those suck days. Loaded the CCI regular and those went into a $1 size coin. Next ammo run will get some CCI standard and mini mags. Considering the price point and plinking aspect, the Blazer is at a nice price point at $25/500. Not super tight groups through the S&W 2206, 10-22 or Marlin 60, though acceptable in my hands and eyeball capabilities.
 
Most of my 22s go through an old single shot bolt action Remington or another old Mossberg Palomino lever action. Neither seem to care what I feed it and not sure either has been completely cleaned this century. They both just shoot. And they're minute of coke can out to about 50 yards mostly. Ain't got none of those fancy semiautos.
 
I just use my old standard model on plate racks, steel IPSC targets, and such. No idea how it groups because I never really bothered.
 
Ran some more of the Browning/Winchester. At the bottom of the box were 3 empty cases, the bullets were not in there. Had two soft loads that had to stop and verify the bullet made it out. Both those failed to cycle the action of the 10-22.

Noticed yesterday that the local Walmart had an ample selection of various Winchester bulk boxes.
 
I run Federal Auto-Match in my .22s. Accurate and reliable. It comes in a 325 round box. These run well in my Mark II and my 10/22, as well as my Browning Nomad. My Walther P22 will only work with CCI ammo, as anything else I have tried causes jams.
 
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In my lifetime, I have burned a bajillion Winchesters in my dad's 10/22 and Ruger Standard model. I never recalled having any failures of any kind. But as an adult, running the same ammo in the same guns, I have encountered many failures to fire and eject.

My .22s now are all conversions, and I run CCI because they all like the hotter ammo. It just works best.
 
WalMart had some various Federal offerings so I picked up the 40gr Game Shok. Those did really well in the 2206. What are your experiences with this one?
 
If I want consistency and reliability every round no mater what I buy/use CCI mini-mags. I cannot ever remember having a failure with them. They have been scarce for years, and only in the past maybe year to I actually see them sitting on the shelf again.

For me the buckets of Remington seem to be the worst. I avoid them, but I have one left in stock, sometimes you take what you can get. :) I have not had a lot of issues with any other cheap ammo from Wal-Mart. The cheap stull all fails "once in a while", by that I mean once a range session maybe, and figure a couple hundred rounds per range session.

-Jeff
 
I picked up a 550 round brick of Federal from wally world yesterday. We'll see how that works next.
 
I use CCI std and mini mag for almost all 22 shooting. That said, my Henry, S&W 617 and Heritage revolver will shoot any ammo that fits in the chamber. The 41 and 10/22s are kind of fussy.
I grew up shooting an H&R 22 revolver, didn't know what a FTF or FTE was till I got my first semi-auto as an adult.
 
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